Best Buy Shoppers Participate in Decathlon for 10 Dollar Rebates
For years Best Buy has received complaints from customers about its rebate program. Typical critiques of the process were that it took too long to receive refund checks—sometimes as long as ten weeks—and that the requirement to send in the actual product barcode was unrealistic when most people throw away their packaging. So this week Best Buy has finally scrapped the rebate program and replaced it with something equally as challenging but at least more immediate: the decathlon.
Spokesman Jeff Gallworthy explains: “We got the message loud and clear. Now customers will now compete in modified versions of the decathlon’s ten events in order to determine whether or not they receive the advertised rebate.”
These events include the digital camera shot put, the temporary display hurdle, and the dash to customer service. For each successfully completed event—judged against a demographically scaled result tally—the customer approaches the coveted 7 out of 10 required for the rebate.
Stay-at-home mom Jenny Kline likes the idea. “I used to send these things off and just sit agonizing over them for weeks on end, only to find out half the time I’d done something wrong. Then they want you to call customer service and explain yourself to some high school dropout anchor baby, or redo the whole process—even though you already sent in the damn UPC code! Now at least, I can go in there, give it my best shot, and it will be done with.”
Mrs. Kline was not successful in claiming her Best Buy rebate, which would have been $10 back on a $345 video game system. After a successful start she struggled with the Compact Discus Throw and never recovered.
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