The check's in the mail, and *customer service* to boot!
Written: Dec 22 '00 (Updated May 30 '01)
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The Bottom Line
If you shop online anyway, why not enjoy some of the affiliate credit (i.e. get CASH BACK) for yourself. You've nothing to lose.
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| Full Review |
I originally did not plan to write about ebates.com since there are already so many good epinions out there about them. However, I recently received such prompt customer service from them that I feel compelled to write an epinion. In these days of customer-no-service, good old-fashioned customer service needs to be applauded!
What is ebates?
Many online stores have affiliate programs that give web sites a referral bonus for customers they refer that make purchases. Ebates basically participates in as many affiliate programs as it can, and they pass on all the referral bonuses they receive back to you. The referral bonuses are a percentage of the purchase that you make at an online store, and these vary quite a bit—anywhere from 2% to 25%. Obviously, because they must refer you to get credit, you must enter the store from the ebates site. Although there are probably some stores that you shop at that don’t participate (Amazon.com, eToys.com, etc.), there are over 400 stores that do participate, so it is very likely that many of the online stores you visit are on the ebates site--ready to give you money back through ebates.
Update 5/30/01
Ebates now has a utility you can install on your desktop to remind you to to shop through ebates whenever you go to a participating store. I do not use this utility; I am very stingy with with my system resources and I also don't forget to enter a store through the ebates site. For those who would like this site if they could just remember to use it, this may be a good solution.
How to get your ebates
Sign up with ebates. DO give them your address; they need it to mail you your check. Then, whenever you’re ready to shop, simply go to the ebates site & see if your store of choice participates (or explore ebates stores to see if they carry the items you’re interested in at the right price). Click through to the store, purchase your items, and you’re done. If you plan to make another purchase at the same store, go back to the ebates site again and re-enter the store. It’s that simple. There is nothing to mail in and nothing to lose. Ebates used to require that you use an ebates e-mail address, but now they have simplified the process so you can use your own e-mail address. In a few days you can see the purchase amount in your account with the appropriate rebate percentage credited to you (some stores are really fast at posting your rebate and, not surprisingly, some are really slow). Occasionally, some items at a particular store may not be eligible for an ebate (for example, gift certificates, prescription items—if something is not included it says so in the FAQs), and in rare cases ebates may not be combined with a coupon (this is the case with some buy.com coupons). If you do use a coupon that can be combined with ebates, you will only get ebates for the amount that you pay after your discount.
Is it too good to be true?
No! Ebates really works! So how do they get any money, you wonder? They say most of their money comes from marketing partnerships, but I suspect they also make a little money off of the referrals. They don’t mail you your rebate after every purchase (can you imagine the paperwork involved to mail all those checks, especially when many individual ebates may be under a $1?), but instead they mail you a check every quarter once you have $5 or more of ebates credited to your account (if you have less than that it rolls over to the next quarter—a competitor (Bizrate) requires you to have $15 before they mail you a check). It takes them about 2 weeks or so after the quarter ends before your check is actually mailed out, so they get to hold on to your rebate money anywhere from 2 weeks to over 3 months, and during that time they can earn interest on your money. Ebates happily does not charge a processing fee.
My ebates experience
I stumbled upon ebates over a year ago, and I have been using them every since. At first I wondered if they were legitimate, but after I received my first ebate check in the mail, I was hooked! What a great way and painless way to save! If you are already going purchase items online, why not get some money back? There is nothing to lose (unless you go crazy and start buying more than you would otherwise). In my over 16 months of participation with ebates, they have been 100% accurate in crediting purchases. If you do have a problem with a purchase not being credited, you can e-mail them for support.
They also have a referral program. Currently you receive $5 for each person that you refer that makes a purchase through ebates. They used to offer you 10% of all the ebates earned by people you directly referred, and 5% for people they referred, and 2.5% third-tier referrals. Personally, I think ebates is so great that I would tell others about them even if they offered no incentive, but hey, the incentive is an added bonus! At any rate, I did tell several people, and a few joined, but no one used ebates to make purchases:( Yes, I have some really slacker friends who think it is too much trouble to go the ebates site before making a purchase! Finally, a couple of months ago, my sister started using ebates! Hooray! —Except, I noticed I did not receive any referral credit for her even after she received her first check. I asked her if she followed the referral link I sent her, and she said that she did. I e-mailed ebates about this and received a reply within 1 day stating that they are adding her to my list of referrals. Talk about prompt service—and for something that I cannot absolutely prove (they could have insisted that my sister did not follow my referral link).
So what’s not to like?
So far, my only complaint about ebates is the search engine capability (powered by MySimon). Sometimes when you search for an item a list of stores will come up and you can see the total price with ebates and shipping included—a pretty neat tool for the comparison shopper. However, sometimes the search engine does not find all the stores that really do carry the item you are looking for, so it’s not a reliable method for comparison-shopping. I don’t know enough about search engine technology but perhaps it has to do with individual store databases not being entirely compatible, but I wish the search engine utility could really find all the stores to aid in price comparison.
Update 5/30/01
I guess ebates realized that their search engine didn't work so well (or they no longer wanted to pay to have it powered my MySimon), so now the search utility only allows you to search for a particular store rather than a particular item.
So what are you waiting for? Go join ebates now!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
pipet
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Location: San Diego, CA
Reviews written: 17
Trusted by: 35 members
About Me:
A baby, school, and a new house; lots to write about but no time.
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