About Rebate Processing
Companies use a variety of strategies, including rebates, to entice consumers to purchase goods. Rebates are refunds of some fraction of the consumer's purchase price after the seller verifies that the buyer qualifies for the rebate. This process of verification and payment is rebate processing.
Other People Are Reading
-
Rebate Processing Basics
-
The purpose of rebate processing is to determine whether buyers should actually receive the rebates that they claim on purchases. Buyers may have to mail in a form, purchase a certain amount of product, or sign contracts with the sellers to qualify for rebates. Processors can deny rebates if a contract has expired, if the buyer purchased an inadequate amount of product, or if the consumer has not met specific terms necessary to qualify for the rebate.
Benefits
-
The primary benefit of rebate processing is it allows the business to avoid granting rebates to customers that should not receive them. Buyers may claim rebates on purchases that do not qualify. Granting rebates mistakenly can cost a business hundreds or thousands of dollars. For instance, if a rebate expires at the end of a year, buyers may not realize it is no longer valid. Rebate processors must catch such claims and deny them.
-
Drawbacks
-
Rebate processing has a few drawbacks both for companies that offer rebates and for customers who claim them. For buyers, rebate processing extends the time it takes to receive their refunds. For sellers, rebate processing requires labor and technology expenses with no guarantee it will save money. If every buyer makes a valid rebate claim, processing is ultimately a waste of resources.
Considerations
-
Many companies offer legitimate rebate processing jobs. However, the Internet is rampant with work-at-home job scams, which sometimes include rebate processing. According to the Better Business Bureau, web advertisements for rebate-processing jobs sometimes claim that users take on no risk but do not make good on their guarantees. The BBB advises consumers that any advertisement that seems too good to be true is probably a scam.
-
