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Ultra X-Finity 600W PSU at Fry's.com - *FREE* after MIR

Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 4:56 pm
by PrivatePixel
It may not be a contender for any SPCR awards, but if you're in the market for a PSU and don't mind a bit of noise, you can't do better than one that's free.

Ultra X-Finity 600W Power Supply order page
Rebate Form (offer expires May 31)

I bought one a while back at Micro Center and it's not too bad (though I won't be able to sleep in the same room if it was on :wink: )

Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 5:02 pm
by jaganath
how is that even possible? they must lose on every unit :?

Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 6:08 pm
by dhanson865
Many rebate programs see redemption below 50% and don't honor all of those. End result is they get the money from all of the people and only give it back to some of them.

here are some excerpts from a wiki on rebates...
During the turnaround time, the company can earn interest on the money.

If the turnaround time crosses into the next fiscal year or quarter, a rebate offer can inflate sales in the current period, and not have to be accounted for until the next period-and then it could be attributed as a cost reducing sales or expense for the next period giving companies an accounting advantage with their Wall Street projections.

Rebates can also be used to collect consumer information as it is required by most rebate forms for consumers to fill in personal or household information. This information can be used by producer or retailer to analyze consumer behavior.

Once the UPC has been removed from the box, retailers can refuse to accept a return of the item. The inability to return a product (and therefore lose its profit, however slim) is attractive to both retailer and manufacturer alike.

Not all buyers will meet the criteria to receive the rebate. Companies often require the original UPC barcode, receipt, and additional information, which a buyer may forget to include when redeeming the rebate. Companies almost always add other caveats to the rebate as well, such as the redemption having to be postmarked by a certain date. It works in the company's favor if buyers do not act quickly to redeem. However, a University of Florida study notes that shorter redemption periods actually increase the redemption rate in the consumer's favor because it gives them less time for procrastination to set in.

Not all customers will actually mail in the rebate coupons (in the case of a mail in rebate) and thus giving the manufacturer/retailer a higher profit.

Not all buyers remember to mail the coupons, a phenomenon known in the industry as breakage, or the shoebox effect. Though it can be used interchangeably with breakage [14] slippage is the phenomenon when a consumer has their rebate fulfilled but they lose or forget to cash the check. Some rebate companies could tout a higher "redemption rate" including the breakage, while not calculating the potential slippage of uncashed checks.

Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 7:53 pm
by alphabetbackward
I too don't understand how things can be "free" after rebates. Oddly enough, I've never had a single problem so far with any of my rebates and I've bought from a variety of companies:

Seagate, Antec, U.S. Robotics, Creative, etc..

I also go to Fry's and see what's free. Of course, I do have to pay sales tax but 5 bucks for software or a book is very tempting. I've gotten books from O'Reilly and various software:

Registry Mechanic, System Mechanic, PerfectDisk, ZoneAlarm just to name a few. I ultimately have no use for them but it's free...

Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 8:37 pm
by fri2219
alphabetbackward wrote:I too don't understand how things can be "free" after rebates. Oddly enough, I've never had a single problem so far with any of my rebates and I've bought from a variety of companies:
Simple, they don't actually pay the rebates. I've had around a 10% payback rate, myself. I don't shop at places that rely on sleazy tactics like that, nor do I ever count the price of the rebate into the purchase price.

The other thing... Free power supply? Maybe, free as long as you never plug it in.

Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 12:44 am
by Fungi
I've gotten all my rebates including Antec, Kingston, XFX, Western Digital. I'm probably on the lucky side of things. :?

Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 9:36 am
by PrivatePixel
Fungi wrote:I'm probably on the lucky side of things. :?
I've never had any bad experiences with rebates either. I think it has less to do with luck than diligence and following submission details carefully. I also take those extra precautionary steps by photocopying all submitted materials and printing addresses on all envelopes, i.e. no handwritten ones; I don't leave anything to chance.

I remember 60 Minutes doing a story on rebates. Manufacturers who offer them bank on the fact that consumers usually forget to send them in, or in their haste to get them in, forget to include one or more items.

Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 1:54 pm
by Towermax
I also have gotten all my rebates, probably 50-60 in the past two years alone. But then, I take some precautions:

-- send all by certified mail, so there's no question about whether or not the rebate was received on time

-- make copies (scans) of everything

-- double-check that I'm compliant with every little detail

-- follow-up on pending rebates and call if the rebate is late.

On the whole, rebates have been painless--I've only had to call on one rebate and the problem was fixed immediately.

Of course, this all takes some time, so I don't go through this routine for small rebates of $10-15.

BTW, here's a review of the Ultra 600 watt by Jonny Guru:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=34

Biggest problems appear to be low efficiency and fan noise (duh!). I'm tempted to get one and replace both fans. At this price, why care about voiding the warranty?