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To: fyodor_ who wrote (79143)	5/2/2002 8:18:57 PM
From: Joe NYC	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

Fyo, Unfortunately, here in the US, there is no such law. Various rebate and coupons are widespread, some are in fact traps for unsupecting buyers. One example was (is?) the MSN rebate. You can get a rebate of $400 when you buy a computer, but if you take it, you have shigned up for n years of MSN as your ISP. My biggest problem with the rebates is that it requires work on your part, filling out sometimes complex forms, looking up serial numbers. Many people, those who have life, just pass on the rebates, those who have no lives, and plenty of time on their hands end up paying lower prices than others. Of course processing the rebates is not free. Imagine a scenario where you have a $100 product with $10 rebate. A buyer pays $100 plus some states and localities have sales taxes (0% up to 8.25% in New York City). So a New York City customer spends $108.25. Suppose 50% of people send in their rebate, spend 15 minutes filling out the forms and mailing them, depositing rebate check, at opportunity cost of say $3 (it's probably even more than that). Suppose it takes seller another $3 to process the returned coupons. So, now, we have following costs with 2 buyers: Buyer with rebate: $108.25 + $3 - $10 = 101.25 Buyer w/o rebate: $108.25 Total cost: $209.5 New York State/City: $8.25 + $8.25 = $16.25 Seller revenue (suppose no middle man involved) Buyer with rebate: $100 - $10 - $3 = $87 Buyer w/o rebate: $100 Total revenue: $187 Suppose rebates were banned, and the seller was happy with the current revenue. He could drop the prices to $93.50 + sales tax = 101.21. Here is a comparison of what would happen Rebate No Rebate Buyer 1 cost 108.25 101.21 Buyer 2 cost 101.25 101.21 Total cost 209.50 202.22 Sales tax 16.50 15.42 Rebate overhead 6.00 0.00 Seller revenue 187.00 187.00 As you can see, the rebates are just a complete economic waste. It's a total leak from the economy as a whole, with everybody losing. Joe