Stupid rebates...
The power supply in my linux box stopped wanting to power the hard drive inside the box after a utility pole replacement had me turned the box off for an afternoon. So, long story short, I ended up with a cheaper power supply through Newegg. I purchased it because it seemed to be good enough for my needs, and reasonably cheap. I also noticed it had a mail-in rebate, but the price before rebate was good enough for me. If I had seen another decent option, I would've avoided the mail-in rebate offer, as I normally do.

So, of course, I think about this rebate today, 9 days after I purchased the item, and 5 days since I received it. I have 11 days left before the deadline to get the letter post marked. This is less of a grace period than almost every credit card company gives.

I attempted to find the rebate form on Newegg, and found it pretty quickly after searching for the item. Except that it wasn't the rebate form; it told me to go to the rebate site to actually claim the rebate. I start filling things out, and then realize that the rebate I was filling out was for June 30th to July 15th(or thereabouts).

So, I searched on this rebate site for the rebate I qualify for. I looked up the rebates in the "power supplies" area, and find one that has the correct range of dates that covers the power supply I purchased. I fill out the form, which includes double-typing two separate e-mail addresses, and then realize that the rebate I chose is evidently for Radio Shack.

I go back to the rebate list, find another couple of rebates that are the correct rebate amount, correct rebate period, and correct item. I click through them, and after a couple of tries(that required re-doing the search and scrolling through the list again, with no way to search for Newegg rebates or see, before clicking, where the rebate is through.), I find one that is for Newegg and seems to be the rebate I qualify for(though, admittedly, I'm not all that confident about it.).

I filled the form out, printed out what they gave me(which included a second, wasted sheet of paper). I'm supposed to cut out the address label included on that sheet(Since they have a range of places rebates go to, so as to have more reasons to deny rebates, I imagine). After they receive the forms, they'll have 8 to 10 weeks to get a check to me(assuming they don't "lose" the paperwork. I _could_ pay $1 to get it processed within 5 to 7 days.). The check has to be cashed within 90 days. I assume from the time they start processing it.

Now, I can't imagine anyone has read through that, but there's something about that process that should be illegal. I'm not sure exactly what.

I'm strongly for free markets, but with the caveat that there have to be extremely strong labeling laws. Or, in other words, I'm okay with companies attempting to sell me poison to eat, so long as they have, in big, bold letters, "WARNING: This product will almost certainly make you sick, and possibly kill you."

This indirectly runs afoul of that ideal -- there are many steps in here that are needlessly complicated; they're there solely to waste time and decrease the amount of redemptions. A rebate redemption should be something along the lines of, "Here's a copy of my receipt, and here's the proof of purchase. You figure it out and send me a check."