Thursday, June 08, 2006

The Fiscally Unsound Misadventures of Dickolas Wang

About four months ago, after at least one encounter with a very pushy salesman, I bought the cheapest cell phone I could find to go with my prepaid plan. At first I wasn't sure I wanted to keep it, but, well, it's been four months now and I haven't looked back. I finally sat down to take care of the mail-in rebate, only to find that the rebate form had to have been sent by April 30, 2006.

While I might just be a moron for this, I specifically remember the salesperson telling me that the rebate could be sent in anytime in either the next six months or the next twelve months. She didn't give me a fixed date like April 30, in any case. Tomorrow I suppose I will call T-Mobile and plead my case, but I see nothing but a headache and growing frustration in my immediate future.

Why did I wait so long? Firstly, because at first I wasn't sure I would keep it. Secondly, because after I had decided to keep it, I thought I'd have until at least July. Lastly, and this is stupid, cutting the proof of purchase out of boxes is my pet peeve. I'm a packrat, and I like to keep all of my packaging pristine. So much so, in fact, that I'm now asking myself whether or not, if I'm being really really honest with myself, deep down I always thought the $30 wasn't worth it to keep the box that my very first cell phone came in intact.

What am I saying? Of course it fucking wasn't.

Current Music: Feist - Mushaboom
Current deep-down personal feeling: Yeah, maybe it was

2 comments:

Jowen said...

Jowen does not approve at all.

Transcience said...

After a similar experience, I've largely given up on buying products with rebates. There's too many ways for them to claim it was lost in the mail or that you didn't follow the rules. Even when it's perfectly administered, it's still giving the company a two-month interest-free loan. And those fuckers love to give out $1 rebates on a $5 purchase, when you'll each spend 39 cents to mail your stuff.