We’ve written before about how mail-in rebates were a pretty big scam and that some companies were phasing them out completely or else switching them to online rebates. But still, most of the discounts on inkjet printers these days involve some type of rebate, so they are pretty hard to avoid.

So everyone knows how stores intentionally make it difficult to claim a rebate by requiring a receipt, the rebate form and the UPC from the box all before a certain date. Then if you somehow realize eight weeks later that it never came, it can be almost impossible to seek any recourse. When one of the roadblocks that the store or rebate companies puts up works and someone fails to claim their rebate, that is called “breakage”.

One company that loves breakage is Parago, the company that does rebates for Circuit City. They have just been granted a patent where they basically admit that they do everything possible to promote breakage. Here is an excerpt from the patent:

Furthermore, the rebate processing system provides a user friendly interface, yet retains hurdles sufficient to maintain breakage.

They also specifically mention the ways that people fail to get their rebates, like

…bad verification materials such as receipts or UPC symbols, denying based on improper purchase dates or purchase price, or slippage from checks issued but not cashed.

Here is the patent for anyone crazy enough to read the whole thing.

Rebates to become more of a scam [ZDNet]