I don’t understand the reasoning behind this cash rebate that I received last week. It was a promotional device that I got when I bought a new refrigerator back in March from Lowe’s. But it really wasn’t a sales point because I didn’t know about it until after I had decided to buy it. Let me explain.
When you need a major appliance or something vital like a hot water heater, you don’t normally wait for the weekend sales flyers or do a whole lot of shopping around. You need it now, and you usually go directly to one of the stores where you’ve had successful purchases before.
Such was the case when I needed to replace my refrigerator. So I went to Lowe’s and made a selection, then the salesman wrote up the purchase and away to the cashier we went. It was then that he told me that they were running a temporary promotion where the delivery and setup charges would be rebated for all major appliances. Ah, the luck of the Irish comes through again…..I stumbled onto the right day to buy.
All is fine with that. I fill out the little rebate slip and attach the delivery receipt and mail them in. Then a couple of days ago the rebate arrives in the mail. But it’s not a check like you normally get with these things. It’s a VISA pre-paid debit card for the exact amount of the delivery fees. Just like getting a new credit card, I have to phone the 800 number and get the card activated. Everything’s fine so far.
But it’s still a bit of a bother because, for one thing, I can only spend my money in places that will take credit cards. However, it can’t be used in places like gasoline pumps where you swipe the card before a sales total is known. So I’m a little restricted in using it. Secondly, when my balance gets down to, say, $6.31, how do I get it? Can you buy a $9 item with a split payment between a VISA card and cash? Will I be getting a checkout clerk who can figure that out?
But what really has me puzzled is, why did Lowe’s do this? What’s the purpose in going through all this rigamarole instead of just sending me a check? I’ve come up with two possible explanations, but they’re just guesses. One is the likely event that 30 thousand or so of these cards will just get tossed once the balance gets down to a couple of bucks, thus creating a windfall for the store.
My other possibility is that VISA is paying Lowe’s in some way to use this as a promotion to get people to buy more of these debit cards as birthday presents or something like that. But I don’t know the real reason for all this. Do you?
Let’s get the equipment checked out. I think it’s going to be a busy day. I’ll get the coffee pot going.
