I too have worked in retail for years and helping the poor hapless customers who filled them in wrong (especially in the cases of combo rebates) was a learning experience. You give people far too much credit in being able to realize that even before they play with their new toy, they must read the rebate in its entirety so they don’t accidentally throw away the product packaging before getting the correct bar code off of it. Also, on large purchases, there are many different bar codes of various kinds. I hardly think it’s “instructionally challenged” of normal people to not be able to tell them apart just because you (an “experienced retail employee”) know how.

Also, don’t forget that besides the amount of time it takes to fill in the paperwork, follow the instructions, and mail the rebate (a large ordeal for many), they have to keep copies for themselves, mark the probably return date of the rebate on the calendar, and follow up to make sure it came back (going through a huge hassle if it doesn’t). In the end, sometimes the effort isn’t worth the money in the first place which is why many people don’t bother to send them in or give up after the first hurdle (something I expect the companies who institute the programs count on).

Worst of all, rebates contain as much (or more) information as a standard registration form which provides another avenue for companies to take data from people when they don’t realize it. I’ve never seen a rebate with a privacy policy, but I can bet I know what they do with all that lucrative information.

As for a rebate not being “owed”, that’s just not the case. Most retailers sling rebates around as simple, same-as-cash, and even go as far as to list the end price of the product AFTER rebate in their ads. And you said it yourself that the rebate is an incentive. Many times the decision to buy one product over another is the appearance that it costs less with the rebate. If a customer believes that two products are basically the same, but one is significantly cheaper with a rebate, they’ll buy it as long even if the item costs more initially as long as they believe that the rebate will come back. And when the sales guy says that rebates “are easy to fill out, I’ve never had one denied, it’s just a little bit of data and a few weeks later you get your check”, people will believe them.

I know. I was that salesguy with one exception: I always warned customers that rebates are not as simple as they seem and told them most of what I said here. In some cases, I filled out and addressed every rebate form (even on large combo packages) because I felt that selling it knowing that there was no way that granny was going to be able to fill all those forms correctly was the same as lying.