Last week, nine states kicked off their “cash for clunker appliances” programs whereby purchasers of certain new energy efficient major appliances could qualify for hefty state rebates funded by federal stimulus dollars.
No program was more generous than the $250 rebate offered by Massachusetts for dishwashers. Of course, there were a lot of fine print requirements.
*MOUSE PRINT:
— Only certain Energy Star models on the state list qualified;
— Only certain retailers were authorized;
— Only purchases between April 22 – May 5 qualified;
— Only (lucky) consumers who received a numbered “rebate reservation” would get money back;
At the appointed hour of 10am on April 22, the phone lines and the website to obtain “rebate reservations” went live, for about five seconds, if that. Immediately, no one could get through by telephone, and the website crashed. [Hint to other states: Do not ever run a program in the manner that Massachusetts did.]
Despite two hours of frustrating redialing and reloading of webpages, some 26,000 Massachusetts residents obtained rebate forms, and 13,000 more were put on a waiting list. All others were turned away.
MrConsumer lost out despite 70 phone calls and innumerable attempts to load the rebate site. But, he was fortunate to make it to the waiting list, because in a move to quell the collective public outrage, the Governor granted wait list people full access to their rebates immediately.
So what kind of deal did MrConsumer strike for his new $600 Maytag dishwasher pictured above at Home Depot?
*MOUSE PRINT:
By using the fine print of store policies, advertised sales, unadvertised rebates, and free delivery, it became the deal of a lifetime.
Now, with fingers crossed, the dishwasher should only clean dishes…
We have preached for years that you have to read the fine print in advertising, on product labels, and in contracts or you could get snookered.
