Rotten Rebates. When a Rebate isn't a Rebate

I've had some bad experiences with "rebates" lately.  They have left me irritated, disappointed and basically wishing they didn't exist.  As I think about it, I think my disappointment boils down to 3 things;

• Companies are complicating the customer experience.
• The hassle of getting what you've been promised.
• Broken promises

Lets start with a basic definition of "Rebate" from the free dictionary

re·bate ¹ 

n.

A deduction from an amount to be paid or a return of part of an amount given in payment.

tr.v.  re·bat·ed, re·bat·ing, re·bates

1. To deduct or return (an amount) from a payment or bill.

Complicating the Customer Experience
Back in college, I remember my first accounting professor making us repeat back to him in the manner of a rally slogan.  "WHAT DO WE WANT?"  "CASH"  "WHEN DO WE WANT IT?" "NOW!"  The point of the exercise was that anything less than cash wasn't as good. (less flexibility) and anything other than now, brought all kinds of constraints in terms of timing etc.  So the point was that not all payment is equal.  With cash you can purchase anything anywhere, with a cheque, you can put it in the bank and hopefully there is money to cover the cheque, with credit card, there are processing charges and delays in payment. With gift cards, you are constrained to purchase in only one location.

By the same token not all "discounts" are created equal.  Remember the accounting rally slogan?  Lets modify it a bit. "What kind of discount do you want?" "CASH!" "When do you want it?" "NOW!".  So the best discount is the one you don't have to pay for in the first place.  Instead of the price being $150, its $100, you only pay $100 and thats the end of the story.
What about those offers where you spend $150 and they'll give you a $50 Gift card?  Well it fails the "cash test".  You can't buy gas for your car or food for your family with that, or make a charitable donation, you have to spend it at that store.  Sure if it's a store that stocks necessities you would otherwise use a grocery store etc. That might be fine, but chances are its a store that stocks some luxury item you wouldn't buy otherwise, and now you've got your choice of stores limited to 1.
Several years ago one of the local electronics retailers switched form mail-in rebates (we'll discuss those in a minute) to "instant rebates" these were processed at the till and got the customer the discount right then.  Well, is it cash? (did it reduce the price you paid out of your pocket?) YES,  did you get it right away? YES.  Good deal.  Those rebates sound OK.  We've seen store rebates, manufacturer's rebates, and the similarity to "coupons" is pretty minor at that point, apart from perhaps filling in all kinds of personal information to get yourself on junk-mail lists...  Make sure you NEVER SHARE PERSONAL INFORMATION.  They don't need it.  Make stuff up, skip the question, whatever.

flickr credit: philosophygeek

The hassle of getting what you've been promised.
Normally the hassle of getting what you've been promised in a rebate is related to you taking some action "after the sale" to get your discount.  It might be "providing a valid product UPC"   (ever seen a product with multiple UPC codes?  which one did they want???)  It might be "providing an original sales receipt", it might be "including the rebate form".  Essentially you gave your money away, (the money you are going to have them send back to you).  Now you spend your time (your employer pays you money for your time...) and you use an envelope and postage to send papers to the "rebate company".  They say it will take 6-8 weeks (8+)  And after 8 weeks you inevitably dig up their contact information and ask them about the status of your rebate.  They will say one of the following;

• It's in the mail (hmm...)
• What was your rebate tracking number? (huh?) 
• Oh yes, I see here you were missing your;
• original receipt
• UPC code
• Rebate form or rebate form details
• Your product doesn't qualify.  You bought model ABCDEFG-1  not ABCDEFG-2
• (sometimes retailers play with model numbers so they don't have to match competitor prices, so sometimes the retailer advertising the rebate is actually complicating your rebate collection process).
• The offer has expired
• "Sorry this rebate processing center has gone out of business. (they got arrested for fraud)

flickr credit: Brendan Shigeta

You will re-send (because you did everything right the first time) whatever they ask for and they will tell you it will take another 6-8 (8+) weeks.  Assuming you have an above par experience you'll get your rebate as promised on a cheque that mispells your name, but your bank will allow you to deposit it because they probably don't actually look at the names on the cheques you deposit ;-)

So the "rebate processing center" had your rebate money for 16 weeks.  They couldn't spend your money (unlike the rebate guys who got arrested for fraud above) because they had to pay you eventually, unless you gave up on your rebate and let them keep the money...  Its not like the retailer actually checks to make sure you got your money.  If they cared about you getting your rebate that much, they'd just do it themselves.  As far as they are concerned, as soon as you leave the store your rebate is someone else's problem.  The rebate processing center can collect interest on your money until you cash the misspelled cheque they send you at the end of your ordeal.

Broken promises
Companies sometimes offer rebates to get you to sign up for their programs (contracts).  Contracts are always written to favour the company, not to protect you.  So read that fine print and don't believe Xavier the sales guy who tells you he can waive a clause for you. He won't record it and you'll be on the hook when the foreign call centre doesn't have a record of Xavier's promise to you.
Watch out for "conditional rebates"  These are the rebates they want back from you if you decide to cancel their service, or similar evil.  Sure if you dig through the fine print, there will be some mention of this, but the sales person won't draw it to your attention.  It's a trick, don't feel bad, just get angry.  Remember you are the customer, you are the person making their job possible, and you should not be tricked, you should be honoured and treated with appropriate respect.

There was one deal where there was a rebate for some VOIP phone equipment that enabled me to become a customer of a popular VOIP phone company.  Essentially they wanted me on the monthly payment plan (which is reasonable if there is good service)  I had to purchase this overpriced piece of electronics which was designed to only work with their service, and then to make me willing to pay for this I was offered a "rebate".
 I was all excited about becoming a part of the "experience" and tried it out.  Most of the time it was great, but sometimes just really poor quality.  Not suitable for the way I use phones, so I cancelled the service.  While cancelling, Von... oops, the VOIP company told me I was going to have to pay them $150.  A cancellation fee and a "REBATE RECOVERY FEE".  After wasting a hour of my life arguing with the guy on the phone I had the cancellation charges reduced to $33, but not without a fight.  Funny enough I probably would have blogged on how that company had really good service (except when talking to people on cell phones).  But in their corporate greed they turned an optimistic potential spokesperson who might once again have become a future customer, into someone who will speak out about their greed, service failures and absolute disrespect for their customers.

Free Advice
Let me encourage you to memorize the "Accounting Rally Slogan"  "What kind of discount do we want?" "CASH" "When do we want it?" "NOW".  Don't go into these "offers" blindly.  Don't settle for "gift cards" if you can get cash.  Don't settle for "Later" if you can get it "now".  And maybe most important, don't buy it because of the rebate.  Buy it because you need it.

I'm a big fan of customer rights.  I think it boils down to honesty, to respect and honour, to treating your customers the way you would want to be treated.  Unfortunately people may have consciences but corporations, outsourced divisions and shareholder meetings do not necessarily have a conscience. As we introduce greater layers of separation between customer, decision maker and employee, we create the potential for great injustice.

Cheers, I hope what I've written here saves your bacon, and protects you from the "headaches" of Rotten Rebates.
Greg.

More Real-Time Traffic from Google with Google Maps

You  probably know by now that I'm a fan of Google Maps Traffic, and I've been putting it to the test every day with the carpool.  I think it is nothing short of amazing that by merging 2 apps data (latitude and google maps), Google has effectively provided basic coast to coast traffic for the US and some major cities in Canada, some major cities in China, most of the UK, France and Finland.  Check these screenshots out;

Now there is a social good that Google is offering to me.  I think its great.  Certainly the price seems lower than the alternative methods of providing this (roadside radar infrastructure coast to coast / in-road induction loops measuring traffic speed)  Google gets a ton of good will from people like me.

Predict traffic before it happens

A little while back, Google Maps for desktop started sharing historic average traffic information.  You can access this by clicking on traffic, and then click on "change". (no, sorry it doesn't do what it says, it doesn't actually "change" the traffic). Then play with the controls to see what traffic will probably be like.

Below you can see the variation in traffic approaching the Port Mann Bridge in Surrey BC that occurs at the same time on a Monday, and on a Friday.

I'm not sure if they are doing it yet, but the potential for this technology becomes apparent as you consider routing people through an urban center with a known departure time, known historic traffic on alternate routes, at different points of time throughout that journey.  So if someone were driving from Vancouver BC to Portland Oregon, perhaps with a 7 am departure they'd get routed via the I-405, but if they left at 8am perhaps they'd get routed via the I-5 instead because an hour later, they'd save 10 minutes on the I-5 vs the 405.  In the right hands, this technology has potential uses in focusing infrastructure improvements as well.  I mean really, getting that old rubber hose stretched across the road for a week and then going and collecting the counter at the end of the week only to get a total axle count?  Come on.  Traffic speed in 15 minute increments whenever there was enough traffic to count?  Fantastic.

Avoiding Congestion with Google Maps Mobile Traffic Information

Google Mobile Traffic has saved us from a couple really bad traffic Jams.  One case in Langley essentially had the freeway backed up for 6 miles, but because of the heads up Google Maps Mobile provided, we saw the yellow heading into the solid red that stretched down the freeway.  We got off and detoured through some rural routes until we could return to the freeway 8 miles later.  It was interesting to note that as we detoured around the congestion, we could see the congestion starting to shrink in size, and we could also see that it was moving Eastward down the freeway.  So by the time we got back to the freeway, the front of that congestion was just starting to hit that entrance.  With 4 people in our carpool (which is saving us $1000s per year) if we can avoid sitting in traffic for an hour (like the example above) that is saving us 4 hours that we'd rather spend at home with our families.  Thanks Google!  If you need a carpool to test out fancy Android GPS Navigation prototypes we're your carpool, call me baby, we'll hook you up with some tech savvy feedback and real-world testing.

Using Google Maps Mobile safely while commuting

Generally we frown on the drive using Google Mobile applications unless it is during a red light.  Passengers can of course use Google Mobile safely throughout the journey.  We have a bit of a ritual, when we leave for work, and leave work at the end of the day, we load up a google maps mobile view of our entire route, and assess the colour.  All Green,   All Green with some Yellow, or Red somewhere on our route.  If its anything but red, we stick to the plan following our normal (highly optimized) routes.  It it's red, we turn on the 24 hour traffic radio station to get a "second opinion".

Accuracy?
For the cost ($0.00) its really quite good.  Much better than the lack of realtime traffic we've had before.  We understand that Google requires a certain number of drivers to be travelling with GPS down a road, before they will publish the traffic speed. (which explains the spots on the commute that are missing traffic.)  Sometimes we have seen Google drawing the traffic on the map right behind us as we drive.  We don't trust it 100% because of a few things we've observed.  Sometimes we see Red on the map, but when we get there things seem slow but not bad enough for "red"...  Other times it has been very accurate, as we drive in to the "yellow" from the "green" we see the traffic slow and become congested...

Since the data for the real-time traffic comes from GPS in mobile phones that are running Google location service "latitude"...  You can improve the quality of traffic information, by enabling latitude.  Google knows where your phone is, and so do the friends you share your location with.  (I share with only 5 people)  I really don't mind Google seeing my route back and forth to work.  I turn Latitude off sometimes, and turn it back on in traffic.

Feature Request:
Google, it would be great if we could have Latitude turn off and on either based on Location (always turn off when I drive home, always turn on when I get on the Freeway)  or based on time.  Share location between 7AM and 5PM.

We have observed a strange behaviour on google maps mobile traffic.  Sometimes one zoom level of the map with traffic will show a road as green, while a different zoom level of the same section of map with traffic shows as  yellow.  Presumably the act of zooming in and out on the map doesn't actually speed up or slow down traffic. (If it does, we've accidentally invented something much more powerful here).  So there is apparently some lag issue there.  Is it a bug? or are we just hitting different copies of the data on different servers as the different zoom levels are updated on a slightly different schedule?  Sometimes its actually wrong, (really wrong).  But generally Google Mobile Maps Traffic gives a reasonable overview of traffic conditions.

Also interesting, I've noticed on the desktop version of Google maps, that I can see more or less traffic detail depending on which browser I use.  See below;

Above in Chrome, no red traffic below the "Burnaby" label, also no traffic North of the river North of the Knight St. bridge. (but below in Firefox I see these 2 details).  So with both pages loaded at the same time, why is Google serving different traffic data?  Am I missing something here?

Above in IE we see green traffic North/South on 176th street, but below in Firefox, we don't see that traffic.

Google Mobile does offer a bit of online help to explain traffic here;
http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=61455

Traffic color descriptions
If available in your area, real-time traffic conditions will be displayed over the highway as color coded lines. Each color represents how fast the traffic is moving:

• Green: more than 50 miles per hour
• Yellow: 25 - 50 miles per hour
• Red: less than 25 miles per hour
• Gray: no data currently available

I wonder if these legend numbers are truly accurate.  Often there are smaller roads that are flowing smoothly, represented in green which have posted speed limits of 60KM/h or 37MPH (as you can see from the above legend, that should be Yellow because it is below 50MPH.  So my point is that Google maps is putting reasonable colours on the maps, but the reality doesn't reflect these numbers in the legend.   I suspect that Google is using algorithms to ignore / accommodate traffic lights of normal duration (1 min?), and also that with the historic average speed data they are gathering, that we will see the "green" / "yellow" / "red" coding for the traffic reflect how the traffic deviates from the norm as well as matching an absolute speed.  (of course absolute speeds in a legend are simpler to explain).

Availability of real-time traffic

Real-time traffic data is available in major cities in the United States, France, Britain, Australia, and Canada, with new cities and new countries frequently added. To see if real-time traffic is available in your area, simple focus the map on your area of interest and look for the "Traffic" button in the upper-right corner of your screen. Note that traffic conditions are shown based on data availability -- if we don't have enough data to calculate accurate traffic speeds for a road, then we won't show traffic conditions for that road. This is the reason why you may see more real-time traffic results at certain times of the day. 

New "Colour" for Google Maps Traffic (via gpslodge)

Google Maps has recently updated its traffic flow representations to show not only the regular Red-Yellow-Green format, but a Red/Black hashing that shows super slow traffic at <10 MPH.
Can I get that on my GPS? Red goes up to 25MPH, and there is a huge difference between essentially stop and go at under 10 MPH and putting along at 25 MPH when you need to get home. One, I might try to plow through if it's short; the other I would avoid like the plague.
(from http://www.gpslodge.com/archives/019842.php)

Prediction:  Google is going to be able to effectively identify where roads are, and how they connect.  Google is going to be able to see which roads only flow in one direction, which lanes are alternating "counterflow" lanes which switch direction during rush hour.  They aren't going to have to wait for Tele-Atlas or others to "update" their maps, or "correct" their errors.  The GPS in your phone is going to map the roads, and don't worry about the people walking with a cell...  generally people don't walk or hike at 50km/h etc so with some intelligently designed algorithms, Google will know before the planners release the updates.)  If  you've ever noticed problems with Google maps such as the $800,000,000 "Golden Ears Bridge" missing in the Lower mainland of BC, and tried to report them, you will have been sent to the map providers website to submit an "issue" and well supposedly something happens after that...

Feature request:
Google for the desktop edition, please give me a "refresh" button.  If I'm watching traffic, but I'm not moving the map, from a normal browser I'd hit F5, but when I try that with maps.google.com I end up looking at a map of North America. Effectively I get to start all over which is irritating.  Hitting "back" at that point doesn't help because I was already in the correct location in the browser history.  Ajax is getting there...

Other features noted
One nice feature I've noticed is that google maps mobile seems to have an intelligent "timeout" on map data.  This means that 8 hours after your morning commute, you'll likely have to tell Google Maps on your Blackberry to "show traffic".  I don't mind because if I didn't want traffic I'd be waiting for that to load, and I'd rather "ask" for a feature to run on my phone, than have that feature just assume it should present itself (like a certain operating system developed near Seattle does).

In Google Maps for desktop you can't save a link to a map with traffic data.  If you turn off the traffic information, then Google will happily provide you with a link. (the link button is at the top right of the map.  try it).  I'm wondering if this is to help Google control who could re-sell that data via approved API access or whether there is just complexity to the Ajax magic being pulled off.  My bet is it's to assure appropriate control.

So all in all, the Traffic Information service provided by Google through Google Maps is phenomenal.  Well worth the price of admission. Very usable and something that is effectively mapping the developed world automatically.  Very smart guys... Very smart...  Thanks Google.

Cheers,
Greg.

The problem with bottled water

It's been a slow month or so for me blogging. This is really just a re-print, but its something I've been wanting to say. Enjoy this excellent infographic about bottled water.

Click below to view the infographic.

Cheers,
Greg.

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