Mailing List Archive

> This popped up on our local LUG mailing list, where I recently gave a talk
> on Mythtv. Sounds like a good deal!

Not bad, since they run about $130 wholesale. (at least for a smaller
business than officemax)

-Chris

> -----Original Message-----
> From: chlug-admin@chlug.nothinbut.net
> [mailto:chlug-admin@chlug.nothinbut.net]On Behalf Of Ed Lally
> Sent: Monday, May 12, 2003 2:26 PM
> To: chlug@chlug.nothinbut.net
> Cc: Ed Lally
> Subject: [chlug] WinTV PVR-250 cards on sale
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> For those of you inspired after the last meeting to put together a MythTV
> system, I just saw that Office Max has the WinTV PVR-250 card on sale.
>
> So how much is it, you ask?
>
> Their regular price: $149.99
> In-store discount: -$20.00
> Mail-in rebate: -$30.00
> ==================== =======
> Final cost: $99.99
>
> This beats the best price I found for it online -- $137.69 plus shipping --
> at
> MWave.com.
>
> I don't know how long the in-store discount is good for, but the rebate is
> good
> until the end of the month.
>
> Regards,
>
> Ed
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@snowman.net
> http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

Keep something in mind about mail-in rebates, though--they can be borderline
scams sometimes. They require extra effort from the customer, your check
will take forever to get sent, and your rebate request can be rejected for
any reason. I'd find out whether the rebate is OfficeMax's or Hauppauge's.
But, without any specific knowledge, I can still say that I wouldn't bank on
receiving that $30 rebate.



Andrew

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Petersen [mailto:lists@forevermore.net]
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 10:34 AM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] WinTV PVR-250 cards on sale


> This popped up on our local LUG mailing list, where I recently gave a talk
> on Mythtv. Sounds like a good deal!

Not bad, since they run about $130 wholesale. (at least for a smaller
business than officemax)

-Chris

> -----Original Message-----
> From: chlug-admin@chlug.nothinbut.net
> [mailto:chlug-admin@chlug.nothinbut.net]On Behalf Of Ed Lally
> Sent: Monday, May 12, 2003 2:26 PM
> To: chlug@chlug.nothinbut.net
> Cc: Ed Lally
> Subject: [chlug] WinTV PVR-250 cards on sale
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> For those of you inspired after the last meeting to put together a MythTV
> system, I just saw that Office Max has the WinTV PVR-250 card on sale.
>
> So how much is it, you ask?
>
> Their regular price: $149.99
> In-store discount: -$20.00
> Mail-in rebate: -$30.00
> ==================== =======
> Final cost: $99.99
>
> This beats the best price I found for it online -- $137.69 plus
shipping --
> at
> MWave.com.
>
> I don't know how long the in-store discount is good for, but the rebate is
> good
> until the end of the month.
>
> Regards,
>
> Ed
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@snowman.net
> http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

Here's the link for the $30 Mfr. rebate from Hauppauge (when purchased at
OfficeMax):

http://images.officemax.com/pdf/2003_05/Hauppauge1.pdf

Note the rebate is for the PVR-250 (Model 980), The DV-Wizard-PRO 848 or the
WinTV-USB 602.

I personally have had good experiences with mail-in rebates, as long as the
company is reputable. Hauppauge has always been good to me. More than
anything, companies bank on a certain percentage of mail-in rebates never
being filed because people are lazy or forget. Of course, some companies
*do* have 'impossible' rebates; I always check the terms before I buy.

The OfficeMax web site doesn't even list the PVR-250 for sale (or at least I
couldn't find it), so I can't confirm the $20 in-store rebate.

-JAC

Andrew,

The rebate is from Hauppauge (at least it was when compusa did the same
thing 2 weeks ago). I called them to ask about my PO BOX (I don't get
mail at my house) and talked to the lady that processes all of the
rebates and she was very nice.

While I share your concern of rebates, I feel pretty good about this one.

schu

Andrew Dupont wrote:
> Keep something in mind about mail-in rebates, though--they can be borderline
> scams sometimes. They require extra effort from the customer, your check
> will take forever to get sent, and your rebate request can be rejected for
> any reason. I'd find out whether the rebate is OfficeMax's or Hauppauge's.
> But, without any specific knowledge, I can still say that I wouldn't bank on
> receiving that $30 rebate.
>
>
>
> Andrew
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Petersen [mailto:lists@forevermore.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 10:34 AM
> To: Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] WinTV PVR-250 cards on sale
>
>
>
>>This popped up on our local LUG mailing list, where I recently gave a talk
>>on Mythtv. Sounds like a good deal!
>
>
> Not bad, since they run about $130 wholesale. (at least for a smaller
> business than officemax)
>
> -Chris
>
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: chlug-admin@chlug.nothinbut.net
>>[mailto:chlug-admin@chlug.nothinbut.net]On Behalf Of Ed Lally
>>Sent: Monday, May 12, 2003 2:26 PM
>>To: chlug@chlug.nothinbut.net
>>Cc: Ed Lally
>>Subject: [chlug] WinTV PVR-250 cards on sale
>>
>>
>>Hi all,
>>
>>For those of you inspired after the last meeting to put together a MythTV
>>system, I just saw that Office Max has the WinTV PVR-250 card on sale.
>>
>>So how much is it, you ask?
>>
>>Their regular price: $149.99
>>In-store discount: -$20.00
>>Mail-in rebate: -$30.00
>>==================== =======
>>Final cost: $99.99
>>
>>This beats the best price I found for it online -- $137.69 plus
>
> shipping --
>
>>at
>>MWave.com.
>>
>>I don't know how long the in-store discount is good for, but the rebate is
>>good
>>until the end of the month.
>>
>>Regards,
>>
>>Ed
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>mythtv-users mailing list
>>mythtv-users@snowman.net
>>http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@snowman.net
> http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

At 08:40 AM 5/13/2003 -0800, Matthew Schumacher wrote:
>Andrew,
>
>The rebate is from Hauppauge (at least it was when compusa did the same
>thing 2 weeks ago). I called them to ask about my PO BOX (I don't get
>mail at my house) and talked to the lady that processes all of the rebates
>and she was very nice.
>
>While I share your concern of rebates, I feel pretty good about this one.

The biggest problem with rebates ... though there certainly are others ...
is that a (relatively) few bad apples can cause a lot of distrust in the
process. My own experience has been mixed ... disk-drive companies I've
found 100% reliable (and they give *big* rebates, at least around here),
while some small companies act like whether to honor the terms of an offer
or not is at their discretion. (I'm currently fighting with Kaser Corp.,
for example, about an overdue rebate on a video card.)

Unfortunately, "very nice" doesn't help sort companies out ... the lady at
Best Data who stalled me for 3 months past the due date before sending out
a check, a couple of years ago, was "very nice", just not very helpful. So
I don't buy products from that company any more, or at least not if rebates
are involved.

The best way to control this problem, I think, is for customers to talk
about it in specific terms, so the companies that act badly get bad
reputations. To that end, I'd hope anyone who tries to get this rebate from
Hauppauge reports on his or her experience (whether positive or negative).

I got the rebate coupon but when I called my local store they said they don't
carry the PVR-250. As someone else noted, the PVR-250 is not on OfficeMax.com.
I called the OfficeMax 800 customer service number and was told they don't carry
this item.

Perhaps the special is only available in one geographic area. (I'm in the San
Jose, CA area.)

>Here's the link for the $30 Mfr. rebate from Hauppauge (when purchased at
OfficeMax):

>http://images.officemax.com/pdf/2003_05/Hauppauge1.pdf

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On Tue, May 13, 2003 at 10:41:06AM -0700, Vince Busam wrote:
> I got the rebate coupon but when I called my local store they said they don't
> carry the PVR-250. As someone else noted, the PVR-250 is not on OfficeMax.com.
> I called the OfficeMax 800 customer service number and was told they don't carry
> this item.
>
> Perhaps the special is only available in one geographic area. (I'm in the San
> Jose, CA area.)

I ran into it here (30+20) in Salt Lake City, UT
Unfortunately (as I have mentioned several times) it was too electricity hungry
for my machine (even with a notebook drive)

Jeff
- --
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Science is as much about computers as astronomy is about telescopes
-- Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (1930-2002)
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.2 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQE+wS8HXazNjIaibJERAumMAJ4w+8BXev21OXuTkc1T7ClhliC4OQCfdFfm
ISp92ksV9xHclx3n9ftt7DA=
=vb8e
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

On Tuesday 13 May 2003 11:11 am, Andrew Dupont wrote:
> Keep something in mind about mail-in rebates, though--they can be
> borderline scams sometimes. They require extra effort from the customer,
> your check will take forever to get sent, and your rebate request can be
> rejected for any reason. I'd find out whether the rebate is OfficeMax's or
> Hauppauge's. But, without any specific knowledge, I can still say that I
> wouldn't bank on receiving that $30 rebate.
>
>
>

I don't know about the OfficeMax offer, but I followed a recent
post and picked up the same deal at CompUSA. The deal is legit.
It had (expired May 3rd) specific requirements about photo copying
the receipt, signing a form, and mailing back by May 17, and
they may take many weeks for the money (8-10, but I usually
find that is on the high side). But its from Hauppauge, I
certainly don't think its any type of scam.

Brian