Equipment Canon UK Cash back

It has begun once again...for those of you in the UK that is. Now would be a good time to make your purchases.

 

Same for Nikon.

 

Cashback, an excuse to sell something at an artificially inflated price, with the promise of cashback at a later date.
However, as Canon and Nikon know, not all (in fact most) don't bother to send in the coupon.

 

Here in the states, Canon issues an instant rebate upon purchase on certain products , not sure how it works over on your side of the pond...but there are substantial savings over here. When I bought my 5D + 24-105 along with my pro9000 I received a total of $500 in rebates. Thats a decent chunk of change...well worth the time and effort of filling out a simple form and mailing it out.

 

This is a fairly new thing over here tbh, I've not really looked into it much.
I've never understood the point, just sell the damn thing cheaper in the first place

 

It's just a sale by another name tbh.

 

Rebates have been going for years! It really is a cunning ploy to offer a discount which many won't take advantage of, but prices aren't inflated at all.

 

blah, they're a bit of a cop-out this round.

 

I've never really seen any rebate schemes over here before, always just heard about them on the net from mostly our US cousins

 

Got that part of it right, rebates are usually cheaper for a company than just a discount because not everyone will bother to mail in and correctly fill out the forms and paperwork. Personally I've always hated them and tend to steer away from products with them.

 

So if your purchase had a $500 rebate (w/e your equiv. is), you wouldn't bother just because you hate to fill out a one sided form with less than a paragraph of info, put it in an envelope then mail it? I could see if it were $10 to downright ignore it, but there are substantial savings out there. IMO, $30 let alone $200 off a lens is enough to take initiative.

 

best deal i ever got was £70 back off a 10-22mm i got off ebay for an already brilliant price. I was in a coffee shop on holiday in greece when i decided to check my bank account on a whim and saw they'd honoured the cashback and put the money straight in there!
well chuffed

it really is straightforward - you put only the relevant info on the form and you have to opt in to any marketing (rather than opt out), it just takes a bit of time to honour.

it's just a shame that this round, the rebates are kinda low. and no rebate on the 17-55

 

Hope thats not the case for the US rebate round...hoping Canon will put a 40D+17-55 f/2.8 IS kit together for a decent price

My last two rebates took about two months to receive back, however I did purchase relatively close to Christmas time so I'm sure that had a little to do with the time lapse. Well worth the wait...the day they came back was the same day's night I was ordering my 70-200...quick cash return I guess

 

Well $500 is quite a bit but I think I'd look what my other options are. If there are two stores with the same item and one is $500 straight up and the other is $530 with a $50 rebate I'll probably buy from the first store 95% of the time.

 

the thing with the canon rebates is that regardless of where you buy it from, if you get an invoice, you can claim the rebate. so you can still shop around, it's just an extra bit off.

 

Good to know, might be time to pick up an XTi for me .

 

It'll be cheaper in April...just a guess, but seems only logical with the release of the XSi the same month. I'd wait if I were you...

 

Not a big fan of the whole cashback thing, they price something at 450, add 50 to that making the retail 500, then offer you 50 off in a cashback thing. Customer thinks they are getting a good deal, most never send off the voucher, company gets 50 free. If the customer does send off the voucher, the company holds on to your money for however long it takes you to send off the voucher plus the month it takes them to process it, 50 in the bank gaining interest for probably about 1.5 months per item sold.


For the customer they pay the retail price, the company makes a mint on it and gets "money off" style advertising for no financial loss at all



Needless to say, I bought my 400d because it was 50 off and the 350d wasnt.