Brother cash-back promotion

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floydbloke

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#112040 24-Nov-2012 08:56

Plenty of threads on here, and many other places, about poor customer service, I thought I’d post about a positive experience.

I’m not a big fan of cash-back schemes, why not offer manufacturer’s discounts over the counter (maybe it’s an accounting thing, in that only a certain percentage of buyers will claim so it doesn’t cost quite as much). I've seen quite a few stories of people waiting for months and/or claims getting lost.

Anyway, in need of a colour printer and settled on the Brother HL3040CN, one of the factors being the price after cash-back, and encouraged by Brother’s 10-day processing pledge. The good news story is that I bought the printer on Tuesday afternoon, lodged the claim on-line that night, put receipt in the post-box on Wednesday morning, status changed to ‘claim approved’ on Thursday, I received an ‘Payment Processed’ notification e-mail on Friday and the money has shown up in my account this morning.
Good effort Brother, I’m mildly impressed.

Sometimes I use big words I don't always fully understand in an effort to make myself sound more photosynthesis.

sbiddle

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#722169 24-Nov-2012 09:38

floydbloke: I’m not a big fan of cash-back schemes, why not offer manufacturer’s discounts over the counter (maybe it’s an accounting thing, in that only a certain percentage of buyers will claim so it doesn’t cost quite as much). I've seen quite a few stories of people waiting for months and/or claims getting lost.

There are a number of reasons, including -

Firstly discounting by the distributor/manufacturer doesn't automatically result in a discount in the selling price. Some retailers will simply absorb any discounts rather than passing them on. It also means price stability is maintained and you don't turn into a Godfreys with 50% off every weekend that simply trashes both the product and store brand.

There is also no real need to forecast sales and pay marketing money - if you're running a promo stores typically want a % for advertising. They'll also typically want to try and push for discounts off invoice rather than rebates. This means they'll order large quantities of stock at a cheap price, sell some discounted, and then try and sell the rest off at full price making margin. By establishing a relationship with the end user rather than the retailer this is avoided.

Goosey

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#722171 24-Nov-2012 09:41

floydbloke: Plenty of threads on here, and many other places, about poor customer service, I thought I’d post about a positive experience.

I’m not a big fan of cash-back schemes, why not offer manufacturer’s discounts over the counter (maybe it’s an accounting thing, in that only a certain percentage of buyers will claim so it doesn’t cost quite as much). I've seen quite a few stories of people waiting for months and/or claims getting lost.

Anyway, in need of a colour printer and settled on the Brother HL3040CN, one of the factors being the price after cash-back, and encouraged by Brother’s 10-day processing pledge. The good news story is that I bought the printer on Tuesday afternoon, lodged the claim on-line that night, put receipt in the post-box on Wednesday morning, status changed to ‘claim approved’ on Thursday, I received an ‘Payment Processed’ notification e-mail on Friday and the money has shown up in my account this morning.
Good effort Brother, I’m mildly impressed.

Good result. IMHO that's a pretty quick cashback... so why the mildly impressed statement?

floydbloke

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#722188 24-Nov-2012 10:33

sbiddle:
floydbloke: I’m not a big fan of cash-back schemes, why not offer manufacturer’s discounts over the counter (maybe it’s an accounting thing, in that only a certain percentage of buyers will claim so it doesn’t cost quite as much). I've seen quite a few stories of people waiting for months and/or claims getting lost.

There are a number of reasons, including -

Firstly discounting by the distributor/manufacturer doesn't automatically result in a discount in the selling price. Some retailers will simply absorb any discounts rather than passing them on. It also means price stability is maintained and you don't turn into a Godfreys with 50% off every weekend that simply trashes both the product and store brand.

There is also no real need to forecast sales and pay marketing money - if you're running a promo stores typically want a % for advertising. They'll also typically want to try and push for discounts off invoice rather than rebates. This means they'll order large quantities of stock at a cheap price, sell some discounted, and then try and sell the rest off at full price making margin. By establishing a relationship with the end user rather than the retailer this is avoided.

Ah, thanks. That makes sense. Productive day so far, a 100 bucks and I learnt something.

Sometimes I use big words I don't always fully understand in an effort to make myself sound more photosynthesis.

floydbloke

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#722190 24-Nov-2012 10:36

Gooseybhai:
Good result. IMHO that's a pretty quick cashback... so why the mildly impressed statement?

Agreed, it's a good result. Mildly impressed being impressed enough to write about it on a message-board, but at the same time not so exciting that I'll be going dancing jubilantly naked around a bonfire.

Sometimes I use big words I don't always fully understand in an effort to make myself sound more photosynthesis.