Concow Computer Chronicles
A Million More and I'll Be Rich!
It is very interesting what happens when you spend enough time on or around the Internet. So much of it is purely automated that you end up with some interesting E-mail messages. You might be familiar with my coffee website, Espresso! My Espresso!. I have the domain registered at GoDaddy.com. At the end of April I received the following message:
Dear Randy,
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN(R)) recently agreed to reduce their Registrar Transaction Fee from $.25 to $.22. What does this mean for you?
Good news. You have been credited $.03/yr for each domain name you registered or renewed dating back to July 1, 2006* -- $.06 has been placed into your Go Daddy(R) account with this customer number: 4539262.
Your in-store credit will be applied to your purchases at GoDaddy.com(R) until it's gone or for up to 12 months, whichever comes sooner. If you have any questions, please contact a customer service representative.
As always, thank you for being a Go Daddy customer.
Sincerely,
Bob Parsons
CEO and Founder
GoDaddy.com
I can hear you saying, "Don't spend it all in one place." Don't worry. I put it in my "running off to Mexico" fund. Six cents closer to heading south of the border!
PayBack
If you are subscribed to my newsletter you may remember a deal I sent out some time early in February for a Toshiba laptop computer. It was pretty basic in its configuration- 15.4" screen, Vista Home Basic, 512mb shared ram, 60GB hard drive, modem, wireless, CD burner/DVD-ROM combo drive, and a Celeron processor. Not good for business or serious graphic use, but a great home computer for general web use and such as well as a nice portable DVD player. At $589 delivered (including tax in California) it was an O.K. deal, but after the $200 rebate it came to only $389 delivered making it the best deal in a laptop I have seen for quite some time and not equaled since.
I just received that rebate in the mail for that deal, and it served as a reminder that it might be a good time for me to share my rebate procedures. Shopping online can be a great way to save money and rebates can make those deals even sweeter, but you have to be careful and methodical. Here is what I do:
1) I first make sure that I qualify for the rebate in question. I match the product number to the number on the rebate for qualifying purchases. If it looks good at that point I will print out the rebate and read the fine print.
2) I make sure that the purchase date (the date on which I am buying the product) falls within the rebate's parameters.
3) When making an online purchase you are (almost) always presented with an online receipt showing a purchase identification number of some sort. I will make two copies of this by printing it from my browser as well as saving a screen shot (a copy of all the information on the screen- usually as a JPG image). A great application for making screen captures is called "MWsnap" which is free
4) After ordering I fill in the rebate form with as much of the information as possible, address an envelope as required in the rebate, insert the form and printed receipt in the envelope, and wait for the item to arrive.
5) When the item arrives I remove whatever is required by the rebate's requirements- this is usually the UPC. I place the UPC along with the completed rebate form on the scanner and print a copy of it.
6) If the item arrived with a receipt or packing slip showing the item I make a copy of that as well.
7) This is where the skill of being able to accurately follow instructions comes in handy- In the envelope I place the required paperwork. This is usually:
A) The rebate form completely filled out (printed neatly in ink)
B) The original UPC
B) The sales receipt. I usually include the sales receipt from the website as well as the packing slip or paperwork included with the item.
I make sure that I have retained copies of all the materials about to be mailed, stapled together and dated with the date I am mailing the rebate. I make sure that there is an E-Mail address or other contact for checking the rebate and that I can read all the copies just in case. Having someone else check that all the needed information is included and filled out properly is a good idea. I then file all that in a file folder marked "rebates."
Do you really need to do all that? It can help. I sent a rebate for $15 and I had mistakenly included the wrong receipt. I had bought an item on the last day of the rebate. The receipt I sent in was dated with the shipping date which was days after the rebate closed. I received a postcard stating that I did not qualify because of the date problem, but to send in the correct information if I had it. I looked though my files, found the correct receipt, made a note on it, and mailed it. Being detail oriented saved me $15 (or at least kept me from losing it).
If memory still serves (it certainly can't return any more) I have only had one unsuccessful rebate in the last decade and that was because the item was stolen (lost?) in transit (USPS) and by the time the seller replaced it the rebate had expired.
So, is the perceived "hassle" of rebates worth it? You tell me. This year we have received over $300 in rebates with another $95 on the way... so far!
What Was Old is New Again
I normally do not cover anything that costs money in these columns but this is just so retro that I thought it was worth mentioning. Those of you born when dial phones and black and white TV was the norm will remember "flip books." These were small books, about 20 to 30 pages long that usually featured a cartoon drawing of some sort. Thumbing along one edge, allowing the pages to flash by would create an animation effect. This is just like film use to be. Remember watching "films" in school That is, indeed "film" and not "video." Films were done bu showing about 28 individual pictures per second (that clickity sound from the projector was in part due to the film being pushed through, frame by frame). The pictures came faster than your eye and brain could separate them and so they 'blended' together into a moving picture. Those flip books worked the same way, but instead of each image being a frame on transparent film they were printed on paper.
The company called "FlipClips" has reintroduced those flip books of old but with a new twist! Instead of choosing from some cartoon character of old, you can have a flip book made of any video you like! it works this way: you register on the FlipClip site, then just upload a video segment of your choice. It can be a clip of up to about 30 seconds. They take the video and reduce it to separate images, print them, cut the out and assemble them into a book, and mail it back to you. What you get is a portable video player that never needs recharging because it uses no electricity! Just pull it out of your pocket and flip through it to show baby's first walk, birthday party, a wedding scene, the new puppy.. just about anything you want!
The pricing varies depending on the size of the book as well as how many you order. The most expensive is the 4.5" x 3" 150 page book which holds a 30 second video clip for $18.99 for one plus about $2 shipping. There are three different sizes including a 2.5" x 2" business card size book that would be great for advertising and such. Buy four or more and basic media shipping by USPS is free.
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