New Jersey – Legislation aimed at helping New Jersey consumers get instant rebates continues to advance in the state Assembly.
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The measure passed Thursday by the Consumer Affairs committee requires retailers to charge consumers an advertised after-rebate price, rather than making them send in coupons or log on to manufacturer’s websites to claim their savings.
It now heads to the full Assembly for a vote, which has not yet been scheduled.
“Customers should not be deceptively lured into stores by low prices that only exist after they take the product home, cut apart the packaging, fill out aggravating paperwork and then wait weeks or months for a check,” said Assemblyman John Burzichelli, D-Paulsboro.
Under the legislation, retailers that advertise a product’s “net price” — the cost after a manufacturer’s rebate is applied — would be required to charge that price at the time of sale.
It then would be a retailer’s responsibility to complete the rebate redemption process.
If the measure becomes law, New Jersey would become the third state to enforce such a consumer protection, joining Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Violators would be cited under the state’s consumer fraud act, with first offenders facing fines of up to $10,000. Repeat offenses could face up to $20,000 in fines, as well as injunctive relief, triple damages, and restitution.
Burzichelli is sponsoring the measure with Peter Biondi, R-Somerset, and Democrats Paul Moriarty of Turnersville, Vincent Prieto of Secaucus and John Wisniewski of Sayreville. They cite research by consumer advocates which shows about 40 percent of manufacturer rebates are never redeemed, costing American consumers more than $2 billion annually.
“This bill would not prevent manufacturers from offering rebates to New Jersey consumers, but would only prohibit stores from deceptively passing off a net price to unwitting customers,” Prieto said. “It’s a consumer protection measure that makes common sense.”
It sometimes seems that this Goverment is only worried about the illiterate who can’t read the ad. How about teaching them English?
Of course the retailer will either raise prices to cover the extra labor needed to complete the forms and send them in or they will charge a “service fee” for the above
All this will mean is that they will advertise the in store discount and then offer additional reductions for the mail in certificates. Why doesn’t government just get out of the way and let people do their own comparisons and decide. Whats next? Will they tell the butcher that he cannot adverstise that for every 5 lbs of ground beef, you will get a lb. of flanken free therefore making the net price much lower or that the mikvah cannot advertise “one person free with every two paid admissions”.
That will make an end to the rebates. The only reason companies offer rebates is due to the fact that most people don’t have time to claim them.
This is ridiculous. If there’s any problem, it’s if the manufacturer and/or retailer doesn’t/don’t accurately and explicitly and transparently admit that the price is after a mail-in rebate.
But I see nothing wrong with a manufacturer offering their own rebate, and the retailer failing to fill out the paperwork for you. Why should it be the retailer’s obligation to do the paperwork for you? The rebate is between you and the manufacturer, and it’s none of the retailer’s business. And if the retailer nevertheless wants to advertise the after-rebate price, then I see nothing wrong, as long as the retailer explicitly notes what they are doing.
In short: retailers are doing nothing unjust at all. And since they are doing nothing wrong, it is fundamentally illegitimate for the government to get involved. The government’s job is to promote justice and punish injustice, and where justice already is done and no injustice exists, ANYTHING the government does is ipso facto unjust, because for the government to get involved where it shouldn’t is an abuse of power, an action taken without authority or jurisdiction.
There are 47 other states that still allow it; rebates aren’t going away any time soon.
The big advantage to rebates over instant discounts is that, even in this economy, many people won’t bother mailing in the rebate, so the manufacturer can get a higher price from those people. Those who do send them in will get a lower net price. This is all assuming the manufacturer is honest and the rebate processor doesn’t go out of business mid-campaign.
as a conservative i dont mind NJ doing this, as it is their states soveriegn right.
but the free market will speak, and you will see companies start to allow their rebates only in states that do not have such laws. the only losers will be the people in NJ who understand english, and have the aptitude to fill a form of at most 5 questions along with their address and mail it in a timely fashion.
i do take offense at the second to last paragraph. american consumers do not lose 2 billion annually to anything. losing for starters means that the people had it to begin with, which is not the truth. and secondly, sorry to break it to these liberals in trenton, but US companies are consumers as well. they purchase their parts from other manufacurers. their is almost no company in the US that does not buy some part iof its final product from a source other than its own subsidiary. not to mention that it also consumes the labor of its workforce. when the comapny advertises a mail in rebate it does so for 2 reasons, one is the fact that only 40 percent return it, the other is that while the rebate is being processed, the money is in the bank being used, and gaining interest!
The government believes the public consists of idiots who cannot look out for themselves. That is one reason why they insist on warnings on cigarette packages. And we keep electing these people – so I guess they are right after all. Unfortunately, very few people in government ever had to work a “real” job for a living – and actually meet a payroll, file a Sales Tax form or fire a lousy worker. It is the firm belief of most people in government that as long as we now have computers, people running a business can be required by law to do anything and everything and keep track of anything and everything (including things like the rate of Sales Tax in every county in the country.)
If there was ever a reason to make sure you VOTE, this should helpt to convince you.
I am very impressed with the intelligence and grasp of th issue displayed by these commenters. kol hakavod.
this is a phony gimmick, its political pandering.
but don’t fret – Chris Christie will veto it.
Why do pols like to pander to the lowest of the low? READ SIGNS!!! If you cant read GO BACK TO YOUR COUNTRY!