Mail in rebates

Time for another rant, and this time it is about the mail in rebate.

Last week, I got a catalog from Hewlett-Packard. This was a mail order catalog. That means that I received this catalog in the mail, and if I were to find something that I wanted to order, then I fill out the order form and mail it back with my payment, and the company then mails back the product that I ordered. Simple, right?

So I'm looking at the some of the items HP is selling, and I notice that some of the products - Hewlett freakin' Packard products - being sold are offering a mail in rebate. Does anybody see the stupidity in this? I receive an HP catalog in the mail. I order a proprietary HP product through the mail. HP sends me the product I ordered through the mail. Now, upon receiving the HP product that I ordered directly from HP, I have to mail back to them a rebate form. HP will then send me my rebate.

Why, oh why, don't they just give me the damned rebate by discounting the price? I did some research, and I found that the reason why many stores/companies offer the mail in rebate instead of an immediate discount is because they count on a certain percentage of the clientele to NOT send in the rebate form. They know that some people will forget, and others just won't bother with filling out and mailing in the forms.

My choice, and what I tell the salespeople at the various brick and mortar stores, is that I will shop around for the lowest price, but if the discount can only be obtained by mail in rebate, and the store won't accomodate me by reducing the price at the register, then I will take my business elsewhere.