My wife is a rebate junkie and usually gets $60 worth of stuff absolutely free in some months. Also, if you use a coupon for a product, like a $1 off coupon, you get that deducted off the bill at the time of purchase , and in the mail-in rebate they don't always deduct the coupon from the rebate, so you actually make a profit of a $1.
I use rebates on almost everything I buy for my computers. For instance, I have CD-RW's, DVD+-RW's, RAM, Internal and External Hard Drive's, mouse(s), CD Racks, and keyboards less than half price and in some cases two thirds off retail by using rebates.
In my large collection of games, rarely have I paid retail, but catch the new ones on sale the 1st week out or just wait for the sales to come. I have each years copy of Norton's Systems Works from 1999 and not paid anything but postage for the rebates by just watching the weekly newspaper flyers from Best Buy, Circuit City, and others. Course' I didn't have patience this past year thinking a 'free after rebate' wouldn't come for the 2005 Nortons System Works, and went ahead and paid $9 after rebates. Since then they have come around with the yearly 'free' after rebates from those stores.
I also know how to buy online with Newegg/Geeks/Crucial/TigerDirect/PCConnection & others, giving my credit card number over nonwireless telephone and not the internet. Rebate is the way to go, keeping a copy of everything mailed in, and never a problem if you follow directions to the letter. Have mailed a copy of a copy when they clain non-receipt and still received the rebate. Wife keeps track and usually gives them 2 months to return the $$'s before asking about it. On really large rebates, get a return receipt from post office procedures.
Yes, businesses that use rebates, make money because a good many people either forget or don't bother, and besides, using your money for a couple months or so, draws interest for them.
They never make much money off of us as our checking account draws no interest to amount to a hill of beans, we charge almost everything to the credit card, and pay off the credit card each month(no interest). Our savings money goes into CD's and I shop for the best interest rate with no loyalty to a particular Bank or Credit Union.