1! Stores here are just starting to get the message: nobody trusts manufacturer rebates anymore. They've let the shady fulfillment companies kill their cash cow.
I refuse to buy anything that has a mail-in rebate. Either give me the sale price with instant rebates or I walk. I once argued (out of entertainment's sake) with a sales person and then the sales manager why they should sell me the item minus the rebate amount, saying *they* can mail in the rebate and collect the money later - why not, I argued, it'd be like selling an item on credit and waiting for the payment sixty to ninety days later, don't you trust the company that redeems rebates for you more than your customers? - they both blurted out a no, then retracted too late, causing me to crow, "Ah-hah!" very loudly, reverberating throughout the store.
BTW, anyone remember that Ponzi scheme, the online rebate company with the frog as a mascot? Did anybody ever collect their rebates from that company before it bellied up?