Best Buy to Eliminate Rebates

By Ian Bell April 2, 2005

“In response to customer complaints, Best Buy Co. Inc., the world’s largest electronics retailer, promised Friday to eliminate mail-in rebates within two years. Best Buy’s rivals, including CircuitCity Stores and CompUSA, are expected to follow suit.

“Our customers are telling us they just hate the process,” said Ron Boire, executive vice president and general merchandise manager at Best Buy.”

We love to hear this, but the question is whether customers will still get discounts on the products they pay for. Will the savings you would get from a rebate still be passed on in one form or another?

Circuit City, CompUSA and other large retailers are expected to follow this strategy. Rebates will be phased out of Best Buy over the next couple years.

Read more at The Star Tribune

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Best Buy laptop deals: Cheap laptops starting at $149

Apple M1 MacBook Air open on a desk with plants in the background.

Best Buy is always one of the best places to buy a laptop online. It carries all of the best laptop brands, has a lot of inventory to choose from, and almost always has some of the best laptop deals. This is all good news if you’re in the market for a new laptop, as Best Buy currently has a lot of laptops discounted. Some of the best Best Buy laptop deals include models by Dell, HP, Lenovo, and even Apple. We’ve tracked them all down to make landing some savings more convenient. Consult our laptop buying guide as needed and read onward for more information on some of the Best Buy laptop deals you can currently take advantage of.
HP 14-inch Chromebook — $149, was $299

The HP 14-inch Chromebook is a fast and fun computing device. It is a great option for anyone searching the best laptops for high school students or the best laptops for college. It has an Intel Celeron processor and 4GB of system RAM that combine to push through homework assignments, work presentations, and hours upon hours of binge watching. The 14-inch screen sports HD resolution, and makes this HP Chromebook a great way to enjoy movies, photos, and other digital content. It has a minimal design that makes it as portable as any Chromebook. The HP 14-inch laptop is able to reach up to 14 hours of battery life on a single charge, making it a great all-day option for people who like to do their work on the go.

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Best Buy has a refurbished MacBook for $580, and it’s a good buy

Apple MacBook Air M1 open, on a table.

Typically, refurbished MacBook deals, or most refurbished laptop deals for that matter, aren't worth the cost. You can buy a brand-new system for about the same price, especially thanks to the best MacBook deals out there. But that's not the case with a deal Best Buy has available right now. You can get a Geek Squad Certified and refurbished MacBook Air, with an Intel 8th Gen Core i5, for just $580 -- that saves you $320 off the usual $900 price. A newer model MacBook Air is going to cost you over $900, especially when you factor in taxes and shipping. This is the 2019 model, so while it is a few years old, you're still getting a laptop that can go the distance, as Apple's software updates usually keep older systems performing well.

Why you should buy this refurbished MacBook Air deal at Best Buy
Generally, we only recommend buying refurbished or renewed products straight from the manufacturer, but Best Buy's Geek Squad is the exception to that rule. That's because all refurbished and certified products go through rigorous testing, with detailing, sanitization, and cosmetic grading for the finished product done before they're put up for sale. In other words, they take their time to make sure they certify only good products in reasonable condition. Even if a bad egg slips by, they offer a 90-day warrant with extended warranty protection available -- if you're worried about extended coverage. Although extended warranties are available on an item-by-item basis, some may not qualify.

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Best Buy’s deal of the day is a starter gaming laptop for $700

A man playing on the Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop.

You don't need to spend thousands of dollars to get into PC gaming because there are gaming laptop deals like Best Buy's offer for the Acer Nitro 5. The starter gaming laptop, which is already relatively affordable at its original price of $950, is currently even cheaper at just $700. You'll be able to use the $250 in savings on video games and gaming accessories, but you'll have to act fast if you want it because we're not sure how much time is remaining before the bargain disappears, and once that happens, we don't know when you'll get another chance at it.

Why you should buy the Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop
The Acer Nitro 5 is equipped with the 12th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card, and 16GB of RAM. It's not going to challenge the performance of the top-of-the-line models of the best gaming laptops, but it's going to be more than enough to play the best PC games. Some of the more demanding titles may force you to choose low graphics settings, but that's a fine trade-off for a gaming laptop that you can get for less than $1,000.