Have you ever been on an online forum of some kind and thought to yourself that people blow things way out of proportion or moves the conversation off topic. Some people are unbelievable. I recently received a rebate in the form of a Visa gift card. I don’t particularly like this method of rebate method but that is what I got.
I went online to try and find out how I might be able to get cash for the Visa rebate card and I found a forum that had a thread that started with the question :“Has anyone come up with a way to get the value of the Visa Gift Card in cash? Can it be loaded into a Paypal account? (don’t think so) or at some other site so you can actually get the money off the Visa Gift Card without having to spend the card on something else?”
There was more to the original post but it boiled down to that question(which is basically the same question I had) So people started posting on how you could buy other things to get your money out of it. They had a lot of good ideas and I’ll list some of those at the bottom of this article, but this was not what he originally asked. The original poster stated again his question and clarified what he was asking and then another poster put his two cents in and Here is where it gets good.
The second poster stated : “Ya but the question itself is wrong. The question should be “how do I make sure I am even” and I think there are many ways to get there as suggested. I think people are trying to help you by trying to answer a question that you should be asking.”
Who is this guy to tell the original poster what he SHOULD have asked or that his question was wrong? Now, in my opinion, the question should have been what the original poster wanted to know, not what the second poster thought he should have asked.
The suggestions by several people were informative and good ideas, but it isn’t what the original poster asked.
The original poster came back and tried to clarify himself again and the question again. He was polite and simply asked his original question again and tried to stay on topic, the second poster came back with this:
“Nope – not somehow – just people trying to make the thread useful. Because “how do I break a stone with my bare hands (and it has to be bare hands because I the OP said so)” may not be as useful a question to answer as let us say “I need to break a stone – how BEST can I do it (SOMEHOW the question became how to break a stone in the best possible way…)”.
Making the thread useful is great, but it would be even more useful if the original question was answered. If everyone wants to talk about a variation of the original question, then perhaps they should make another thread. If the OP wanted to know how to break a stone with his bare hands and only his bare hands, then that is what the original poster wants to know and that is how it should be answered because he was the one asking the question.
If I go on a forum and ask how to make a Peanut butter and Jelly sandwich, I don’t want to hear about all the other kinds of sandwiches I can make because someone thinks the question I should have asked is what is the best kind of sandwich to make.
A third poster seemed to be getting frustrated and said “ OK
Then don’t buy items with rebates that pay off in a way you do not like.”
Again, that did not answer what the OP wanted to know. The thread went on for 6 pages.
I bring this up because this a great example of something I see all the time on forums in every topic you can think of. People argue back and forth over silly things. I have been caught up in similar situations myself so I understand how it can happen but I at least I was smart enough to simply click out of the forum when it got but so ridiculous. I was involved in a debate on a forum last year and one of the people I was debating stated I didn’t have a life, I took this forum to seriously and I should go out and live instead of arguing on a message board…So I did. I left the board. Sometimes you just have to back away because you can’t win an argument with ignorant people. They are two ignorant to realize they are ignorant. I went back to the forum 6 months later to see what was being said and the same person who told me that was still there having the same debate with others on the site. Can you say Irony?
If you are on these forums, just answer the question asked, just as you would like to have your question answered if you asked something. If people try and argue with you about something silly like “what you should have asked was…” simply ignore them and go out and live your life. Let them stay in front of a computer squandering there time arguing. If you don’t remember anything else from this post, remember this: You can’t fix stupid! (thanks tater) So to all those arguing over silly things online I say…Get a life, will you people? (yes this is a shameful segway into tomorrows clip.)
Here are some suggestions that were pretty good on the thread that I thought I would share with you in case you get one of these rebate cards. These suggestions are ways to get full value from your Visa gift cards. With everyone buying presents this time of year you are sure to get a few of these rebate cards so I hope this is helpful.
*Buy gas with the card.
*But gift card from a store you frequent with the Visa gift card.
*Pay for dinner with the gift card when you go out to eat.
*Pay bills online with the card. (be careful, some companies charge a transaction fee when you pay online or put a temporary hold of a certain amount (usually a dollar) when you use a card online.
*Use card towards groceries.
Here is what someone posted on that thread about getting cash for your Rebate Visa card. The poster says this is for Verizon so I can only assume other companies have something similar to this:
Here are the steps to get a FULL cash rebate from a Verizon Rebate Card online. I just did this successfully with a $50 card.
1. go to wwww.verizonwireless.com/rebates
2. click “Manage Your Rebate Card”
3. click “Register Your Card Now.” This is the step they don’t tell you about.
4. AFTER your card is registered, click on “Access$” and you will now see all the desired cash-out options listed (e.g., transfer funds to bank account, get a check in the mail, etc). IMPORTANT: These options are NOT shown unless you register the card. This is where I spent a lot of frustrating time going around in circles, which I suspect also happens to most others trying to do this.
5. You may or may not have to logout and then log back in for the cash-out links to work. When I tried to go directly to them immediately after registering, it kept saying I had a balance of $0.00. However, it worked after I logged out and logged back in.
Note: You have to do this process with each new rebate card you receive, as far as I can tell. You also must NOT have used the card for any prior purchases to use the cash-out options (i.e., you must have a full balance). Good luck!
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