Well, I did get my money already on a product purchased at Fry's but with an onrebate.com rebate. I got the ACK but not the money for a tigerdirect.com product with onrebate rebate and paying for instant payment. As noted, we'll see how that goes.

BTW, I fully expect if you do rebate forms they are going to sell your information. That's why I always use a unique, throw-away email address on rebate forms, and I use a phone number which only goes to voice mail. You can get such things free without too much work. You do have to give them your name and physical address of course, but the direct mail companies already have that info long ago.

I've bought a few things at tigerdirect, no major problems, but it's a small sample.

In general, any time you shop with discount retailers, including just about all online retailers, I expect there to be problems. The only real question is how often the problems occur and how hard the companies work to fix them. If they work hard to fix them, I know they aren't very common -- these are the companies to give your business to.

And of course, sometimes the deals online are so good that you can even have them go sour some of the time and still be ahead, if you are able to handle that mentally.

eBay's reputation system, for all its flaws, generally delivers a good experience there. eBay sellers make mistakes but those with good reputations are always, it seems, ready to jump some hoops to make it better, moreso than larger realtors from what I have seen.