I hate the way they suck us in with the promise of a lower price. I hate the fine print and the hoops they make us jump through. And I hate that you have to be, well, organized enough to actually find a stamp and mail them in.

All the reasons that I hate rebates are, of course, exactly why rebate companies love me. If my rebate forms and receipts languish in a junk drawer, that's fine with them: It's estimated that an astounding 40 percent of all rebates are never redeemed because consumers didn't apply for them or mailed in the wrong stuff. Which means higher profits.

Rebates are a growth industry. A recent analysis by Business Week magazine found nearly one-third of computer gear is now sold with rebates, along with more than 20 percent of digital cameras, camcorders and LCD TVs. By one estimate, 400 million rebates are offered each year, with a face value of $6 billion.

So my laziness is my loss, I guess.

But what about the thousands of you who do fill out the forms, clip the UPC codes, wait for the activation periods, copy the receipts, beat the deadlines and actually apply?

Happily, some of you succeed. But others write to The Fixer (many more than we can help, sorry to say) with complaints like that of Gene and Carol LaShure of Sauk Village, who bought an HP Bundle digital camera printer from Radio Shack, expecting to get a $30 rebate.

"We cut the UPCs from both boxes and sent the receipt, etc.," the LaShures wrote. "There were quite a few different numbers on both boxes, and evidently none of the ones we sent were what they wanted. They called us and gave the needed number -- but, thinking we had sent the right UPCs, my husband had thrown out the box.

"Do they purposely put all these different numbers on these boxes to confuse you so you will not get your rebate? Seems to me they should point out the proper number at the time of purchase."

The Fixer couldn't agree more. We went to bat for Gene and Carol, and Radio Shack eventually paid the rebate.

I's easy enough to see that companies want to minimize fraud.

But what happens when you follow the rules but still don't see your money? Michael F. Murphy, an attorney from Tinley Park, complains that he sent in a $49.99 rebate application to SBC in August, yet by November he still didn't have his check.

He called to inquire, and guess what? Turns out a check had been sent, but it was sent in a tear-off envelope that looked like junk mail, so he'd thrown it out. (Murphy said the rebate-center employee he talked with told him he "might not have realized it was a check.") Murphy called three more times before he could get the rebate folks to say they had stopped payment on the check and would issue a new one. But the new check still hadn't arrived by mid-March. So Murphy wrote to The Fixer.

To SBC's credit, after we called, the company immediately overnighted a replacement check. A happy ending. But look at what it took.

For those who remain determined to win at the rebate game, here's some advice: