I'm curious what other experiences have been with the Energy Star rebate shopping. I know Texas and Florida both had the purchases for rebates scheduled for last week and I think some other states did as well. Here in TX, they extended the purchase period for the kitchen and laundry appliances by another 2 weeks, but not the period for getting the appliances delivered, installed and the paperwork mailed in.

I managed to get a reservation on the rebates and had done some research before the reservation date even arrived. Once I got a reservation, I did more shopping and had no trouble getting a purchase made even though DH had surgery last week and I was out of town both weekends with my son's activities, had evening school events, etc. The problem I'm finding is making sure you can get delivery in time. I had a June 1st delivery date for the model I wanted and based on another appliance delivery screw up by the same store a couple of years ago and the fact that the receipt I had turned out to have an incorrect model number listed, I got concerned. They were scheduling other deliveries yesterday for June 6th and showing other appliances unavailable -- they couldn't even sell them.

With so many appliance purchases being made in a short time period, I didn't have confidence that all those deliveries would be made as planned without any glitches -- and with things in my life as they have been lately, I decided to try to minimize my risk. Last night we went to another store and got the same model in the stainless finish with a delivery date of May 1st. The stainless is an upgrade I hadn't planned on for my laundry room fridge, but for the price (35% off) and not losing sleep wondering if I will lose the rebates, I think it will be worth it.

The whole experience makes me wonder what issues others are running into. The folks who didn't purchase last week may find they can't get the sale prices that were planned during the big promo time, but I'm wondering if they will have trouble finding availability of the models they want or getting delivery in time. I've managed to improve my odds, but I have also written the state encouraging the state to extend the delivery portion so that consumers don't lose the rebates over an issue they have little or no control over. I hope that folks who didn't get rebate reservations at least got great sale prices.