Reminds me of Jessica Walter's character in Arrested Development: "It's a banana, Michael - how much could it cost? Ten dollars?"
https://www.theonion.com/fuck-everything-were-doing-five-bla...
Assuming no one here went to jail this is essentially a legal way to run a ponzi scheme.
Rich people aren't idiots, I think the target customer for this thing is someone who's so price sensitive that they'll go to huge lengths to get a TV for free.
I got so much stuff I didn't need from them. I filled my entire dining table with stuff, and got my family to help me with an assembly line style UPC cutting and pasting operation.
I even scripted their website to auto-generate the rebate form.
The final batch never paid out, but I was able to file a credit card chargeback for most, but not all, of it.
I scripted that too. I had to print and fax around 400 pages of documentation to the credit card company. (Print directly to fax either didn't exist then, or at least I didn't have it.)
It's been how many years? And I still have stuff from them in my house, some in use, some just brand new in a box.
I was getting 1.5% cashback from the credit card I used, and everything was completely free.
Edit: cyberrebate.com [1]
Their business model was based on the assumption that a percentage of customers would forget to do this. Unfortunately, when hundreds or thousands of $ is on the line, people were very diligent! Unsurprisingly that company didn't last long.