The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

March 1, 2010

Appliance rebate plan hits snag

Customers having hard time getting through

By Brian Ojanpa The Free Press

MANKATO — After futilely trying for hours to apply for an appliance rebate form Monday morning, Mankatoan Brian Nett decided to buy the refrigerator he wanted — and take his rebate chances later.

“I need a new refrigerator anyway, so I’m rolling the dice,” Nett said as he waited for the sale paperwork to be completed at DeGrood’s Electronics & Appliances.

Phone hotline and online access to Minnesota’s $5 million appliance rebate program was overwhelmed at its 8 a.m. start as people sought savings of up to $200 on new washers, dishwashers, refrigerators and freezers.

“We haven’t found anybody that’s gotten through,” Meyer & Sons TV & Appliance sales manager Doug Schuldt said midmorning.

“We anticipated being a little busier today, but all people are finding out is that they can’t find out.”

The Trade-in & Save program, similar to the U.S. government’s Cash for Clunkers initiative, utilizes federal stimulus money to help buyers pay for energy-efficient major appliances.

But hotline and online access was hampered by huge demand and a suspicion someone may have hacked into the system, causing the slowdowns.

Minnesota Department of Commerce spokesperson Nicole Garrison-Sprenger said a cyber attack may have been the main reason why people couldn’t get through, although Iowa officials reported a similar Web site crash Monday with the start of that state’s Cash for Refrigerators program.

Mankatoan Leigh Pomeroy suggested that government incompetence was the culprit.

“It was to be expected,” he said. “You’d have guessed they would have figured out a better system.”

Pomeroy said even using two browsers steadily for 11⁄2 hours couldn’t dent the minnesotaappliancerebate.com site.

 The telephone number to call for a rebate is 1-877-230-9119. More than 25,000 rebates are available on a one-per-customer basis and are valid for 30 days.

Mary Kay Reed of DeGrood’s said at least 40 people called early on Monday to report rebate-application access problems and to ask if the retailer had any special “connections.” (Merchants do not).

Reed said someone called to say that they’d gotten through at 11 a.m., but that appeared to be the exception to the rule.

Garrison-Sprenger said that as of noon 17 percent of the funding for washers had been reserved, 14 percent for dishwashers, 9 percent for  refrigerators and 6 percent for freezers.

The  U.S. Department of Commerce, which is managing the program, said its goal is to get energy-hungry appliances off the nation’s power grid.

To receive maximum rebates on refrigerators and freezers, customers’ old units must be “de-manufactured” — taken out of service permanently.

If all available rebates are exhausted in the Minnesota program, energy officials said yearly savings from the new appliances would be 2 million kilowatt hours of electricity, 44 million gallons of water, and 41⁄2 million pounds of carbon emissions.

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