A private Web site tries to clean up the public DTV coupon mess

The US DTV transition debacle has become almost comical in its exposure of the failure of bureaucracy, but an announcement this morning only serves to underscore it even more: A social Web site is offering to collect unused government converter box coupons being distributed to citizens who did not actually request or need them, and distribute them to citizens who have requested coupons but did not receive them.

Retrevo, which established itself as "a matchmaking service for people and electronics," is asking folks who have extra DTV coupons that they're not going to redeem, to enable them to be donated to others using the service as a transfer medium. "Anyone with an extra coupon that they're willing to put in the mail or have someone pick up, provides Retrevo with their e-mail address and zip code and Retrevo will hook them up with someone who needs the coupon," the company said in an announcement this morning. "For people who need a coupon, they simply submit their e-mail address and zip code and Retrevo will try and connect them with someone who has an extra coupon."

Retrevo is making connections, it says, with charitable organizations such as Meals on Wheels to make sure recipients get their coupons. But what may be the saddest aspect of this story of all is that all of this may not work in the end: According to the US Commerce Dept.'s NTIA, coupons are electronically marked and linked to the household to which it was originally distributed.

"Coupons will be electronically trackable and uniquely numbered, similar to gift cards, so that transactions will be verified at the point of sale," reads a recently published NTIA consumer fact sheet on the DTV transition (PDF available here.)

Now, since it's up to retailers to process these coupons, it may be up to the retailers themselves to decide whether someone who's been donated a coupon is worthy of redeeming it. But during the original DTV transition debate in Congress four years ago, senators warned that retailers should be held responsible themselves for coupons redeemed by people other than their designated bearers, lest some kind of underground cottage industry be created.