BOSTON -- A Massachusetts program offering rebates on more energy efficient appliances ran dry less than two hours after it began despite hitting a major technical snag.

The website handling the rebate forms opened at 10 a.m. Thursday and crashed because of the demand, WCVB-TV in Boston. The demand was so high that the pool of rebate cash ran out before noon.

"All the program's funds have been committed. All 5.5 million are committed to rebates for customers, and we moved through the funds in about an hour and 55 minutes," said Frank Gorke, of the Energy Efficiency Division at the Department of Energy Resources.

MassSave System Hits Snag

The $6.6 million program aimed at ridding the electrical grid of old dishwashers, refrigerators, clothes washers and freezers immediately caused a jam on the phone number consumers needed to dial for a necessary rebate reservation.

And things were no better online, where people clicking on a designated website found the message, "Access is denied. You do not have permission to view this directory or page using the credentials that you supplied."

"We have had some technical glitches with the website. We are as frustrated with that as customers are, and we will be investigating that with our vendors, but looking at it from a broader perspective, the program has been quite successful," Gorke said.

Gorke said consumers needed to get the rebate form before they make their purchases. There is a waiting list for consumers who were not able to take advantage of the rebate.

"We do expect that not everybody who got a reservation will follow through for obvious reasons, and we will be rolling through as soon as possible," Gorke said.

Deals Of A Lifetime

"These are deals of a lifetime in some cases," said Edgar Dworsky of Consumerworld.org.

"It is a limited amount of money, and it is going to be first-come, first-serve -- just $6 million for our state. You can wind up getting a rebate so big that a dishwasher will cost you 499 -- I don’t mean $499. I mean $4.99 after a rebate," Dworsky said.

To cash in on the rebate, there is specific documentation you have to send in, such as the receipt and confirmation of appliance delivery.

The Massachusetts appliance rebate program is one of 56 State Energy-Efficient Appliance Rebate Programs, popularly known as Cash for Appliances, that are being set up in the United States and six U.S. territories with the help of federal stimulus money.

Massachusetts received about $6.2 million of the nearly $300 million available nationwide for the program from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Eight other states are joining Massachusetts in launching their programs on Earth Day, including the California appliance rebate program, which is the largest in the country with $35.2 million in funding, as well as programs in Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

For more information on Cash for Appliances, visit the Mass Save Web site.