What are the rules...
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In America there are actual laws about advertising prices and can carry penalties ranging from small fines to triple damages and can create what we call class-action lawsuits with millions of litigants. But, as this Law Professor from Harvard is finding out... Sometimes it's better to let sleeping dogs lay.
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@jeff hammond said:
...it's confusing but i think it's due to a typo (question mark after 'which' in paragrah2)..
it's the name of a consumer association and magazine...
in the UK, it's quite common to honour mistakes on advertisements, but not on an individual mislabeled item...
the main defence is that the 'customer' can change a label, but the owner controls promotional material...
an email would fall into the 'promotional material' category...
john
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@driven said:
it's the name of a consumer association and magazine...[/attachment]
haha.. i see now
thanks for clarifying. -
@frederik said:
@jeff hammond said:
'forgetting' to include all terms in fine print doesn't require them to honor the discount.
nor does mis-pricing an item in the store.. like an item says $100 instead of the real price of $1000. the store is not legally required to sell you the item for $100 in that situation.Well... That's exactly the point...
In Europe they would need to honor it...
I.e. If I walk into a store and see a price tag with a certain amount, I'm entitled to get the product at that price...Kim, FAIK here in the Netherlands this is only true if the lowest price is still a reasonable percentage of what could be expected.
Say if you see something that normally would cost around €500.- and it is priced €5.-, you wouldn't have a chance. However if the tag says €450.-, then that's the price, even if they made a mistake. The first is an obvious mistake. The second isn't that obvious. but you need some prove if things get out of hand. -
Again... Thanks for the input and advices...
I wrote to them, but still haven't heard anything back...
But as I wrote...@frederik said:
Nevertheless, I think I will just leave it and stay happy with the discount I already got...
I don't want to be greedy, but if I was entitled to an additional discount, hey, why shouldn't I go for it...
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@frederik said:
I wrote to them, but still haven't heard anything back...
follow up if anything comes of it.. i'm mainly just curious if they'll give you a robot reply, a compassionate reply, or no reply.
on a not-so-entirely-off-topic note.. check out this one that happened to me an hour ago.
went to starbucks to get a pack of Via (their little single dose instants which i keep around for those times when a single cup will do)
they're usually ~$9 but the store is all christmas_ized right now and they only had the xmas blend vias.. (and they don't put prices on these types of items).. so the dude rung me up and it was almost $14.. i tell him "lemme get one of them nine dollar packs.. nine is a rip off but 14 is extra rip off".. so he goes in the back to find one of the normal versions and couldn't find one.. comes back and says "here, just take it"
so i did.
[edit] oh.. i also had a large coffee.. he didn't charge me for that either.
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Some might call it stealing on both your part and the employees... others, including myself, would call it good customer service and a good customer retention act.
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@jeff hammond said:
follow up if anything comes of it.. i'm mainly just curious if they'll give you a robot reply, a compassionate reply, or no reply.
Yesterday evening I received the following message...
@unknownuser said:
Sorry for the confusion and frustration. I've noted that to our team.
We don't take for granted any time you decide to purchase our products and spend your well earned money with us ... and hope you do again!
We typically save our best deals for December to make the purchase a little easier.Hope you're doing well ... thank you for being a part of our community!!!
So... I wasn't as lucky as you Jeff... No free software for me...
I will just wait until the end of December and be happy with the 40% discount...
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@krisidious said:
Some might call it stealing on both your part and the employees... others, including myself, would call it good customer service and a good customer retention act.
i think it would just be called incompetency on the part of the employee.. or, if the bosses knew the guy did that, he'd be reprimanded/fired for incompetency and not stealing.
maybe some would think i was also a thief in that circumstance but idk, if i were to actually steal an item from a store, my moral centers would trigger and i'd feel guilty.. in this case, i didn't feel guilt so in that regard, i personally wouldn't call it stealing on my part.
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@Frederik.
I'm just curious what software it is?
Am I missing out on something....
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@pixero said:
I'm just curious what software it is?
Am I missing out on something....No worries, Jan...
I don't think you'll be missing anything...
If I believed that someone here would benefit from this 40% discount, I'd tell you about it, but I believe that those interested in this kind of software are already aware... -
It's horoscope software... He plugins in dates and it tells him if the planets are aligned in the right house for him to model or not...
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Was it that obvious...?!?
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Frederik, was there a place in the email to click on that took you to their website, or did you just go to their website and then apply the discount code? I frequently get such emails - usually if you click on the banner in the email or a specified link, it takes you to a dedicated page on their website that explains the particulars of the discount.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission rules state that contingent conditions and obligations of an offer must be set forth clearly and conspicuously at the outset of the offer. A lot of companies use "fine print" to do this, but technically that does not meet the FTC's rules.
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Based on the limited information provided in the OP, I would never have assumed the 30% discount applied on top of a transaction that included a 40% discount and that transaction had never been completed. It seems very clear that the 30% referred to the original item in the cart, not an item that had progressed from the cart to the checkout by clicking a "Buy" or "Purchase" button. I would have assumed that the company had changed the discount and were pushing the new discount to customers (for whatever reason). I think you got offered the new discount because you deferred your purchase. Certainly, the vendor is obligated to uphold its original discount to you, but not to increase the total discount (to 58%!!). Nowhere have I seen any evidence that says they offered a 58% discount. Can you provide that? Without the full text of the original email and the actual web page, the true context of this is murky to say the least. I found it odd that the OP has not provided that context. OP will not even reveal the product.
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@daniel said:
Frederik, was there a place in the email to click on that took you to their website
It was a "button" in the e-mail...
@frederik said:
I clicked the "Resume Order & Save 30%" button, but when I entered the coupon code I didn't get a 30% discount of the shopping cart total, but from the total price of the software package - hence an inferior deal compared to the 40% I got originally...
@daniel said:
usually if you click on the banner in the email or a specified link, it takes you to a dedicated page on their website that explains the particulars of the discount.
That's exactly what was missing...
@david. said:
Based on the limited information provided in the OP
Limited information...?!?
Please read again from the top... I'm sure there's something you've missed...
@david. said:
I would never have assumed the 30% discount applied on top of a transaction that included a 40% discount and that transaction had never been completed. It seems very clear that the 30% referred to the original item in the cart, not an item that had progressed from the cart to the checkout by clicking a "Buy" or "Purchase" button.
You're wrong...!!
@frederik said:
The next day, I got an email with the subject: Save 30% Off Your Order
The message in the email was very simple...
I could resume my order and redeem a 30% discount within the next 24 hours...The "funny" part here is, that you don't see the error they made, despite the fact that they have admitted that they made a huge mistake...!
@david. said:
Nowhere have I seen any evidence that says they offered a 58% discount.
What kind of lame argument is that...?!?
I've NEVER mentioned that they offered 58% discount...
However, they did give me a 40% discount and because I left the cart without checking out, I got a new email the next day saying Save 30% Off Your Order...@david. said:
Can you provide that? Without the full text of the original email and the actual web page, the true context of this is murky to say the least. I found it odd that the OP has not provided that context. OP will not even reveal the product.
I think it's time for you to move on, David...
Why should I expose the company...??
The original question had nothing to do with this specific vendor - it was a simple general question...
I got my questions answered, so why do you interfere now...??
Case is closed from my side many days ago...!Move on to something else you can complain about...
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you're the one that started complaining when you couldn't get the 58% discount instead of the 40% discount. The fact is that you haven't provided all the context. You presented your side, carefully worded to favor your assumption. Why should you "expose" the company? Why should you give the full email? Give me a break. If someone disagrees with you and asks for more context it's "interfering". That shows the weakness of your position. I think you should have moved on rather than start a internet debate.
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@david. said:
you're the one that started complaining when you couldn't get the 58% discount instead of the 40% discount.
Sorry, what...??
Where did I complain...??
There are several parts you've missed... Please read it again...!As the subject of this thread says, I asked "What are the rules..."
Can't see that being a complain...@frederik said:
They even had a great offer because of the approaching Holiday season - 40% discount - which certainly is a great offer...
...and further down in the first post I wrote...
I can't say that I'm disappointed, cause the Holidays offer is a really nice offer - no doubt...
However, after some more thinking, I asked a friend of mine who deals with legal stuff and he told me that if this had been in Europe, I would be able to claim the additional 30% discount...
Unfortunately he wasn't sure if the same rules apply in the US......or should I just leave it and be happy with the 40% and complete the order by the end of December...?!?
@david. said:
The fact is that you haven't provided all the context. You presented your side, carefully worded to favor your assumption.
What...???
@frederik said:
Nevertheless, I think I will just leave it and stay happy with the discount I already got...
I don't want to be greedy, but if I was entitled to an additional discount, hey, why shouldn't I go for it...@david. said:
Why should you "expose" the company? Why should you give the full email? Give me a break.
I still can't see why I should expose the company and although you might see tons of reasons, I'm not going to, cause this isn't about the company itself, but about what people in general are entitled to...!
However, to satisfy your second request, I've now attached a screen-dump of the email...
Yes - I've blurred out the parts, where the company name is exposed...Happy now...?!?
@david. said:
If someone disagrees with you and asks for more context it's "interfering". That shows the weakness of your position.
Jesus... Please go get a prozac or something...
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I can see where that would appear misleading, since it refers to the previous order which already had a discount, and resuming that order. However, it doesn't say an "additional" 30% off.
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And we are talking about America where people need to be told that coffee is hot and may cause severe burns if used for tea bagging.
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