Discount advertisements
Piggybacking on kkk's story about an eyeglass coupon and the fine print, I recently had a coupon/discount offer that went awry.
I have this tracfone thing, which is a cell phone without any contracts, you just have to buy airtime every few months. I got this offer in the mail for a free reconditioned phone if you buy 60 minutes of airtime. I was due in a few weeks to buy airtime anyway, so I decided to do it. The ad said that the offer was only available at the website or by calling. The ad featured the main website URL and nothing else. Since I avoid these kinds of 800 numbers at all costs, I just went to the website, which I had used many times before to buy airtime. There was nothing on the main page about this offer. So I went to "buy airtime". Still didn't see anything, but I went ahead and bought the airtime, thinking maybe something would come up during the procedure. Still nothing. So I braced myself and called the 800 number. This number had the mother of all bullcrap menu option loops. There was no option to speak directly with someone and none of the options covered the topic I was calling about. I just started picking stuff and kept getting sent to automated responses. Finally I found something that would get me to a live person and the real fun began. He started off by telling me that the offer was only good if you called and bought airtime. I pointed out to him that the ad had clearly stated that you could go to the web site. Then he told me you had to click on "buy phone" from the main web page in order to get the offer. I said there was nothing that directed me to that link, and I had already bought the airtime. He kept telling me I have to go to the "buy phone" link, but that would involve buying another 60 minutes.
Talk about misleading bullcrap. The ad said nothing about that and the web page didn't direct you to that link. To have the offer hidden under "buy phone" is nuts. Yeah, I know I should have called before going ahead with the purchase, but I followed the ad's instructions.
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