Forum Moderators: buckworks
They advertised a promotion for free shipping and a discount for multiple purchases that was supposed to be valid until February 1.
As I type this, it's still February 1 in my time zone, and will be for a couple more hours on the west coast, but they refused to honor the discounts because it's no longer February 1 in the Eastern Time Zone where they're located.
From my location it feels like false advertising to say that the offer was valid until February 1, and I'm sure customers on the west coast would feel that even more so.
Here's a suggestion from a shopper for all you ecommerce types out there: expire your promotions at midnight in your customer's time zone rather than your own. You'll head off some ill will.
Auuugh!
Even more importantly - time-sensitive offers should disappear from the site and all online advertising units the moment the offer is invalid.
When I started shopping, the offer was still showing on the site. By the time I picked out my items and was ready to pay, the discounts were no longer being applied.
It was still February 1 in my location when that happened, and I felt deceived.
Grrrrr....
I agree there should be a GMT mention for ending an offer, else there's confusion and unhappiness.
I wouldn't expect a business to worry about my time zone if I were on a different continent, but within the same country it behooves a company to consider how badly time zone thoughtlessness would come across to customers.
time zone thoughtlessness
I know the feeling. Every once in a while I have a "free-for-all" on one of my forums where anything goes... for 24 hours. I specify when it starts GMT and when it ends GMT, and still get unhappiness.
Goes back to the RTFM admonition. Sounds like in your case there was no RTFM applied.
Given these economic times I'll bet you'll find what you wanted there someplace else at a better price and be glad they wouldn't honor the 24 hour clock.
However, 11:59 Pacific Time would be more user friendly considering that they have customers throughout North America.
Lorax, I'd call this situation clueless, not intentionally misleading. This is a company I ordinarily have major respect for.
The practical goal here is to make sure the offer remains live for the complete day that was advertised, for customers on both sides of the country.
We only sell in the USA and possessions. Our coupons remain good for several hours after California time to accommodate Hawaii and Alaska.
I hadn't thought about Guam and the Mariana Islands (Saipan) which are four hours beyond Hawaii. We do get rare orders from there.
Ah, the stuff one learns from WebmasterWorld!
Okay, then don't call it 11:59 Pacific time, stay working in EST but expire the offer at 2:59 EST.
But then there would be grumpy Alaskan and Hawaiian shoppers.
The gavel has to drop at some point. Terms should be clearly defined, which it sounds like wasn't the case here.
A few years ago I was involved in an auction site (not EBay). We clearly indicated that auctions ended at a specific time (e.g. 12 AM EST). Had a countdown timer on every item as well (and a big JS driven countdown timer on the home page). Even built in sniper protectionto control those last second bids a bit.
Still there were always a few complainers that got mixed up over time zones. "I thought it wasn't supposed to end until midnight!"
If the terms are defined, then there is little room for complaint (IMNHO)
If the terms are defined, then there is little room for complaint (IMNHO)
But this isn't about competitive auctions of one-of-a-kind items.
"The Customer is Always Right" is generally our philosophy... and has been for many decades. What's the big deal about extending a 10%-off coupon on blue widgets for another few hours? If the customer has a molecule of a good point, we side with him.
And I agree that there is a problem if the merchant didn't remove the offer from the site.
But I also think that it's reasonable to expect that any limited time offer would be based on the time zone of the merchant.
If you're on the West Coast and you call a merchant in New York at 4:59 P.M. your time, isn't it reasonable to expect that no one is going to answer the phone?
"The Customer is Always Right"
Naw, the established customer is always right. Show me you're one of the 10% generating 90% of my sales, or that you have the potential to join that group, and I will do almost anything to keep you, help you, support you, promote you...
A drive through, one time customer is expected to "follow the rules" as it were.
(Disclaimer: Our primary sales are at the wholesale level, where the 90/10 rule holds pretty accurately.)
I can hear the question, "How do you get established customers if you don't take care of them all?"
I can also hear a little voice saying some customers cost more than their worth...
based on the time zone of the merchant
This particular company has B&M corporate stores in numerous cities throughout the US and Canada. It is not wildly unreasonable if some shoppers from areas where this company has a "local to them" presence make "local to them" time zone assumptions about when the day would end that was advertised in the promotion.
It simply would not occur to many shoppers that they should go hunting to see if there's fine print somewhere that contradicts what the big print seems to be saying.
expected to "follow the rules" as it were
That's fair, IF the "rules" are clear and obvious.
I can also hear a little voice saying some customers cost more than their worth..
Actually if you look for that phrase in G you'll find more sites arguing that "some customers should be fired." It was very trendy for MBA-types to argue that... up thru about 2006.
On a wholesale level credit problem customer should be fired...quickly! My LONG experience is that customers who are deadbeats in good times only become bankrupts in tough times.
One argument against the "CIAR" philosophy was that it often meant taking the customers' side against ones own employees in arguments.
But most employees are pretty expendable these days; customers aren't. I realize of course that reason must apply in specific situations.
This particular company has B&M corporate stores in numerous cities throughout the US and Canada. It is not wildly unreasonable if some shoppers from areas where this company has a "local to them" presence make "local to them" time zone assumptions about when the day would end that was advertised in the promotion.
As for the customer always being right ... that is hard to stick to as well. We send out a coupon for 20% off ... the email goes out 2 am Monday January 5th ... even though the coupon says "not valid for previous orders yada yada yada" we ALWAYS get a customer who ordered earlier on January 4th saying they wanted the discount applied to their order. Then the calls from people who ordered on the 3rd and so on. If you dont draw a line you spend all your time back-discounting everyones orders. So we just made the decision to have specific terms for our coupons and we stick to them. So far this has worked for us.
