Legal Advice?

[ActuaryGuy23]

I know we have some lawyers on the board, or at least some who like to play one on TV, so I was hoping to seek out advice on a business issue I am having with a promotion redemption.

Back in June, I decided to participate in a Father's Day promotion from Macy's & Dockers. The basics are that if you purchased $100 of Dockers pants from Macy's, the companies would give you a rebate form to redeem for free golf for each month in the next year. The marketing company (TLC Worldwide Marketing) that was supposed to process this rebate/redemption has, to make a long story short, completely failed in its part of the promotion.

Among other problems that I am probably going to fail to list in entirety, the vouchers themselves were GROSSLY delayed in processing and delivery. The form stated 6-8 weeks and wound up taking close to 14 weeks before they arrived. This resulted in one of the 12 vouchers being expired before I could even TRY to use it.

My next problem arose when attempting to book a tee time at one of the "local courses". In the attached booklet with these vouchers, courses were listed in Cincinnati and Indianapolis as participating (none were listed for me locally, in Louisville). However, upon calling the courses directly, all said they either knew nothing of the offer or had heard of it in years prior but turned customers away because they did not give permission by the marketing company to accept the vouchers.

I decided to take this directly to Macy's, Dockers, and TLC. Macy's and Dockers gave some lip service, which in conjunction with BBB complaints against all three companies finally yielded a call from a TLC representative. The rep gave me a direct phone number and promised that we could work out a booking each month by calling her direct as opposed to going through their customer service.

Well, that brings me to this week. I have again attempted to book a tee time (for next Monday), but calls left for this woman have each day failed to get a return call or more importantly a tee time. After giving up on the direct call, I again decided to call the 800 number and book with them. The operator then informs me of the final straw in my book. Not only is a Louisville course not listed in their booklet, one is not even OFFERED. This is in direct conflict to the terms and conditions, which state that "participating courses will be within 45 miles of the Macy's store nearest to you".

Do I have any legal recourse in this matter? It seems to me that TLC is failing on many levels to provide the services they have promised in this contract and that the "$240-640 value" I was promised by Macy's, Dockers, and TLC is not being delivered. We're talking about national corporations here that most assuredly gained millions in profits by running this promotion across the entire United States and almost as assuredly screwing over folks like me from New York to California.

Legal insights?

[_BullDog_]

Perhaps a night at a Holiday Inn may yield you the knowledge and foresight you need to tackle this issue.

[Frenchie]

Originally Posted by ActuaryGuy23

I know we have some lawyers on the board, or at least some who like to play one on TV, so I was hoping to seek out advice on a business issue I am having with a promotion redemption.

Back in June, I decided to participate in a Father's Day promotion from Macy's & Dockers. The basics are that if you purchased $100 of Dockers pants from Macy's, the companies would give you a rebate form to redeem for free golf for each month in the next year. The marketing company (TLC Worldwide Marketing) that was supposed to process this rebate/redemption has, to make a long story short, completely failed in its part of the promotion.

Among other problems that I am probably going to fail to list in entirety, the vouchers themselves were GROSSLY delayed in processing and delivery. The form stated 6-8 weeks and wound up taking close to 14 weeks before they arrived. This resulted in one of the 12 vouchers being expired before I could even TRY to use it.

My next problem arose when attempting to book a tee time at one of the "local courses". In the attached booklet with these vouchers, courses were listed in Cincinnati and Indianapolis as participating (none were listed for me locally, in Louisville). However, upon calling the courses directly, all said they either knew nothing of the offer or had heard of it in years prior but turned customers away because they did not give permission by the marketing company to accept the vouchers.

I decided to take this directly to Macy's, Dockers, and TLC. Macy's and Dockers gave some lip service, which in conjunction with BBB complaints against all three companies finally yielded a call from a TLC representative. The rep gave me a direct phone number and promised that we could work out a booking each month by calling her direct as opposed to going through their customer service.

Well, that brings me to this week. I have again attempted to book a tee time (for next Monday), but calls left for this woman have each day failed to get a return call or more importantly a tee time. After giving up on the direct call, I again decided to call the 800 number and book with them. The operator then informs me of the final straw in my book. Not only is a Louisville course not listed in their booklet, one is not even OFFERED. This is in direct conflict to the terms and conditions, which state that "participating courses will be within 45 miles of the Macy's store nearest to you".

Do I have any legal recourse in this matter? It seems to me that TLC is failing on many levels to provide the services they have promised in this contract and that the "$240-640 value" I was promised by Macy's, Dockers, and TLC is not being delivered. We're talking about national corporations here that most assuredly gained millions in profits by running this promotion across the entire United States and almost as assuredly screwing over folks like me from New York to California.

Legal insights?

I think I saw something similar to this on a news show. Basically, these marketing companies try to "make it easy" for people to purchase gift certificates/vouchers to multiple places in one location. On the piece I saw, it was for like skydiving lessons. Basically, they said, unless you get the gift certificate from the company itself (golf course, in your case), then you're screwed.

But, considering that Macy's & Dockers backed this promotion, your best course of action may be through them or complaints against them so that they respond. Good luck!

[General Apathy]

Originally Posted by ActuaryGuy23

. The basics are that if you purchased $100 of Dockers pants from Macy's, the companies would give you a rebate form to redeem for free golf for each month in the next year.

This is an example of looking for a lawsuit because you are cheap. There are no real damages here. You are arguably out $100 max but you did receive $100 worth of cheeky trousers in the interim. And $100 is about 9 minutes of any decent lawyers time (or 4 hours of douglan's).

By the way, if you post 3 more times in this thread I will send you a free flip phone.

[ActuaryGuy23]

How is it cheap to expect to receive the full offer as advertised by the company? And not just some mom-and-pop, local shop, but a national corporation that one should expect to be a little more honest and professional in completing its advertised promotions? It's not like I'm surpsrised because Joe's Clothing pulled the ol bait and switch on me.

If you want to call me cheap because I took advantage of the offer that Macy's and Dockers promised, well that is your perogative. But I don't think it is cheap to be upset when the companies don't actually follow through on giving customers what they promise. They chose to offer the promotion. I am only asking that they honor it.

[Listeria]

Tell them you and a bunch of colleagues (meaning about two other AO people) will never shop at Macy's again, or from Dockers or whomever else. I hate these kinds of operators.

Unfortunately, I bet they roped in enough chumps with this promotion that ending up losing future business from a small portion of them is still cost-effective for them.

[yankeetripper]

Originally Posted by ActuaryGuy23

Legal insights?

Return the pants and take the cash.

[yankeetripper]

Originally Posted by ActuaryGuy23

How is it cheap to expect to receive the full offer as advertised by the company? And not just some mom-and-pop, local shop, but a national corporation that one should expect to be a little more honest and professional in completing its advertised promotions? It's not like I'm surpsrised because Joe's Clothing pulled the ol bait and switch on me.

If you want to call me cheap because I took advantage of the offer that Macy's and Dockers promised, well that is your perogative. But I don't think it is cheap to be upset when the companies don't actually follow through on giving customers what they promise. They chose to offer the promotion. I am only asking that they honor it.

Good luck. fwiw no lawyer will likely touch this unless he's a personal friend of yours doing it as a favor or he can get a class action lawsuit which sound doubtful. as someone else noted $100 liability isn't worth their time. You could try small claims court but its a hassle and may still get you nowhere.

Your best bet might be a letter to several local papers editorial or opinion section just to get them bad press on the issue.

IANAL

[General Apathy]

Originally Posted by ActuaryGuy23

How is it cheap to expect to receive the full offer as advertised by the company? And not just some mom-and-pop, local shop, but a national corporation that one should expect to be a little more honest and professional in completing its advertised promotions? It's not like I'm surpsrised because Joe's Clothing pulled the ol bait and switch on me.

If you want to call me cheap because I took advantage of the offer that Macy's and Dockers promised, well that is your perogative. But I don't think it is cheap to be upset when the companies don't actually follow through on giving customers what they promise. They chose to offer the promotion. I am only asking that they honor it.

Milton Waddams: Excuse me? Excuse me, senor? May I speak to you please? I asked for a mai tai, and they brought me a pina colada, and I said no salt, NO salt for the margarita, but it had salt on it, big grains of salt, floating in the glass...
Mexican Waiter: Lo siento mucho, senor.
[Under his breath]
Mexican Waiter: Pinche gringo.
Milton Waddams: [as the waiter walks away] And yes, I won't be leaving a tip, 'cause I could... I could shut this whole resort down. Sir? I'll take my traveler's checks to a competing resort. I could write a letter to your board of tourism and I could have this place condemned. I could put... I could put... strychnine in the guacamole. There was salt on the glass, BIG grains of salt.

[Ron Weasley]

Find an ambulance chaser who wishes to put together a class action. Maybe in 7-12 years you'll get $2.85 for your part of the settlement, but meanwhile the parties involved will have to pay attention to the broken promise.