Like free stuff? Logitech's 100% cashback promotion defies sanity

Dan Warne (Regular user):

What's interesting about it is that the retailers will still get their regular profit margins on the sales -- so it will be a real boon for computer shops...! My guess is that these products only cost about a fifth to a tenth of their retail price at wholesale anyway, so Logitech's not going to be losing much 'real money' (though of course they have all sorts of other overheads that have to be factored in like marketing and warehousing.)

ss-rotel (User):

AND i just checked the link abouve, funds availiable = $0!

Nathan_Never (New user):

And I went to a Dick Smith store in George St Sydney at 1:00pm they were OUT OF STOCK of all Logitech products that are in the promotion. DC advertised the promotion on a Brochure and they were OUT OF STOCK the first few hours of the first day!!! One of the salesperson told me that all item were sold online!?!? I wonder if they had any in stock at all!!

It is not the first time I go to a store (Target, BIG W, KMART or others) on the first day of a promotion and they are OUT OF STOCK. But the retailer is always prompt to show you that they have a very similar product... only catch it $30-$50 more expensive than promoted products!!!

I think ACCC should really stop these kind of promotions done with only a few items (if any) in stock which only purpose is to attract customers in the store and direct them to buy something else. There should be a minimum mandatory stock per store before starting a promotion.

Nathan_Never (New user):

And I went to a Dick Smith store in George St Sydney at 1:00pm they were OUT OF STOCK of all Logitech products that are in the promotion. DC advertised the promotion on a Brochure and they were OUT OF STOCK the first few hours of the first day!!! One of the salesperson told me that all item were sold online!?!? I wonder if they had any in stock at all!!

It is not the first time I go to a store (Target, BIG W, KMART or others) on the first day of a promotion and they are OUT OF STOCK. But the retailer is always prompt to show you that they have a very similar product... only catch it $30-$50 more expensive than promoted products!!!

I think ACCC should really stop these kind of promotions done with only a few items (if any) in stock which only purpose is to attract customers in the store and direct them to buy something else. There should be a minimum mandatory stock per store before starting a promotion.

kaf (User):

$0 Funds Available.

WTF that didn't even last a whole day. You had to not have a job to actually cash in on this offer. Kinda stupid really. All the people with money to buy future Logitech products were working today and probably just feel frustrated at Logitech for targeting a promotion for ANYONE but them. Try targeting people with money in your promotions Logitech! You earned no good will from me today. Just from the bums who live with their parents and play too much WOW.

ss-rotel (User):

there's nothing wrong with what they did. it was a wonderful marketing ploy. i mean, by the time ppl heard about it, got to the shops bought it and jumped on the net to register, the funds were gone.

You can't take it back, the ACCC state you aren't elligble for a refund if you "simply change you mind" on if you want the goods.

If you read the small print, you register once you're bought the goods, then you have to, withing a few days, prove it. i'm guessing if you keep an eye on it, maybe some $$$ might show up, but it's unlikely.

i bet they made more money from "giving back to the public", all their suppliers are happy, they get rid of old stockpiled stock, and they look really good on paper

Not going to be able to do it again thou.

MichaelN (User):

Not sure what you guys are complaining about - they were giving stuff away free. Of course the funds were going to be gone in a few hours - I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. I deliberately bought from a retailer (Big W) that will accept returns no-questions-asked, but I made the cutoff in time.

As with most "cashback" offers, you have to comply with their requirements exactly, but if you do, you'll get your money...

KevinP (User):

Riiight. They were out stock within a few hours. These promotions are as dodgy as, because you, the consumer, have no guarantees that there actually IS any stock, or more than a negligible amount. Everything is stacked in favour of the vendor, and potentially open to abuse. The ACCC should be looking at this.

kaf (User):

There is no guarantee that they really gave away $300,000. They probably just waited for everyone to buy all the stock and quickly set the counter to zero. These items weren't very expensive (on average $50). Do you really think 6000 people submitted claims in a few hours?

Looks sus to me.

magao (New user):

I was watching the counter from about 9:30am. When I went out to get stuff at around 10am it was sitting at about $230,000. When I came back about 11-ish it had dropped to about $170,000. I got my claims in (about $200 worth - 2 cooling pads and 3 mice). When I next checked at about 12:30pm it had dropped to about $60,000, and at about 1pm it was sitting at $28,000. By 1:30pm it had apparently run out (I checked again about 2:30pm).

So if you were working, you could take an early lunch and get your claims in. If you were unemployed (BTW not everyone who is unemployed is living off their parents ... some of us are temporarily fixing up our houses before getting a new job) or have flexible hours you could get in any time in the morning.

The major problem was Logitech's IP check for whether you had already entered the promotion. Anyone who was behind a NAT could be prevented from entering by someone else behind the same NAT. Similarly, if you had multiple receipts (e.g. you needed to go to more than one store to get what you wanted) you were also screwed, despite the explicit instructions to submit multiple claims in that situation.

I have to say, I was surprised at how quickly the counter dropped (though I suppose I shouldn't have been) - if I hadn't seen the APC article in the morning and checked the counter, I wouldn't have hurried out to buy and would have missed it.

Sid Spart (New user):

This promo is a PR Stunt!!
Day ONE 1 Feb 3.15 PM: The site claims that $300,000 has already been claimed! If any one has the energy please chase-up their NSW Permit No.LTPS/10/12639; SA Permit No. T10/3093. This promo could appear to be dishonest. or is it a game of chance?
If people acted on an embargoed Press Release to scoop up $30,000 worth of gear , could this be insider trading?
The NSW regulatory body needs to follow up and check that the claims were actually processed to real people and also how many claims will be knocked back by Logitech purporting claims to be invalid? (Slippage) This slippage is how this farce works
In many countries this kind of marketing is illegal
To promote a product you must have it available.
Unless monkeys are running Logitech their PR people must be able to judge the effect of such a 100% refund PR Stunt. Most PR people would have studied the infamous Hoover free flights promotion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_free_flights_promotion

PR 101 study guide:

The infamous Hoover free flights promotion
This is from Promo magazine (thanks)
How the farce works,
The vacuums cost half the price of the airfare. Hoover had gambled that this promotion would pay out for three reasons:
1-Consumers would buy, but FAIL to take advantage of the offer because of the RED TAPE involved in redemption. This is known as slippage
2-Sales reps would successfully upsell consumers more expensive models.
3-Travel agency reps would sell additional travel insurance to those HARDY SOULS who actually tried to redeem their free-ticket offers.
Consumers are much, much smarter than they're generally given credit for. Knowing a bargain when they saw one, British consumers began snapping up Hoover vacuums at a dizzying pace. Sales exploded. Hoover's flagship Scottish plant was left working all-out to meet soaring demand, making unwanted vacuums.
Hoover management upped the ante with a follow-up promotion that offered two free return tickets from the U.S. TV ads for this campaign reminded holders of the first offer, and trumpeted the new offer under the tag “Two Return Seats: Unbelievable.”
Unbelievable” doesn't even begin to describe what happened next.
Slippage is inversely tied to offer value — the higher the value, the lower the slippage,
The slippage factor on a $1 detergent rebate is huge because it's only $1.
Slippage on a $100 computer accessory rebate is low, because it's a tremendously high value. Who's going to forget someone owes them $100?
The fiasco had cost Hoover £50 million, the British division of Hoover was sold to the Italian manufacturer Candy.
I hope claims are not knocked back by Logitech because one fail odious compliance hoops. It would be good to hear from others who got through.
Logitech have put a nail in the coffin for bizarre capped offers.
For hypothetical example how can you have a so called FREE Blue-ray offer for a $3000 Sony TV which could have reached its cap whilst you were taking your TV home.? That would be taking a chance. So these offers are misleading.
If they are capped they are A GAME OF CHANCE, NOT A FREE OFFER OR CASHBACK.
Unfortunately the is probably another $30,000 worth of unwanted keyboards that people bought in the first hours of the dodge for which now they cannot make a claim.
The 50/50 chance is that there could be an explanation for this: insert excuse here............ They have damaged their brand.
Pity the poor DSE employees having to explain to every customer for a month that this offer is a dud.
Dick Smith has a half page spread on this game of chance in their Feb flier. The bright side of this is that they will have people making unnecessary trips to the store who may make an impulse purchase.
Update $300,000 was gone at 13.28 East Coast Time

Logitech Australia Director George Saad quoted stats: In the 13.5 hours that the promotion was live, a total of 3,314 submissions were lodged and 8,369 product claims were made. The average customer claimed 2.5 products each.

Gerard

ss-rotel (User):

Meh, of corse it was marketing. I can't see how they were wrong in this, maybe 100% cash back was a bit overboard, maybe 50% would have been a better number...