Hi... I have a question regarding a "cancelled" offer from 2 weeks back.
CCity was running a promotion for a $300 gift card with in-store signup for Vonage. I went and tried to sign-up (several times), and like many, I too was refused the offer during the week that it ran. Everyone I talked to from the store clerk to the store manager to the 1-800 number rep to a person that supposedly resolved complaints all said, and I quote..."Vonage is bankrupt", so they couldn't honor the promotion.
Most of us knew that was not true, and despite pressing them on the issue, I got absolutely no where (even telling them how to do it by phone).
Now I get my weekly circular in the paper, and although they aren't offering the $300 promotion, they are offering a $50 promotion of some sort.
I'm about to blow my stack and would like to know how to pursue this. If "Vonage is bankrupt", then why are they running this ad? If they are running this ad, and if they are honoring it, should they not be required to honor the $300 promotion they cancelled in mid-week due to the "bankruptcy" nonsense?
How should I approach the manager about this? Or do I just need to bypass him and call 1-800 again?
I was resolved to the fact that Circuit City and Vonage we're splitting their ties at least. Now this ad appears. It seems to me that Vonage cancelled the $300 deal in mid-week more than likely because they were swampped with offers and it was simply more than they expected.
I'm not one of those yelling "bait and switch" or whatever. But in light of this new development, it seems to me that they did pull something crooked. I mean I've heard of them pulling items off shelves and hiding them in the back to cut their losses on the come-on ads they run. I also understand they protect themselves by putting "limited to stock on hand" or whatever in their disclaimers.
But in this case, it was a service and not a product per se. They couldn't run out, they couldn't hide it. So I think they came up with the next best thing they could... Saying they couldn't fulfill the offer due to bankruptcy and such.
Now it appears they obviously know this is not true because they are running an all new promotion.
Shouldn't they be forced to honor that $300 gift card promotion since they obviously lied?
Thanks.
— Brent
PS. I documented this every step of way. I also have a copy of an internal memo from them saying the promotion WAS valid and giving step by step directions how to process it by phone. They deny such a document exists despite faxing it to them. They just kept claiming there was nothing they could do because "Vonage was bankrupt!". Yet they are now running this new promotion. Wouldn't this classify as fraud of some sort by CC? I mean either fraud in not honoring the original $300 promotion OR fraud as in frauding their customers now offering something from a company that is "bankrupt" if that was true? Smells fishy at best to me.
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