I responded to a free item offer (3 throwing knives) from budk.com. I filled in all of the information requested, including credit card. I applied my coupon number and all was accepted. I received an acceptance confirmation email from budk.com. A couple days later, I received another email telling me that my item would be shipped within 24 hours.
Then... Nothing. I finally checked their site and it said my order was cancelled, with no explanation. I emailed them and I was told my order was cancelled "due to an invalid code". I asked them why they would secretly cancel a customers order, why would they accept a coupon code and then reject it as invalid. I asked if this is how they treat all their customers. The reply I got was that their system was "hacked", that the coupon was supposed to be for those who bought something.
What a pile of crap—from the nebulous "hacking excuse" to the after-the-fact order cancellation without notifying the customer. But, in the final analysis, this looks more like a data mining scheme to get customer information, both personal and financial.
Beware of budk!
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