Nothing makes me angrier than the feeling that I’ve been had. I’m not talking about relationship-being-had, I mean the small stuff. An example—I was cruising around on the web researching my current marketing project, and I came across a promotion for newest scientific breakthrough in “age defying” eye cream and signed up for a free trial. (Yes, I know. I should know better by now, but that’s another topic. ) The “free” had an asterisk with a very light grey note: *may include S/P. Fine, whatever; I’m willing to pay postage for something that will make me look younger. The product arrived and the samples were surprisingly generous. Did it perform the miracle it promised? No, of course not, but I didn’t expect that. The problem was the $89.95 charge that showed up on my bank statement two weeks later. A rip-off or clever marketing?
I retraced my tracks. What did I miss? If you click on the light gray terms and conditions at the bottom of the page there was the “fine print”. It was a 14-day free trial which required you to send the product back in order to avoid being charged the full price — monthly. How dumb of me to have missed that. And, to add insult to injury, there was a click-this-box to show you understand the terms of this offer just before the submit button – which I, and thousands of others who didn’t understand the terms of the offer, giddily clicked.
Still, I phoned the company to register my indignation and they were ready with two solutions, my choice: send the product back and get a refund (they forgot to mention there was a hefty $20 restocking fee) or keep the product and pay just $50 rather than $89.95. Rather than feel vindicated, I just got angrier which prompted the call center operator to ever so slightly raise her voice,
“Have you tried the product?” …as if this would explain everything.
“Irrelevant,” I replied. “I don’t care how good your product is. I will never use it because I don’t like how you tricked me.”
Silence.
At that moment it was abundantly clear to both of us what good marketers know:
1. Clever marketing isn’t clever if it makes your future customer feel like an idiot
2. Copy should communicate what’s important to the reader. In this case, it was important not to bury the fact that the free offer was actually a commitment to a monthly deduction from your bank account. This fact should be up front, not at the bottom of a wordy scroll bar that is the last obstacle between you and your free product.
3. Customers prefer to do business with people and companies that have integrity, even if that means they have to forego looking younger.
Tags: bad marketing, dermitage, rip-off, Syndero
November 20, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Unfortunately I’m having the same experience with Dermitage. I have submitted complaints to the Better Business Bureau and Consumer Affairms, hopefully other consumers will and this deceptive advertising will be stopped.
December 1, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Marian…if you ship anything back, make sure you get signature confirmation. The company used more slippery tactics … the rep agreed to give me a credit for the full amount if I sent it back within the next 10 days. Many weeks later I still had no credit. I called and they said they never received the product! I had confirmation of receipt, which I was able to produce, and they finally had no choice but to credit me.