The meaning of "Cashback" from a retailer

bchliu on 31/07/2013 - 17:11
Last edited 31/07/2013 - 17:51

I would like to have a good public understanding from the fellows of Ozbargain on their definition of a "Cashback" Offer that is advertised by a company.

From all of the previous big sales - coming from regular Retailers like HN, Bing Lee and the manufacturers like Microsoft and Acer, the definition of "Cashback" is that you send through a Proof of purchase of a particular product, before they will either redeem you with a cash incentive - either in the form of a cheque that you can bank or with a Gift Voucher that can be used again with the company at the discretion of the customer.

However, I am currently in a dispute with an organisation that I previously thought was trustworthy company that offered a "$50 cashback" scheme to their customers as part of the End-of-Financial-Year sales. At the time (end of June), the offer was for a "$50 Cashback" to be spent back onto their organisation through one of the July Promotions.

http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/2378/2bac.jpg

The Cashbook rules does imply that the "offer" was only to be used in July with their offers in July. There were however, no indications of what these were nor the scope of which the offer extends to.

However, when July came around, further details were revealed that the company was going to do a "revolving sale" and had various products on that would be rotated every two days. The products that were going to be available were not announced at this stage until - the day started.

The products that were offered were on a two day basis:

1) Laptops - all of which were over $800, which having a look online at the competition were about $50 or so more expensive than the rest.
2) NAS / Disks / Bags / Peripherals - which had a slightly higher price than MSY was charging for.

As a customer, you can only get these "Specials" on the days it is exhibited - or you miss out and its too bad.

Now.. the premise of the situation is:

  1. The Retailer offers a "$50 Cashback Incentive" to customers as a "Thank you" to a previous sale offer
  2. The "Cashback" is only in the offer as a coupon to be reused at the store only
  3. The offer was not going to be announced until a few weeks later. The customer has to keep guessing
  4. The offer was changed to the 2 day revolving system - that if you dont get it or cant make up your mind about it, then you MISS OUT.
  5. The products on offer are about $50 more expensive than outside (funny enough)..

I am not sure how this retailer can call it a "Cashback incentive" as they are clearly baiting the customer in points 1 and 3 of the above. They then decrease the chance of a successful sale because the customer may not make up their mind if they actually want something in Point 4. Finally, the "Discount" was for a product that was not that much better than the outside prices in point 5.

I would like to open this up to people to see how "fair" this type of situation is and if there are sufficient evidence for misleading / false advertising.

For me, even if they did have the restrictions of 1/2/3, the fourth point irritates me the most as it does not allow the customer to decide on a purchase with a clear mind thinking that they may get something else the next day.

Thanks!

Poll Options

  • 3
    The Retailer has used Misleading advertising to bait and lure customers
  • 8
    The Retailer has been fair in these circumstances to call it a "Cashback"
General Discussion

Comments

  • Car-la-la on 31/07/2013 - 17:15
    +2

    too many words … summarise please

    • bchliu on 31/07/2013 - 18:00

      Previous "Cashback offers" posted were retailers or manufacturers sending you a cheque for purchasing their products that you can put back into your bank, or redeem it on anything you want.

      This "Cashback offer" is better stated as "$50 discount towards your next purchase, limited to the next promotion that we will tell you about next month and limited to whatever we say you will get. Furthermore just to screw you more, we will rotate the deals ever second day so that you wont know what we will give you next".

  • cruise on 31/07/2013 - 17:24
    +2

    Just a word of warning If the link takes you to a page that was emailed to you you should be aware that your email address is included on it, and anyone can unsubscribe you from their emails.

    Not sure if you care but you might want to change your post.

    • bchliu on 31/07/2013 - 17:52

      Thanks.. I didnt notice it being embedded in there.

  • [Deactivated] on 31/07/2013 - 17:40
    +1

    I'm not sure where you got the impression this was a "Cash Back" promotion in the traditional sense, as this term is not mentioned anywhere in the email you've linked to. In fact, the last point in the T&Cs (bolded no less) reads: "The coupon cannot be converted to cash".

    The other T&Cs seem pretty straightforward to me.

    • bchliu on 31/07/2013 - 17:55
      -1

      Its not. But as a general term "Cashback", most people would be expecting to redeem a value to be used at the customer's discretion. This offer should be better described as "$50 discount towards our next offer, which will be limited to whatever we say you should get when we tell you next month".

      • [Deactivated] on 31/07/2013 - 18:31
        +2

        Yes, but that's exactly my point. The retailer hasn't used the term "cash back" anywhere, and it's quite clear to me that this is a voucher to apply to your next purchase, provided that purchase meets certain conditions (which are clearly listed in the email).

  • Eivad on 31/07/2013 - 18:08
    +1

    I agree with dimeco. I'm not sure where you keep referring to "Cashback" - can you direct me to where it says this on the voucher? All I read is "$50 Voucher on any purchase from EOFYs" (keyword = voucher).

    I agree that an offer of "cashback" does imply that you can redeem cash/cheque after making your purchase. However, here it seems that ShoppingExpress is only giving you a "voucher". Vouchers are very different to cashbacks and can come with various strings attached. That's what the terms and conditions are for.

    Here, it seems to me that the T&Cs have been clearly specified and the important limitations bolded. Not sure where you got your impression from.

  • Ughhh on 31/07/2013 - 18:38
    +3

    If it was advertised as a 'Cashback', then yes its misleading. BUT, unless Im blind, no where on the image you linked and on the EOFYS link http://www.shoppingexpress.com.au/view/EOFYS_Sale even mentions the word 'cashback'.
    Sounds like you misinterpreted a simple $50 voucher and somehow added the word 'cashback' yourself - they're two completely diff things!

    • zelda707 on 31/07/2013 - 19:32

      i agree,it doesn't say cashback anywhere. It's just a $50 voucher

  • [Deactivated] on 31/07/2013 - 19:23
    +1

    The link seems to be a follow up to the initial promotion. There may have been the word "cashback" in the original promotion. If there was then I agree that they have used misleading terminology.

    I agree that "$50 off selected purchases" would be a fair description of the incentive. It's only useful if you were going to be buying more stuff very quickly. I've seen deals that offer "x dollars off your next purchase". If I know that I'm not going to make another purchase during the qualifying time then I never expect to be able to make use of the offer. I used to be in a loyalty program that offered $5 off the next purchase once you had spent a certain amount at certain stores but I wasn't always able to use the $5 off so eventually stopped being a member of the program.

    There was only a certain length of time that you had to use the bonus $5.

  • mskeggs on 31/07/2013 - 21:23

    I remember discussing in the thread that the $50 voucher was of dubious worth and it was sensible to only buy the EOFY deals if they stacked up without it.
    That the voucher didn't end up being worth much to you is not really surprising, as it was clear at the time it would be restricted.

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