I’m curious what kind of deals OzBarginers kept to themselves and not shared for any reasons.
Has Anybody Kept a Deal to Themselves out of Selfish Reasons?
LQwertious on 06/03/2019 - 16:14
Poll Options
- 48Yes, I’ve kept a record low deal to myself
- 2Yes, I’ve kept a substantial deal to myself
- 6Yes, didn’t bother posting
- 0No, I enjoy internet points
- 1No, anything for the ozb community
- 8No, any deal is a deal worth sharing
Comments
yea there a few posts that OP waited till they've collected the goods before sharing it on ozb which is fair
MUAHAHAH YOU'LL NEVER KNOW!
I kept a flight pricing/advertising error to myself because the company had agreed to honour it out of goodwill and I didn't want them to take it back. But the flights have been and gone, so it's story time!
18 months ago I had started a work-from-home pilot program where I was working from home full time after previously being based in a Brisbane office. I realised that I'd left a prescription at the pharmacy near work so I had to go and pick it up one day. I drove to the train station and at the time I didn't have Spotify Premium, so I got ads. I'm driving and I hear "A trip to New York is always a great idea, but have you considered a stopover in Vancouver? [Company] are offering Air Canada flights to New York with a layover in Vancouver from $615."
And I'm thinking, damn that's a good price for flights to New York! So I get on the train and pull out my phone and go to the website to check it out. Oh, no, it's $1615. I must have misheard them. At which point the same ad comes on again, and I pay very close attention. No, the ad definitely says six-hundred-and-fifteen dollars. No "Sixteen hundred" no "One Thousand Six Hundred" or anything. Text my partner and ask her what she thinks about me following up the company about the mistaken ad. She says have fun, but there's no way they'll honour it.
1pm I get an email. Yes, there's an error with the advertising and thanks for bringing it to their attention. They've withdrawn the ad and as a goodwill gesture if I can finalise my plans by close of business they'll honour the fare. Challenge Accepted! Text my partner, we quickly decide on some dates and I email the company back. They ask for my suburb so the local travel agent can complete the booking. Travel agent gets in touch and asks me to come in the next morning (Saturday) to finalise things, and confirms that they've gotten the ok to give me the deal as long as I pay on Saturday.
Next morning we drive in, pay our $615 p/person for our flights and walk out on cloud nine at our bargain fares.
2 kickers.
As we're driving away from the travel agent, guess what ad comes on Spotify? Yep. Same one. Same wording.
Way back at the beginning where I said "from $615"? The Customer Service rep said to the travel agent when instructing them: "Fares at $615, all other terms and conditions to remain the same." What they probably should have said was "Give him $1000 off per fare" - because it turns out the dates we selected were not valid for the $1615 fares, they were closer to $2400… which they then gave to us at $615.
And that's how I saved $3500 on a 3 week holiday to North America.
Holy smokes that's a cracking deal. I actually don't think this would've been a 'deal' that could be shared - more of a finders' fee for letting them know about the advertising error. They give you $3k worth of flights (which shouldn't costs them nearly as much), and in return they change the ad and save themselves a huge potential headache.
Also - I love that this happened because you were too cheap to pay for Spotify Premium. It's like bargaining-karma.
Yeah, it would have been a forum post rather than a bargain had I published about it here.
Bargaining-karma wise there's a whole extra layer. I was in the process of getting used to Spotify at that point, still reeling from Pandora being shut down, so had that not happened I wouldn't have even been using Spotify… and of course the irony that now I do have Spotify Premium so even if another ad like that happened I'd never know. :D
I've gotten a few $50 ebay vouchers last year never told anyone about it
Absolutely, there's a sure fire way to them.
I always keep free samples to myself otherwise they'll get OzBargain'd and no one gets them.
I found a super cheap mobile smart phone on clearance from Telstra years ago for $19. Called up every store in the city and bought every one in stock ending up with for around 30 of them. Found a cheap unlock code online and then auctioned them on eBay one at a time selling each one for around $180. Paid for a fair bit of beer that year at uni.
Never posted it because there was no stock left by the time I bought it all :P
Ok, so a broden is now called a stirlo.
Lol I’ve been on this site more than 10 years and this story is almost that old so I might even predate Broden.
Are you… Broden's parent?
Actually a pretty big one. A shopping centre management had launched a new store so they had a promotion that with every day you could win $10 by picking 1 of 3 apples (usually the one that was the lowest). They were either Coles or Woolies ewish gift cards.
Best part was that, you had to do it on the website, had to use a new email, but there was no verification, so you could put in a fake email and the same phone number and you were good to go. Pretty much made over 400 accounts and accumulated $3000 in $10 vouchers + plus they had a weekly draw of $250 so with so many entries, I won $750 in 3 weekly draws.
I did share this with my close friends only to reduce the risk of this being withdrawn. Coles gift cards were only good for groceries, but the ewish cards were easy to use at bigw too.
They later introduced location verification (easily can be overcome) but I couldn't be bothered anymore.
EDIT: i did read the terms and conditions beforehand just in case
yes. last month there was a whole large chocolate cake at Woolworths for 70% off.. i ate whole thing while browsing ozb. and never asked anyone here if they wanted a slice.
You posted on wrong site….
ozbalasfemy.com.au
I get super excited about finding the deals and when I try to post it…
Duplicate!
Denied! Rejected! Bammm!
Thank you for your effort, and I know you're just excited, but please do your due diligence prior to posting to avoid disappointment.
(PS. Didn't neg.. I can give you a pity +, but know that's not a real + though.. ;))
Happen to me few times then I give up, then again my first bargain post is for Eneloop, so Im happy :)
I haven't kept a deal to myself, however, I have bought a product first, and then told others about it, more or less so I didn't miss out.
Then again, I really wouldn't mind if people did keep things to themselves, considering that all of the deals I see are only because of other people taking the time to list them, so that I then have that opportunity, if they want to keep it to themselves, that's really just fair enough IMO.
Kept to myself, it's too much effort to convince wannabe police aka people who are not genuinely interested why it's a deal.
Exactly.
Even I have many times avoided posting a deal that I consider a deal but ozb community is not easily convinced.
And bombards all kinds of embarrassment on poster.
I sometimes stumble across some good beauty freebies. I post them on beauty forums but not here because every Dick and Harry takes advantage of them not cause it's useful to them but because it's free.
I imagine some people might keep pricing errors to themselves to better their chances of it going through the purchasing system unnoticed.