The last example is also an example of expectations but not in a good way. Every now and again I like many will get mailed advertisements from local car dealers that are having a special sale that you just have to attend. In fact, with this special mailer you have been selected to be a possible winner of a possible fabulous prize. This particular mailer came from the Ken Garff automotive group. Since I have had previous dealings with them, from lousy shopping experiences to an outright maintenance sham run on my wife’s car when it was in for some repairs, my expectations for this mailer from this dealer were running rock bottom.
The type of mailer is a dead give away as to what to expect on the inside. They are structured much like a Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes mailing. The cover has a place to scratch off to reveal what you will win, $2,000.00, $1,000.00, or $500.00. The wording with this is “Current Resident, Scratch off now to see if you’ve won“ and “If you are a winner call the event hotline” and as always the words came with an asterisk or footnote reference. I love the fact that it is addressed to resident. Before I even begin to look for something to scratch the spot with I go looking for the detail behind the asterisk.
This one at least had the details of the asterisk on the mailer. I have noticed many advertisements from car dealers that will have the asterisk on the advertising copy but neglect to include the fine print. It must be a gimmick to get you in the door so that you can read the fine print more conveniently in their office.
So what did the detail of the asterisk have to say? Along with the other footnotes that needed additional detailed information I found buried in the list that “The scratch off amount must be applied as a discount towards a new pre-owned vehicle purchase only. No cash value. Void where prohibited. See dealer for complete list of applicable inventory. Odds of winning $2,000 are 29,998:30,000. Odds of winning $1000 are 1:30,000, odds of winning $500 are 1:30,000. Each offer may not be used in conjunction with any other offer.”
Now if that wasn’t funny enough at the bottom of the footnotes it reads “In the event there is a dispute regarding the interpretation of this advertisement or is application, then at the dealers sole option this advertisement shall automatically be amended to read ‘This offer is good for $1.00 off the MSRP of the vehicle(s).’ The remaining offers shall automatically be deemed void and the language describing them shall automatically be deemed deleted.” I couldn’t make this stuff up if I wanted to.
So did I go running in to see what I “won”? Of course not. Remember what I said about expectations. Well this is one time that they exactly met my expectations for them. After previous dealings and experience, this is exactly the kind of shenanigans I would expect them to pull. You might even say they exceeded expectations but in this case that is not a good thing.
One quick side note. Their regular advertising on radio and TV has the closing line that they “back up every car we sell”. I always wondered if that was because none of the forward gears in the transmission worked.
Back to part 1.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
No comments:
Post a Comment