Friday, January 11, 2008
Misleading Ads
Why do companies seem to appear that they try to mislead customers? They send you offers via email or newspapers and then when you want to use them, the store says, oops, that isn't any good for that. A good example happened today at lunch. I drove to the local Woodcraft store in Saginaw to buy an air filtration device. Last night I had gotten a %20 off coupon via email. Like all coupons designed to mislead, it has a pretty extensive caveat printed on it. This one excludes, "Power tools , Sawstop, Leigh Jig, Steel City, FESTOOL and gift certificates, etc...."
I come to find out that Woodcraft considers anything with a cord a power tool. Maybe it's just me, but I would never have guessed that an air filter is a power tool. Routers, lathes, band saws and circular saws, I can understand, but not an air filter. I guess they also consider lights and heaters to be power tools. (I just did a search on their web site for "POWER TOOLS." It seems they also consider things like lathe stands, vacuum tube connectors, PROXXON Micromot Collets And Three-Jawed Chuck, Woodcraft Biscuit Joining Set, FLEXEEL 25' Polyurethane Hose and more to be power tools.)
By the same token, after my disappointing stop at Woodcraft, I stopped to pick up a couple Whopper Juniors at Burger King. I was at the payment window in the drive-through and noticed two different signs posted. Several say that Burger King wants to sell you a gift card. Right next to these were more posters saying they aren't honoring any gift cards. In other words, buy it here, but don't use it here.
And what really ticks me off about all this is that the employee is the one who ends up taking the grief from the pissed off customer when in actuality it's the damn company who is making their life miserable.
