Two consumers contacted Mouse Print* and Consumer World this past week complaining that Office Depot’s current tax software promotion was misleading and a “scam.”

The offer promised $1300 in free software — 24 different titles — if you bought certain tax preparation software like TurboTax Deluxe or H&R Block Deluxe. All you had to do was pay for the free software and fill out rebate forms to get your money back. Not so simple, as it turns out because of a conflict in requirements for many of the rebates. And to add insult to injury, some rebates are debit cards instead of cash back.

For example, if you buy TurboTax, you can get a starter edition of Quicken free, as well as several Norton security products among others.

*MOUSE PRINT:

To prove you bought TurboTax and Quicken, you need to enclose:

Quicken and TurboTax UPC labels (shown below) for the eligible software products, located on the product boxes (photocopies will not be accepted).

And in order to receive a rebate on a Norton combo-pack when purchasing TurboTax, you need to enclose:

*MOUSE PRINT:

Enclose the original UPC code from Norton Internet Security 2012/Norton Utilities Premier Edition and any Turbo Tax, H&R Block, or Tax Act software or tax forms. The UPC code is a 12-digit bar code found on the bottom of box. Photocopies will not be accepted.

Oops. The same original UPC has to be included with the rebate requests for multiple companies and products. Oops. This scenario is repeated for some of the other free software products which also require the original UPC from the tax software. What is a consumer to do?

Our two consumers contacted Office Depot, but were initially given the runaround. One consumer ultimately got the store manager to lower the price of one of the software packages to compensate him for the $15 rebate card he cannot obtain. The other consumer had to jump rank and contact “executive resolutions” to get satisfaction, and was told that Symantec (Norton) was adjusting their rebates to not require the original UPC. She even followed up with Symantec and their rebate fulfillment house to ensure they would accept copies of the UPC. They said yes, but none of the PDF rebate forms have been updated to eliminate the requirement of an original UPC.

Mouse Print* asked Office Depot’s PR folks for an explanation of how they intended to handle this mess, but they did not respond.

Thanks to William-Andrew and Rebecca for contacting us about this issue.

A friend recently called MrConsumer wanting him to look at an infomercial airing for a product called CarMD. Apparently this device claims to be a consumer version of the computer that dealers plug into your car in order to read the diagnostic repair codes. He said it costs about $120.

Checking their website, rather than calling the 800 number, seemed to reveal much lower prices online:

He was astonished to hear how much cheaper the device was on the Internet. But a closer look revealed the truth:

*MOUSE PRINT:

What? Multiply the price you see by three? Who has ever seen a price next to an “add to cart” button that was not the actual price you pay?

Sears recently reported the 19th straight quarter of declining sales. Maybe these declines explain why the company had taken to engaging in a practice more common at new car dealers: option packing.

As reported in Consumer World this week, Sears.com was found adding expensive five-year service contracts automatically to customers’ shopping carts as soon as the customer added a major appliance to it.

Here is a little closer look at what MrConsumer discovered. [See MrConsumer on KOMO News.]

As an example of what was going on at Sears.com, here is a relatively inexpensive conventional refrigerator:

When you click the “Add to Cart” button, it shows the refrigerator has been added to your cart (click picture to enlarge):

But, until last Friday, you would also see this:

You seem to be given an option to add a service plan to your purchase, but it has been pre-checked with the most expensive one — one for over $200. And, a quick look to the right, shows that Sears has, on its own, already added that five-year service plan and a water hose to your order automatically, raising the total price you pay by nearly 50%.

*MOUSE PRINT:

On a $400 refrigerator purchase it is easy to notice the big bump up in total price and easy to remove the protection plan. But on a more expensive appliance, or on an order with multiple items, customers may easily have overlooked the fact that Sears added on expensive service contracts on its own to your bill.

To their credit, Sears.com abandoned this nasty practice one day after we made a stink about it:

“Since this complaint was brought to our attention, we have had a chance to review our complaint records. In the time period it’s been in effect, we received very little negative customer feedback. Nonetheless, now that it’s been pointed out as an item of concern, we’ve made a decision to provide customers with the default choice of declining the protection agreement. This change will take effect tomorrow.” — Sears PR Director for Hardlines

What do you think? Should a company be allowed to just add extras to one’s shopping cart without being requested to do so even when they are easy to remove? Would you have caught the addition of a service contract to your order? Do you want to be forced to scrutinize every online order you make to ensure the retailer hasn’t pulled a fast one on you? Enter your thoughts in the comments.

Advertisers are fond of promoting an offer, seemingly simple in terms, that promises the customer a genuine bargain. What is annoying is that they sometimes tend to leave out a key qualification or catch in the original ad.

Here are three examples.

Advertisement #1

This ad is from the large supermarket chain in the northeast, Stop & Shop.

The lucky reader is being given a chance to get $3 off on any fresh meat. Even when one clicksthrough [see excerpted webpage below], the offer still seems to be as advertised — $3 off, period.

Only when you go to print the coupon does the truth emerge.

*MOUSE PRINT:

It certainly is a bit of bait and switch to promote getting three dollars off without in each instance stating clearly that the true offer is three dollars off a $15 purchase of meat.

Advertisement #2

Email ads tend to take a few too many liberties when they use deceptive subject lines, or the content of the email itself promotes the offer in a misleading way.

Pizzeria Uno recently sent out an email saying if you became a “fan” of theirs on Facebook, you would get a $5 off coupon:

Seems like a no-strings attached offer, right? Only after you become a fan of Uno on Facebook, do you see a small disclosure:

*MOUSE PRINT:

Where did the $15 minimum purchase come from? There was no mention of it all in the email. Isn’t this offer really, “Become a fan of Uno on Facebook, and you will get a coupon for $5 off a $15 purchase”?

Advertisement #3

In an email from a small mexican restaurant chain in New England comes this offer:

Great, a free appetizer. I’ll head right over. Trouble is when you go to print the coupon, you learn the truth:

*MOUSE PRINT:

You need a $10 minimum purchase in order to get your freebie. Isn’t the offer really, “Spend $10 at Margarita’s, and get your choice of a free appetizer or dessert”? And, shouldn’t it be advertised that way?

Failure to disclose a material fact in advertising is considered an unfair or deceptive practice under state consumer laws around the country. It is high time that advertisers played straight about these “free” offers. It is just as important to state the requirement, as it is the free bonus.

Incidentally, after Mouse Print* pointed out the problem with their email offer, Margarita’s changed the way they email such offers to include the qualifier “with a $10 purchase.”

Save-a-Lot is a limited assortment supermarket with great prices compared to conventional supermarkets. In an effort to reach more people, it has been running a promotion whereby if you “like” them on Facebook, you will be given $5.

A corresponding promotion has also been sent via email to customers promising a $5 off coupon. After contacting their customer service department to find out if the offer had any strings attached (and not having received a response), MrConsumer decided to “like” them on Facebook anyway.

And here is what they give you and disclose ONLY AFTER you “LIKE” them:

*MOUSE PRINT:

The coupon requires a $25 minimum purchase in order to get the $5 off.

So the offer really is (1) “Like” us on Facebook, and (2) Spend $25 at our store, then we will give you $5 off. That is a far different offer from being promised a straight $5 off in exchange for giving them a Facebook “like”.

It is not like Save-a-Lot doesn’t know how to disclose the fact that their offer is contingent on making a $25 purchase. Here is how they promote the same $5 coupon BEFORE you join their shopper club (demonstrating that when they want to disclose the $25 purchase requirement in advance, they know how to do it):

Mouse Print* asked the company why they omitted the minimum purchase requirement in their advertising, whether they would fix their ads now that the issue has been brought to their attention, and whether they would give those who signed up already a real $5 off coupon.

Their media person replied:

“While we understand there may have been some miscommunication regarding the terms of the offer, it was never our intention to mislead our customers. In fact, the offer is in line with our other offers, and we have received an overwhelming positive response to the $5 off $25. However, we will do our best to correct the issue.”

UPDATE:

Save-a-Lot just updated their Facebook promotion to tell it like it is UPFRONT — that the coupon the customer will receive requires a $25 purchase to redeem. Hats off to Save-a-Lot for correcting their ad, and doing the right thing.