Following up on our story last week about J.C. Penney putting new higher “fake” regular prices on goods on their website (most likely so they could offer them “on sale” in the near future), consumer reporter John Materese of WCPO-TV in Cincinnati did his own hidden camera investigation at J.C. Penney stores.

He visited two JCPs and found that many goods were restickered with higher prices. How did he know that? He peeled off the new stickers to see what price was below!

*MOUSE PRINT:

In the above example, a new $18 sticker covers up an old $13 price.

Click picture to watch story or click here.

Poor Ron Johnson. He became J.C. Penney’s CEO a little over a year ago and promised to get rid of the admittedly “fake prices” that the company slapped on goods to make their many sales seem more deeply discounted than they really were. The public didn’t take well to his elimination of sales and coupons, and the company lost millions.

In April 2013, Ron Johnson was ousted, and the company is now apologizing to customers in a commercial acknowledging that they made mistakes. They are asking customers to “come back to J.C. Penney… we heard you.”

How are they going to get customers back in the door? They are probably going to reintroduce deep discounting. To start running 50% off sales again, however, they will first have to raise their regular prices to an artificially high level. To see if this was happening, Mouse Print* undertook a little spotcheck of their prices. Here are five examples of the regular everyday prices the company charged during Ron Johnson’s tenure, and how they have now been jacked up as a possible prelude to being offered “on sale” again.

*MOUSE PRINT: Example 1

*MOUSE PRINT: Example 2

*MOUSE PRINT: Example 3

*MOUSE PRINT: Example 4

*MOUSE PRINT: Example 5

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In some of the cases above, the new “sale” price is already in effect showing seemingly significant savings, but it is virtually the same as the previous everyday regular price. In other cases, the item has not yet gone “on sale,” but the higher regular price has been established which could facilitate the company offering a seemingly deep discount from it.

Shoppers will likely flock back to their stores because, unfortunately, everyone loves a bargain even if it is a phony one. Lucky for J.C. Penney too, state Attorneys General will probably let them get away with it because of lax enforcement of local laws that prohibit fictitious discounts under certain circumstances.

Note: It is not known how many of JCP’s items have had their regular prices marked up.

One of the most powerful but misused words in marketing is “free.” And here is a perfect example.

Saveology.com sent out an email promoting another company’s offer to give recipients a free gourmet chef’s knife, and as a bonus, a free salt and pepper mill.

It says “save 100%” and that the price is $0. Of course, one has to expect that there will be some high shipping charge that in essence will cover the real price of the knife.

*MOUSE PRINT:

The fine print at the bottom of the ad says that shipping and handling is $8.95. Not horrible, but the deal really isn’t free then.

On closer inspecton however, there is a another small tab down their explicitly labeled “fine print.” Clicking it reveals the real story.

*MOUSE PRINT:

If you do nothing, this company is going to send you an additional knife every month for between $50 and $90 plus shipping and handling.

Consumers who decide they want the free knife then click the “buy now” button and are taken to the company’s page with the offer. There is absolutely no disclosure on this page that this is in essence a “knife of the month club.”

How deceptive can you get?

Sears and Kmart run a rewards program called Shop Your Way Rewards, giving you points for purchases. They are now expanding it to other retailers. In a joint marketing promotion with Visa, they are promising to give you $7 in rewards credit, if you register your Visa card. MrConsumer was tempted by the free $7.

On the registration page, they ask for your cellphone number. That should always be a warning flag that you may be getting calls or texts on your mobile phone. The little question mark near the mobile phone field, however, doesn’t say that.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Whewwww. That’s a relief.

Well, not so fast. Toward the bottom of the enrollment form, there is a bunch of fine print.

*MOUSE PRINT:

I agree that the SYW Link Program may send me SMS messages to my registered mobile phone number confirming each time the program identifies a potentially qualifying SYW Link purchase, as well as additional SMS messages (approximately 8 per month, which may vary) with SYW offers or updates. Msg&Data Rates May Apply.

Your Visa card’s historic (up to past 13 months) and future transaction history (including air travel itinerary information and location of the merchant where you used your card) may be used to deliver you with offers and messages from the SYW Link Program based on your purchase behavior. [color emphasis added]

In plain English, you are authorizing Sears and Visa to send you eight text message ads a month, in addition to texts each time you make a qualifying purchase. Further, you are allowing the companies to review over a year’s worth of your purchases so they can better profile you.

MrConsumer decided that a lousy $7 payment was not a fair trade for getting a bunch of unwanted text message ads about who knows what, and allowing them to see his purchasing habits. While one can later opt-out of the text messages, the invasion of privacy was too high a price to pay.

To celebrate April Fools’ Day, Mouse Print* looks at the lighter side of fine print this week — advertisements that will make you shake your head and say “huh?”

Ad 1: Farrell Volvo

This is the tail-end of a radio ad for a local car dealership. Just the way the fine print in TV car ads is a blur, so is the disclaimer in this radio pitch:

Can’t hear it? Try this.

Ad 2: JC Penney “Clearance Sale”

For the past year, J.C. Penney has done away with sales and coupons. And at least according to this ad, they have eliminated clearance reductions as well:

Ad 3: Macy’s “One-Day” Sale

Macy’s is known for running periodic “one-day” sales that last for two days with a “preview day” followed by the actual sale day. Here, however, they are giving readers a bit of a snow job: