We’ve got two stories this week, submitted by readers, all complaining about deceptive July 4th sales.

Story #1:

One of the most common forms of retail advertising is to promote a storewide sale on “everything.” Rarely is everything really on sale, but retailers still insist on using the word “everything.”

CVS Pharmacy is no exception. Just in time for July 4th, they sent out a mass email with the subject line: “4th of July Sale- 20% off EVERYTHING! 3 Days Only on CVS.com .” No exceptions, no exclusions, no asterisks. However, when you open the email, you see the graphic above with the small asterisk after “everything.”

The asterisk inevitably leads to a long list of exclusions.

*MOUSE PRINT:

*Offer available online only. Expires 6/30/10 at 11:59 PM EDT. To receive the 20% off sitewide discount enter coupon code JULY20 at check out. These products are not discounted: AeroGarden, Align, Alli, Acra Hair Removal Device, As Seen on TV products, Beauty 360 products, Belli, Better Body Solutions, Bodi Rocker, Burts Bees, Conair Infinity, Epilady, GHT, GoWear, Hormel, Ionic Pro, Jitterbug, Kelemata, Kidco, LaneLabs, LaRoche-Posay, Lierac, LipFusion, Maxoderm, Medela, Medical Nutrition Products, Olay Pro X, Omnilux, OXO, Philips Heartstart Home Defibrillator, Rapidlash, Resperate, Rock Hard Weekend, Sinupulse, Skin Doctors, Vector Hair Removal System, Vichy/Dermablend, Violight, Zanfel, Zeno. The 20% sale cannot be combined with another product sale running at the same time. You will receive the larger discount. The 20% sale excludes prescriptions and gift cards.

Thanks to Richard A. for the submission.

Story #2:

PetSmart sent out an email telling shoppers they could save up to $15 with coupons this weekend, both online and at their stores.

Here’s a part of their email:

*MOUSE PRINT:

Offer valid through July 4, 2010 at 6am ET

Nothing like having to get up early on a holiday morning — before 3am West coast time, and before 6am East coast time to use the coupon online before it expires. And the 6am time was not a typo, because trying to use it at 9am resulted in this error message:

Incidentally, their brick and mortar coupons were good all day at the store because they did not have a time of day expiration.

Thanks to Kelsey P. for the submission.

Snuggle fabric softener is running a new commercial claiming that women preferred Snuggle over Downy.  Snuggle beat the market leader? How could this be?

*MOUSE PRINT:

The preference for Snuggle was based on how soft the towels felt wet after just having been washed? Why in the world would anyone judge a fabric softener on how a wet towel felt?  My guess is they also asked women which towel was softer and smelled nicer after they were dried, but that Snuggle didn’t win that comparison.

To be fair, the commercial also orally explains exactly what was preferred (although they deliberately omit the word “damp”), but unless you stop and really think about the (irrelevant) claim being made, you might have believed that Snuggle was preferred to Downy overall.

The folks who bring you SuperPages (yellow pages) are now trying to help you buy a used car via their new site EveryCarListed.com . As an inducement, they promise you a free vehicle warranty with every qualified purchase:

The actual guarantee in most cases is for 90 days or 3000 miles, whichever comes first. It also only comes on cars under $60,000 and nine years old or less. But, you will likely have a costly surprise when you try to make your first claim:

*MOUSE PRINT:

“The Warranty is subject to a $100 deductible per service visit and a maximum liability for the life of the Service Contract of the trade in value of the vehicle you purchase or $3,000, whichever is less.” [See terms and conditions.]

Also, the warranty is not bumper to bumper, but only covers certain parts:

*MOUSE PRINT:

Engine, turbocharger, transmission, transfer case, and drive axle

There is a long list of exclusions (if you are lucky enough to find the actual contract), including one you might not expect on a used vehicle:

*MOUSE PRINT:

Particularly for a just-purchased used car, you don’t always know what’s wrong with it until after you drive it awhile. And a part rarely goes from being perfectly fine one day to being dead the next. So might those less obvious defects be excluded? One would hope that the company behind the service contract wouldn’t use that provision or others to weasel out of paying for particular repairs.

So what company backs up this guarantee? Warrantech. Never heard of them? You should have. The Better Business Bureau in Texas where the company is headquartered certain has, and has given the company its lowest rating.

*MOUSE PRINT:

“The majority of Warrantech automobile warranty complaints center on deceptive and ambiguous language in the contract and refusal to pay valid claims. ” See full BBB report.

Sometimes, you get what you pay for. But you really have nothing to lose other than your “peace of mind” in being protected should you have a claim.

[See update at end of this post.] When P&G started advertising several months ago that it would give $1 to wildlife conservation organizations for every bottle of Dawn dishwashing liquid, little did they know the relevance that ad would have today. Pictures like this on the evening news have to disturb everyone:

With images like this, no wonder P&G seems to have stepped up its advertising of Dawn and its wildlife connection. (Dawn is often said to be used to remove oily slicks from birds.) Here is the full-page ad that appeared in the June 6, 2010 issue of Parade magazine:

If you didn’t read the fine print, you might have assumed that P&G was giving one dollar to these causes for every bottle of Dawn sold.

*MOUSE PRINT:

*Up to $500,000. Must visit dawnsaveswildlife.com to activate donation.

It is not unusual for these charitable promotions to have a cap, but it is more novel to require the purchaser to register their bottle of dishwashing liquid online to trigger the actual donation. (Each bottle has a unique code number.)

When one visits the referenced website, however, you learn that the contribution cap has already been reached.

*MOUSE PRINT:

“Dawn has reached its goal! Thanks to thousands and thousands of Everyday Wildlife Champions like you, Dawn has successfully reached its $500,000 donation goal to the MMC and IBRRC wildlife conservation organizations—and far ahead of schedule.”

While the Parade ad was certainly placed in advance, that doesn’t excuse P&G from continuing to air television commercials (as it did this past weekend) or if it takes out additional ads promoting the $1 donation, which has already ended.  By continuing to advertise that P&G is going to give a dollar to these wildlife efforts, the company will be encouraging people to go out and buy Dawn under the false impression that that small act will result in more money going to save these poor birds when in fact it won’t.

July 2, 2010 UPDATE:

P&G contacted Mouse Print* on July first to indicate that a website glitch last month made it appear that it had already reached its goal of donating $500,000. The company said that not only was the goal not reached, but that it is extending the promotion until mid-2011, and doubling the maximum amount it will contribute. Here is their statement:

“There was a small glitch with our website that falsely announced that we had reached our goal last month. That was quickly fixed and consumers were able to activate their donations shortly afterwards. In fact, Dawn has been so inspired by the passion of the Everyday Wildlife Champions that we’ve decided to extend the program until July 2011 and increase our donation goal to $1,000,000.”

Can you tell the difference between these two cartons of Tropicana orange juice?

To the naked eye, they look identical but for one small thing tucked into the bottom right hand corner of the carton.

*MOUSE PRINT:

There is now five ounces less in the half gallon carton — just 59 ounces. One can’t peek inside to verify that it is not filled up as much as the old cartons, but that appears to be the case. To see if there really was less in the new carton, we weighed them contents and all to see if the new container was lighter.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Sure enough, the new container plus its contents weighs over a quarter of a pound less.

Mouse Print* asked the company why it downsized, and whether they were just underfilling the old containers to achieve a 5 ounce savings.  A customer service representative responded:

“Reducing our 64 ounce carton to a 59 ounce carton wasn’t a decision we took lightly. As you probably have heard, the Florida citrus industry has suffered the most devastating winter freeze and one of the smallest orange crops in 20 years. When the supply of oranges goes down the price goes up which impacts our costs. Instead of raising prices, we chose to slightly reduce the amount of juice and maintain the price. Our consumer research shows that most shoppers, when given a choice between a price increase or slightly less contents, prefer to hold the line on prices.”

You will notice that the second question about underfilling the new containers was not answered.

The question now becomes how long it will be before Tropicana’s competitors downsize their half gallons too.