A Washington state consumer sued Bombas in July for running misleading, continuous sales. Bombas is best known as the sock company that appeared on Shark Tank in 2014 where they promoted the fact that they donate one pair of socks to needy people for every pair sold.
According to the complaint:
Bombas “sent emails with subject lines stating that purported sales were set to expire soon, or on a specific date. But when many sales ended, they were either extended upon expiration or another comparable sale began shortly thereafter (oftentimes within a week), and the Products’ prices did not immediately revert to and stay at the supposed pre-sale Reference Prices for a reasonably substantial time period. The cycle continues repeatedly.”
As one example, the consumer’s lawyers showed a chart of emails sent during a short period of time and even though the 25% off was supposed to end, it continued, and then was repeated three days later.
*MOUSE PRINT:
Bombas is accused of violating both state and federal law that require advertised sales to be discounts from actual regular prices, not from ones that are rarely if ever charged. In addition, Washington state prohibits false or misleading subject lines in emails, such as by using false sale ending dates. The court is also being asked to enjoin Bombas from continuing to advertise in a deceptive manner.
As of this writing, the company is seeking to have the complaint dismissed and has asked for a November hearing.
But then how else will they falsely lure customers?
This happens a lot. Never ending sale.
Is the non-sale price ever mentioned? Could you calculate a non-sale price and buy a pair of socks using that figure? If you are given a price without a reference price, then the 25% off means nothing.
Other than the lack of a reference price, I don’t see the reason for the lawsuit. Yes, there were number of emails with the 25% discount mentioned.
If you are not interested in buying socks, then the emails are spam and there should be a way to unsubscribe from them. That is the real culprit in the story.
Bob… from what I can tell, the regular price is shown on the website something with a line through and then a lower sale price. I don’t know if they have changed their system, but currently it looks like you or they apply a discount code at the checkout.