Business

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Newpro Windows’ “Save 40% on Heating Costs” Guarantee

NewproNewpro is a brand of replacement windows that relies on salespeople coming to the house and demonstrating the product.  There are many stories online about aggressive sales pitches and outrageous initial price quotes.  One person was quoted $17,000 for 12 windows, another was told the price was $29,000 for 17 windows.  Borrowing from the timeshare salesperson’s book of tricks, the window pitchman typically checks with his boss, and gets permission to lower the price several thousand dollars.  The price still remains quite high, according to reports.

But that is not what this week’s Mouse Print* is about.  It is about the 40% fuel savings guarantee that Newpro advertises on TV and on the Internet.

On their website, Newpro elaborates on their promise that you will “Save 40% on your Home Heating Costs — Guaranteed!*”

Newpro

So far, so good, (except for having to replace all the windows in your house) until you follow the asterisk to the footnote:

*MOUSE PRINT:

**Restrictions apply. Fuel Savings Guarantee applies to homes where all windows are replaced with Newpro 2000 Windows. $500 limit applies. See Newpro Associate for details.

A $500 maximum?  If the windows did not reduce your fuel costs at all, in order to earn the maximum refund, your heating costs could be no higher than $1250 a year. ($1250 x 40% = $500).  For most homes, you probably pay much more than that annually for heat. Another example:  if your fuel costs were $3000 last winter, and you only experienced a 20% reduction this coming season, you would only qualify for $500 of the $600 you were owed.

While the 40% fuel savings claim is a great marketing tool, by limiting the refund to $500 and only making it apply for the first year, your new Newpro windows may not ultimately save you as much money over their life as you might expect. 

The even deeper details  say they do not calculate your refund based on the costs of heating from last year to this, but rather on your consumption (with oil falling in price, this is a good thing). Additionally, only their high-end windows qualify. And, if it is a really cold winter this year (“abnormal weather conditions”), the claim will be reduced.

So if you plan to make a $10,000, $20,000 or $30,000 purchase of new windows, keep in mind that a possible refund of $500 is miniscule in comparison, for what many say are grossly overpriced windows.

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P&G’s One Coupon Equals One Meal Deal Revealed

Give a MealProcter & Gamble is advertising a “one coupon = one meal” promotion whereby the company will donate money to Feeding America for every coupon redeemed by shoppers from its November coupon insert.

Feeding America is the new name for America’s Second Harvest — a network of food banks around the country.

Checking P&G’s website, one learns the company has a “goal of donating up to 20 million meals this holiday season.”  Even if P&G was only donating $2 per meal, that would be a commitment of $40 million.  Certainly, a very generous donation to a very worthy cause.

Inside the coupon insert is a further explanation that “for every brandSaver coupon redeemed, P&G will help Feeding America provide one meal to a person in need.”  A simple graphic confirms the message:

That little spot to the right of “one meal” is an asterisk, that leads to an almost unreadable disclosure on the bottom of the page.

*MOUSE PRINT:

” *Coupon value to Feeding America equals $0.0625″

Huh? Six and a quarter cents for each coupon redeemed is what they are donating? How in the world could six and a quarter cents pay for a meal?  And what does this meal consist of — half a cup of rice?

Ross Fraser, the media relations manager for Feeding America explained. The vast majority (85%) of food that they distribute (two billion pounds a year) is donated, while they purchase fill-in items that are not usually contributed.  They have figured out (through somewhat convoluted math) when they divide the number of pounds of food they distribute by their costs of operation, it works out that they are able to donate 16 meals for every dollar they receive.

And, when you do some further math, you see that that equals 6-1/4 cents per meal — the amount that P&G is donating per coupon. Whewww.

So, if enough coupons are redeemed, the maximum contribution that P&G will be making is $1.25 million — not the tens of millions dollars you might have assumed from their advertising.

One and a quarter million dollars is still a generous contribution, and Feeding America is certainly a worthy cause. It just would have been more straight forward to say that they would donate up to $1.25 million to cover the administrative costs of delivering 20 million meals.  A P&G spokesperson said the company preferred to characterize the donation in terms of meals given rather than six and a quarter cents.  Gee, I wonder why? They also said that their contribution was not supposed to be used for overhead.  The spokesperson did not put her comments in writing despite a request to do so by Mouse Print*.

Other companies, like the makers of Duncan Hines, promote their donation to Feeding America in a more straight-forward manner, saying how much money is being given per coupon redeemed, and how much the maximum donation will be (click banner):

Duncan Hines

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Costco Encourages Rebate Honesty

Costco Wholesale has long been known for its ultra liberal return policy — return anything at anytime. It did, however, tighten the policy for certain electronics a year ago limiting returns to 90 days. With such a long policy in place, it occurred to someone at the company to ask the question of what happens if a consumer receives a rebate on an item and then the item is returned.

As a result, tucked away on its website, they address the issue:

costcorebate11.jpg

How to reimburse the manufacturer for the rebate?  Yep. When have you ever seen instructions for doing that before? 

If you “click here“, they tell you how to do it:

*MOUSE PRINT:

If you received a Mail-in Rebate check and since have returned the item and would like to reimburse the vendor,  you may either:

  • Forward your rebate check (DO NOT void rebate check) to Costco Wholesale
  • Forward a check made payable to Costco Wholesale for the rebate amount

Of course, Costco is absolutely right suggesting that such a rebate is unearned and should be returned to the party who paid it. How many consumers, though honest in most respects, would actually do this is the real question?