Retail

Updated every Monday!   Subscribe to free weekly newsletter.

Free Hugs*

Special thanks to Bruce from Tennessee and his son for finding this fine print chuckle.

[Reprinted with permission from J.L. Westover and www.mrlovenstein.com]

Updated every Monday!   Subscribe to free weekly newsletter.

TGI Friday’s “Free Entree” Offers Mislead

We’ve often complained about misleading subject lines in email used by marketers to make you think you are being offered a better deal than you really are.

Back in March, TGI Friday’s sent an email with a subject “Coupon Inside – Free Entree on Us!”. But that was not what they were really offering.

*MOUSE PRINT:

The offer is really buy a meal, get one free, and that is far different from being given a free entree coupon as the subject suggests.

Fast forward to January 2012. The company sent another email promising a free entree:

Here we go again. But this time, it wasn’t even a buy one, get one free coupon.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Buy one entree, get HALF off another? How is that a “free entree”?

Enough of this foolishness. Mouse Print* contacted the PR company for TGI Friday’s to point out the misleading nature of their January offer, and ask what the company was going to do about it. The spokesperson replied:

Thank you for calling our attention to this matter. T.G.I. Friday’s is aware that there was a discrepancy between the subject line and the message of an email that was distributed to Friday’s email subscribers on Friday, January 13th. T.G.I. Friday’s sent an email today clarifying the offer and apologizing to its guests for the mistake.

Less than 30 minutes later, an email entitled “Accept Our Apology” was received from the company, complete with bright red type:

We sent you an email on January 13, 2012 with an incorrect email subject line. The subject line stated “Free Entrée and MORE Savings Inside”, however the coupon is valid for “Buy One Entrée, Get the 2nd Entrée Half Off”. We hope you will accept our apology and still use the coupon below.

Thanks to the company for doing the right thing. I wouldn’t hold my breath, however, expecting them to ever send an email with a really truthful subject like “Buy 1, Get 1 Free Coupon Inside”. Maybe they will surprise us.

Updated every Monday!   Subscribe to free weekly newsletter.

Glad Bags Downsized

Being aware that Mouse Print* regularly reports on downsized products, 12-year old reader Jared G. wrote to us having spotted large boxes of Glad Bags that no longer had as many bags as previously.

MrConsumer asked him to go back to the store, and to act as our special correspondent on the scene, and show us what he found.

Here is Jared’s report…

*MOUSE PRINT:

Wow, wow, wow. What a smart kid! I asked Jared how he came to know about consumer things, and what his views were on spending money. It turns out he learned to be a good shopper from his mother, who homeschools him.

“Regarding consumery things, my mother taught me about pricing and labels, scams, deals, and other shopping paraphernalia, at about eight years old. My money opinions are simple. Your expenses should always be lower or equal to your income.”

Is this a budding consumer advocate or the next Suze Orman (minus the debit card), or what?

Back to Glad bags. MrConsumer took a trip to BJ’s and it revealed that this was not the only Glad product that had been downsized.

*MOUSE PRINT:

*MOUSE PRINT:

We asked Glad to explain why they had downsized so many products. We’re still waiting for an answer.