Gemporia's Sneaky sales tactics

[RedPhoenix]

Gemporia recently had a post on their Facebook account saying :-
"Guess The Gemstone To Win Up To 65% Off ring's On Our Website"
So I thought I would have a go. Well after about 28 comments & guesses from Facebook readers Gemporia finally revealed the answers. I was the only one who got the correct answers. Gemporia said congratulations Karen.
I contacted them about how I went about claiming my "up to 65% off" only to be told it wasn't a competition, it was just for fun.
I replied with a few choice words to be then told they would pass on my feedback.
What do you think, was it a competition or what (screenshot below)

 

[user 17461]

Gemporia recently had a post on their Facebook account saying :-
"Guess The Gemstone To Win Up To 65% Off ring's On Our Website"
So I thought I would have a go. Well after about 28 comments & guesses from Facebook readers Gemporia finally revealed the answers. I was the only one who got the correct answers. Gemporia said congratulations Karen.
I contacted them about how I went about claiming my "up to 65% off" only to be told it wasn't a competition, it was just for fun.
I replied with a few choice words to be then told they would pass on my feedback.
What do you think, was it a competition or what (screenshot below)

Well, if you're telling people to answer your post correctly "to win" a very specific prize, then it absolutely sounds like a competition. To then say "Oh no, it's just for fun" means that Gemporia lied: there shouldn't have been any mention of prizes.

However, if it was a true competition, Gemporia should have posted terms and conditions for it. I am pretty sure that this is a legal requirement in the UK.

It's a total mess, and more proof of how shoddily the company is being run tbese days, and how you should never trust anything that they say.

 

[TheManWithNoName]

"Guess the gemstone to win up to 65% off".

It is clear that that is a competition with correct answers winning 'up to' 65% off.

If they don't honour it, I would take it further. They can get into serious trouble for that.

 

[Kit10]

Gemporia recently had a post on their Facebook account saying :-
"Guess The Gemstone To Win Up To 65% Off ring's On Our Website"
So I thought I would have a go. Well after about 28 comments & guesses from Facebook readers Gemporia finally revealed the answers. I was the only one who got the correct answers. Gemporia said congratulations Karen.
I contacted them about how I went about claiming my "up to 65% off" only to be told it wasn't a competition, it was just for fun.
I replied with a few choice words to be then told they would pass on my feedback.
What do you think, was it a competition or what (screenshot below)

That is shocking. Unsurprising, but still shocking.

 

[OrangeLady]

Yes, worded like a competition to me.

But if you look on their website at the moment, they already have an "up to 65% off" promo running. So it doesn't sound like much of a competition.


Out of interest, is it a golden tanzanite?

 

[Ant7t]

"Guess The Gemstone To Win Up To 65% Off ring's On Our Website"

Playing on my printer side again. (In a mo.). To me that looks like a definitive competition. What would have made it less so would be one 'dot'.

Guess the Gemstone to win. <dot > New sentence - Up to 65% off rings on our website. That way, if anyone asked what they win, it might just be a congrats and a namedrop on their FB page.

But the way it is worded should be queried and / or chased up for misleading the (NOT meaning you) possibly gullible public.

 

[SnowMoon]

It's those weasel words "up to". Well, "up to" 65 per cent can be 0.00000000000000000000000001 per cent to 65 percent. You might have just won a penny off - and only that because you can't get half-pennies any more. To get out of this they can give you anything from as close to nothing as they can get to the full 65 per cent. That said, I have noticed whenever they have a "30 per cent off everything with this code" type of promotion then, very mysteriously, the items in my wishlist all go up - by at least 30 per cent and sometimes end up more expensive than they were before the promotion or the code.

 

[RedPhoenix]

Yes, worded like a competition to me.

But if you look on their website at the moment, they already have an "up to 65% off" promo running. So it doesn't sound like much of a competition.


Out of interest, is it a golden tanzanite?

Yes it is Golden Tanzanite. The sales offer they have on now is on single samples and was put on their website after the Facebook post.

 

[RedPhoenix]

It's those weasel words "up to". Well, "up to" 65 per cent can be 0.00000000000000000000000001 per cent to 65 percent. You might have just won a penny off - and only that because you can't get half-pennies any more. To get out of this they can give you anything from as close to nothing as they can get to the full 65 per cent. That said, I have noticed whenever they have a "30 per cent off everything with this code" type of promotion then, very mysteriously, the items in my wishlist all go up - by at least 30 per cent and sometimes end up more expensive than they were before the promotion or the code.

I've commented on another thread about that. I've noticed items on my wishlist change prices every few hours. And yes when they have these 35% off sales they increase the prices too.
Same with Jeff and his sale wheels. They inflate the price then give you some garbage about Katie being in a good mood and slashes the price to yes you guessed it. Exactly the same price as it was originally