Profraudsters?
Time for a show of hands. If I place an order for the following arrangement and pay $39.97, what should I expect to receive?
12 + 12 Assorted Mother’s Day Roses
$39.97
(valued at: $59.99)
If it sounds like I’m taking this out of context, here’s the remainder of the sales pitch:
You will receive a Glass Ginger Vase with this order. It will be included as an accessory on the order summary page.
Exquisite! Commanding! Two dozen assorted South American roses for the price of one! Imagine the overwhelming sense of abundance when the box opens to this splash of color – from deep red to blush pink to delicate salmon tones and bright yellow. No more lovely statement can be made, and these superb roses are hand picked, dewy-fresh, and shipped from South America direct to you or to the lucky person you name.
Includes two dozen fresh-cut assorted roses. Flowers are hand-picked and tied, then shipped directly from our fields along with your personal message. Vases available during check out. Shown in upgraded vase. (Item #6103)
Once again, $39.97 buys me … what? English speakers only, please.
UPDATE: They called back. Apparently, “Buy 1, Get 1 Free” means buy one, call in to see what happened to the other, get inadvertently disconnected by one phone rep and deliberately disconnected by a second, leave a message for a supervisor with a third, and then get one free.
May 5th, 2005 at 3:35 am
It buys you 2 dozen roses of various colors and a Glass Ginger Vase.
At checkout, you’ll be shown an assortment of vases to choose from, and if you choose something =other= than the Glass Ginger Vase, you’ll pay more. But if you choose the flowers to be delivered in the Glass Ginger Vase, you will be charged the 39.97. The vase they show in the picture is one of the vases that would cost you extra.
(You’ll probably be given an extra shipping charge, too)
That’s how I read it.
May 5th, 2005 at 6:31 am
You get 12 roses and a glass ginger vase, which is not the pictured vase. And you get another 12 roses at no additional cost, but I don’t think you get another vase, despite the buy 1 get 1 free. And if you wanted the nicer vase, you’d have to pay up for it. At least that’s the way I read it, and with the “profraudsters” cue. Xrlq, are you in trouble? (And yes I know it’s Mother’s Day soon.)
May 5th, 2005 at 7:08 am
Nah, just pissed. I speak a weird dialect of English in which a picture of an item for sale, when accompanied by a large logo reading “Buy 1 Get 1 FREE,” means that if you buy the item depicted in the photo, you’ll get another of that item, free. To Proflowers, however, it means buy half of the vase and half of the roses depicted above, and we’ll throw in the other half free.
May 5th, 2005 at 10:42 am
I think it’s great I mean think of the opportunities, buy half a jar of mayonnaise get the other half free. Or by a hot dog, get the bun for free. I could like this. Okay…maybe not.
May 5th, 2005 at 1:46 pm
wtf is a glass ginger vase??
May 5th, 2005 at 2:37 pm
I don’t know if Jared Polis is still involved or owns stock in proflowers.com, but you might want to read up on him before becoming a customer. Once again, I don’t know his current level of involvement.
May 5th, 2005 at 3:14 pm
…Not quite as hot as the Mary Ann Vase?
May 5th, 2005 at 11:25 pm
I just saw this ad on hotmail, but now it says “Free Vase!” in the green circle.
XRLQ gets results!
May 6th, 2005 at 1:01 pm
CW: are you sure it’s the same product? If you click the link from my blog entry, you still see “Buy 1 Get 1 FREE.” However, looking on the bright side, a supervisor called back this morning and I really did get one free.
May 6th, 2005 at 2:25 pm
I’m sure it’s the same product and the same company. Maybe the banner ad on hotmail just had different copy. But clicking your link still shows B1G1Free.