This is probably one of the strangest business responses I have ever heard from a company alleging that deal being offered by the company is an error where as a result they have to cancel any orders related to it. When I first saw this deal I thought it was most likely an error. Essentially, there was this coupon code where if you entered in the code “ANDRE75” during your checkout you would get $75 off your purchase. There was no minimum purchase it seemed and you got free shipping. So even though I had no initial interest in the company’s products that got me to browse around to see if there was anything useful.
I saw that they had these Endy pillows that sold for about $80 retail. With the coupon plus tax it would be a little over $5 for the purchase all in. That sounded like a great deal so I figured why not? After processing the order every seemed to have went through and they even charged my credit card.
The next day I got an e-mail, which I would assume is a template letter, indicating that it was from the VP of customer experience expressing how this was an error and that the order would have to be cancelled. But it was the message that kind of surprised me. It stated the following:
“Hi Alan,
I’m Tom, Endy’s VP of Customer Experience, reaching out about the order(s) you placed with us with promo code ‘ANDRE75.’
While we take pride in offering the best prices 365 days a year, we think you’ll agree that some deals — including a coupon code like this — are simply too good to be true. As this code was created in error, we have gone ahead and cancelled your order(s).
Thank you for your understanding and support.
All the best,
Tom”
The first odd thing is how he mentioned the code was created in error even though it went through which means someone had to have coded the site to process it while distributing it. The comment to me read as if the company doesn’t really take any accountability for the error as everyone should know it was “too good to be true.” Again, I was thinking this is going to be a PR disaster. Sure enough, looking at its social media feeds people have been leaving negative reviews.
In some places companies would have to honour the errors. But again the response is just so surprising as many companies would either apologize at minimum or offer a different coupon per se. I think the lesson here is if you are a business and messed up take some kind of accountability for it or you will definitely see the backlash.