Toshiba in Hot Water Over Free Laptops Offer

[JMcEntegart]

Toshiba's latest ad campaign has resulted in a lot of unhappy customers.

Toshiba in Hot Water Over Free Laptops Offer : Read more

 

[Parsian]

What were they thinking? atleast a discount is more reasonable and realistic

 

[dtm4trix]

My momma always told me if something sounds too good to be true then......guess what? It probably is.

 

[shoota]

It's really not surprising at all. Millions of Apple users buy Steve's toys without reading either..

 

[scook9]

Isn't this the whole point of rebates? Draw in customers with the allure of lower prices then make it unreasonably hard to get said discount even though the item is already purchased.

Companies do rebates for a reason....it makes them money in the end due to the added sales from people who do NOT read the fine print

 

[eddieroolz]

Fault lies on both sides in my opinion. Honoring all purchase refunds would prove catastrophic though.

 

[sliem]

Ah the fine print. Evil.

 

[baracubra]

if you shelled out so much $$$ and there was a possibility of getting it all back, you'd straight away look for something fishy, in which case you would have read the fine print..

Its the consumers' fault for being overly gullible

 

[mman74]

No the problem was that in order to fulfill this they have to hedge the bet with an underwriter. Toshiba would have had to in effect take out insurance with a big financial firm based on teh odd of each country's team winning the World Cup. The problem is that instead of buying a blanket premium, what has probably happened is that they only bought coverage against those that registered before the cut-off date when it was still reasonably possible for them to work out the premium.

 

[Wolygon]

How obvious is this? Who would think that they were going to get a free PC without registering anything. Therefore they should have registered instantly thus allowing them to get the rebate.

 

[rohitbaran]

Well, there are no free lunches.

 

[dargon_supreme]

Consumers... They don´t read the manual and call for support. They don´t ask for information before buying the product, then blame the product and company because the product doesn´t do what it "should do" (in their minds). They don´t read promotion terms, then say they were deceived. When will they (we) learn?

 

[Blessedman]

I am willing to bet that a LOT of Spaniards went and bought a laptop from Toshiba after their team won it...

 

[czar1020]

Well to be honest when something goes on like this you do some research not just go in blindly. It's basically the same crap when filling out a rebate. Highlight this and tape this to that and don't forget some of your blood.

 

[Camikazi]

[citation][nom]czar1020[/nom]Well to be honest when something goes on like this you do some research not just go in blindly. It's basically the same crap when filling out a rebate. Highlight this and tape this to that and don't forget some of your blood.[/citation]
If people did research or actually read the fine print on things like this the companies would never make money they rely on people being idiots and not reading and just impulse buying to make more money.

 

[Camikazi]

[citation][nom]eddieroolz[/nom]Fault lies on both sides in my opinion. Honoring all purchase refunds would prove catastrophic though.[/citation]
It's the peoples fault completely, the company set the rules, did not hide them, the consumers did not read and did not follow the rules. If you are stupid enough to think that this would not have specific instructions on what you need to do then I really don't know what to say to you other then, o well you're SOL.

 

[g00fysmiley]

this is esentually a bet... a bet your country would win the event, but a bet nonetheless, and whats the numbr 1 rule in gambling, the house always wins.

the fault is in the consumers not reading the rules, combined with most laws for game promotion, most countries and states require the company to pay upfront the cost of th prize as a bond to make sure they make good or a middleman insurance representing this game, therefore they had to register with sepecific numbers, thier underwriting company liekly to register the contest needed a cap and the date is a good way to do such so the contest is registered and valid BEFORE the world cup was going on.. also you'd have alot more sales to the countries in the final and they wouldn't want to have to pay that out

 

[Regulas]

One of the dirt-bags of the world, right up with politicians are lawyers, they do love their fine print.

 

[ajcroteau]

Just more BAIT and SWITCH tactics...

 

[HalJordan]

[citation][nom]eddieroolz[/nom]Fault lies on both sides in my opinion. Honoring all purchase refunds would prove catastrophic though.[/citation]

Fault on both sides? Yes, people should always be cautious of a "free lunch". Though, I am more inclined to lay more blame on Toshiba. As far as "catastrophic" goes, I don't think it would put the company in the grave, though, like someone else said, instead of a full rebate, a 20% or 30% discount seems more feasible. Ultimately, it is time for Toshiba to pay up. Next stop lawsuit city.