WEX - offers that don't exist

Wex have an out-of-date ad over which they have control. Not good.

Wex have an out-of-date ad over which they have control, have been made aware of it, and appear to have done nothing about it. Not very good at all.
 
Hi abdoujaparov,

I’m sorry you felt misled by the advert you saw. Please allow me to explain what happened.

We had the Olympus portrait Zoom kit in stock as part of this offer, and the final units were incorrectly allocated elsewhere. This change did not show up on our system, leading us to believe we still had those units available for the offer. As soon as we realised this mistake we removed the offer from Google.

As we still have those last few portrait Zoom kits left we have reactivated the offer. Please note, as it’s a clearance offer we will not be getting more stock of the kit.

Please accept out apologies for this. I can assure you that we would never deliberately mislead anyone into visiting our website with an offer that didn’t exist. We work hard to ensure mistakes like this do not happen and we rectified this as soon as our attention was drawn to it.

I hope this fully explains what went wrong.

Matt Golowczynski
Content Marketing Manager, Wex Photographic
 
Thanks for the reply. I believe you that it was a genuine mistake - as I said last night, you're still advertising the GF6 as a pre-order, two months after it was released. (You might want to look at that too, but for business reasons, not legal ones)

However, your explanation is still a little wanting. In one of your replies you said "Firstly I can confirm that this promotion had ended on June 1st". The advert was still running on the 30th of *July*. You say "As soon as we realised this mistake we removed the offer from Google" - actually, you seem to have removed that today, after I complained to the ASA. (Thanks for removing it, btw, although that seems a little silly now that the offer is back)

If I were you, I'd check your AdWords procedures. You're obviously making AdWord buys with old, no-longer-valid ad text. Also, the next time that a customer makes the effort to tell you that you're running ads for offers that don't exist, you should consider "Thank you very much for bringing this to our attention. We'll take steps to rectify it immediately" as a response, rather than telling them that they're seeing a cached web link even after they've supplied you with a screen-shot showing it's an advertisement.

Finally, "I’m sorry you felt misled by the advert you saw" is a weaselly apology. How about "I'm sorry that our advert misled you"?
 
Very well put Keith - WEX are a very good company to deal with, trustworthy etc etc but, if there is an issue that needs fixing and is pointed out by a potential customer, no company is too big to note and apologise in a proper manner.
 
Hey! Me again!

Googling for the Panasonic 100-300mm lens, I find an advert (NOT a comparison shopping link, not a web link, an actual ad, just to avoid those red herrings this time) from Wex.

"Panasonic 100-300mm f4.0-5.6 Lens. Now Only £369.95 inc. £50 Cashback!‎"

Nice deal. Clicking on the link to take me to the their website gives me a price of . . . £449.
 
I see it as well.

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What's up with WEX?

Feeling the economic downturn so turning to less than moral practices? Why when they have a good name?

It seems stupid of them.
 
So buy it some where else.

Is it really worth droning on about it. There are loads of shops out there to buy goods, stop bleating and buy elsewhere.
 
fracster said:
So buy it some where else.

Is it really worth droning on about it. There are loads of shops out there to buy goods, stop bleating and buy elsewhere.
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I don't get posts like this.

You see a company engaging in unsavoury tricks and you want to hush it up and just go elsewhere :shrug:.

Enough people having an attitude like that would make it a miracle the country has any form of consumer protection at all.

It doesn't take much to stand up and make sure a company knows people find underhand tricks unacceptable. If you want to scurry off into a corner and pretend it isn't happening you can only expect more and more retailers trying similar tricks.
 
Just Dave said:
Ive always had great service from WEX, and would recommend them to anyone :thumbs::thumbs::thumbs:
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I on the other hand had two issues with them over separate times and there customer services wasn't actually interested in the issue, even after I discussed the issue with the suppliers and forwarded that information. I was just fobbed off. I've not used them since.

Wex's explanation doesnt seem to fit the facts?
 
I've had another reply from WEX, and I think they're starting to get it.

They admit there's a problem, and they apologised for both the misleading ad and their previous misunderstanding of the problem, and thanked me for bringing it to their attention.

So, as long as the misleading ads stop, I think everybody's a winner here (even the ones who think I'm "droning on", who still benefit from truth in advertising even as they mock me for caring about it)
 
Fair play to the OP for seeing this one through, it may seem like a trivial issue to some but where do you draw the line? If you see a bricks and mortar store with something priced at £370 in the window and go in to buy it only to be told it's actually £450 I'm sure most people would be annoyed, this is no different.
 
ukaskew said:
Fair play to the OP for seeing this one through, it may seem like a trivial issue to some but where do you draw the line? If you see a bricks and mortar store with something priced at £370 in the window and go in to buy it only to be told it's actually £450 I'm sure most people would be annoyed, this is no different.
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Absolutely.

Do not feed the trolls.
 
Jez2011 said:
Absolutely.

Do not feed the trolls.
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I don't think the pro-WEX posters are trolls, some people sometimes have a misguided sense of loyalty to a firm they perceive was good to them, or offered them good service in the past.

They would rather continue to believe their favoured company cannot do wrong, and anyone trying to say the company is anything but good raises a reaction in them where they feel the need to defend the company, even if it means insulting or disparaging the person who they see as attacking their "friend" of a company.
 
To follow up, I got a letter from the ASA this morning. My complaint had merit, they've instructed WEX to withdraw the ad and told them in future to ensure that advertising for price promotions does not continue after the promotion has ended.

This isn't regarding the first ad, which WEX withdrew when I told them, or the second one I mentioned in this thread (ditto) but a third ad I found *after* WEX posted in this thread - I'm guessing I got my letter before they got theirs, because that ad is STILL running. ("Panasonic 45-200mm")

Edit: the ad is now removed.
 
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I have to say my confidence has been shaken with them lately. I tried to contact them prior to my holiday a few weeks back and the phone line was down, I got back Sunday, so phoned yesterday and the phone lines are down again. I used live chat as suggested, and they said they could only help by phone, so give us a call tomorrow (which is today). Guess what...phones are down still/again.

I have a lemon of a lens, so will see how I eventually get on with getting a refund. So far they've only offered to repair, but it broke again 5 shots into receiving the repaired lens back.
 
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