Truth in advertising laws, are they the same on the web as print or tv?

[guitar man]

I ordered a Thomas train set for my daughter for Christmas. The page I ordered from clearly said that Cranky the Crane was included in the set. It arrived today and there was no Cranky the Crane in the set and now the website is giving me the runaround about it. I took a screen shot of the original page before they scrubbed it. I'm pissed! :grr:

Does anybody know if the laws governing advertising are the same for the web?

thanks

[Auggie]

1. I don't think it's in the truth in ad law domain

That, to the best of my knowledge, is when you make a product claim that you know is deliberately false or can't back up.

This sounds like someone posted the wrong info on the website -- probably an honest mistake or oversight. How much money are you out here?

[guitar man]

3. Its not a lot of money

The crane seperately from their site is about $20, I know, small potatoes.But it's not the amount , it's the principle of the thing. The problem I'm having is that all they would have to do to make it right is pull a crane off the shelf, put it in a box and ship it to me, problem solved, but they are refusing to do it.

I remember when I worked for sears back when I was in high school, if we had a misprint that offered a better product than intended, by law we had no recourse but to sell the item at the published price. I don't know if you'd call that truth in advertising but I do remember a bunch of craftsman tool sets going out the door at about 1/3 of what they should sell for, along with the assistant mgr that placed the ad.

He'll, now I don't know, that was 30 years ago before 30 years of Reagan influenced deregulation, we probably don't have a leg to stand on anymore :(
.

[Auggie]

4. Hear you -- what's $20 bucks when it can mean a happy customer?

They should make good on it on principle. I know there are laws that protect big ticket items like automobiles from being sold under value due to mistakes and such. But that's understandable. This enticed you to buy the set from them based on what they said was included in the box.

Can you contact the store owner by phone? Sounds like the last recourse to me -- other than posting on Yelp what a-holes they are.

Good luck.

[guitar man]

5. Yeah

There's a phone number on the site, I'm going to try that tomorrow. I guess the thing that has really gotten under my skin is the whole undertone in the emails that says " we're big, you're little, there's nothing you can do about it". That kind of shit sets me off and puts me into " Captain Ahab" mode really quick lol

[guitar man]

6. I won!!

I had to get growly and grumbly and threten them with the BBB but I won, Cranky is boxed up and on the way

Score one for the little guy!! :bounce:

[Auggie]

7. Yahoo and congrats

And thanks for the update.

[Chan790]

8. that's Sears policy still...

I know because I was an associate there until last week. We're the best in industry at customer satisfaction.

[quakerboy]

2. Truth on the internet?

You were expecting it? I figure the net will never provide better than 50/50 on the whole.

[Deja Q]

9. They can't be. Microsoft promoted Flight Simulator X on the web:

(promised)


(delivered)


After what was so slipshod actually came out (and no longer the original "free" update, it's a $30 add-in)
http://blogs.justflight.info/2007-10-05/fsx-accelerates-sp2-dx10-wall/


If Microsoft could get away with that, anybody can get away with anything.

Except downloading software. See, thievery is only allowed top-down, not the other way around.