Ralph Lauren 40% off code issues - now resolved

Former_MSE_Debs

canterswest wrote: »

Browntoa, why were the deleted posts off track? A link was provided in the MSE advertisement to this forum thread to report problems which is what a few people did, helpfully. Why has the link to this thread in the advertisement been removed? Once your advertisement went live consumers followed up, some spent several hours. By sharing the alternative code that RL was giving telephone callers, consumers had not wasted their time. Why would you want people to waste several hours of their time and not to have an alternative working code? Because of your post I am complaining to the ASA that the advertisement was misleading - there were no tops at the advertised price only t shirts as confirmed after a long phone call with an RL customer service rep.

Hi canterswest,

Can you let me know which tops you were unable to find? I've checked and the eagle T-shirt mentioned in our write-up is still available at £12.

Thanks,
MSE Debs

teresa555

i could not order online due to website freezing or crashes, if you can get as far to enter the code, the code works fine,tried all morning no luck,eventually phoned the order through no problem used the code and got free delivery as i had been trying to order online for ages,finally got there in the end ,pleased with discount, thanks mse for the code

canterswest

I am a reporting this advertisement to the ASA so you can discuss with them the evidence you hold for the claims made - it is helpful to discuss here I presume so you can have the necessary proof for your claims?


MSE advertisement says:


Ralph Lauren 40% code Gets extra a 50% sale, incl £12 ladies' tops


Repeated -


Ralph Lauren EXTRA 40% code off up to 50% sale, eg, £12 tops. MSE Blagged. Not usually cheap, but with discount... ladies' top (full price £40) £12 with code
I have not checked wording on social media you might have repeated the £12 'tops' elsewhere. The way advertising of prices works the more times you repeat a claim the less able you are to then refer to a later claim made once to justify a heavily repeated advertised claim.


There are no ladies tops at the advertised price - t shirts are not tops. There are two sleeveless t shirts. Ralph Lauren customer service went through sale stock available in tops and t shirts - original price points and reductions. It agrees there are not tops at the advertised price. You have highlighted hopelessly misleading pricing given the price points available and described t shirts as tops which is not true. The ASA may disagree it may decide t shirts from a retailer that distinguishes between the two as different products can be called tops in an advertisement when no actual tops are available at the advertised price.


I also think there is a risk that the 50% plus 40% advertising could be mistaken for 90% off.

bubbles0169

^^^tomato tomata potato potata

Former_MSE_Dan

Hi all,

I just wanted to (hopefully) clear up some of the points that have been raised about this deal. We are obviously disappointed that the code wasn't working first thing on mobile devices, and that the site has been very slow all morning. We've been working hard to push Ralph Lauren to get these problems fixed - and happily the code now seems to be working fine. Please let us know if it isn't for you.

1) We removed the second code from this thread once we knew the original was working again. Ralph Lauren asked us to do this as they say it shouldn't have been given out in the first place. Ultimately we want the offer to be fulfilled as we wrote it originally, so provided there is one 40% off code that works, we were happy to remove it. Sorry for anyone whose posts disappeared and they weren't sure why

2) Re: £12 tops. Obviously, anyone who is unhappy and thinks we have misled with our writing has a right to complain to the ASA about it. We have chatted about this today, and have come to the conclusion we believe top/t-shirt are interchangeable in this instance. From a straw poll around the office, people understood a t-shirt to be a sub-group of 'tops', and wouldn't have been disappointed to find out that the garment mentioned in the email was a t-shirt.

Also, the note on the website containing the full info about the sale goes into more details and describes the Eagle T-Shirt than Debs refers to above. We feel comfortable that we've done our job here, and been as clear and transparent as we would always hope to be.

Thanks all - please keep us up to date with your experiences trying to get bargains in this sale

Dan

canterswest

Dan, to be fair you should also ask for bad experiences to be posted and offer not to delete posts. I agree an argument could be made that a t shirt could be called a top. However, we'll let the ASA decide.


I have a fairly new RL cotton shirt and classic jumper bought for me for Xmas by my son from an outlet store. I assure you if you are near an outlet store it is a much easier way to get much better priced items than your deal, in my opinion.

Former_MSE_Dan

Hi canterswest - I didn't specify whether we are looking for good or bad feedback! We are just after a true picture of the deal.

The posts we deleted all contained the code which has been withdrawn from use - we didn't delete them to censor bad feedback.

Dan

Browntoa

and on my part I was only saying that the sort of questions you were asking about deleted posts should really be in Forum policy and rules

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=97

rather than on the discount codes part of the forum

canterswest

OK well perhaps consider reposting posts deleted between 9.00am and 11.00am removing the alternative code - note I have not posted it.


Also, consider putting back the link to this thread in your advertisement.

comicmankev

the code went through after a long wait and a couple of errors, but I can't get through checkout and I've been trying intermittently since last night! You'd think a company like that would have a good website