Sometimes the fine print doesn’t even tell you the full story.  Like this customer who received a $50 promotional gift card from Hollister for purchases she made there.  The purchases were made on Dec 16 and when they tried to use the card the following February, they were told the card expired on Jan 31st.  That sure doesn’t seem very generous of a promotion to give someone a gift card good for only a month.  In addition to that, neither the gift card or the packaging had any expiration date on it, and in fact the gift card said “no expiration date” right on it.

But Hollister customer service wouldn’t budge from its position that the card would not be honored because it had expired.  But then the customer contacted the local newspapers consumer advocate who contacted Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister’s parent company.   They immediately changed their position and even went as far as to give the customer double what they were entitled to, a $100 gift card.

What can we learn from this story?

a) Companies regularly make a habit out of nickel and diming people through the small print, even when it doesn’t say what they intended it to say.

b) Resolving an issue with a company through the media almost ALWAYS works!  Contacting your local TV, radio, or newspaper’s consumer advocate, if they have one, is a very good tool for getting a company to budge on its unreasonable position.