Zellers customers outraged by online ad error

EDMONTON – An online initiative by Zellers to spread holiday cheer has instead resulted in intense public backlash after the Canadian retailer issued a significant correction to a Boxing Week promotional offer.

As part of its “Festive Finale Campaign,” Zellers recently posted an online coupon allowing customers to receive 50 per cent off any one item between December 26 and December 31. The coupon specified that the discount “CAN be combined with our great flyer DEALS!” However, within days of the coupon becoming active, customers were being told that the wording of the coupon was incorrect, and that it could not be applied to sale priced items.

In a news release issued in November, Zellers Senior Vice President of Marketing Debbie Ford billed the “Festive Finale Campaign” as a way to “acknowledge the contribution that our customers and associates have made to our success over the years.” But by Thursday afternoon, the Zellers Facebook page (which had been actively used to promote the campaign) was flooded with comments from customers upset by error.

Among the feedback on the Zellers Facebook page:

     • “I don’t think you should be able to change the rules of the coupon half way through!”

     • “I’m glad I was able to use it before it got changed. Mistake or not, most stores honour what is on a coupon and Zellers should too!”

     • “Kind of tacky if you ask me. Instead of spending what would have been 50% off of my item, I spent ZERO dollars at your store.”

     • “Pulling the original coupon and claiming it to be ‘incorrect’ because you didn’t realize how much business you would get thanks to social media is bad business sense.”

A statement emailed to Global News by a Zellers representative stated: “We sincerely apologize for the error in the printing of Zellers’ recent Facebook offer…The incorrect coupon was removed from the company’s Facebook site when the error was discovered on Wednesday, December 28.”

The Competition Bureau of Canada, which monitors advertising practices, could not be reached for comment Thursday. However, as outlined in the Competition Act, Zellers had taken steps to amend its error.

“As is the case with any advertising printing error,” the statement from Zellers read, “corrections have been placed on the company’s web sites and posted in-store and all efforts have been made to communicate the correction to 3rd party web sites who may have picked up the offer.”

Many Zellers locations were acquired by American retailer Target last January, and will be in the process of winding down store operations in 2012. Zellers is owned by the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC).

“We will be running all Zellers stores through 2011 and into 2012, where select stores will be closed and then the stores renovated and reopened as Target stores,” HBC chairman and chief executive Richard Baker said in October.