Buy a
Core i5 laptop or a
Toshiba TV, and if your country wins the World Cup Final, we'll refund your money. Simple and to the point, don't you think? Toshiba ran this advertising campaign in Germany, England, Portugal, Italy and Spain in the run-up to the
global football tournament, but now that one of those nations has actually gone and scooped the silverware, refunds seem remarkably hard to come by. As it turns out, the small print on that ad included instructions to see Toshiba's site for further details, which elucidated a requirement that all claimants must register their product by the 17th of June. Naturally, that's now led to a whole heap of peeved Spaniards feeling cheated, and big time consumer association Facua arguing that such a major condition to recovering your cash shouldn't have been hidden away online. In the absence of it being clearly marked on the promotional materials, it argues, Toshiba should honor everyone's receipts irrespective of registration. We're inclined to agree -- maybe the Japanese company can recover any losses from the wages of its cheeky advertising staff.
posted July 14th 2010 2:22PM
I would not have a Toshiba given so that's me sorted. They sell junk...
@atc9000
I read your comment 3 times and I still don't quite understand the first sentence. The second one is crystal clear though.
@atc9000
WTF does that mean? That's not English, Portuguese, Spanish, or Italian.... in the words of my man Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction " English Motha Fucka..... Do You Speak It!!!!"
@smithers what?
@Mr Oos
its called cockney, AKA nobody knows wtf the brit is talking about :)
@atc9000
In case any of your are serious: he's saying he wouldn't take a Toshiba, even if it were given to him for free.
@Alimas
Whoa, you got all that from his first sentence? You good sir are THE MAN... Because all I got was they sell sorted junk... lolololol
@Alimas
I think everyone is serious....
@Alimas
The wording wasn't the best but even I got that...after reading it a second time.
@Alimas
I think yes, they are serious. A great man once said:
Don't nobody unnerstand tha words dat are comin' outta yo mouf, man!
@Sepirioth
That's not cockney... its gibberish.
@atc9000 It means I do not have to claim from them as I do not buy there rubbish products as they sell JUNK.
Due to the fact all the products I have from them over the last few years have gone wrong and broke so went back to them.
So thats me sorted.
Plus I did not know it got posted as My Android Mobile fecked up while posting and no.......Its a HTC Desire...
@Sepirioth Me from up north, the land of the flat caps and wippets, and Yorkshire puddings
@atc9000
Dear Toshiba,
I'm sorry... we tried!
Kind regards,
the Netherlands
Ps. Didn't know Toshiba was doing this in other countries. At least they didn't make the final score more painful by doing this in the Netherlands as well, I did buy a Toshiba Qosmio X500-11Z in the period running up to the world cup though. Wouldn't have mind getting my money back on that one. :P
@atc9000
I read ur first comment backwards and it says FTW!!
@Sepirioth Is that like Ebonics? So now there is Britbonics?
@smithers STRIKE !! :p lol
@smithers Now... My man, Homer said: 'English? Who needs that! I'm never going to England'.
@tommalota
I hope he said that on the episode that they went to England.
I wouldn't want Homer to be lying to us now.
Without the registration requirement, scammery would be a huge problem.
Just find a friend who tells Toshiba stuff and get a backdated receipt. Split the profits.
Too easy, Toshiba would be foolish to pay off without registration before the WC started.
@spin cycle
I agree that the registration should be a mandatory part of this deal. But I think it's the "register by" date of June 17th which has people peeved. That being said, I think if I was trying to get a free TV I would read all the fine print beforehand, so there's not much of an excuse here. I don't really feel sorry for these people. But just to be fair, Toshiba probably should have made a more reasonable deadline for registration.
@spin cycle
I agree with you but it should be a "receipt date" not registration date. How many of your electronics do you actually bother registering? I for one RARELY do. Receipt is usually enough for proof of purchase date. At least here in the US it is.
@Malkmus
People are upset because thee was no mention of registering on the ad. Only on the site
@Sepirioth
But that's kind of the point. Companies WANT you to register your product. It helps them build lists. The free refund if your team wins is a huge inducement to do something (register) that most savvy consumers otherwise have no interest in doing. Toshiba was rewarding people who went through with the hassle of registering.
@spin cycle I got free furniture from Jordans in 2007 when the Red Sox won the world series. I had no problem getting the refund, but they were insured in case that happened, so they were happy to pay us off. I don't think I ever registered for anything, all I needed was my receipt. I wish I had spent more than $3000 now...
@engadgetcomexcludeengadget
Jordans is a retailer. The thing you talk about is similar to how Golfsmith gave out free drivers when Mickelson won the Open last year.
This was in cooperation with Calloway.
That isn't risky because it's only at certain retailers. Calloway and Golfsmith trust each other and take the risk together. Surely Golfsmith sent a list of buyers to Calloway before the event too, to prevent fraud.
Toshiba isn't a retailer and didn't partner with one for this. They have to worry about risks from shady retailers who are only now saying they sold stuff back then.
@spin cycle
Exactly, I got a Toshiba Blu-Ray player that has a year free LoveFlim (UK online-based BD/DVD rental service) subscription, it required an online registration with the player serial code then send the print-out of the confirmation letter plus the receipt to the Toshiba promotion office within 14 days of purchase! The thing was we sent the stuff just before the heavy snow hit the UK and didn't heard anything until the snowy days were over which was very lucky to get there on time!
@Sepirioth This doesn't seem out of line to me. I bought an Asus laptop that came with a 3 year warranty on defects but in in order to get the additional 1 year accidental damage warranty (protection from spills, surge, drops) I had to register by mailing in a postcard.
They won by fouling damm them
@MichaelJJackson
Dude, the Spanish won, not the Dutch
@TheyDidItFirst Exactly, they cheated their way though. Thats how the goal happened. They passed it infront of all the players (Off side) and scored, the ref didn't do anything to stop them either. And then there was the free kick which the Spanish hand balled meaning the Dutch should have gotten a corner but noo. And Spain was fouling just as badly. Netherlands got 7 Yellow cards and the Spanish 6.
@MichaelJJackson
NO. The goal was not offside, the player was at least 3 feet into the allowed zone when the pass happened. WTF are you talking about?
Netherlands should have gotten 2 (TWO) TEXTBOOK DIRECT RED cards in the first half: (1) Dangerous play by planting the cleats on another players chest without intention to play the ball, (2) Kick to a player's ankle without intention to play the ball. TEXTBOOK REDS. You should watch more football before commenting.
@shishi Just look at any yt video and you will see it was offside
And the kick to the chest was NOT intentional neither was the ankle one.. Did you even see the match? And the two yellow cards resulting in a Red card was bs because he barely touched him while the Spanish players were nearly wripping their shirts to shreads.
@shishi You shouldn't believe everything you read in the Media, they tend to be baised and lie a lot. They just go with what people want to hear
@MichaelJJackson holy shit this guy is a moron. off side, no kick on the chest foul? give me a break, what game were YOU watching?
@MichaelJJackson
So you're Dutch then ? If ever a team fouled their way through a match it was the Dutch and I was supporting them up to this game, a real disgrace and yes I watched the match and the BBC showed beyond a doubt that the goal was NOT offside.
Poor losers Now get your own user name FOOL ! MJ is dead
@MichaelJJackson
You really need to watch that game again MJ.
When the ball was initially passed to Iniesta (the player who scored), one of the Dutch defenders tried to intercept. He missed, at which point Iniesta made his run.
The Dutch defender was now the closest player to the keeper when Iniesta got initial possession of the ball.
No offside.
And De Jong's foul was so bad, Kluivert, a fellow Dutchman and footballing legend said he had no intention of getting the ball and should've been sent off.
The other player you're talking about is Van Persie. He should've gotten a red card but it was too early in the game plus Howard Webb is a piece of shit referee and anyone who follows the premiership will know of his shenanigans on the pitch.
@shishi
It was a fixed game from the start....that was just to obvious!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EelCgoJzK_Y
this foul has been neglected by media but was quite obvious. In fact there are 2 fouls whre Webb can give a free kick for the Netherlands (on a dangerous spot!). 1. the obvious foul (and yellow card?) of Ramos and 2. the foul of 2 players attacking 1 player. In the latter case Webb wouldn't have to show a yellow card...
@Rem DX Webb already fucked over several countries. (italy, poland)
- The person who assigns the refs for the fifa is spanish.
- In england he's already hated for being biased.
- If the dutch won the World Cup fifa had no other option then to give the worldcup 2018 or 2022 to the dutch.
@MichaelJJackson Let me guess.....you're one of these people that believe in conspiracy theories and all and decide to make your own inaccurate conclusions even if the evidence in front of you clearly contradicts it. Interesting. Let me ask you a question....you believe the Holocaust happened? You're probably soo out there it would not surprise me if you didn't.
@Rizzzzoooo There was a holocaust?
There's always fine print for things such as this. If people didn't read it, then that's their fault. Toshiba isn't to blame.
Honestly, did anybody expect to just casually get their money back for a product they bought? Of course there are requirements you need to fulfill, such as registering it by the 17th.
@Jordan No Toshiba isn't the blame for the fine print, but you have to ask, "why in the world would they advertise such a thing?" The odds of at least one of those countries actually winning the World Cup were very high. What, did they all have money riding on Brazil?
@Jordan
It makes sense. Otherwise you'd have people buying a ton of stuff once the semi-finals were over and then returning them to the store after the final match if their team didn't win.
In contests you have a ~1/1,000,000 chance of winning, with this it could have been 50/50 with thousands of winners.
@Jordan
There was no fine print on the ads. Only a url to the contest site
@tasteskindasalty They will have insured themselves against this anyway.
@Jordan The problem, I read from another source providing more information, was that the ad didn't have such fineprint.
@Jordan
Where I live, these sort of promotions need to be written in clear writing and with large letters, to prevent this kind of issues. In this case, the information was only available at the web site, not on the adverts.
@Jordan You probably don't live in the EU. There are actually some consumer protection laws and regulations that companies can't jump over just by adding "fine print". In fact, there are other rules that explicitly forbid the "fine print" being unnoticed.
So they've finally resolved to pay people to take their products...
This seems obvious - if it's too good to be true, it's too good to be true. ALWAYS READ THE MICE TYPE.