Misleading and deceptive marketing by Priority Club - beware

[Kerrodt]

Hi everyone,

I need to share my recent experience with you regarding some disgraceful marketing from Priority Club. As background, I recently joined Priority Club on the recommendation of a friend with is a PC Elite member. I accumulated some points on my recent holiday to the USA and have progressed to gold status.

Half way through my holiday, on September 8, 2012, I received a promotional email from Priority Club that stated in the message header "5 Nights to Platinum Elite Status". The body of the email contained the details of the offer, which are repeated below in full:

"We're pleased you have continued to stay with us and are now even closer to earning exclusive Platinum Elite benefits and 5,000 bonus points. All you need to do is register and stay with us 5 more nights before 30th November 2012. It would be our pleasure to reward your loyalty with exclusive Platinum Elite benefits. Keep staying with us and you'll soon be there. We look forward to helping you make it to the top: Platinum Elite status! "

(I have added the bold font for emphasis).

Now, I have interpreted this email to mean that if:

(a) I register for this promotion, and

(b) stay 5 or more nights before 30 November 2012



then I will receive:



(a) 5,000 bonus points, and

(b) my membership will be upgraded to Platinum Elite Status.



I completed the two requirements of this offer, namely:



(a) I registered for the promotion on 8 September 2012, and I received a confirmation email of my registration on the same day, and

(b) I have stayed a total of 10 nights since 8 September

After a while, there was no credit for this promotion against my account so I sent a courtesy email to the rewards centre to see if there was a problem. I was astounded with their response. Simply, they don't want to honour the promotion. The whole concept of "5 more nights" is being ignored by them. I have exchanged a couple of emails with them asking them to clarify what the offer means and why I haven't been upgraded since I have stayed the required "5 nights". They have told me that I have to stay another 20+ nights!! In other words, this is not a promotion at all.

I have pointed out to the Rewards Centre that this is misleading and deceptive conduct, it is "bait and switch marketing" and it is illegal! They seem to be ignoring the fact that they have engaged in illegal activities.

So, if any other members have received this promotional email, don't expect to receive what it actually offers.

With over 15 years of membership with loyalty programs across airlines, hotels and credit cards I have never encountered such disgraceful and deceptive marketing. In fact I have never seen marketing like this from any organisation anywhere.

Be aware, be warned and tell your colleagues who are also in the belief that they are a member of an honest and trustworthy rewards program - because they aren't.

Happy travels.

 

[eastwest101]

Not sure what your home state is but if you have the emails and records then maybe the relevant state office of consumer affairs would be a logical step? I assume that you are armed with copies of all the terms & conditions plus relevant documents to prove everything. Let us know what happens please.

 

[markis10]

With priority club, its guaranteed to be a frustrating experience when conversing via email. Pick up the phone, tell them you received an offer , have met the conditions and you would like them to meet their side of the bargain, if the email was not originally yours, but was an offer posted on the forums etc, then you dont have a leg to stand on (some people do try for such promos).

 

[Kerrodt]

Hi Eastwest101 and Markis10,

I am in Victoria and have retained all of the paperwork. Yes, next step is the consumer affairs. The email was sent to me, personally.

If I just picked up a code of a forum somewhere and tried to bogus my way through, then, yes I wouldn't have a leg to stand on and I wouldn't be posting about it here.

 

[markis10]

Hi Eastwest101 and Markis10,

I am in Victoria and have retained all of the paperwork. Yes, next step is the consumer affairs. The email was sent to me, personally.

If I just picked up a code of a forum somewhere and tried to bogus my way through, then, yes I wouldn't have a leg to stand on and I wouldn't be posting about it here.

But have you spoken to the service centre on the phone, they resolve my issues on the spot, gave up using the email a long time ago as it seems to be manned by an automated BS machine, excuse the french!

 

[eastwest101]

Hi Eastwest101 and Markis10,

I am in Victoria and have retained all of the paperwork. Yes, next step is the consumer affairs. The email was sent to me, personally.

If I just picked up a code of a forum somewhere and tried to bogus my way through, then, yes I wouldn't have a leg to stand on and I wouldn't be posting about it here.

OK - as Markis10 says - try the phone to give them the benefit of the doubt that this could be a genuine administrative screw up, i.e. right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. But yes - if no progress there, then you would seem to have a pretty clear cut case of misleading and deceptive conduct from what you have said. It will be time consuming but I will be really interested to hear how and in which direction you go with this.

 

[markis10]

BTW I should add, ring in the early hours of the morning, say 6AM, you will get the US CAC rather than Manila, who tend to be more understanding as opposed to following scripts.

 

[jetlagger]

Hi everyone,

I need to share my recent experience with you regarding some disgraceful marketing from Priority Club. As background, I recently joined Priority Club on the recommendation of a friend with is a PC Elite member. I accumulated some points on my recent holiday to the USA and have progressed to gold status.

Half way through my holiday, on September 8, 2012, I received a promotional email from Priority Club that stated in the message header "5 Nights to Platinum Elite Status". The body of the email contained the details of the offer, which are repeated below in full:

"We're pleased you have continued to stay with us and are now even closer to earning exclusive Platinum Elite benefits and 5,000 bonus points. All you need to do is register and stay with us 5 more nights before 30th November 2012. It would be our pleasure to reward your loyalty with exclusive Platinum Elite benefits. Keep staying with us and you'll soon be there. We look forward to helping you make it to the top: Platinum Elite status! "

(I have added the bold font for emphasis).

Now, I have interpreted this email to mean that if:

(a) I register for this promotion, and

(b) stay 5 or more nights before 30 November 2012



then I will receive:



(a) 5,000 bonus points, and

(b) my membership will be upgraded to Platinum Elite Status.



I completed the two requirements of this offer, namely:



(a) I registered for the promotion on 8 September 2012, and I received a confirmation email of my registration on the same day, and

(b) I have stayed a total of 10 nights since 8 September

After a while, there was no credit for this promotion against my account so I sent a courtesy email to the rewards centre to see if there was a problem. I was astounded with their response. Simply, they don't want to honour the promotion. The whole concept of "5 more nights" is being ignored by them. I have exchanged a couple of emails with them asking them to clarify what the offer means and why I haven't been upgraded since I have stayed the required "5 nights". They have told me that I have to stay another 20+ nights!! In other words, this is not a promotion at all.

I have pointed out to the Rewards Centre that this is misleading and deceptive conduct, it is "bait and switch marketing" and it is illegal! They seem to be ignoring the fact that they have engaged in illegal activities.

So, if any other members have received this promotional email, don't expect to receive what it actually offers.

With over 15 years of membership with loyalty programs across airlines, hotels and credit cards I have never encountered such disgraceful and deceptive marketing. In fact I have never seen marketing like this from any organisation anywhere.

Be aware, be warned and tell your colleagues who are also in the belief that they are a member of an honest and trustworthy rewards program - because they aren't.

Happy travels.

Thank you for clearly outlining the relevant issue & problem at hand... I would strongly follow up via all avenues. Interested in the outcome. Good luck!

 

[Kerrodt]

I have put a call into the call centre and it went to the Manila base. The guy on the other end of the phone requested that I forward to him the email, which I did. He will review it and escalate if appropriate and decide on an outcome. Outcome awaited.

 

[Kerrodt]

An update to this situation.

The call centre pretty much ignored me. No response at all. I even sent another email to the guy who asked me to forward him a copy of the email that I was sent that contained the offer. He didn't respond to my follow up.

I sent a final email to them advising that I would be taking the matter to Consumer Affairs Victoria.

Whether by coincidence, or sheer good luck, at some point after this my account was credited with 5,000 points and I was upgraded to Platinum Elite Status. Still no acknowledgement from them that this has been done or any sort of explanation or apology.

So they have finally honoured their promotional email, but not without a lot of kicking. Pretty poor experience from my perspective.

 

[jetlagger]

An update to this situation.

The call centre pretty much ignored me. No response at all. I even sent another email to the guy who asked me to forward him a copy of the email that I was sent that contained the offer. He didn't respond to my follow up.

I sent a final email to them advising that I would be taking the matter to Consumer Affairs Victoria.

Whether by coincidence, or sheer good luck, at some point after this my account was credited with 5,000 points and I was upgraded to Platinum Elite Status. Still no acknowledgement from them that this has been done or any sort of explanation or apology.

So they have finally honoured their promotional email, but not without a lot of kicking. Pretty poor experience from my perspective.

Appreciation for letting us know the outcome..
I had a similar experience last year with Hilton Honours. After a stay at Hilton Cebu, my points were never credited to my account. After several months, follow up calls to the hotel & Hilton Honours centres, emails & faxing of 'lost" records, I was/am still never credited my points.
The hotel has since changed hands & I am equally unimpressed.
I guess, at times, when transacted through various points of Companies, - accounting & communication methodology can get slightly misconstrued.
In this case, a letter of explanation would have been appropriate.

 

[JohnK]

So they have finally honoured their promotional email, but not without a lot of kicking. Pretty poor experience from my perspective.

I guess the main thing now is that all is resolved.

I had issues trying to get the points for the Crack the Case promotion. It seemed to go and on but I think at some point it is best to call and if not satisfied then call again and hopefully another person is going to assist.

I don't like dealing with any call centre. My experiences with most is their focus is not on customer service.