“You already applied this code to an order”

[rullo_2]

I am trying to take advantage of the ebays current discount offer, and every time I enter the code, the message comes up saying you already applied this code to an order. Although this is not the case, I have never replied this code before. Is there anything I’m able to do to rectify this issue?

[brerrabbit585]

It's only false advertising if it's intentional. Do you really expect computers/computer programs to never have anything go wrong? That's like expecting a motor car to never have anything go wrong with it.

[jasohade-0]

 A warm welcome, thank you. 

Do you really think my post/s offensive? Who exactly was in the line of fire, Lyndal? If Lyndal feels that well, I'm sorry, Lyndal.

How's that?

I haven't set out to insult anyone's store or anyone personally. My ostensibly boorish reply was not directed at Lyndal, I was simply conveying my thoughts on the contents of the supplied post and my inability to alter the outcome of this situation.

It, simply, sucks.

Does that better describe my energetic posts? 

One of the reasons I'm upset is for this disruption to my otherwise wonderful day. I didn't blame anybody, if I did, it was eBay.

I have used eBay in the past but I have never really been 'into it.' Lately, I have had a bit more free time to explore this joint and, to my surprise, I have found so many new and interesting things which are really competitively priced. I have purchased some items and I have been quite stunned at the logistics involved. To my surprise, most things have arrived before or on time, and a few were a little late, but it all seems so mechanically fantastic.

Ergo the 'energy' in my posts when this incredible machine broke down.

It is literally ten dollars that is making me jump up and down, but it is really the principle. Having owned both wholesale and retail endeavours, and being governed by the associated rules/ laws, the accuracy of the written word in business is extremely important. So far everything has been above my expectations, but when applying the discount code to the sale then having eBay hurl it back yelling that it was me to blame, my fault, was, umm, crack, I broke... What? Me? Nup! You! Sh*t! Umm...cr*p! Well... Ermm.... But? Huh!? Ahhhh ------>

To the forums we shall go, and together (Jasoh & my other internal buddies), we will give this machine a stern dressing down. 

So, there. What was to be a civil explanitory post has mutated into this deformity.

All's good. We're better now. Thank you, Mastawka.

I will leave you now, I will also blink at the ten bucks, like I should have initially...

Have a wonderful....time(?)

Bye 

P.S. I have, between starting this post and writing this now, repaired a neighbour's garage door, I'm sorry for the delay with my reply.

:thumbsup:

[imastawka]

Jas, being new to ebay, please also be aware when giving feedback to your sellers

that the estimated delivery date is an ebay fabrication.

Australia Post is not that reliable when sticking to dates.

So, when the question comes up  'Did this item arrive on time?'  please give the seller some leeway on that one.  They can't control Australia Post.

All well and good if it arrived on time, but it's ok and it won't break anything if you leave that blank.

The boards are manned by voluntary members like yourself, and if you look at Lyndal's posts, you will see she is an Honored Contributor (American spelling, but there ya go)

Enjoy your buying and please come back to the boards if you need any other help.

There is a wealth of knowledge on these boards.

[jasohade-0]

---

@brerrabbit585 wrote:
It's only false advertising if it's intentional. Do you really expect computers/computer programs to never have anything go wrong? That's like expecting a motor car to never have anything go wrong with it.

---

• "Misleading or deceptive conduct"

"It is illegal for a business to engage in conduct that misleads or deceives or is likely to mislead or deceive consumers or other businesses. This law applies even if you did not intend to mislead or deceive anyone or no one has suffered any loss or damage as a result of your conduct."

• "Multiple pricing - price displays"

Sometimes a business may have two different prices on display for the one item. A business that displays more than one price for the same good must either:

• sell the goods for the lowest displayed price, or
• withdraw the goods from sale until the price is corrected.

"Businesses that operate online have the same rights and obligations as those that operate traditional bricks and mortar stores. Businesses need to ensure that their online sales practices comply with the Act."

https://www.accc.gov.au/accc-book/printer-friendly/29527

____________________________________________________________________________________

They are direct quotes taken from the ACCC's website.

There is a plethora of fine print that we'll just ignore if you can understand what's written above.

I'll just add that it is not only eBay who'll cop it, but it is also every store eBay's misleading advertising is attached to.

Have a great day! 

[countessalmirena]

@jasohade-0,

I have very little expectation that the ACCC will seek to have charges laid against eBay for offering a discount code which did not work correctly due to technical glitches within the coding that ran the discount. eBay withdrew the discount codes while the technical issues were - hopefully - sorted out. "Engag[ing] in conduct that misleads or deceives or is likely to mislead or deceive consumers or other businesses" is not the same as having misled or being likely to mislead as a result of technical errors, particularly when the business concerned withdrew that which may have misled or been likely to mislead.

This shouldn't be taken to mean that I think eBay is beyond criticism, nor that eBay should not be held to account if and when it does engage in conduct that is unlawful or seeks to improse unlawful restrictions, requirements or provisions upon its users/members.

There are other behaviours by eBay which are of much greater concern (in my opinion) than a discount not working correctly, being withdrawn, and then being offered again once the technical issue was fixed.

In fact, one of the things in your post  - where you speak of multiple pricing - is a significant problem.

However, because misuse of "listings with variations" is predominantly by sellers registered on eBay.cn, very little - if anything - is or can be done by eBay.com.au.

Whatever you choose to do, complaints to the ACCC have at least a smidgeon of a chance of seeing something change, whereas complaints on these boards will simply be like crying custard tears onto the surface of Custard Lake. There simply isn't anyone here from eBay Management, eager to get their ear to the ground. eBay Management are indifferent to what buyers want or what sellers want, in spite of all the eBay rhetoric.

(By the way, there's no need to suggest that brerrabbit may not understand your post. That's just being snide. Cheap shots at posters' intelligence do not become you, nor are they apt; I have never found brerrabbit to be anything but helpful, well-informed and astute.)

[jasohade-0]

---

@countessalmirena wrote:

@jasohade-0,

"Engag[ing] in conduct that misleads or deceives or is likely to mislead or deceive consumers or other businesses" is not the same as having misled or being likely to mislead as a result of technical errors, particularly when the business concerned withdrew that which may have misled or been likely to mislead.

(By the way, there's no need to suggest that brerrabbit may not understand your post. That's just being snide. Cheap shots at posters' intelligence do not become you, nor are they apt; I have never found brerrabbit to be anything but helpful, well-informed and astute.)

---

Let us begin with the latter. Why should I not suggest that 'brerrabbit' may not have understood my post? You, most certainly, lack understanding.

Then, this ripper...

"This law applies even if you did not intend to mislead or deceive anyone or no one has suffered any loss or damage as a result of your conduct."

I mean, you quoted everything from original except the part that the original post actually referred to, then, whilst ignoring the part of the quote that actually held water, you start (trying) to insult me/ my intellect. As mentioned in my post, there are so many precedents set out in that part of the law alone that it would blow your mind. Yet, using your self-convinced advanced intelligence of Australian advertising law, and your authoritarian approach, you begin a completely unfounded attack on me/ my intelligence and the factual evidence that I have presented.

Did you even bother to visit the page I generously linked to?? I'll bet not. Therefore, how can you presume to "school" me if you have not only ignored the part of the quote pertaining to the issue at hand, but also the link provided, then the massive wealth of links to precedents that relate to that sentence alone which clearly explains what is going on here? Maybe you will need to dig deeper to find the plethora of infringements if you are interested, I doubt you really are, you are just here to defend your buddy with gibberish. This must be embarrassing for you. For that, I am really sorry.

It was never my intention to even post this at all, but somebody just had to push it.

Oh... The site you are referring to which took down, sorry, "withdrew", the advertisement is which one exactly?

It seems that the site to which I was referring held the 'suspect' advertisement up for several hours during which time I was unable to partake in the fraudulent offer. It was not taken down, it remained for more than two hours before I was able to access and take advantage of the promotion. Apparently, this is not, by far, the first time.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will heavily scrutinise all companies' who further breach the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA) in Australian Consumer Law (ACL) and if found wanting, they can result in heavy pecuniary penalties.

I am not here to report anything, I am here to shop. If you would further like to attempt to try my knowledge on the aforementioned topics, be my guest. Actually, I no longer want to play. The field is askew. 

It appears that I have entered a girlie club and I am unwelcome. It is apparent that one ill-informed girlie will always step up and defend the other ill-informed girlie. I will always win, but I haven't the time to waste here.

There was no need for this, somebody attacked my knowledge so I cleared it up by quoting straight from the ACCC. It appeared to be a simple fix. There was no malice in my post because, without many years of complying with said laws, one may not understand the details (as proven in this...post), if I have wronged anyone I will always explain the circumstances and apologise, but here I was not wrong, nor the troll. So, this post had teeth.

The first girlie who stepped up didn't challenge me intellectually, she just politely pointed out that my frustration at the site may have been taken the wrong way. I enjoyed apologising to the person who may have taken offense, and I also enjoyed thanking the lovely lady who welcomed me.

This, although I am correct, was unpleasant.

Goodbye  

[lyndal1838]

I really don't understand why you even came to the boards.....you don't want to listen to anything that is being said.

I was not offended by your rudeness originally (I have become used to posters not wanting to listen to reason) but I do take offense at being referred to as "girlie".....at 73 years old I deserve better than that, as do most of the other responders on the boards.

I am sorry you were not bought up to respect your elders.

If you are not interested in reporting ebay to the authorities you can hardly expect others to do it for you, especially when we are not as enraged about the situation as you seem to be.  Nothing will change while those affected by it do nothing.

[countessalmirena]

@jasohade-0,

As Lyndal has said, I'm not sure why you came to the boards, although of course you've every right to post here as a member of the public with an eBay account.

You are being deliberately rude. That doesn't shame me or embarrass me; it is a reflection of you, not of me. I have no assumption that you experience embarrassment as a result of your rudeness. If you truly believe what you have posted (in being condescending about other people's ability to comprehend), you will probably even feel justified in posting as you have.

I won't be addressing that any further.

In case you are still concerned about the issue of eBay having promised a discount voucher which did not work (not only for you, but for many people), which eBay subsequently withdrew, and which they have recently reinstated (assuming that you are speaking about the discount voucher code PEARTREE), I'll reply - as I did before - purely focusing on what you can do and how likely any actions are to produce a result.

As I said before and as you are clearly aware, you can complain to the ACCC. You can argue that eBay misled you even though eBay may not have intended to mislead you. Of course you would quote the Competition and Consumer Act in making a complaint to the ACCC. I said previously, "I have very little expectation that the ACCC will seek to have charges laid against eBay" on the basis of such a complaint, but I'm not dissuading you from making the complaint. You apparently feel that by condensing my focus and quoting only a section of your post (and the wording on the ACCC's website), I've not considered the entirety. That is not the case.

From time to time, errors due to technical problems, including online technical problems, where items are shown with incorrect prices or discounts that don't work, or anything of that sort, will occur. It's akin (in my opinion) to misprints in catalogues or an item being on display with multiple prices. Purely for the sake of clarity, I'll spell out what is almost certainly known by everyone here. The business isn't obliged to sell at the lowest price of a displayed price, which is presumably displayed in error; rather, the business has two choices. They can sell the item at the lowest displayed price, or they can withdraw the items from sale until the displayed price has been corrected. (That would include withdrawing items until a catalogue showing a wrong price is out of date.)

One could say that this was misleading and make a complaint. By relying on one portion of the Act, though, without reference to other portions of the Act, it is possible that one would not anticipate the defence of the business against the complaint, or perhaps even the wider framework within which such a complaint would be assessed by the ACCC.

If a technical glitch preventing an online discount from being applied were to result in the ACCC being likely to act against the business that owns the website, it's just not conceivable that ecommerce could function in Australia. The very nature of technical glitches is that they are not foreseeable, just as misprints and errors in applying price stickers are not foreseeable.

BEST OUTCOME SUGGESTION (my view only): Your best best to get the discount that you have mentioned - when the code did not work on eBay - is to phone eBay, express your distress politely, and request that the discount which would have been applied to your transaction had the code not worked be credited to you.

[digital*ghost]

---

@jasohade-0 wrote:

---

@brerrabbit585 wrote:
It's only false advertising if it's intentional. Do you really expect computers/computer programs to never have anything go wrong? That's like expecting a motor car to never have anything go wrong with it.

---

• "Misleading or deceptive conduct"

"It is illegal for a business to engage in conduct that misleads or deceives or is likely to mislead or deceive consumers or other businesses. This law applies even if you did not intend to mislead or deceive anyone or no one has suffered any loss or damage as a result of your conduct."

• "Multiple pricing - price displays"

Sometimes a business may have two different prices on display for the one item. A business that displays more than one price for the same good must either:

• sell the goods for the lowest displayed price, or
• withdraw the goods from sale until the price is corrected.

"Businesses that operate online have the same rights and obligations as those that operate traditional bricks and mortar stores. Businesses need to ensure that their online sales practices comply with the Act."

https://www.accc.gov.au/accc-book/printer-friendly/29527

____________________________________________________________________________________

They are direct quotes taken from the ACCC's website.

There is a plethora of fine print that we'll just ignore if you can understand what's written above.

I'll just add that it is not only eBay who'll cop it, but it is also every store eBay's misleading advertising is attached to.

Have a great day! 

---

Malfunction doesn't equal misleading or deceptive conduct - intention has nothing to do with it. 

As a business owner who happens to operate on ebay, and is pretty well versed in consumer law, I'm just gonna go wait by the phone for the call from the ACCC now.

[*tippy*toes*]

Oh great, another "expert" on the law......