Battle to secure promotional free cruise
FRUSTRATED consumers have taken to social media to complain about not having received a free cruise promised by GloCell if they took out a new cellphone contract last year.
For many consumers who jumped at the offer of a free MSC cruise that was to come as part of the new contract deal, booking and obtaining a cabin on the promised cruise has been an uphill battle.
The campaign advertised a promotional MSC cruise up to the value of R8 000 for two adults, plus two children under the age of 18 and specifically a “three day/two night cruise to nowhere” from Durban and Cape Town harbours.
A flood of consumers complained on Facebook, including GloCell’s page, about long delays in securing a booking.
Rakesh Ramouthar is among several consumers who complained to me about their battle to obtain the cruise.
Ramouthar said he signed up for a contract for a ZTE MF910 LTE Wifi Router at R99 a month which came with the offer of a free MSC cruise. “I took the contract on April 5, 2016, and received confirmation for the cruise. I was told to phone TLC (GloCell’s promotions agency) on November 1, 2016, to confirm the booking, which I did. I was told they will contact me in 10 working days but until now I haven’t received any reply.”
Ramouthar said he followed up by e-mailing GloCell and contacting MSC and TLC to complain, but received no joy. “I want my free cruise from MSC as promised.”.
I asked GloCell what had gone wrong with the promotion and why Ramouthar and others had not been able to make a booking.
GloCell chief commercial officer Francesco Mariola said the company had received “a few hundred” complaints about the promotion, which it had dealt with individually. GloCell had worked diligently to resolve the “justified issues” raised by customers, but many had also not complied with terms and conditions of the promotion, he said.
“Over a thousand of GloCell’s customers plus their families have been successful in receiving their MSC cruise voucher, including hundreds who have already travelled. This demonstrates that the promotion was extremely positive and GloCell was able to deliver on its promise of an MSC cruise. But there are obviously customers who did not qualify because their accounts were not in good standing or they did not properly comply with the redemption process.”
As for Ramouthar’s claim to the free cruise, Mariola said the company had contacted him, “however given the intensive verification process was told that it would take a little time to conclude”.
However, he confirmed that Ramouthar had been allocated an R8 000 cruise voucher.
As for complaints that GloCell was offering an alternative prize such as an R8 000 account credit or a different holiday in lieu of the cruise, Mariola pointed to the fine print.
“This was stated in the original terms and conditions of the contract with customers who entered this promotion. It had always been advertised that the cruises were dependent on promotional availability. But we also explicitly stated that GloCell could change the award to another offering.
“Many consumers have welcomed the replacement to an R8 000 discount as it means free communication for a long time.”
Mariola said the longer a customer waited to book the cruise the greater the possibility that cabins filled up and prices increased similar to airline pricing systems.
“GloCell sent out SMS reminders to all qualifying customers urging them to book their cruise as early as possible to avoid possible disappointment,” he said.
Mariola said MSC had now extended the promotional cruise dates to January 2018 to allow customers to use the voucher for a more expensive local cruise and pay the difference.
MSC Starlight Cruises chief executive Daphne Osborne said the promotion agency had initially asked to secure 200 cabins to launch the promotion but when customers did not want to travel on the specified dates the cabins were released.
“As no cabins were secured when voucher holders redeemed their vouchers a lot of the cruises were no longer available. The company then approached us over the past few months as the customers redeemed their vouchers. With MSC only having three departures within the offer they had to change the system and give a cash value to vouchers and allow customers to pick any cruise,” she said.
Osborne said GloCell had approached MSC directly to secure an additional 350 cabins.
“MSC has agreed that GloCell can directly purchase cabins into the 2017/18 cruise season where there is availability to extend the offer to its customers. MSC has no role in this promotion other than to make the reservations, at the request of the promoter, which were purchased from us in the normal course of business,” she said.
Osborne said MSC had so far booked 696 cabins on the GloCell promotion.
Consumer Goods and Services Ombudsman Neville Melville, commenting generally on promotional gifts, said in terms of section 34 of the Consumer Protection Act a promotional offer is defined as “an offer or promise expressed in any manner, of any prize, reward, gift, free goods or services, price reduction or concession, enhancement of quantity or quality of goods or services, irrespective of whether or not acceptance of the offer is conditional on the offeree entering into any other transaction.
“A supplier of a promotional offer is prohibited from making the offer with the intention of not fulfilling it or fulfilling it other than as offered,” Melville said.
He said companies were obliged to ensure the supply of the prize or reward was “sufficient to accommodate all reasonably anticipated demand” and inferior quality goods could not be supplied.
“Where a supplier is unable to supply goods and services in terms of a promotional offer but procures another person to supply the same or substantially similar goods of the same or better quality, in a reasonable quantity and within a reasonable time a refusal by a consumer to accept such offer will be unreasonable,” he said.
Melville added that if a supplier makes a promotional offer without the intent of fulfilling it or with the intent of fulfilling it in a manner other than offered the promotional offer is misleading.
“Non-complaisance with section 34 amounts to prohibited conduct. The National Consumer Commission can investigate and issue a compliance notice. If the supplier fails to adhere to the compliance notice the commission may refer the matter to the tribunal for imposition of an administrative fine.”