Consumer rant - Omaha Steaks

A couple of weeks ago, I came across a great deal, and signed up promptly. It's one of those you-had-to-be-there-at-the-right-time deals, like combining a great coupon that doubles with a great sale. Basically, if you fulfilled a particular offer with a particular merchant, that merchant would send you a code for a $25 gift card to Omaha Steaks. Then, you apply that $25 gift card to a then-current promotion at Omaha Steaks, to receive not only an order of burgers, but also a free gift with purchase. So far, so good. I signed up, got my gift card code, ordered the burgers and the free gift, received my confirmation email, and waited for my order to arrive.

However. Never having been one to consider spending phenomenal amounts of money for overpriced (and, according to reports I've heard, not really all-that-great quality) meats and other edibles, I've never actually ordered from Omaha Steaks before. Turns out that their Unconditional Guarantee isn't quite so unconditional after all: apparently, you have to spend a certain amount of money on the order before they consider you a customer worth trying to keep. They certainly will never get my business again, and I will recount the saga in hopes of discouraging anyone else from ever risking getting burned by this company with truly abysmal customer service.

The day after placing my order, I received the following email from Omaha Steaks Customer Service:

Thank you for shopping at Omaha Steaks! We appreciate your business and are confident you will be delighted with your order.

We do show when placing this order, a special offer for a free item was combined with the $25 reward card. As stated in all promotions for free items, offers cannot be combined. Your order will ship without the free item.

If you have any questions regarding your order, please contact us at 1-800-329-6500. We would be happy to assist you.

I promptly replied with the following email:

Excuse me??

No, this was never stated at any step of the promotion. My order confirmation includes both the free gift - which rang up with my order, without EVER stating any exclusion - and the gift card. Furthermore, the gift card code I used is a GIFT CARD, not a "special promotion."

If this was true, the free gift should have voided out of my order upon placement. This is the first I am hearing of your so-called rule. You are changing the rules of the offer on me, and that is fraud.

I was promised a free gift with my order, and you do not have the right to change the terms of the offer on me, especially after receiving my payment and personal information.

I will expect my complete order with my shipment.

To which Omaha Steaks Customer 'Care' replied:

Thank you for contacting us. We appreciate your interest in Omaha Steaks and we apologize for any confusion with our special offers.

All Omaha Steaks free item promotions state that they cannot be combined with any other offer. The Reward Gift Card that you received is a special promotion offered through Geico and while this Reward Gift Card did not stipulate that it could not be combined with another offer, the Omaha Steaks free item promotion did state that it could not be combined with any other offers. Therefore, the free item was removed.

If we can be of further assistance please contact us via email or by phone at 1-800-329-6500.

Meanwhile, my shipment arrived sans the free gift. My card was charged for the amount indicated on the confirmation email, the amount that I had calculated would include the extra burgers. Without the free gift, the order was just a bunch of overpriced meat.

Let's be clear on this. The free gift showed as shipped. The confirmation email showed it as included. There was never any question about the use of a gift card voiding out a free gift offer. It was not until a day later that I received an email informing me that the free gift was going to be removed from my order.

Clearly the response to this offer was overwhelming, and some dolt in Customer Care decided that the best way to cut their losses would simply be to reneg on the terms of their offer, re-define the Geico gift card as a 'Rewards Promotion,' and tick off hundreds (thousands?) of customers instead of accepting the loss of their loss leader advertising. If that's how they do business, they probably won't be in it very long.