I'm a member of a lot of stock photo libraries and it's common for them to have promos where they give away iPods (that's how I got my current one a few years back, by spending $1500 in one go).

So imagine my surprise when I saw this in my inbox:



"Buy anything from Photolibrary. Take home an all new iPod Touch or iPod Nano. It's that simple!"

No asterisk, no 'conditions apply'... nada... Not bad, considering you can buy images from them for less than $150. But click on the 'Click for more' button, and this is the page it takes you to.

I'm not saying the offer isn't reasonable (if you're a big stock purchaser and when you eventually get to the 'real' offer), but c'mon - that email wording is completely misleading... Or is it just me?

g.

I once got a free stay at Novotel because of slightly misleading wording in a mailout.
I like taking advertisers to task on their inaccurate marketing that is not well thought through.
Give it at try!

That's very badly worded. It says buy anything but says nothing about how much of anything. Unfortunately, you won't really be able to call them on that because the link clearly spells it out. You can't feign ignorance of conditions or something.

Its irrellevant where the link takes you. legally they have made a huge error. There are very specific laws around "Hook" marketing and they have just broken it!!

You cannot use the word "Anything" only to then alter it in the terms and conditions.

Dick Smith, Target and loads of others have got into huge trouble over the and the ACCC take a very very dim view of inaccurate and misleading Hook marketing.

I reckon you have scored a new ipod if you challenge them.

I just can't believe they didn't bother with any sort of disclaimer in the email itself?

Anyway, I lodged a complaint with the ACCC online and then called the Australian photolibrary.com office and asked if they would comment on the issue. She told me that she needed to take my details and forward them on to their sales and marketing department in Singapore so that's where it's at right now.

you probably should put it in writing to them.

Give them 24hours to respond and or make good on the offer.

Well a guy from their sales and marketing dept just phoned me up and told me that in his opinion it was not misleading in any way. Ha! I haven't come across anyone I've shown it to who hasn't said it's misleading.

Anyway, we'll see what ACCC says, though I won't hold my breath. I complained to them about a distributor once, who told me very bluntly that if I sold their products I was not allowed to sell them less than the RRP. I had it all in writing etc, and sent it through to the ACCC, thinking they were tough on price fixing, but they ended up saying they wouldn't pursue it and that the distributor was entitled to not deal with me in future even though his reason was 'personality differences'. So yeah I don't have too much faith in them now.

I'd be interested to see what the ACCC say. If they agree it's hook marketing, I'd call up Photolibrary and ask them for a Nano for a $150 spend. When they refuse, ask them if they'd like a $15k fine from the ACCC instead.

Wow... Just got a call from the ACCC and they were just letting me know that it's going to the next level and that on the face of it, it does look misleading and deceptive.