So snowed under as we are (yes it's still winter in Edinburgh), so wan with care, I got press-ganged yesterday into writing (amateurishly) the Ts & Cs for a website and some eDMs I'm copy-directing. Now, it's a while since I had this dubious pleasure and I'd forgotten quite what rip-off experts are the general public (and a good part of the trade, to boot). These days I usually spend my time thinking about how to make offers work better... not worrying how to stop the massed ranks of Artful Dodgers from picking the pockets of well-intentioned and benevolent promoters. Naturally, I hear the odd horror story on the ISP Board - like 10,000 copies of the same numbered coupon being redeemed through one store - but I kind of shrug them off as maverick events. Then there's those who claim hyperbolically that half of all coupons are misredeemed, and surveys that say a good chunk of the population are quite happy to do it... and some retailers equally happy to oblige them. I understand that to use and accept a coupon without purchasing or selling the product in question is fraud, a criminal offence. The trouble is, it's been made so easy by the system, perhaps its anonymity... in fact, maybe it's the system that's to blame and the 'fraudsters' are just innocent victims of that system........................... sounds familiar; would you buy this argument?
