This is nothing new to me!
last year I was caught up in some unfair conditions and exclusions, last year I exposed Madman Entertainment on their unfair and exclusions on their gift cards, I wasn’t on the community at the time but did leave a common on the spot a shonky post last year on Facebook.
Here my story again! almost 2 years ago bought a VIP pass to Madman anime festival convention in Melbourne, as part of promotion the VIP ticket holders receive a random goody bag containing random goods such as gift vouchers, PVC figures or DVD’s. when got mine it contained some Anime DVDs and $50 Gift voucher I decided to save it for the annual summer sale.
On the night of January 16 2019 I decided to use the gift voucher after carefully reading the conditions stated on the advertisement and the conditions stated on the voucher. I load up the cart with $100 worth of items and after applying the code the final sale price had shot up to almost $400. I was in shock it almost like having the computer screen catapulted in my face! I had no but remove all but two items that I pay full price for and paid rest of balance with Pay Pal.
Shortly after that incident I post a common on Facebook to try to warn the others Otaku’s on the sale ad post.
I started to investigate to find out what went wrong, I rechecked the conditions and exclusion’s! while checking out the help section on the website, I found a question on frequently asked questions and made a shocking discovery! for many years Madman Entertainment won’t accept the vouchers on Sale Items and Pre-order products.
As I further investigated the conditions, the condition stated on voucher said some sale Items and no mention on pre-order products and these same vouchers can also be purchased at face value with same with equal real money and the advertisement mention apply voucher but no clear warning.
Put at simply! it shonky in two ways, firstly the conditions stated don’t match up to the actual conditions and when purchased alone to the equal face value of the voucher, it would be expected to perform in the same way as money you paid for it and that not case with these dodgy vouchers!
On the next day Madman entertainment did contact me on my messaging app and told was to contact an email address to resolve the issue it didn’t go well. They Accused me of not reading the conditions that was stated on the voucher and just threw me a $30 gift voucher and refunded the balance for first time offence and choice of remedy was not made me as didn’t want that, actually wanted items I had in the cart reinstated before the incident. I was not happy and trusted them more then 10 years.
Since then Madman now state the unfair conditions from Easter 2019
From an understanding point of view if the voucher is promo type then these unfair conditions and exclusions are fair as its a donated prize in competition or part of a promo just like what I stated above, I do find them unfair if it was purchased on its own at full price and by law! promo or not all exclusions and conditions must be clearly stated.
I’ve since then report it to the ACCC
