Holden's employee discount for all policy bites them in the bum!

[Falcon Freak]

Link to original Herald-Sun article

Holden agrees to ACCC refunds
By Warwick Stanley
19apr06

HOLDEN has been forced to offer full refunds to hundreds of customers who bought discounted Commodores and other cars after the consumer watchdog found it guilty of misleading advertising.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said today it had accepted court-enforceable undertakings offered by GM Holden Ltd in relation to its recent high-profile "You Pay What We Pay" advertising campaign.

The refund offer applies to consumers who bought the vehicles between October 21 and November 9 last year, when they were first subject to an advertised special discount.

The ACCC said Holden's promotion of its best selling range had run from October to December 2005 among much hype that "For the first time ever, all Australians can enjoy the financial benefit of Holden Employee Pricing".

But an investigation revealed that employees of the US-owned Melbourne-based car giant received discounts that were not available to the general public, the commission said.

It said these included discounts on factory fitted options and accessories as well as a discounted dealer delivery fee.

At the beginning of the advertising campaign, a special discount of between 25 per cent and 29 per cent was also available to employees but not the general public for selected VZ Commodore variants and WL Statesman and Caprice vehicles.

"In financial terms, this meant that a consumer who, at the commencement of the promotion, purchased a VZ Commodore Executive sedan with air conditioning as a factory fitted option and a $1495 dealer delivery charge, paid $4729 more to purchase the car than a Holden employee buying the same car," the ACCC statement said.

Holden had believed that the inclusion of fine print qualifications regarding options, accessories and dealer delivery fee had limited the offer to the baseline price of the vehicle, but the ACCC disagreed.

"The ACCC's view was that the headline statement `You Pay What We Pay' was so powerful that no qualification in fine print could undo the message it conveyed to consumers," ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said in the statement.

"The undertaking given by GM Holden provides a mechanism for redress for between 250 and 300 consumers who did not receive the (initial) special discount."

Mr Samuel said while there has been an overall improvement in advertising practices by car manufacturers, the ACCC "will continue to seek improvement where substantive concerns are identified".

"An important message to anyone using powerful and novel messages in their advertising as GM Holden did, is that the message communicated by the advertising to consumers and the goods or service ultimately delivered to those consumers must be a perfect match."

A spokesman for Holden said the company had worked closely with the ACCC to resolve what was "a simple human mistake".

"We offered the public Holden employee pricing but had mistakenly offered a second discount to Holden employees at the same time for a brief period," the spokesman said.

"This should not have occurred so we are happy to offer refunds to the 314 affected customers if they wish to take that up."

The spokesman said the company had sold a total of 11,000 cars throughout the campaign.

[Scott]

314 x $4729 = 1,500,000.00

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, I hate Holden.

[Falcon_Phill]

Not quite, but HAHAHAHHAHA.

[Scott]

Originally Posted by Falcon_Phill

Not quite, but HAHAHAHHAHA.

Fine, 314 x $4729 = $1,484,906.00.

oh, and Holden..........HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

[apolloxbgt]

Originally Posted by Falcon Freak

"This should not have occurred so we are happy to offer refunds to the 314 affected customers if they wish to take that up."

Like you wouldn't take it up!

[Redrum]

If only the ACCC applied the same rule to all politicians!!!!!! out:

[GT-P 390]

As a lawyer this pleases me no end.

1 for the consumer :the_finge

[AlbertM]

Is the media turning on Holden?

They never would have said "US owned" before

[phat_stak_tipa]

hahahahahahahahaha ИИИИing hahahahahahahaha

[Scott]

I can just imagine them offering the refund in the middle of a 300 page advertising mailout.

[Woz]

Originally Posted by Falcon Freak

"This should not have occurred so we are happy to offer refunds to the 314 affected customers if they wish to take that up."

"No, no. Please, keep my money. Infact, here, take a few thousand more just to show that I appreciate what you were trying to do. I understand that what has happened here is nothing more than a simple mistake. For this reason, I honestly believe that the embarassment you must now be feeling is worth $4729 of my money, therefore, I seek no further compensation."

**Flicks Holden a shiney gold dollar.**

Haha. That'll learn 'em!

[Falcon Freak]

Anybody read issue #333 of GoAuto e-news? If not them here is the link to download it:

Click here to download

I find the article on the first page interesting - 'complaint by a rival car company'.

FF

[Smoked]

Holden got :

God Bless Ford.

[2kool4u]

where did you guys get 314x4279 from, the $4279 thing was an example, not what people actually did pay.

[Peuty]

I am not one for ИИИИИ stirring, but can someone link this to LS1.com.au? Pleaseeee?

[GRNKPR]

When i asked my brother n law about Holdens pricing policy (he is a designer at HOLDEN) he said that there 21% discount has been put on hold as they were getting investegated on their employee pricing "you pay what we do " You pay or get a discount of 12% and ours is 21% ??????????????????????????????????????????????

[Phoon Hoon]

Originally Posted by Peuty

I am not one for ИИИИИ stirring, but can someone link this to LS1.com.au? Pleaseeee?

Someone beat you too it:

http://www.ls1.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=54005