Originally Posted by
Dan Druff
Alan, while you were initially questioned (and in a harsh manner) by a longtime troll, I think everyone else in this thread just wanted to see you avoid besmirching your good name by advertising a shady deal by a company with a terrible reputation. I also wanted everyone considering this deal to understand what they were getting into, so nobody would end up getting victimized by them.
I hope you don't really feel "reamed" in this thread.
You do a lot of advertisements, and it's inevitable that one of them will end up being for a shady company or service. That happens, and I know you didn't mean it to happen. As you said, you had no control in this case over which advertiser won the auction, so you didn't choose them.
However, I just felt it was important to halt any potential damage to your viewers/readers by completely pulling the ad, disassociating with the company, and shutting the whole thing down. Even if you run this ad with the resort fees and $25 "refundable deposit" clearly stated, you are still encouraging viewers/readers to do business with a disreputable company who is likely to screw them in some other way. Read the Yelp reviews for many examples of this.
Furthermore, there's still plenty of things we don't know. What is the truly story with availability? They claimed to me that it would be "any nights, Sunday through Thursday", then sheepishly admitted that "New Year's week isn't included", and then "well, every major holiday during those days also isn't included." But I have to assume it goes beyond that. It's possible someone will spend the money for this package and find very few dates "available" after going through all of the expense and waiting period to book.
I believe you have an easy legal "out" here, in that you ran an ad with false terms stated, and they would not honor the terms for your viewers and readers. Therefore, you pulled it. No judge would rule in their favor. If they want a refund, tell them to go back to the charity, and then explain to the charity what happened. Shady companies like this don't typically sue people when their hand is caught in the cookie jar, because they want to AVOID the spotlight upon what they're doing.
While I understand your pulling the other charity ads you're giving away, I think that's a bit extreme. This is the first time in your many years of running ads that something like this has happened, right? You can simply ad a term to the prize, "Winner must clearly state all important terms and conditions of any deal advertised. Alan's Best Buys has the right to pull any ad without refund which intentionally mislead viewers." That will be the end of shadeball companies trying to get one over on you, and if it still happens, it's even easier for you to remove the ad.
I hope you don't believe that this company's "management is reviewing this thread" and is "reviewing the phone calls". That's like Hillary Clinton offering to review her own e-mails and self-reporting if she found anything wrong (I bet Rob will like this reference).
Casablanca Express knows exactly what they are and what they're doing. They don't need to review anything, and they didn't make any "error" in misleading you or leaving out important terms/restrictions. That's their entire business model.
My suggestion: Tell Casablanca Express to go F themsleves, and continue running the other charity auctions. You're a generous guy to offer this for charity. Don't let this one experience ruin that.