As Jeep reels in the wake of the fallout over 'The World’s Most Remote Dealership' promotion, The Australasian Promotional Marketing Association says Jeep and Cummins and Partners have been victims of their own success.
Speaking to AdNews APMA chair David Lo said: “This is a very grey area because an agency like Cummins and Partners and a brand like Jeep don't deliberately set out to frustrate consumers or to have something run poorly.”
“It's like the people you work with don't come to work everyday with the sole intention to destroy everything, there’s a real intent to do something good in the industry. So if you take that at face value there are circumstances that sometimes things are unforeseen,” he said.
Lo admitted that the promotion could have been handled better, which was "always easy to say in hindsight."
"Maybe there’s some valuable lessons here about how popular that promotion was, what the likely redemption was, the kind [and volume] of calls and the app that was set up to handle it. They may never had envisioned that so many people would have jumped on," he said.
Jeep's 'The World’s Most Remote Dealership' sparked outrage yesterday when it emerged that the number to call and purchase a Jeep Cherokee for $10,000 was leaked on internet forum Whirlpool. Some have argued that the leak constitutes a technical glitch and suggest that under the terms and conditions of the competition, it should have been halted.
On the company's Facebook page it said that for the promotion it received over 30,000 calls for a chance to buy just 10 vehicles. Although people immediately took to the page to raise concerns over the fact that the number for the promotion only appeared 10 minutes after it was due to start.
It didn't take long for pages to be created on Facebook titled “If you think the JEEP give away was a scam” and “Jeep Fiasco Class Action Lawsuit”.
Both pages have called for members to complain about the promotion to the ACCC.
In a statement regarding the promotion The ACCC said: “The ACCC is aware of consumer concerns relating to the Jeep ‘Remote Dealership’ promotion. Generally speaking, the Australian Consumer Law prohibits businesses from making false, misleading or deceptive representations and concerns may arise where consumers are misled into error from representations used as part of the promotion of products or services.
“Whether the activities of a business raise concerns under these provisions depends on the circumstances of each case. In making any assessment as to what action it would take, the ACCC would have regard to the elements set out in its Compliance and Enforcement Policy.”
At the time of publishing AdNews had made multiple attempts to contact Jeep, parent company FiatChrysler and Cummins and Partners, but all parties seem to have gone to ground. Jeep has been posting on its Facebook page though.
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