I am surprised that people are so "mellow" about this and that there has not been more of an outcry. Though I feel the certificates are still a good value, I feel a little bit "scammed/cheated."

As of this writing, the web site still says 4 courses. Since Marriott has been made aware of this, the website should have been corrected by now. I ordered several at least 3 weeks ago and the certificates say 3 courses.

Let us define/discuss terms here:

An example of deceptive advertising might be when the airlines offer "seats from $99" when they have 2 seats on one of their many flights at this price while all the other seats are much higher. If less than 1% are sold at $99 that seems deceptive to me, but it cannot be called false.

On the other hand, if your website says 4 courses and you send a certificate for only 3 courses, that is false advertising. Some of the attorneys I mentioned this to called it fraudulent. This is similar to the menu saying your steak comes with a salad and then presenting your bill with a charge for the salad. I would be pretty upset.

Marriott has done the right thing by offering a refund, but they really fumbled the ball here and since they have not corrected the website or offered any apology or explanation, the ball remains on the ground.