I don't remember what was on the forms, but i am fairly certain they told me in the store that shoes did not count at JCP. I was annoyed because I had already gone to Kohl's, and I think shoes were fine there. I could have bought shoes there instead of more pants.

I bought shoes
 

I and my wife:D submitted claims for the JCP promotion. I purchased online (on the last day of the promotion) and one of the orders included a pair of shoes. I submitted my email order confirmation and received both vouchers last week. Shoes were definitely in the mix.

Hate to ask the obvious, but your total purchase price was $125 BEFORE any tax or shipping charges?

If they believe you are not entitled, why wouldn't they?

rejected submission
 

In response to above.

What I meant there was that I hope they have some mechanism for resubmissions and simple disputes rather than go directly to some sort of legal arbitration. I seems like a lot of hassle if they only made a simple math mistake. In the terms and conditions, the post card they sent back, on the form and on the website they do not give any clue of what you should do in this case. Most rebates and promotions allow for this.

Also, yes the total is $125 before taxes, after discounts and so on. Glad to see someone else bought shoes and it counted toward the total.

I'm getting frustrated with this.
I sent in my request form in late August. Terms say they will call you in 2 weeks.
About Sept 29 I received an automated message saying that they (a live agent) would call within 1 week.
Yesterday another taped message says they would call by Oct 18th.
This service is very poor. I am eager to finalize my reservations.

File a BBB resolution and they'll get back to you in a day or two.

Maybe...I filed one last Friday and not a peep... mine is regarding the flight. The first BBB complaint I filed they called in a day.

I filed one over the weekend on Kohl's.

How much contact did you have with Koh's corporate staff before doing this?

I filed mine against TLC

I had no other contact; just filed BBB complaint.
Today I had a message from a TLC live agent about my reservation. By the time I arrived home, it was past 5, their closing time.
I plan on calling her back tomorrow.

I got an email...with a phone number to call.... missed the 5pm too. Will call tomorrow.

I see. You have a problem with Kohl's, but rather than tell them, you file a complaint.

On Friday, I called the TLC number and spoke to the rep who called me on Wed.
She said she would look into it and call me back on Monday (I'm looking at DC in April '08).
I thought she would have had it lined up by the time I called her. The attempt continues...

I had some questions about the promo (finally received my cert about 12 weeks after submission), and just had an interesting conversation with a CSR. I want to use mine for a stay in the Palm Springs area on a specific weekend. There's only 1 hotel listed in the area. She told me that the form HAS to be completed with three hotel choices and three dates listed otherwise they'll reject it. I asked her what am I supposed to do when you don't offer 3 hotels in an area? She said list 2 other hotels that are "close by". My reply--but I don't want something that's 2 hours away.

Now comes the interesting part--she told me they have other hotels they can use that aren't listed in the booklet or on the website. They can request an "exchange". The agents don't book anything until speaking with you on the phone. I further told her I don't want 3 different dates. She said put down your #1 choice, then for #2 and #3 list the date before & date after. She said if they can't get you the hotel and/or date, they'll send you another cert.

Being the savvy people of promos that we are, I'm skeptical. We all now know there's no accountability when a CSR of any company provides you with wrong info. My guess would be the "other" available hotels would be along the lines of Ho Jo's (when you're seeing a Hilton or Marriott on the list). Then look how long it took for the original certs to be sent--how long would it take for a replacement?

I think I will save mine until I plan a trip to a city with at least 3 possible hotel choices. I would be very interested to read the details of any FTer who had a positive booking experience with this promo.

Today I had a message from a rep with Levi Strauss, the parent company of Dockers (I filed a BBB on Kohl's- see above). She stated how disappointed Dockers is with TLC and that she would look into it on my behalf and call me tomorrow.
TLC promised to call today, but did not.

It is too bad these companies can't first do a bit of research to see how these offers turn out. Obviously there is a problem when giving "valuable" items with minimal purchase requirements.

Was anyone given an extension to use with the 617- number? I've only been able to dial 0 and leave voicemails, which haven't yielded a return call. I keep thinking my rep (Ashley) has an extension but "forgot" to mention it.

I think that having spoken to the Dockers people really made TLC take my case more seriously.
I finally talked to my TLC rep, Pam, and we tried the dates and hotels that I had requested. They were in DC and were $ 300+ per night. She said they had no dates with "promotional" prices. I think she meant that they were too expensive.
She started suggesting numerous other hotels that were not on the original list. I finally went with a Residence Inn in Arlington-Pentagon City, a hotel that I was looking at also. It was only $149/night so she made the reservation. I paid $44 taxes. As another person suggested, I checked my name and confirmation # on hotels.com and my reservation came up (status states "confirmed"). Nothing shows up direct with Marriott yet. I'd like to get credit with my Marriott rewards account. I was thinking of emailing hotels.com with my Marriott #, but I will wait a little.
She also sent me 2 restaurant.com certificates. I know this seems lame, but I didn't want to argue this also, so I accepted.
In retrospect, I feel that I might have gotten more (my first choice of hotel) if I pushed harder, but still got a good deal.

That's too bad that they seem to have a cap on the value. I had hopes of using it for a nice getaway where the prices are all $300 or so. It sounds like that probably won't go through.

The max value cap was never mentioned anywhere in the delivered documentation (incl T/Cs). What makes you think value is the impeding factor (instead of room availability)?

They talk about "promotional" rooms being available. I think this means rooms at lower prices.

Keep in mind that this is a very poorly designed promo. Many hotels are on the list purely for advertising purposes -- TLC had no intentions of ever buying a room there. Similarly, with the flight promo, there are several airports for which TLC just can't find any "promotional" rates -- no matter how flexible you are in terms of departure dates and/or destinations.

You have two options: Accept what they offer you as a substitute, or complain. It's not unreasonable to do the latter, since there is nothing about a dollar cap, nor a "promotional rates only" stipulation, in the T&Cs of the original offer.

What are they offering for substituting the free flight? I'm in my fourth week waiting for a response on my RESUBMISSION. My original request was shot down on the promotional BS. I'm looking at my resubmission dates and the fares are over $400 (dep CRW or ROA), so I believe I'm going to hear the same line again. Has anyone been successful getting a non-listed destination? Say, SAN instead of LAX? (I've found sub-$400 fares to SAN and ONT on those dates.) Choosing GSO would be my only "easy way out" on reaching SFO/LAX/LAS, but that more than doubles my airport drive time.

What can I threaten? Is it reasonable to file a complaint with my state's AG over this?

Your thought was correct. That said, there had never been any specific $ amount mentioned anywhere (exceeding which will be NO DEAL). The word "promotional" can mean different thing to different people.

Comment on another post which ponders if filing a complaint to the local state AG would be appropriate. I think so. It would be on the ground of false advertising.

I think you might want to contact one of the lawyers in the Ralph's case I mentioned in post 4.

Once again, it seems the sponsors didn't do their homework. I believe the sponsor wasn't out to cheat you. They thought they were getting some great deal. A bit of research would have sent them running away from this type of deal. In any case, they are responsible for the agency they hired to do this for them.

Really Bad Experience
 

I'll try to condense this, but will start by saying if you look at BBB for TLC Marketing you'll find 111 complaints for this year (a week ago it was 97). I sent in my cert approx 6 weeks in advance of my trip date of Dec. 7. After waiting the required time, I started calling. Every time I got another excuse & runaround--told to call back later, 3-5 days, next week etc. No one ever contacted me as promised until I filed a complaint with BBB.

That prompted a TLC rep to call me yesterday. I'm guessing it was her first day on the job, as she put me on hold about 10 times and at one point said I have to go, I'll call you back. She did not have the hotel that was listed in the booklet available at the "promotional rate", even though the hotel has plenty of rooms available at a rate of about $138. I am looking for something in the Palm Springs area--there are at least a hundred hotels with availability under $150 for my dates.

She had only one choice for me, Palm Mountain Resort. After reading reviews, I declined. Some reviews described a nice room & stay, so they must have received the refurbished rooms. Others said their room was filthy, dark, cockroaches, scum & mildew bathrooms, tattered furniture, sagging beds with springs poking through, hanging electrical outlets. I phoned the hotel and learned with the promo I'd receive a "standard" room (i.e. not refurbished); one reviewer described the place as being akin to a Mexican roadside motel. I was told by the TLC CSR "tax" would be $44; when you check the hotel's website tax comes to $24. CSR said they don't send new certs but I can call any time to book something else later; I've called twice since & no return phone call from TLC.

MA BBB says they're closing my file as case has been resolved, per the company.

There's quite a dialog about this promo on FatWallet. Recently people who have been lucky enough to get something booked, arrive to find their room hasn't been paid for by TLC. I sure wasn't going to risk that happening with all the time I've already spent on this. Besides the BBB, I've also filed complaints with the MA & CA Attorney General's offices.

Well, after reading all the previous posts, I think I won't even try to use my certificate.

Chalk this one up to experience. Dockers and Kohl's got a boost in sales. We got a fairly good discount on the Dockers' purchases, but not sure we would have bought $100 worth except to qualify for this promotion.

Lesson learned. Think I'll pass on any such future promotions like this unless I can check out the company handling the promotion.

I don't mean to tell you what to do, but I would advise you to try it out. I was able to get 2 nights in Arlington VA.

Semi-Successful Ending
 

I was able to get 2 nights through this promo for Vegas, Dec. 24 & 25, a quick trip we decided to make to visit the in-laws over Christmas. Not a very good bang for my $100 Dockers buck, but I just wanted to be done with this. Hotel rates were low for these 2 nights, so they offered me a choice of several properties--I chose Orleans as we didn't need to be on the Strip and I'd read the rooms were decent & large. Booked a second room myself as well; the rate was $60 which also included 2 breakfast and 2 dinner buffets. But other options offered (all had rates under $100 for these dates) were: Hard Rock, Luxor, Stratosphere, Westin, Southpoint and a few other dives I didn't bother writing down.

Room was prepaid, so no problems there. They gave me the option of a $30 food & beverage credit at the hotel or two $25 restaurant.com gift certs; I chose the $30 and it showed on my account as promised.

Good luck to everyone else, I'd say give it a try and contact the BBB if you don't get a response from TLC Marketing. I'm pretty certain that's the only reason they worked with me. Would be interesting to see what they offer in pricey cities such as NY or Boston.

I'm going to Vegas, too. As it happens, I'll be there on a pretty expensive weekend. The rates at most of the hotels listed in the brochure are in the high $200s. They called me within a week of receiving my voucher and the guy asked where I wanted to go right away, as if he hadn't even gotten my details. He eventually offered Palace Station or Vegas Club; I took Palace Station. The rates are $160 a night for the same nights through the hotel, though they apparently also offer $39 rooms sometimes. :eek: I'm not overly pleased, but I kind of painted myself into a corner by booking flights without checking hotel prices first.

Last weekend I stayed two nights at the Millenium Hilton, NYC. There were no surprises at the hotel and I'm glad to have participated in the promo.^

Has anyone used the flight vouchers? I saw one post elsewhere saying someone flew US and got miles, but I am looking for more results. It's probably not worth the hassle for me unless I can get miles. If I can, I'll consider it a cheap MR.

Did anyone go for the golf vouchers? This was proving to being a challenge too. Appreciate any feedback of those who went for golf instead and your success rate in using the certs. Thanks.

Hotel-Yes, Flights-Yes
 

After several (5-10) voice messages left by TLC over the past week or so, I have successfully booked a hotel package and 2 flights through the 2 Dockers promos.

Hotel: 2 nights at the James Hotel Chicago in March. The James wasn't even listed in the promo materials, so I was quite surprised to hear the rep even mention it. When he did, I jumped on it. The 2 nights I am staying are listed on the James website as $300 and $400 for my stay. Seeing as I paid $125 for the promo (and returned a few items that didn't fit or my wife ixnayed) and I am paying $52 in taxes, overall an EXCELLENT result. And St. Paddy's day the first night to boot!!!!! Never been, but have always wanted to be in Chicago for St. Patrick's day.^

Flights: Wife and I MSN-SFO in June. Total for flights booked through YX:$606 taxes paid by me:$180. Not great result, but not bad. However, TLC had the EXACT airline and flights that I wanted. :D Used TY points to put my kids on the same flights for another $130 in taxes with the fixed-point option through TY, and now we're looking pretty good. $1300 in flights for around $500 total spend between Dockers purchases and taxes.

The nice thing about the whole deal was that I never filed a BBB complaint, never threatened to when I spoke with anyone from TLC, and they called me every day or every other day after their initial contact w/me.(I was incredibily unavailable when they were calling) In fact, I called their number yesterday after the latest round of phone-tag, and while it was ringing, the rep rang me back and said he saw that I had just called and tried me back right away.

I was very cordial with both the hotel rep and the flight rep, mentioned to them that I imagined they were getting a lot of crap from others due to the popularity of the promos, and they readily admitted as much. I thanked them for their persistence in trying to get back to me, and I think I shocked them a little bit that I wasn't being a complete horse's a**.

Overall, even with a few hiccups and a little bit of a delay on the initial response from TLC, I am pretty happy with how this turned out.

I called recently. CSR said someone will call back. 5 weeks later, still no call.

It is good to learn some people are having success without the BBB or legal route. Just don't have time for this. :mad:

As I indicated on Day 1 of this thread, these things have a tendency to not work out as well as the merchant had planned. In the end, you are eventually going to get something out of a major corporation, if the contracter fails to provide the expected bounty. It's a pain, and it might take a class action lawsuit, but in the end, you'll get something, if you are willing to work at it.

A couple of weeks ago I got the automated call about the "free" Dockers flight, but that's the last good news.

Three days ago, which is 30 days before my my first requested flight date, I called TLC (866-377-4084 1,3,0) and talked with a pleasant CSR who said she would expedite the Booking "department" to get something done. She said to call back by lunch today if I had not been contacted. She seemed to say that the Booking "department" doesn't work Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

In the absence of any callback, today I called in again just before noon Eastern time. Today's less-pleasant CSR said to call back in 4 days. He said he will notify the Booking "agent" to contact me.

Both CSRs complained that their computers were slow...it seems that TLC could double their productivity by fixing that problem.

I'm glad that the BBB / Attorney General option exists, if this whole thing bogs down too much.

One bit of advice to others: Carefully note the date that you get the automated phone call, as both CSRs asked for that bit of information and one mentioned a 14 day (from automated call to human call-back) internal policy that they have. The CSRs cannot look up the date that the automated call was made.

I decided to look up TLC Marketing on the Boston BBB website.

Here is the summary about TLC:
The Bureau processed a total of 207 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total 207 complaints closed in the last 36 months, 207 were closed in the last 12 months.

These complaints concerned:
24 regarding Advertising Issues
1 regarding Advertised product not available
8 regarding Advertised terms not honored
3 regarding Advertisement did not disclose all conditions required to take advantage of an offer
1 regarding Advertisement misrepresented a product
6 regarding Advertisement misrepresented a service
1 regarding Bait & switch advertisement
4 regarding False or unsubstantiated claims in advertisement
38 regarding Contract Issues
37 regarding Failure to honor a contract or agreement
1 regarding Invalid or false contract
3 regarding Credit, Billing or Collection Issues
3 regarding Failure to substantiate charges
37 regarding Customer Service Issues
14 regarding Failure to provide promised assistance or support for products or services
23 regarding Failure to respond to phone calls or written requests for assistance or support
37 regarding Delivery Issues
2 regarding Late delivery of products
3 regarding Late delivery of services
16 regarding Non-delivery of products
16 regarding Non-delivery of services
1 regarding Guarantee or Warranty Issues
1 regarding Failure to provide promised written warranty or guarantee
6 regarding Refund or Exchange Issues
6 regarding Failure to honor refund, exchange or credit policies
2 regarding Sales Practice Issues
1 regarding Sales presentation misrepresented the service
1 regarding Sales presentation not consistent with advertisement
59 regarding Service Issues
43 regarding Delayed completion of service
14 regarding Failure to honor service estimate or agreement
2 regarding Improper or inferior service

These complaints were closed as:
25 Administratively Closed
25 BBB determined that despite the company's effort to address complaint issues, the consumer remained dissatisfied.
182 Resolved

For reference, in late November 2007 (just 2-1/2 months ago) this data appeared in message #107: "I'll try to condense this, but will start by saying if you look at BBB for TLC Marketing you'll find 111 complaints for this year (a week ago it was 97)."

Wow! Imagine how many more disgruntled people who had not had the time to file a BBB complaint. Must be thousands :td: