Ace Hardware marketing meeting
Marketer: I’ve got a great idea for a sales gimmick! You can get a discount on whatever you fit in this bag!
Finance type: Unless that bag is glued shut, no way. We can’t afford it.
Marketer: [gleam in her eye] …oh, I know how we can afford it. [cue evil laughter]
Or maybe it was just a screw up on the email side of things,but it’s still funny. David writes that he received the email below this morning, a full two days after the one-day-only sale. We just hope Macy’s doesn’t read this post.
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Probably a hang-up in the email server on Ace’s side or David’s side. I wouldn’t put much weight on this.
I actually showed up on the 28th for some plumbing tools and the store was packed because of this sale. I, of course, was covered in pipe gunk and wasn’t about to meander through the store to fill a paper bag.
@Diet-Orange-Soda: So you paid an extra 10-20% because it was too hard to put your items into a paper bag?
@Corporate_guy: No. She gave me the discount sans paper bag. I even left without a bag. Go environment! (I only bought $4 worth of parts anyway.)
@Diet-Orange-Soda: Senator Stevens?
@Diet-Orange-Soda: yeah I bet this is client side from using a crappy email server.
@Diet-Orange-Soda:
Uh.. The gunk from inside the pipe, or like PVC glue and flux?
Because no one likes a sewage-y consumer.
@ScottRose: Oh yeah. Sewage. Fun.
The best part is that they ask you to add their email to ensure “future” sales.
How are you going to print out that “bag” anyway? I don’t have a bag printer.
@bigmil87: ironic thing is that the bag printer doesn’t fit in the bag.
@bigmil87: You’re not supposed to print out a bag. The bags are supplied at the store.
@Zeniq: *WHOOSH*
Did then mean to say March 28 but some one told the wrong data to people who did the ad art work?
Did there e-mail system / other in side stuff get backed up and you got this late?
@Joeb5: March 28th is unlikely. You don’t want news of discounts going out too far in advance, it would have the potential to kill sales from date of ad release to the date of the sale.
@Joeb5: No, the promotion was on Saturday, I saw ads for it.
It has to be an email server issue.
I got a postcard from my local Ace telling me about it sometime last week. I went in and saved some bucks on dremel tips.
@Pete:
Hotmail. You gets what you pays for.
Went in Saturday night to take advantage of this. Ended up stuffing into one bag all in original packaging:
1 toilet seat
2 4 packs CFL bulbs
3 bed/bath door knob sets
1 can spray paint
1 5pk dust masks
6 or 8 various electrical covers
It was all good until I went to use a $50 gift card from my Discover card points. Since the purchase was over $50, it wouldn’t ring up. They couldn’t figure out how to only charge 50 to the card or either the other 43 to my credit card. Neither could their foreign call center. I finally had them ring up two purchases. We were able to get pretty close to $50.
Does anybody know of a use for an Ace giftcard with $.03 left on it???
@jsbeagle: Check the individual nails & screws. You might be able to get one for 3 cents.
@jsbeagle: one letter/number for your mailbox.
@jsbeagle: My kids enjoy using them as pretend credit cards.
@jsbeagle: They’re always useful to jimmy open a locked door…especially when your keys are inside.
@jsbeagle:
Looks like you had quite a night planned..
@jsbeagle: If they couldn’t figure out how to charge $50 of your purchase to the card and the rest to another, then the cashier you worked with is either poorly trained or a complete imbecile. It’s not hard. You type 50.00 into the register and swipe the card. Voila!
The problem with those kind of gift cards is that if you don’t put in the exact amount, it tries to charge all of it to the card and gets denied because it can’t cover it. The cashier should have known that.
@Nicole Glynn: Some very registers won’t let you alter the total to take multiple tender.
The explanation you proffered is probably more likely, but I have had places refuse multiple tender because of the “lockout” on the total. Usually happens at chain stores/places that are corporately owned.
Probably something to do with employees taking off part of the tender and then just voiding out the sale, or otherwise screwing with the register.
@Nicole Glynn: It’s possible that if they have a touchscreen register they were pressing the icon for the exact tender use. Our registers have two different places to click for credit, debit, check, and cash. If you hit the one on the left, it doesn’t let you enter in an amount, if you hit the one on the right, it asks you how much you want to charge to that tender.
See, I would have gone with Sunday, February 29th for the date.
I love my local Ace by the way. I never have to walk far to find help and the employees are good for so much more than just grunting “over there” like the guys at Home Depot and Lowes.
@Diet-Orange-Soda:
Well, this is exactly why companies should not rely on e-mail marketing. I hope ACE sees this. Doesn’t matter if the problem is on their side or Hotmail’s, it is embarassing and cost ACE sales.
That said, I routinely get mail pieces from Macy’s and others days after the “POSTMASTER PLEASE DELIVER BY” date is if the post office held it until it was too late on purpose. What a waste of money!
@PLATTWORX: I don’t think they were specifically relying on it, I think this was just a prong on a multi-toothed fork. They had in store and newspaper ads also.
Unless you live under a rock, this was on every TV station for the last week….
@ponycyndi: I live under a rock
. Oh well at least I’m like Patrick Star!
@bigmil87: Where is your rock? We might be neighbors.
Good thing I don’t watch lots of TV, or the bad reception in my geological formation might be annoying.
@ponycyndi:
Correction:
Unless you live under a rock or have a DVR, this was on every TV station for the last week….
@ponycyndi: I don’t have an antennae (digital or otherwise) or cable/satellite/etc.
Hence, even though I have a TV (the object) I don’t have TV (the concept).
So I didn’t even know the promotion happened.
@ponycyndi:
So… this is the OP’s fault because he didn’t watch enough TV commercials the week prior to the sale?
…
… Really?
@ponycyndi: Um, hi, I don’t watch TV more than maybe once a week (I got my HDTV because of my Xbox, not to turn my brain into alien mush for Alec Baldwin) and I for SURE don’t live under a rock. If I did, I’d be pissed at the rent I’m paying.
So, no, I did not see any ACE hardware commercials.
Finally, a use for my Delorian!
Books-A-Million does this to me occasionally. Late Sat afternoon I’ll get a coupon in the mail, when I could have gone to the store Sat morning and used it if I’d gotten it during the week. With the recession, though, I haven’t been getting any lately.
@Trencher93: Neither have I, but I can’t say it’s due to the recession. Ba-dum-boom!
They did a mailer, which made it to me prior to the sale date, and sent me an email that I received 5 or 6 days in advance. I think the glitch, if any was on the hotmail end, not Ace.
Ace is great! You can always find someone to help you, and the salespeople are knowledgeable and friendly. I managed to redo my entire master bathroom from lighting to plubming while DH was out of town for three weeks. I couldn’t have done it without Ace — I just brought in old parts to show them what I was up to, and they told me exactly what I needed to do next. It took many trips because I had no idea what I was doing when it came to the electrical and plumbing, but with the help of Ace and the internet, I surprised DH with the total bathroom overhaul when he returned from his trip!
They had an ad for this sale in Omaha’s Sunday paper (03/01/2009). I thought it was for next Saturday but after reading this I checked the ad and it’s for 02/28/09. Good use of advertising dollars “Ace”
woot is notorious for this-
i’ll get one of their newsletters that hints at a wootoff, usually a good 24 hours into the wootoff.
@Gstein: That’s funny, I’ve always gotten mine ahead of time. I rarely read them but I always know a late night is just around the corner!
You could probably find whatever you need cheaper at a different store, even after taking 20% off at ACE.
I received my Ace Hardware email (same as shown above) Feb. 25th.
print of the mail, go to ace hardware and claim you want everything you can fit into the bag, the timestamp never lies