There’s a very prominently featured sale on the website of Dick’s Sporting Goods for the next few days. It’s a pretty good deal: $20 off with a $100 purchase! Only reader Dave couldn’t figure out which items on the site were eligible for this promotion. He sought help from a customer service chat rep and learned the sad truth: only twelve items are part of this promotion.

UPDATE: It turns out that this customer service rep doesn’t know the company’s own catalog. That happens sometimes. While only twelve items come up when you search on the terms “$20 off $100,” there’s a wide variety of items that are part of the promotion. It’s just not easy to find them, that’s all.

Remember, this is a promotion that’s the first thing customers see on the home page, with a banner ad promoting it on every page for good measure. It applies to twelve items. One of them costs $300, but you’re not getting $60 off after spending that much. “[I complained] to the rep that this ad is annoying,” wrote Dave. “A ‘dick’ move, if you will. All she could say was sorry.” Not that customer service chat representatives normally have a lot of power, and they probably had that conversation many, many times today, since how to find the $20 off items isn’t spelled out clearly on the site.

We contacted Dick’s for an explanation, but haven’t heard anything back yet.

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