Update: I’m an idiot. I forgot to include her email, then didn’t check. Apologies, guys!

Susie’s eight months pregnant. She needs some decent back support. So she was excited when she got a coupon from OfficeMax, offering 30% off any order of $150 or more. She imagined long, languorous days in her office working from home, a homuncular Winston Churchill look-alike suckling at her teat as her spine was cushioned by cool, soft leather.

But OfficeMax nailed her with the old bait-and-switch. When she called to place the order, the 30% off coupon magically transformed into a $30 off coupon.

Susie’s pissed — she’s the wrong pregnant lawyer to piss off. Her email, after the jump.

See the coupon I received by mail and then the hell I just endured below…

“There is an online phone coupon valid thru 10/7 – 30% off your purchase of $150 or more – “to take advantage of this special offer, call: 1-800-OFFICEMAX and mention offer #107620310821 or shop online and enter this promo code on the shopping cart page: GHA2LOXLRS8BVNW8C”

I went to the site. Spent a whole lot of time – over three days – picking out two perfect home office chairs. One is for me (I’m 8 months pregnant and soon to be working from home more often) and one for my husband.

The site didn’t accept the promo code. So I called in the order. They said the coupon was valid. Phew!

So after 15 minutes of giving my details and setting up a “Office Max Customer ID #” – I was ready to order. Gave the 8 digit codes for the chairs. Had to hold for a long time as “the system is slow today.” I asked if they could call me back to let me know when the chairs would arrive. She tried again. Although the chairs are “in stock” I am told the chairs would take 14-21 business days to arrive. Fine, whatever. Let’s do it.

She calculates the price, but I notice the total seems high. She forgot the coupon. She recalculated the price with the coupon… it was still very high.

Why? Well she said the coupon was for $30 off – not, as the email said, for 30% off. She said, oh yes, that was a typo… the email they sent should have said $30.

I get peevy. I made it very clear it was not her fault, but that this is a bait and switch scam.

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