Is this misleading? - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

04/03/2008 04:23:59 PM · #1

So we have been using ebay as an advertising vehicle for rentphotostuff.com. We sell coupons for discounted rentals, usually 50% and 25% off 2 week rentals. The idea is that if people see it while searching for lenses, they may use our service or at least visit the site and maybe let their friends know about it.

We have had mixed success. Some people are all about it, they bid a few dollars in hopes to save $50. Others think the auction is for a purchase of the lens and bid $25 thinking they just bouth an 85 1.2L. Ebay is very clear on the rules of what constitutes a refund. People should never bid without reading the entire description.

Here is a link to an expired auction we posted. I want to know if this auction seems misleading.

original ebay coupon

Message edited by author 2008-04-03 17:01:48.

brownsm

Canon EOS-5D

04/03/2008 04:29:50 PM · #2

here are my thoughts. before scrolling down, I see a picture of an 85 L lens, and a title saying Canon L Professional Optics. Sure looks like an auction for that lens. Certainly your description clearly states what the auction is for, but I can see how folks would be confused. If I had run across this on e-bay, I would ultimately know it was for the coupon, but I would consider this a kind of bait-and-switch approach. I would expect the title and the picture to represent what I was actually bidding on, a 50% off coupon.

just my 2 cents.

Canon EOS-60D

Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS

04/03/2008 04:33:57 PM · #3

Agreed...also, the first sentence in the description beneath the coupon is "This auction is good for one 2 week rental of any 1 in stock Canon SLR lens from www.rentphotstuff.com." IMHO, it should state that the auction is good for a COUPON for a DISCOUNT on one 2 week rental, blah blah blah, even though the description shows that it is for a coupon. Just my additional 2 cents.

Judi

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

04/03/2008 04:37:32 PM · #4

It seems very clear to me. BTW, can you change your link to this Ebay Rental Auction to stop readers of this thread from having to scroll right to read the text.

JaimeVinas

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

04/03/2008 04:39:54 PM · #5

If you dont want to be misleading, you need to change the title from lense to lense rental.

SDW

Canon EOS-60D

Tamron AF 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di LD Aspherical IF for Canon

04/03/2008 04:46:35 PM · #6

First, I think it should be in the category of "Gift Certificates" under "other". Seems to be a lot of traffic in that category.
Second, I think your primary photo should be of the coupon not the lens.
third, I agree with others- the title should state lens rental.

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

04/03/2008 04:46:52 PM · #7

Why not save both parties any aggravation or confusion and just put the word "Rental" and/or "Rental Coupon" in the title?

Or you can completely go the other way with it and leave the title and change what you are selling to a "raffle ticket with the possibility of winning a chance to bid on a discount on a coupon for a rental of a really cool lense!"

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

04/03/2008 04:51:09 PM · #8

I appreciate your honest opinions. When we ran the coupons again, we ran them as Canon L Lens Rental Coupon and instead of the picture of a lens we used our logo for rentphotostuff.com.

I was more surprised by how many people bid and asked questions later or bid without reading the description. As an avid ebay user, I would never bid w/o reading. The title was labeled as such because we wanted it to fall in with the search terms. I always just assumed that people willing to shell out $1700 for lenses would read the description and know they can't get an 85 1.2L for $36.

The descriptions were clear. Ebay has very very clear terms on reading and asking questions before bidding. Anyone every hear the Xbox 360 box story?

Here is the link to the last coupon we ran.
revised ebay coupon

Judi

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

04/03/2008 04:54:26 PM · #9

Can you please edit your OP to stop this wide scrolling?

BeeCee

Nikon D40

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

04/03/2008 05:00:16 PM · #10

Weird, it doesn't wide-scroll for me, it shows on 3 lines.

Personally, unless I was already seriously planning to rent a lens I think I'd see the pic, scroll down enough to see the coupon, and dismiss it as something not really what I'd thought it was going to be. I'd then move on without going any further.

emorgan49

Olympus E-5

Olympus 50mm f/1.8 MF Normal Zuiko

04/03/2008 05:01:58 PM · #11

You don't say how mush the rental is normally.
The link doesn't take me to your website, just to an ebay page that tells me the link feature is no longer available.
I thought the first auction was perfectly clear - the coupon was Huge.

Spork99

OM System OM-1

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro

04/03/2008 05:02:33 PM · #12

I think you're just going to have to deal with the confusion unless it's crystal clear in the item heading.

Something like "Lens Rental Discount Coupon"

Even then you'll probably get questions and retracted bids.

You might consider a Buy-it-Now price as well.

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

04/03/2008 05:02:56 PM · #13

Originally posted by Jmnuggy:

Here is the link to the last coupon we ran.
revised ebay coupon

Much better. ...but then you got 0.99 instead of $25 ;-)

Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS for Canon

04/03/2008 05:06:20 PM · #14

just for the record, anyone that bid high, we had a $36 and a $51 bid got an email telling them they bid on a coupon and not a purchase. They got this email with plenty of time to cancel.

We really are not trying to rip people off or be misleading, just trying to drum up some business. Ebay has 125 million registered users, thats a lot of eyeballs to be in front of.

boyd2000

Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi

04/03/2008 05:14:25 PM · #15

One more issue. In the first add you have in the item description "Condition: New, Never Opened". You can only do that once per lens, and for rental lenses you're not going to make any money doing that. I see that part isn't there on the 2nd ad, so hopefully you've stopped doing that. Thanks for cleaning up the link.

drewbixcube

Canon EOS-7D

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM

04/03/2008 05:35:43 PM · #16

I actually have no problem with you using the lens name and picture in your ad. Maybe if you added "rental coupon" behind the lens name in the title that would make it look better. I agree you might benefit from a buy now price.

-drew

Side note-I just sent you an email about renting a couple lenses.

Nikon AF Nikkor 35mm f/2.0D

04/03/2008 06:05:46 PM · #17

the only problem with a buy it now price is once someone does it, the auction is over, ending fees and listing fees are assessed. With an auction if someone bids and realizes its a coupon and not a purchase they can retract their bid and the auction continues.

zarniwoop

Nikon D50

04/03/2008 06:31:01 PM · #18

Edit. Revised coupon seems fine. Didn't see it.

P.S. I like your website. If only the UK had something like that.

Message edited by author 2008-04-03 18:36:57.

ben4345

Nikon D700

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

04/03/2008 06:33:08 PM · #19

I blame schools for not teaching kids how to read!

Nobody

Pentax K-S2

Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX DG APO IF for Pentax

04/03/2008 07:27:04 PM · #20

I'm not an avid Ebay user, but to be honest, the concept of bidding on the rights to a discount seems very odd to me. While it would fall into the "if it's too good to be true, it probably is", I can see how someone might not get the concept of a coupon. Maybe if you quantified the savings without someone having to go to the website to see rental fees, it would help quantify the value for people.

BeeCee

Nikon D40

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

04/03/2008 07:52:23 PM · #21

Originally posted by Nobody:

I'm not an avid Ebay user, but to be honest, the concept of bidding on the rights to a discount seems very odd to me. While it would fall into the "if it's too good to be true, it probably is", I can see how someone might not get the concept of a coupon. Maybe if you quantified the savings without someone having to go to the website to see rental fees, it would help quantify the value for people.

But I think the idea IS to get them to go to the website, no?

Nobody

Pentax K-S2

Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX DG APO IF for Pentax

04/03/2008 08:03:18 PM · #22

Originally posted by BeeCee:

Originally posted by Nobody:
I'm not an avid Ebay user, but to be honest, the concept of bidding on the rights to a discount seems very odd to me. While it would fall into the "if it's too good to be true, it probably is", I can see how someone might not get the concept of a coupon. Maybe if you quantified the savings without someone having to go to the website to see rental fees, it would help quantify the value for people.

But I think the idea IS to get them to go to the website, no?

Yes, that probably is the case. But, instead of a coupon, why not post the rental of a specific lens for a specific time period? It's more restrictive, but also a bit easier to quantify.