Adidas eBay Store Coupon Blunder Promotes $3000 Max Discount
Adidas is running a seller-funded 35% discount in their official eBay store but a shocking error could cause big problems as eBay banners and promotional messaging show a maximum discount of $3,000 instead of $300
The deal is supposed to be 35% off storewide with coupon code ADIDAS35OFF, but the terms and conditions don't specifically state a maximum discount amount and eBay is showing conflicting information with $300 displayed in some places and $3,000 displayed in others.
Terms and Conditions
This Coupon is being offered by a seller who is the sole organizer of this promotion. These are the seller’s terms and conditions under which the promotion is offered.eBay is not responsible for the seller’s performance or failure to perform any services related to this promotion.
How to redeem the coupon
Shop for eligible items from the sponsoring seller
Enter the Coupon code in the redemption code field at checkout
Pay for your item prior to the end of the termLimitations
- Discount applies to the purchase price (excluding shipping, handling and taxes) of eligible items on eBay.com
- When purchasing multiple eligible items, discounts are applied on a cost-weighted basis.
- Eligible items do not include warranties or protection plans.
- Coupon does not apply to auction-style listings, purchases made through Best Offer or Seller Offer features, or any listings in the Real Estate, Motors Vehicles, or Coins & Currency categories.
- Limit one use per transaction (or cart) while supplies last.
- Coupon use is limited to users with a U.S. registration address who are logged into their eBay account.
- Minimum purchase required from eligible items sold by the Seller
- Any unused difference between the Coupon discount amount and the purchase price of item(s) in a single transaction (or cart) will be forfeited.
- The Coupon cannot be combined with any other Coupon, site discount, rebate, promotion, or when paying with PayPal Easy Payments or Gift Cards
- The Coupon offer can end at any time and may end earlier than the promotion end date due to any number of reasons, including Coupon budget limitations. When the offer is no longer available, it will no longer appear on eBay.com.
- The Seller may suspend, cancel, amend or revoke the Coupon at any time.
- Any refund you may be entitled to receive will not include the Coupon or its redemption value. You will receive no more than the amount you paid towards your purchase.
- Coupon is subject to U.S. laws, void where prohibited, not redeemable for cash, and has no face value.
The extra 0 has also made its way to the app, where not only is the banner saying the maximum discount is $3,000, it also says it directly on the listing page.
It's important to note that while the terms and conditions make it clear the discount is being offered directly by Adidas, Adidas would not have programming control over banner ads or other sections of the site.
Either this is a massive failure of GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) with Adidas feeding the wrong information to eBay or the incorrect data was added by whoever at eBay is responsible for designing and publishing the banners and listing page promotional messaging.
The last time a promotional error of this magnitude occurred on eBay in June 2019, ironically it was Adidas-owned Reebok on the receiving end of a major pricing error event that caused some items to be marked down 90%+.
Also ironically, both of these events occurred at the end of a quarter. Due to the way eBay calculates Gross Merchandise Volume, that means all of these orders will be counted in Q3 GMV, even if they end up being cancelled or refunded due to the error.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
Neither company ever publicly gave details of what caused the Reebok snafu or which party was to blame, and they likely won't disclose those details this time either.
Chaos ensued as soon as news got out across social media and deals websites about the Reebok error, with buyers looking to snag a deal flooding the site, many of whom were hoping to cash in on the opportunity to resell the products at higher prices. Some buyers reported their items did in fact ship, but it didn't take long for the orders to start being canceled.
Reebok received literally thousands of negative feedback ratings due to the debacle and eBay furiously scrubbed their account to remove the negatives as quickly as possible.
Will Adidas receive similar special treatment if this discount error leads to similar cancellations and backlash?
