This thread is for disclosing take-down requests from merchants and related discussions. OzBargain often receive requests from merchants to remove pages and deals so for transparency we thought this thread would be for ChoiceCheapies. Sometimes the requests can be reasonable but sometimes not. The moderators will use this thread to post requests from merchants + our actions.
For merchants / store representatives:
Thanks very much for that.
50% off Flexi Fares 15 February - 28 February 2016 @ Bluebridge Ferry
From Bluebridge
Please can you remove this urgently as this deal is not for everyone. It is only for those who participate in the Round the Bays event in Wellington. Those participating must be able to show their Round the Bays entry form upon check in to be entitled to this deal. We have already received complaints from customers who have seen this deal on your website.
The deal is meant for those participating in the run. The Terms & Conditions confirm:
This offer is only available to competitors attending the event and their supporters (a supporter
must be travelling on the same sailing as the competitor to be eligible for the discount). You must
present your registration confirmation email upon check-in as proof of entitlement. Failure to
present valid proof of registration will result in the fare difference being required to be paid prior to
boarding.
As the deal isn't meant to be public + simply having the code won't be enough, deal has been removed.
The BurgerFuel VIB deal vouchers are all no longer valid - this includes the 'Free Fries with Burger Purchase', 'Free Motobites with Burger Purchase', 'Free Shake with Burger Purchase' and the '2 for 1' Burger Voucher. Store staff will no longer accept these vouchers.
Can you please remove all of the vouchers that are part of the VIB tour on the page on the link below.
Guess the key point of a merchant takedown request is that you actually validate your identity as a merchant by legitimate means (eg. company email etc). Using an anon one time use login ID doesn't constitute responsible (or legal) company representation.
A bit of respect, please….
Hey, I think the idea of this thread is that you contact the moderators and they announce the removal here. Read more in the FAQ.
We have marked them all as expired. Thanks.
I think that this deal shouldn't be expired as the vouchers will still be accepted if they are in email form.
Person1, who btw is confirmed as from the Burger Fuel corporate office, has stated Store staff will no longer accept these vouchers. That implies that irregardless of when you signed up to the VIB, all vouchers are now invalid. Until we get reports from users that this isn't the case, we should probably rely on what the company says officially.
Competitions by KiwiReviews
Comments in the competition post:
KIWIreviews-nz on 09/08/2017 - 10:43
Please DO NOT post the answers to comps in this forum, as we will have no choice but to block all entrants we detect coming from here.
We run these comps free of charge, so it costs us money, in an effort to garner readership for the magazine. To short-cut this process means that running comps becomes uneconomical for us, so EVERYONE LOSES!
We appreciate your passion… but please - don't ruin it for everyone by being selfish.
Further correspondence received by TWAM and email:
You leave us no choice but to invalidate every entry we have received via this site, blacklist your site, and publicly expose you for the disreputable cowboys you are.
We have removed all competition posts and banned the store to ensure no competitions are posted in the future that may contain the answers.
Thanks for resolving this in the end. To add context to that last remark from us - your admin had tagged us as 'sockpuppeting' - which is a nasty allegation and utterly unfounded. You admitted it was an error on your part, fixed it, and the matter is now over. We have also removed you from our blacklist, as there is no desire to continue this matter in a negative manner.
It is just a shame that the only solution was to ban us, rather than teach your mods not to post the answers to comps in the forum. While it makes life easy for the lazy compers, it makes the process uneconomical and counterproductive for the companies running the comps.
They deserved to have been banned with that attitude!
Never liked that site anyway! lol 😂
Free Sample of Dentiste Fluoride-Free Toothpaste
Email from the director of distributor of Dentiste in New Zealand:
As the purpose of our free sample function is not created to be “bargain” or “deal”, and is for people who genuinely wants to sample the product before purchase, this post is creating a wrong marketing message for our brand.
We would need your help to urgently take down this post.
Post unpublished as per requested.
The Coffee Club VIP Membership $15 (Normally $25)
Email from The Coffee Club New Zealand:
Can you please remove the following $15 VIP Membership ad from your website as this offer is aimed for certain existing VIP members only.
Post unpublished as per requested.
Page
Receive a $100 Credit with $5000 Deposit with Referral @ JUNO Kiwisaver
Request
Email from Juno Kiwisaver
We have been advised that the JUNO Referral Programme is currently listed on your website, unfortunately this is against the Ts and Cs of the referral programme available to our members.
T & C:
The Offer is only available for genuine personal referrals. You must not market or promote the Offer through paid advertising channels or to the public at large (e.g. on public blog sites, search engines or in sponsored advertisements). We will not pay any Credits in respect of publicly published unique referral codes or links.
Action
Page
Request
Report from Mons Royale
I work at Mons Royale, this is a private closed industry site - whoever posted is in breach of the terms we set out. We can just change the password but will cause a lot of un-necessary problems for our genuine users. We would appreciate your help in removing the post. Please reach me on [email protected] for any further info. Cheers
Action
We deemed the request fair, on the basis that a password is required and therefore not fit for public use.
Existing Quarterpast deals - Hot Chocolate 1 Bottle 360ml $5 Delivered
Emailed cheapies:
I'd like this taken down please as it's just a bunch of people trying to break my business…
They have also confirmed that they agree to have the store banned on Cheapies.
Deals removed and store banned.
Free Vegan Pet Food Samples Delivered from The Vegan Pet Food Company
Support email from veganpetfood.co.nz:
Hi
My company's free samples have been posted on your website. Can you please remove the post immediately. I provide free Vegan Pet Food Samples for people who are genuinely interested in Vegan Pet Food, it is not just a free service for the general public. I am a VERY small business and am unable to afford the hundreds of orders that have come from your website. I have immediately had to remove the products from my website.
Deal marked expired (as it's no longer available on the website).
Removal request denied, the deal has already expired and removal therefore has no benefit.
consumer.org.nz Reviews Thread
From consumer.org.nz. Basically,
Cheapies.nz acknowledged that republishing the reports as screenshots is infringing the copyright, and have taken down the post.
Damn - Thanks @Tmurder91 for all the work you put into that thread.
I imagine the likes of choice.com.au covers most NZ retail SKU's in their coverage at lower prices than consumer nz for those wanting such a service.
Many libraries carry physical copies of the consumer magazines so that is always an option too
Z Sharetank related forum posts, i.e. #1, #2. Also comments related to Z Sharetank in other petrol station related deals.
Email from Z Energy targeting a specific ChoiceCheapies user.
… who we consider has made comments that are in breach of your Terms and Conditions of Use. In particular, [that user] has been making comments that encourage users (and admits they undertake the stated behaviour) to fraudulently use the Z App by:
- Creating an automation that checks for Z’s fuel prices across the country; and
- Once the cheapest site is located, spoof the Z App to bypass our location code to trick Z in thinking the user is in a location for which they are not.
Z Energy then requested
ChoiceCheapies acknowledged that using a spoofing service to circumvent Z app is a breach of Z's terms and conditions, the discussions themselves are not illegal nor do them breach ChoiceCheapies' terms of use. Therefore the comments remain published.
Get $10 Credit for $1 @ Onceit
Onceit sent a message through our contact form, requesting the deal to be taken down as it's exclusive for Onceit's Diamond Club members.
Deal has already been marked as expired. As it's no longer available, we have unpublished the deal page.
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FREE Sample of Inline Nutrition Whey Protein @ Inline Nutrition
Request
Email from Seperex Nutritionals Ltd:
Action
Post removed. Merchant has also removed the free sample.