Update: H&R Block will now be honoring this promotion.
Back in December H&R Block was offering a $25 Tango gift card if you signed up for their MoneyStream service and linked an eligible bank account. A few days into this promotion they added language that this promotion was “invite only”. H&R Block have now taken the extreme step of deciding that they won’t honor this promotion for anybody (unless presumably they received the invite), here is the e-mail they’ve just sent out:
Wow. Your response was positively overwhelming!
Recently MoneyStream and H&R Block offered a Tango gift card to to selected clients who created a MoneyStream account and connected eligible banks.Although this promotion was intended only for selected clients, the details were picked up and placed on Reddit and deal sites. We were amazed at the number of people who, like you, responded to the offer, joined MoneyStream, and connected eligible accounts.
Unfortunately, the Tango gift card promotion was intended as an exclusive promotion for people on the invitation list. It was never our intention to have this promotion posted publicly, and the Tango gift cards are only available to eligible, invited users.
However, MoneyStream and H&R Block want to reward all the enthusiastic people who have joined MoneyStream and done their best to help us test tax document import tools. So we’re giving you the next best thing: a free H&R Block tax return. The code below is good for $25 towards H&R Block’s online tax prep service: that’s a free Basic return ($19.99 value) or $25 off one of H&R Block’s Deluxe or Premium packages.
Thanks H&R Block, but I am not sure how giving somebody a basic return which has a maximum value of $20 is better than a $25 flexible gift card.
My Issues
I have a number of issues with H&R block not honoring this promotion.
- They changed the terms of the promotion after people had already completed the requirements. You cannot state a promotion is invite only and not honor it for
- They took several days to change the requirements. If they had changed the requirements after seeing a huge amount of sign ups after a few hours, it would be a different story but these terms were not updated until the 1st. I’m sure they will state this is because it was the weekend and over New Years, my response is simple: don’t launch promotions before the weekend and large public celebrations unless you have staff willing to work.
- H&R Block is a massive corporation. H&R Block isn’t a small Mom & Pop shop that made a simple marketing blunder, they have a market cap of 9 billion dollars.
- They’ve been sending out a lot of marketing e-mails to people who signed up for this promotion. H&R Block wants to have their cake and eat it to, or in this case they want a massive amount of new sign ups that were falsely acquired and rather than being upfront from the beginning they want to try and send as much advertising material as possible before the back lash begins.
What Can You Do?
The first thing you can do is remove any and all account information from the MoneyStream system. You can view how to do this here. I’d also be changing the username and password for any linked accounts just in case. You can close your account completely by sending an e-mail to [email protected], make sure you include your userid and the reason as to why your cancelling your account.
File a complaint. I’m not a lawyer and I’m unsure what government department would be the best to file a complaint with, my gut feeling is that the CFPB doesn’t really cover these deceptive practices and the FTC would be the best for making a misleading advertising complaint but maybe our lawyer readers can provide a better avenue?
Final Thoughts
Having a massive accountancy firm mess up a promotion like this doesn’t fill me with a lot of confidence. Personally I’m not really that fussed about the $25 gift card, but I know some of you would have spent that time else where if H&R Block had been upfront from the start.
The thing that makes me upset is that H&R Block has acquired a mass of customers without having to pay for them (except with the public’s perceived goodwill). I’d be more than happy if H&R Block was fine $25 per person that signed up.
Am I being too bitter? Or do you agree? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
