Pardon me while I rant.
So all this month, I've been trying to get my $20 coupon to go towards Barnes's wellness visit coming up this week. Have you heard about this viral promotion by Bayer - the Help Your Pet, Get to the Vet promotion? You must have (or several million of our friends have) because it's practically impossible to get a voucher - they are always "sold" out.
The way it works is that there are 80 coupons available every hour, 9am - 9pm, and when those coupons are gone, you have to try again the next hour. Even when I've tried right at the turn of the hour, surprise surprise, 80 people have already scooped up the coupons in a matter of microseconds. Really?
So, I was very excited today when at the stroke of 11:00am, I managed to squeak past the bots and get my coupon... or so I thought.
In order to print out the coupon, I needed to download software from Coupons.com to be able to print it out - I think not.
First of all, I can't download software on to my laptop. Yes, I know I'm the CEO of my own company but even I can't put whatever I want on my laptop. It's highly irritating most of the time (having to grovel to my IT guru to add Facebook picture download software is a bit embarrassing), but it does make sense not to let me add software that at best might slow things down or at worse interfere with our systems, blow up my laptop, and I'd get a telling off big time. Best not to leave software downloads to my discretion.
But the question is, why should I have to download software to print out a coupon? If CVS (our regional drug store chain) can let me print out their coupons without software, surely Bayer can do something similar. It's not like they are some itty-bitty start up with no budget.
Software for something so minor (printing hardly needs software) means the download is for another reason - like spamming or monitoring my online activities or advertising. Not sure what the case is here but I don't want to find out.
I get the idea of what Bayer is trying to do - encouraging people to get out to their vets for their regular check ups and of course, hopefully buying Bayer products. Fine by me. Even though the economy is down the tubes, pet parents should still go to the vet for regular check ups and we're all grown-ups and can choose what products we buy.
And I'm sure Coupons.com approach was a quick and easy way to avoid evil pet parents using multiple coupons or other online fraud (although if they are all going to the vet and the promotion is doing what it's supposed to, what's the harm in that?) Is it really worth it?
Bottom line - I refuse to download software that is going to track what I do online to get a one-off $20 coupon. Forget it. And I'm cheesed off that I worked hard to get that damn coupon only to find I couldn't get it. Not a good experience.
Maybe the coupons are flying off the shelves as they seem to be so nobody else cares about this but I can't say I'm impressed. I'll just be taking Barnes in on Thursday without his coupon - and won't be loading up on Bayer products when I'm there.
[Rant over - back to regularly scheduled normalcy shortly]
