I received an email from the American Girl Store hawking their Cyber Monday sale, and the email states "get an extra 10% on all sale items". I pick out several items but don't get the discount. I call them and they tell me the discount is only good for "some sale items", and the acknowledged I was purchasing some sale items, but refused the discount. They transfer me to the mis-named Customer Service department who act like they have never heard of the email and refuse to honor the discount.

The email looks legit, sends me to the American Girl Website. Is this bait and switch? Unfortunately my daughter loves the product, I am so unimpressed with their ethically challenged advertising that don't want to purchase from them, but want the product.

Where else can I purchase the product? Their stuff isn't cheap, and silly me, I must have misunderstood what the words "all sale items" really means. At American girl, I guess "all" means all items on some little list somewhere.

Who exactly owns American Girl, as would like to send this email to them and have them explain why they are not honoring it.

Good product, but crummy company who probably is living on borrowed time when they start doing things like this. Anyone else get the email, and able to use it?

From their site (http://www.americangirl.com/corp/corporate.php?section=about&id=3):
Ellen L. Brothers is president of American Girl and executive vice president of Mattel, as well as a member of Mattel’s management committee
So you may want to try to send an email to ellen.brothers@americangirl.com and ebrothers@americangirl.com and other combinations thereof - or to her Mattell address. Here are tips about how to send an effective EECB (http://consumerist.com/tag/eecb/how-to/).

Thank you, that is what I have been looking for. I tried Mattell and dealing with their voice mail is a mess, left a couple of voice mails to their customer service manager and their PR department. Nobody seems to answering phone calls there today. Perhaps email will work better.

You do not need coupon code, all of the sale stuff is already marked 10% off on the site. (although there is not very much of it) I had checked some stuff the other day and it is now 10% cheaper, but a lot is gone.
Now, the cyber monday sales are really good, but they are not the sale items that are 10% off, they are things put on for today only and they are priced as marked and will go back up.
Since there is no coupon code, you are probably either confusing the cyber monday special for sale items or do not realize the sale items are already 10% off.
They are definetely not bait and switching, I shop there frequently and I got the email and it seemed clear to m that it was just the "sale" section items that are not on sale. However, I can see where it might be easy to mix up the sale and cyber monday if you do not frequently shop their sale section. i hope that makes sense and helps

about a month ago i received a coupon directly from them via email but it was store specific. iirc, that one expired on november 8th and it was 10% off anything over $50. i didn't get a chance to use it but heck, it they gave me a problem for a coupon they sent me, i wouldn't be too happy. good luck!

I received an email from the American Girl Store hawking their Cyber Monday sale, and the email states "get an extra 10% on all sale items". I pick out several items but don't get the discount. I call them and they tell me the discount is only good for "some sale items", and the acknowledged I was purchasing some sale items, but refused the discount. They transfer me to the mis-named Customer Service department who act like they have never heard of the email and refuse to honor the discount.

The email looks legit, sends me to the American Girl Website. Is this bait and switch? Unfortunately my daughter loves the product, I am so unimpressed with their ethically challenged advertising that don't want to purchase from them, but want the product.

Where else can I purchase the product? Their stuff isn't cheap, and silly me, I must have misunderstood what the words "all sale items" really means. At American girl, I guess "all" means all items on some little list somewhere.

Who exactly owns American Girl, as would like to send this email to them and have them explain why they are not honoring it.

Good product, but crummy company who probably is living on borrowed time when they start doing things like this. Anyone else get the email, and able to use it?

I got the email and ordered several items. The email worked exactly as I interpreted it: there was one list of special Cyber sale items, which were specially marked just for Monday's Cyber sale. They were NOT on the regular sale list, and therefore were not entitled to any additional 10% discount. The prices on the regular Sale list, however, had been adjusted to show an additional 10% discount from the sale prices that were assigned to those items the day before. In other words, all the items in the standard AG Sale category that you could have accessed the day before were discounted by an extra 10% on Monday (and the 10% discount calculation was shown on the site before getting to checkout) while the Cyber sale items were special one-day markdowns that were NOT included in AG's regular category of Sale items.

All of the Cyber Sale items I ordered were processed at the price shown on the website, and all the regular Sale items I ordered were also processed at the prices shown on the website, which had openly and obviously been adjusted to show a 10% discount from their previous sale prices. There was no further discount advertised or applied; every reduction that should have been applied to my purchase was already properly applied before I got to the checkout page.

AG's customer service has always been very responsive and courteous in my dealings with them; I don't think they should be slammed for a buyer's misinterpretation of sale terms. (And I don't anticipate Mattel will be brought to its knees any time soon because of this "complaint"....:shake: )

I got the email and ordered several items. The email worked exactly as I interpreted it: there was one list of special Cyber sale items, which were specially marked just for Monday's Cyber sale. They were NOT on the regular sale list, and therefore were not entitled to any additional 10% discount. The prices on the regular Sale list, however, had been adjusted to show an additional 10% discount from the sale prices that were assigned to those items the day before. In other words, all the items in the standard AG Sale category that you could have accessed the day before were discounted by an extra 10% on Monday (and the 10% discount calculation was shown on the site before getting to checkout) while the Cyber sale items were special one-day markdowns that were NOT included in AG's regular category of Sale items.

All of the Cyber Sale items I ordered were processed at the price shown on the website, and all the regular Sale items I ordered were also processed at the prices shown on the website, which had openly and obviously been adjusted to show a 10% discount from their previous sale prices. There was no further discount advertised or applied; every reduction that should have been applied to my purchase was already properly applied before I got to the checkout page.

AG's customer service has always been very responsive and courteous in my dealings with them; I don't think they should be slammed for a buyer's misinterpretation of sale terms. (And I don't anticipate Mattel will be brought to its knees any time soon because of this "complaint"....:shake: )

very true, i have had to call them a few times and there customer service has been great. They definetely should not be slammed, the email was clear to me too.

The story has a happy ending. I sent an email to the President of American Girl, as suggested and received a call from the customer service manager. He explained that they felt they were clear that the 10% was included in the listed price.

I explained that when I saw the words "Bonus Cyber Monday Savings: Get an extra 10% off on all sale items" I took that to mean I would receive an extra 10% off all sale items. The words "extra 10%" made me believe there would be an additional discount, and you would receive that on "all sale items", or I took that to mean any item which was on sale on their website. I honestly don't think I am unreasonable or am twisting their words.

Perhaps had I completed checkout it would have put the discount, but when it didn't show up on the subtotal I was not comfortable enough to put in a credit card number on an almost $400 order if I did not see a discount.

They admitted they had problems on their website because of demand, and even had to shut down their site for a short time, which was when I was attempting this order. When I called their customer service department it took forever and their people were harried and between their being inundated with calls, and me not being too happy perhaps there was a misunderstanding.

At any rate I placed the order with them, and they gave me the 10% discount on the sale items. I am a little annoyed as this order took a lot longer than it had to, but technical problems happen. Perhaps they think they did me a huge favor giving me an extra 10%, but I thought I would get the extra 10% because of the email, and that was the reason I made the purchase on "Cyber Monday"

We've done the lunch at the American Girl Store, the store is first class. Last year they mixed up an online order, and then this year I had this Cyber Monday issue so seeing the exceptional service in their retail brick and mortar, followed with a poor online experience. It almost seemed like two different companies.

good, i'm glad you were able to resolve it.

The story has a happy ending. I sent an email to the President of American Girl, as suggested and received a call from the customer service manager. He explained that they felt they were clear that the 10% was included in the listed price.

I explained that when I saw the words "Bonus Cyber Monday Savings: Get an extra 10% off on all sale items" I took that to mean I would receive an extra 10% off all sale items. The words "extra 10%" made me believe there would be an additional discount, and you would receive that on "all sale items", or I took that to mean any item which was on sale on their website. I honestly don't think I am unreasonable or am twisting their words.

Perhaps had I completed checkout it would have put the discount, but when it didn't show up on the subtotal I was not comfortable enough to put in a credit card number on an almost $400 order if I did not see a discount.

They admitted they had problems on their website because of demand, and even had to shut down their site for a short time, which was when I was attempting this order. When I called their customer service department it took forever and their people were harried and between their being inundated with calls, and me not being too happy perhaps there was a misunderstanding.

At any rate I placed the order with them, and they gave me the 10% discount on the sale items. I am a little annoyed as this order took a lot longer than it had to, but technical problems happen. Perhaps they think they did me a huge favor giving me an extra 10%, but I thought I would get the extra 10% because of the email, and that was the reason I made the purchase on "Cyber Monday"

We've done the lunch at the American Girl Store, the store is first class. Last year they mixed up an online order, and then this year I had this Cyber Monday issue so seeing the exceptional service in their retail brick and mortar, followed with a poor online experience. It almost seemed like two different companies.

They did do a huge favor for you. They had really great prices and an email that was veryclear and even explained more for you on this thread. They went above and beyond what they had to do. i don't see how not undersanding something can be construed as poor online service. Several regular american girl shoppers shopped the sale and were happy not getting more. I hope that they continue to have great sales like that for the people who don't throw a fit until they get more than the already great sales.

Why is giving what they promised in the email going beyond what I should have expected? If there was a sign at a store that read "Get an extra 10% off all sale items" should I praise the store for doing what the sign said?

Perhaps I still don't understand, but the word "extra" has always meant additional, and "sale items" mean items that are reduced. "extra 10% off" is pretty clear to me, unless somewhere in the same ad they clarified it by saying "extra 10% discount is already included in price". I thought possibly the email had been a targeted email, as in retail there are many times different prices, depending upon links to sites, group pricing or whatever.

How getting what is promised giving me more than what they should have done? I must be missing something here.

Why is giving what they promised in the email going beyond what I should have expected? If there was a sign at a store that read "Get an extra 10% off all sale items" should I praise the store for doing what the sign said?

Perhaps I still don't understand, but the word "extra" has always meant additional, and "sale items" mean items that are reduced. "extra 10% off" is pretty clear to me, unless somewhere in the same ad they clarified it by saying "extra 10% discount is already included in price". I thought possibly the email had been a targeted email, as in retail there are many times different prices, depending upon links to sites, group pricing or whatever.

How getting what is promised giving me more than what they should have done? I must be missing something here.

Go back and read the other posts and it might help you understand. They gave you more than they promised you. They said 10% off sale prices and that is was what the were marked on the site, pretty simple, they did not have to give you 10% more, that was above and beyond. They did not promise you 10% more, you misunderstood the email and wanted more. I only saw this post when I was searching for another one, so I posted to help you understand, but I think you were just dead set on getting more. It is really too bad because it is things like this that ruin sales for others and I hate when a great company gets bashed for a consumers mistake. I am all for a company making it right when they make a mistake, but his was not their mistake, i was yours. Believe me if a company made a mistake there would be a thread with a lot of people posting it, not just one person. You should be praising American girl for going above and beyond, not saying they gave you what you deseved.