I can’t say illegal; because I am sure a team of attorneys went over it. However, I can definitely say that what Slacker has done is deceitful and underhanded.
This week, I went to Slacker Radio (slacker.com) on my PC and noticed that they had a promotion going. The promotion was for “Three Free Months of Slacker Premium Plus”, and all I needed to do was to move Slacker to my Windows taskbar. The promotion was supposedly a joint effort of Slacker and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
I listened to the music on my PC, and was able to skip songs and play specific songs, all without advertising. However, when I brought up my Slacker Ap on my iPhone, I was not able to skip or play specific songs, and there was advertising. I thought something was wrong, so I rebooted the phone and I also tried signing out of the Slacker Ap and back onto it. The Slacker Ap on my iPhone would only recognize a “basic” subscription. But I have a Slacker Premium Plus subscription.
Checking with Slacker, they state that the terms of the promotion is that the “Three Free Months of Slacker Premium Plus” only applied to the PC and did not apply to mobile devices. Apparently there was fine print at the bottom that stated that it only was for Windows 7 PCs and IE 9.
The kicker is Slacker does not sell a PC only subscription. The mention of “Slacker Premium Plus” represented to me that it was exactly as their subscription product, which includes computers AND mobile devices. This promotion is different, but they use the same name, and that I feel is a misrepresentation.
An analogy would be McDonalds having a promotion for a “FREE HAPPY MEAL”. We all know what to expect with a Happy Meal. The customer goes up to the counter and gets the promotional Happy Meal. However, as he walks towards the exit and employee approaches saying, “Sorry sir, but you can’t leave the restaurant with that Happy Meal. Under the terms of the promotion, which are in the fine print, you must enjoy it here. If you want to take the Happy Meal outside, you’ll have to pay full price. And yes, the toy is part of the Happy Meal.”
That is exactly what Slacker did to me. They promoted it to me as “Slacker Premium Plus” however they put a restriction that isn’t part of that package or expectation. I should have access to Slacker on my mobile device as well as my PC.
Don’t get me wrong, I have no issues with companies running promotion programs. If Slacker advertised it to me as “Slacker Premium Plus for PC”, I would have understood the limitation. Slacker Premium Plus for PC” would be a different package than just “Slacker Premium Plus”. Alas, they were deceptive by putting it in the fine print it was limited, while stated in big bold letters at the top that it wasn’t. What weasels!
Do you see anything in the below image that says this is only for the PC?
