👉 Background: The Good Guys started in Melbourne back in 1952 under the name Mighty Muir’s selling whitegoods like fridges, washing machines, air fryers, TVs and BBQs. It also became VERY well-known for its annoyingly catchy jingle. By 2016, it was acquired by JB Hi Fi back for $870 million.

‍👉 What happened: Between July 2019 and August 2023, The Good Guys ran 116 promotions where they offered customers store credit branded as StoreCash. The credit ranged from $10 to $1,000 depending on what you bought or how you paid. But in the fine print, it stated that the store credit expired in just 7 to 10 days. To make matters worse, customers only qualified if they stayed subscribed to The Good Guys’ marketing emails. It was found that there were more than 21,000 people were short-changed, and another 21,500 never even got their promised credit.

‍👉 What else: The Federal Court has fined The Good Guys $13.5 million and ordered them to make good with their customers. And, while these campaigns are meant to be net-positive for them, if done wrong, it can often lead to more harm than good.

‍What's the key learning?

‍💡Promotions like store credits are designed to drive short-term sales spikes, but they don’t always build long-term customer loyalty. In fact, when the fine print catches customers out, the opposite can often happen.

💡For The Good Guys, the StoreCash campaigns may have padded sales figures in the moment, but the fines, as well as remediation costs has hurt their bottom line — not to mention reputational risk the next time they do a promotion.

💡The Good Guys aren’t the only Aussie retailer to have misled customers. Back in November 2019, the ACCC hit retailers Plush Sofas and Oz Design with misleading price claims, claiming that they showed a "was" and "is" price that didn't truly reflect the pricing of their products. But clearly, the ACCC aren't messing around when it comes to consumers being misled.