NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Were you one of the lucky people who got a card in the mail recently from the Opry Mills Mall?
And when you saw the offer, did you think to yourself: "This sounds too good to be true?"
It offered essentially free money just for stopping by the mall.
But folks who tried to collect said it turned out that it was just like that old adage.
Listen to the Stancil family in the player above about their experience.
When the cards started arriving in mailboxes two weeks ago, people like Keith Stancil began to wonder.
"My first thought was, 'This isn’t real,'" he told NewsChannel 5 Investigates. "You know, I mean, who gives away $50?"
According to the flyer, Opry Mills would give a $25 American Express gift card and a $25 mall restaurant gift card to anyone who showed up with one of these mailers before the end of the month.
"We had a week left, and we were like, 'Let’s get to the mall,'" Keith recalled.
So last week, Stancil and his wife, Diana, drove from their home in Brentwood to Opry Mills to collect their gift cards.
Diana remembered there was a lot of traffic.
"It took us about an hour to get there," she said.
But when they got to the Guest Services desk, the Stancils were told the promotion had ended early.
Initially, they said the representative blamed it on the Cheesecake Factory — one of the restaurants included in the gift card promotion.
"He (the employee at the Guest Services desk) said, 'Well, the Cheesecake Factory got tired that they gave away too many cheesecakes,'" Diana explained.
"And I’m like, 'Seriously?'" she added.
Most customers were told the mall had no more gift cards to give out.
The fine print on the mailer does say the gift cards were available "while supplies last."
"I bet they gave just five gift cards away," Diana suggested.
"That’s what we thought. That’s the feeling that we got," Keith then added.
"You think they (the mall) should’ve been prepared to honor every card that they mailed out?" we asked the Stancils.
"Absolutely! And especially a week before the promotion ended. You’ve got to expect that if you do a promotion like that you’re gonna have people coming in looking to redeem it," Keith said.
But what the Stancils said really left a bad taste in their mouth was what happened after they were told the mall gift card promotion was over.
"They (the Guest Services desk employee) go, 'You know you can get some gift cards if you watch a 30-minute video?'" Diana described.
These were not the advertised gift cards that were part of the original promotion, but rather travel vouchers for watching a 30-minute timeshare pitch by the timeshare company Wyndham Vacations.
" Yes," she told us.
"It’s a bait and switch is what it was," she said. "I saw so many people come up with their card and them turning them away and trying to convince them to do the video. I just felt like that’s wrong to do that to people."
Yet despite allowing Wyndham to staff the mall's Guest Services desk, Opry Mills managers claimed to be surprised that this happened.
"Until receiving a customer complaint, Opry Mills was not aware that Wyndham representatives had offered an unrelated Wyndham promotion to customers who sought to claim Opry Mills’ gift cards after the supply was exhausted," an Opry Mills spokesperson told NewsChannel 5 Investigates in a statement. "This was a misunderstanding that Opry Mills addressed directly with Wyndham."
It appeared that Opry Mills had told Wyndham to stop soliciting.
But when I to the kiosk with a postcard of my own, the Wyndham employee asked me if I'd ever heard of Margaritaville — a Wyndham timeshare location. He seemed all set to start his pitch, but then spotted my camera and immediately stopped talking and quickly headed back behind the desk.
"I’m really disappointed because we’ve spent a lot of money at that mall," Diana shared.
The Stancils described how they've been taking their grandkids to Opry Mills for years, but after this, they may reconsider.
"They lured me into coming to the mall with this card," Keith said.
"So they lost a customer it sounds like?" I wondered.
"Yeah, they did," Diana replied.
Opry Mills provided a follow up statement.
"We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience and for any misunderstanding," they wrote.
They also told us that they gave gift cards to 350 customers. But they wouldn't say how many of those mailers were sent out.
Meanwhile, the manager at the Cheesecake Factory told us he was surprised to hear that they were blamed for ending the promotion. He said they had nothing to do with the promotion and would never turn away customers who want cheesecake.
And while we don't know exactly how many people showed up to get gift cards and were turned away, Wyndham employees told us that it was "a lot."
Original statement from Opry Mills
Opry Mills’ gift card promotion was for a limited time while supplies last. Given the generous nature of the promotion, customers redeemed our allotted supply of gift cards quickly. Until receiving a customer complaint, Opry Mills was not aware that Wyndham representatives staffing the guest services booth at Opry Mills had offered an unrelated Wyndham promotion to customers who sought to claim Opry Mills’ gift cards after the supply was exhausted. This was a misunderstanding that Opry Mills addressed directly with Wyndham.
Follow-up statement from Opry Mills
Opry Mills’ recent gift card promotion was entirely separate from any promotional activities Wyndham engages in as part of their agreement to staff the guest services desk. It would be incorrect for you to suggest otherwise. More than 350 customers were able to redeem this promotion before supplies ran out. However, Wyndham representatives should not have offered an unrelated promotion to customers who sought to claim Opry Mills’ gift cards after that supply was exhausted. We understand the confusion this caused and directly addressed this situation with Wyndham as soon as we became aware. We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience and for any misunderstanding this may have caused.
