Retailers Duped By Click Frenzy Meltdown Start Talking Refunds

After the meltdown came the eventual chaos, and more. Shopping retailers that participated in Click Frenzy are mulling to combine forces yet again, not to add in more products for sale this time, but to ask for proper compensation for the services the online shopping website failed to deliver.

Depending on the contract the businesses signed with the organizers of "Australia's first landmark online sales event," retailers deserve an entitlement to damages, most specially if they did not get the exposure or sales on the site that they were expecting or promised, according to Sally Scott, a competition and consumer law expert.

"If advertisers do feel they have suffered loss ... they should seek a refund of fees, request further promotion without having to pay more, or consider whether they want to consider claiming additional damages," Ms. Scott told the The Herald Sun.

Retailers who participated in the online sale churned out $33,000 for a banner advertisement or four premium ads on the site and $1650 for listing a single deal. Additional ads cost $2000 to $6000, plus GST.

"Every single retailer who paid them for a listing will be disappointed," Ruslan Kogan, founder of Australian technology company Kogan, in a Nine News report. Kogan, for unexplained reasons, backed out at the last minute from the "online event of the year."

"It's like paying to advertise in the Daily Telegraph and then the Daily Telegraph deciding not to print the newspaper that day."

And just in case their contracts did not stipulate refunds in the event of technical glitches or website malfunction, participating shopping retailers remain well covered with rights under the Australian Consumer Law regarding misleading representations.

"The argument could be that they were given certain promises about exposure and that this was misleading because the website could not cope with demand," Ms Scott said.

Catalina Romano, a spokeswoman for online retailer The Iconic, said the company have brought up to the attention of Click Frenzy organizers about recouping their investment.

"We're definitely going to look at it,'' she told The Herald Sun. "This could have damaged our brand as well. There's a conversation to be had this morning between our media guys and Click Frenzy.''