2016 Australian Olympic Team Coin Program and partnership with Woolworths

[JeffH]

When you buy something in Australia you are protected by Australian consumer laws... it doesn't matter if you purchase direct from manufacture or retailer.

Try buying an electronic item from Aldi and making a warranty claim 3 months + one day after the sale, at the selling store (original receipt in your hand). I did that once to help out a customer and...you can guess how well the law helped her.

[ausjack]

:scratch_one-s_head: isn't it tough titties if you buy things from feebay as it's a buyer beware thing and facebook is definitely buyer beware and NO chance of getting your money back so that might be why they're mainly being sold at these sort of places so people don't have a come back and cotton & co won't have to worry about negative feedback.

[Fulvio]

I don't particularly like being advised that I'm straying into  la la land by a guy who irons his coin holders PLZE

See, this is precisely the sort of language that got you offside in the first place.

What does heat-sealing Mylar inside a cardboard holder have to do with anything? If you can come up with some heating device as cheap and readily available as a domestic iron to do the job, awesome. But in the meantime, this kind of personal attack is unwarranted.

Look, lets get a few things clear here...

I have no intention of buying or promoting this type of after-market product.

However, I respect the rights of anyone to make whatever they wish, whether it be rolls of coins, PNCs, humorous postcards or fuzzy dice for that matter. Its business. And business is all about making money by finding something people will buy for more than it cost you to produce.

Is the product dodgy? No. It does not purport to be a RAM product, and never did. The manufacturer's name is clearly printed on the packaging, and from what I've seen its been made clear all along, other than the initial lack of information, which is standard procedure for everyone, INCLUDING the RAM itself.

So all the negativity regarding the products, the manufacturer and the retailers is unacceptable. Particularly by people who took a completely different stance a while ago in a discussion about granny bait produced by other 'mints' like Franklin, Macquarie and even Perth.

If you don't like it, don't buy it. If you think people are being led astray, tell them. That's what I do, and I've got a long list of Facebook groups I've been throw out of for doing exactly that. But casting aspersions on the character of anyone with an opposing view? That's not kosher, and never will be.

[robbiegal]

you obviously didn't see the original advertisements on facebook that said it was a production done by arrangement with the RAM

anyways

i will remove my posts and leave you to your opinions

I asked the eBay seller 40million
"Who is the roll of coins CERTIFIED by?"

The response:

"The coins come from Uncirculated single coin and 5 coin Folders
They are rolled using a numismatic coin rolling machine- which is gentler than a security Company's machine
The coins are being rolled under video surveillance to validate the claim- the footage will be archived

Cheers

Wendy"

I replied:
"Who is the roll of coins CERTIFIED by?"

I have not received a reply.

oh so that is why the sets sold out so quickly!!

[Fulvio]

oh so that is why the sets sold out so quickly!!

Well, no. Twenty boxes would have been a drop in the bucket.

They had production problems with the packaging and dropped them early. They did say they would honour existing orders, but my boxes have been backordered forever it seems, and I'm not holding my breath.

[robbiegal]

I don't particularly like being advised that I'm straying into  la la land by a guy who irons his coin holders PLZE

See, this is precisely the sort of language that got you offside in the first place.

What does heat-sealing Mylar inside a cardboard holder have to do with anything? If you can come up with some heating device as cheap and readily available as a domestic iron to do the job, awesome. But in the meantime, this kind of personal attack is unwarranted.

Look, lets get a few things clear here...

I have no intention of buying or promoting this type of after-market product.

However, I respect the rights of anyone to make whatever they wish, whether it be rolls of coins, PNCs, humorous postcards or fuzzy dice for that matter. Its business. And business is all about making money by finding something people will buy for more than it cost you to produce.

Is the product dodgy? No. It does not purport to be a RAM product, and never did. The manufacturer's name is clearly printed on the packaging, and from what I've seen its been made clear all along, other than the initial lack of information, which is standard procedure for everyone, INCLUDING the RAM itself.

So all the negativity regarding the products, the manufacturer and the retailers is unacceptable. Particularly by people who took a completely different stance a while ago in a discussion about granny bait produced by other 'mints' like Franklin, Macquarie and even Perth.

If you don't like it, don't buy it. If you think people are being led astray, tell them. That's what I do, and I've got a long list of Facebook groups I've been throw out of for doing exactly that. But casting aspersions on the character of anyone with an opposing view? That's not kosher, and never will be.

i apologise if i offended you
but i will say that i have reacted to being responded to as if i am some sort of a moron
common courtesy is a two way process

oh so that is why the sets sold out so quickly!!

Well, no. Twenty boxes would have been a drop in the bucket.

They had production problems with the packaging and dropped them early. They did say they would honour existing orders, but my boxes have been backordered forever it seems, and I'm not holding my breath.

well the ones that are being sold at the mint this week are the returns from woolworths
you will notice that the inside of the folder is yellow for the woolworths editions
i don't for one moment believe that this roll production is limited to 250 sets of five/six

[LooseChange]

:scratch_one-s_head: isn't it tough titties if you buy things from feebay as it's a buyer beware thing and facebook is definitely buyer beware and NO chance of getting your money back so that might be why they're mainly being sold at these sort of places so people don't have a come back and cotton & co won't have to worry about negative feedback.

Ive had mostly good experiences from ebay.. i buy a lot of specialty tools from Germany and occasionally they don't arrive. Ive always got a refund or re-send... but its definlety buyer-beware.. or better "buyer be educated" before deciding to buy something.

Never bought anything off of Facebook, and i don't think i subscribe to any coin related Facebook pages.. so not sure how these work.  I do however have a couple of friends who spend too much time on Facebook and often quote me massively inflated coin values based on Facebook groups. I would take a wild guess that this might be why rolls like these would be sold in these "soft" market places.  
But to be fair i think someone wanting to shield themselves from potential blow-back ... wouldn't assign their regular business name to the product.

When you buy something in Australia you are protected by Australian consumer laws... it doesn't matter if you purchase direct from manufacture or retailer.

Try buying an electronic item from Aldi and making a warranty claim 3 months + one day after the sale, at the selling store (original receipt in your hand). I did that once to help out a customer and...you can guess how well the law helped her.

Was the warranty only for 3 months or something? If they were entitled to a replacement or repair.. or store credit or refund... i don't know... but even when you legally are entitled to something under consumer-law, retailers will very often claim that you are not..

I got a refund a while ago on a  car-gps after over 6months (of malfunctioning usage) which was within the boxes stated warranty period.. but it took 2 long stints of returning to manufacture.. before they would concede a refund. This was from repco, i purchased the unit originally in Tamworth and returned it in Sydney....the good thing about nation wide chains..

[robbiegal]

good points loosechange

less emotive than mine

and i agree about the facebook page/s

[JeffH]

Was the warranty only for 3 months or something?

The warranty was 12 months but Aldi will only accept store returns for three months.
The lady asked me to check her TV aerial as she could not get any channels. The TV set was faulty, not the aerial. I offered to return the set for her as I would be going that way in a few days. If I had done so a day earlier they would have accepted the return at the store.
So, the lady was out of pocket by having to return the set to the 'manufacturer' in Melbourne. The 'manufacturer' is a fully owned subsidiary of Aldi and, of course, they do not actually manufacture anything -just import from China with their name affixed to the item. That seems to be pretty well par for the course with most appliances nowadays.
Several months later the set was repaired and returned. The exercise certainly did nothing for Aldi's customer relations and the lady made sure all her friends knew about it.
I have just had a look at warranty information for several items of mine and, interestingly, all of them give an address to send an item for a warranty claim -none mention the possibility of returning to the retailer. Several also require a claim/authorisation number to be obtained before a return will be accepted.
The Australian Competition an Consumer Commission says on their website;
"Who to claim a remedy from
Products
You can claim a remedy from the retailer if the products do not meet any one or more of the consumer guarantees, with the exception of availability of spare parts and repair facilities.
The remedies you can seek from the retailer who sold you the product include a repair, replacement, or refund and in some cases compensation for damages and loss.
The retailer can't refuse to help you by sending you to the manufacturer or importer."
My emphasis.

[trout]

What follows is my personal opinion and if you have "Issue" with it then "Get over It" :ok:

These rolls being sold by cotton and co are nothing more than a rip off taking advantage of all the hype that has surrounded the recent Olympics $2 coin release and the previous coloured $2 coin releases.
These coins themselves are "Mildly" collectable But are most certainly NOT worth the 4x face value just because somebody uses a homebrand wrapper and puts them in a roll.
With people like a certain Wendy Roberts of "Fortymillion007" fame acting as a spokesperson for these  gives me genuine concerns as well.

For my own personal use I am compiling a list of every dealer/seller of these shonky rolls and none of them will ever get any of my business in future because of their association with this deceptive promotion.

Make up your own mind about the validity/worthiness of these rolls But personaly I wouldn't touch them with a pointed stick :ok:

[ausjack]

Never bought anything off of Facebook, and i don't think i subscribe to any coin related Facebook pages.. so not sure how these work.  I do however have a couple of friends who spend too much time on Facebook and often quote me massively inflated coin values based on Facebook groups. I would take a wild guess that this might be why rolls like these would be sold in these "soft" market places.  
But to be fair i think someone wanting to shield themselves from potential blow-back ... wouldn't assign their regular business name to the product.

Your not missin anything from not being on FB groups that's for sure, except a good laugh at silly people sometimes but then you get just as much on feebay.

I just don't understand why he wouldn't sell his own "product", and get a lot of known shonky people doing the dirty work for him if there wasn't something suss going on and especially when he's on all these places himself including his own internet site..if it quacks it must be a duck He mustn't have much faith in his own product is my thinking and why wouldn't he if you've gone to all the trouble of getting machines and stickers etc.

There are a few businesses that if they did something like this you'd have to wonder why and think it was a bit odd (to say the least) if say dicksmith had hardly normal selling his brand name stuff when he had his own stores. Things like this just make me think there's more to this than meets the eye :angel:

[robbiegal]

"if it quacks it must be a duck"

love it

yeah AJ i think you nailed what I was trying to say
(and of course got slammed)

why wouldn't the manufacturer who has multiple selling outlets of their own be advertising selling their own product to some degree? particularly with such a limited number supposedly being made?

unless of course they are a listed on the RAM website as an authorised RAM dealership and then this it might be seen as a conflict of interest with their future RAM business arrangements?   from what i have seen not one of the advertising 'sellers' are listed on the RAM coin dealers webpage. And that says something to me

anyways, i will stay away from this topic as it is getting too nasty here for me personally
happy to discuss via PM

[Fulvio]

I just don't understand why he wouldn't sell his own "product"

I wouldn't either, if I were in the same boat.

Think about it. You drop a pile of cash on equipment, a supply of coins and consumables and time and effort to learn to use it. The plan being for this to be a 'test run', the first of many. And then you're going to mess about flogging one here and one there, and dealing with payments, shipping and support? Why, when you can instead deal with a handful of retailers who will give you far less grief, help promote your products and take less of a cut than it would have cost you to do it yourself?

As a business plan, there's nothing wrong with how it was done. Sure, the product's overpriced, and the marketing could have been better handled, but that's just teething problems. The real test will be in whatever the NEXT product will be.

The retailer can't refuse to help you by sending you to the manufacturer or importer."

Ah, but Aldi don't quite see it that way.

We had a freezer go on the blink at Xmas. Every bit of freezer space in the joint was full for the holidays. Aldi put us onto their service people, who put us in touch with their local guy. Who said "Can't get bits over the holidays". It was fixed in Feb.

Every conversation included mention of the food that was in it, and that there was nowhere else to put it.

Six months later, after finally accepting a list, they say "Give us pictures". WTF? Nobody mentioned that when there was actual product to be photographed. How are we supposed to get them now? And they're still passing the buck back and forth, and will keep doing that until we give up.

Oh, and the picture we DID send, of the melted interior light (because they had the wrong bulb in it) produced a "Sorry, those parts are no longer available" response.

I would never buy an appliance from Aldi ever again. Mushrooms (and those really cool coin-noodling tubs they come in), yeah, but whitegoods, no way.

[JeffH]

The real test will be sales -not just to the dealers but to end customers. It is not a success if a lot of unhappy dealers are stuck with unsold stock.
Of course we may never be in a position to judge sales success. However discounting from initial price, a few months along, could be an indicator of less than success. Then again his plan might include creaming the top off the market initially then reducing price to shift the remaining rolls (still at a good profit).

It's all too confusing. I might just sit back and await developments.

Meanwhile a box arrived for me from the Ram just now and I have the equivalent of several of his rolls all for a delivered price of less than one of those rolls. And in official RAM packaging.
I find it hard to fathom why anyone would even consider buying one of the private rolls.

[Fulvio]

Meanwhile a box arrived for me from the Ram just now

OH! So I should make some calls and see if my back-ordered boxes are in?