Complaints about Click Frenzy Mayhem 2018 continue to mount

IT WAS touted as one of Australia’s biggest online shopping events. But just minutes after kicking off, the backlash had begun.

DESPITE assurances there would be no technical problems this year, social media has been flooded with complaints about the 2018 Click Frenzy Mayhem event.

The annual 24-hour sales bonanza kicked off at 7pm last night, with 99 per cent off some items, including special “Go Nuts” deals for subscribers.

Among this year’s big-ticket items were GHD hair straighteners for $1, Dyson vacuum cleaners for $5 and $1 Nespresso coffee machines.

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But while subscribers were expecting to receive “clues” to direct them towards those crazy deals by 6.45pm, many frustrated shoppers took to Twitter to vent after their emails apparently failed to show up in their inbox.

“No email. Waste of time,” one bargain hunter wrote on Twitter at 6.56pm.

“Click Frenzy is delaying once again in sending e-mails to its subscribers,” another wrote just after 7pm.

Can anyone tell me why I've registered at least 4 times for click frenzy and not received any emails from them as to the Go nutz deals #clickfrenzy

— KylieAnne (@Ky_L13) May 15, 2018

Click Frenzy co-founder Grant Arnott acknowledged the deluge of complaints on social media regarding email no-shows, but said Click Frenzy was not to blame.

“We can confirm all emails have been delivered on time and we have a top-of-the-line email delivery platform,” he said.

“However, there are always going to be cases out of our control where the recipient’s service provider may not deliver the email as instantly as we would like.

“Our service team is responding to all of those queries as fast as possible to ensure the clues are provided to those who have not seen the emails.”

However, other shoppers also voiced concerns that the banner advertisement for upcoming items such as a $100 Myer gift card for $1 flashed up and then disappeared, meaning that a bargain could be missed if a buyer hadn’t refreshed the page.

#clickfrenzy live: the Myer Gift Card did not appear last night - there has been an update. pic.twitter.com/oISzXoIZHt

— computer type boffin (@dctrjack) May 15, 2018

The banner just disappeared? #clickfrenzy

— Stephanie Youssef (@stephameye) May 15, 2018

Mr Arnott said he was aware of the banner issue and that a second promotion would be run today as a result.

“We have seen a lot of comments regarding one banner in particular yesterday evening,” he said.

“It appeared to work as intended from what we can ascertain, but we acknowledge those customer concerns and while our team investigates what may have caused that banner not to appear for many users, we are going to run an extra promotion today on the gift cards, so subscribers should look out for that in our next email.”

Other Twitter users also complained about being charged $3 extra “pending” on their credit cards after placing an order — but Mr Arnott said the sum was simply a “pre-authorisation for all orders” which was immediately voided if an order was unsuccessful.

“No funds are taken from the customer until an order is confirmed,” he said.

“We upgraded our system for Mayhem 2018 to further prevent gaming by fraudsters, and we vet all orders before approving.

“It is a tedious process here but a necessary one to ensure customers doing the right thing receive the bargains of a lifetime.

“We can assure customers that under no circumstances will funds be taken unless an order is confirmed, and our tech team worked last night ... to improve the time of order confirmations.”

More than a million Aussies shopped the sale in 2017, and traffic is already up by 11 per cent this year, with more than 700,000 visitors having passed through the site by 7am this morning.

That number is expected to climb to more than one million by 7pm tonight, when the sale ends.

“It’s too early to tell how many items are sold, as we rely on our retail partners to provide these figures, and we’re in the thick of running the event now, but it is fair to say items are selling through quickly just from what we can observe on traffic volumes,” Mr Arnott said.

“We’ve got a lot left in store for the rest of Mayhem today with some of the biggest ticket items still to come, and our team is working relentlessly to ensure any concerns are resolved quickly, both on the service side and the tech side.”

Hehehe #clickfrenzy is failing and pissing people off for the third year in a row, are the admins and programmers useless or are they scammers just after a quick payday? it's hard to tell at this point.

— Shanoobis (@Shannon1ford) May 15, 2018

#clickfrenzy what a waste of time!!

— Sushant (@SushantRayamaj7) May 15, 2018

This is appalling, we have been told that between 10 and 11pm there would be a banner for the gift card. Don't waste our time @clickfrenzy #clickfrenzy

— angel noordink (@angelnoordink) May 15, 2018

This year, Aussies were lured in by 16 “Go Nuts” deals at 99 per cent off, which included LG 55-inch TVs for $10, GHD hair straighteners for $1, GoPro video cameras for $2, Dyson vacuums for $5, $1 Nespresso coffee machines and $3 Xboxes as well as various Myer gift cards.

However, shoppers were warned to have “realistic expectations” ahead of the sale, with the highly-coveted Go Nuts deals expected to sell out almost immediately.

More than 250 retailers and brands are participating in the sale, including Myer, Sony, Big W, Bonds, Optus, Rebel, Dell, Peter Alexander, Cotton On, Sheridan, Webjet, House, Mon Purse, OPSM, Adore Beauty, Catch and MyDeal.

Deals cover fashion, electrical, home, health and beauty, toys, kids, food and liquor, sports, sleepwear, travel and more.

Did you manage to score a Go Nuts deal? Let us know at [e-mail]