Business & Tech

Minister Cries Foul Over Kirkwood Mailer

An advertisement for a sales event at Kirkwood Mitsubishi led a longtime Kirkwood resident to think he won hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.

Edwin Parker, 75, of Kirkwood, calls a recent mail advertisement for a sales event at Kirkwood Mitsubishi a fraud and a scam.

The longtime Kirkwood resident and minister of Freedom Church in Valley Park thought that he won a sizable prize after he played a scratch-off game included in a mailer for the event that ran Nov. 5-12.

When Parker went to Kirkwood Mitsubishi to claim his prize, he discovered he only won $3. The fine print of the ad notes the majority of winning amounts of the "up to $3500 cash prize" is $3.

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"It's probably the best thing I've ever seen to fool the people, and the people of Kirkwood," Parker said, adding that it was the biggest fraud he had ever seen.

Parker said he went to claim his prize thinking that money, a gas card or car could be used for his ministry.

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Chris Auffenberg Kirkwood Mitsubishi Operations Manager Steve Kraus said the format of the ad is common in the auto dealership industry. The advertised sale was managed by an outside company that is responsible to ensure marketing of the event is compliant.

"The people that put on the event guarantee any advertising is Attorney General compliant, and I believe that it is. This exact template is used by several other dealerships in the state that I'm aware of," Kraus said.

Kraus said it's hard to have the details of deals prominently displayed in a small sized advertisement and that it is never the intent of the dealership to mislead anybody.

After being contacted by the Kirkwood-Des Peres Chamber of Commerce about Parker's concern, Kirkwood Patch posted the mailer on Kirkwood Patch Facebook. Here are some of the responses we received.

  • "I had the same thing but threw it away. If its too good to be true, then it's obviously a marketing ploy!"
  • "Misleading! Had to read through all the fine print to convince my dad not to check it out."
  • "Um, yeah. Send it to the Attny Gen"
  • "It's certainly stupid, it looks like every other 'you might be a winner!' Ad though."

Chime in. Do you think the ad is misleading?


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