Feeling Like a Sore Loser: Spabreaks.com Spa Gathering Limerick Comp

millymoo122

Eek, this is where comping goes wrong.

With comps I always feel that I should just appreciate the fact that companies give us the opportunity to win stuff for free. I always feel that complaining about the way a comp has been run is like looking a gift horse in the mouth.

But today on Facebook Spa Breaks revealed their winning "Limerick" for their recent competition (fab prize; flights to Ireland and stays at 3 different spas, including a hire car to get you between them) - and it turns out the winner wrote a 6 verse poem.

I feel awful criticising another winner's work - I'm always glad for other winners, and their poem was certainly a great effort - but the entry criteria was an "entertaining limerick" and it doesn't meet that at all. I'm conflicted because I want to be a supportive member of our little comping community, and I'd hate people begrudging me a win because of my entry - but it didn't meet criteria. Certainly not the winner's fault, and I only have praise for their prowess with poetry, but rather annoyed at Spabreaks for picking a rule-breaking entry.

Needed to vent, and hoping someone can soothe me. I comp for the fun of it and as soon as negative feelings come in I feel like I should stop!

Barnabysue

I think I would feel the same, in fact there was a comp just recently where you had to say in 10 words or less what you would do if you won. The winner used far more words. Rather than make a fuss on their wall, I sent them a message via Facebook just saying how disappointed I was, I hadn't expected to win but had stuck to the rules and they sent me a goody bag as an apology. Worth a try

lim·er·ick

/ˈlim(ə)rik/
Noun
A humorous, frequently bawdy, verse of three long and two short lines rhyming aabba, popularized by Edward Lear.

jellyfox

I don't think there's anything wrong with feeling that way, if a competition has certain criteria then you'd expect the company to abide by that, otherwise it makes you feel as if there's no point in having the rules of that competition in the first place. Not really anything you can do about it, but I can see why you're a bit put out!

Zanzib

Yes, me too.

If rules are set for entries and the winner is one that doesn't follow the rules then it's wrong.

It could also make some people think that the person who did win may have won for another reason- connections...

LauraEdwards7

I entered that with (what I thought was) an amazing limerick - I was sure I was going to win haha, so yeah, it sucks that a non-limerick won!

Barnabysue

They've now commented:

Spabreaks.com We would like to apologise to anyone who feels the competition was judged unfairly, and to assure everyone that all entries were read and considered carefully, and were gratefully received. Everyone who entered at the email address ‘facebook@spabreaks.com’ as requested was also sent a £20 spa voucher as a thank you for their time. If this is not something you received, please send your contact details to facebook@spabreaks.com, and your voucher will be emailed back shortly. Best wishes, Spabreaks.com.

Doesn't really address the problem though does it?

purplebutterfly

I find that the vast majority of these "effort" comps aren't actually won by the best entry. Some of the creative writing efforts are abysmal and have the creativity of a dead slug - as well as being littered with spelling and grammatical errors.

As Barnabysue also pointed out, a lot of times the winner doesn't even stick to the rules! I entered a Boots video comp and the rules clearly stated the video had to be less that 5 minutes in length - the winning entry was 9 minutes long.

After a lot of arguments about a Tesco comp on Facebook (you had to tell them what you wanted to win and they picked the "best entry" each hour), Tesco admitted that they didn't even read all the entries! They picked a few at random and chose the winner from that handful.

That comp had a strict word limit too but one of the winners wrote an epic bloody poem! :mad:

Photo effort comps are often won by people stealing stock images from the internet and any game that awards a prize to the "fastest time" or "highest score" will be won by somebody with the technical knowledge to fix the system to their advantage.

I rarely enter effort comps any more as they infuriate me to the point of incandescent rage and it's not healthy I spent ages creating a tableau and a decorated egg on Sunday for a Jessops comp. One of the winners had simply popped an egg onto an eggcup that looked like shoes!

If you can enter them without feeling bad when a complete pile of poop wins, then go ahead and enter, but some of the complete **** that wins is just ridiculous.

millymoo122

Barnabysue wrote: »

They've now commented:

Spabreaks.com We would like to apologise to anyone who feels the competition was judged unfairly, and to assure everyone that all entries were read and considered carefully, and were gratefully received. Everyone who entered at the email address ‘facebook@spabreaks.com’ as requested was also sent a £20 spa voucher as a thank you for their time. If this is not something you received, please send your contact details to facebook@spabreaks.com, and your voucher will be emailed back shortly. Best wishes, Spabreaks.com.

Doesn't really address the problem though does it?

Ridiculous response, isn't it! I've been messaging them this afternoon (took your advice after they ignored the posts on their wall) and they've been quite shirty.

Their ultimate reply was that "there are multiple definitions advising on the exact criteria of a limerick" - so it looks like they are refusing to admit they are in the wrong and are sticking by their decision. Hardly surprising. Don't know what dictionary they're using!

millymoo122

purplebutterfly wrote: »

I find that the vast majority of these "effort" comps aren't actually won by the best entry. Some of the creative writing efforts are abysmal and have the creativity of a dead slug - as well as being littered with spelling and grammatical errors.

As Barnabysue also pointed out, a lot of times the winner doesn't even stick to the rules! I entered a Boots video comp and the rules clearly stated the video had to be less that 5 minutes in length - the winning entry was 9 minutes long.

After a lot of arguments about a Tesco comp on Facebook (you had to tell them what you wanted to win and they picked the "best entry" each hour), Tesco admitted that they didn't even read all the entries! They picked a few at random and chose the winner from that handful.

That comp had a strict word limit too but one of the winners wrote an epic bloody poem! :mad:

Photo effort comps are often won by people stealing stock images from the internet and any game that awards a prize to the "fastest time" or "highest score" will be won by somebody with the technical knowledge to fix the system to their advantage.

I rarely enter effort comps any more as they infuriate me to the point of incandescent rage and it's not healthy I spent ages creating a tableau and a decorated egg on Sunday for a Jessops comp. One of the winners had simply popped an egg onto an eggcup that looked like shoes!

If you can enter them without feeling bad when a complete pile of poop wins, then go ahead and enter, but some of the complete **** that wins is just ridiculous.

Hah! Glad I'm not the only one that gets infuriated! Problem is most of my wins have been from effort comps so I can't stop entering! Ah well.

LauraEdwards7

Ha. That email reply was basically

'Oh, sorry about that, I actually don't know what a limerick is, my bad. I'm not going to do anything about it. You had a voucher that could pay for half a manicure, that's five nails, be grateful.'

I entered a twitter comp the other day to win a phone and you had to upload a pic. I uploaded my own funny pic and amusing caption. The winner was a blatant google images pic with no caption. I don't think judges read/check even half of the entries most of the time - but it should be stated in the T&C's.

millymoo122

LauraEdwards7 wrote: »

Ha. That email reply was basically

'Oh, sorry about that, I actually don't know what a limerick is, my bad. I'm not going to do anything about it. You had a voucher that could pay for half a manicure, that's five nails, be grateful.'

I entered a twitter comp the other day to win a phone and you had to upload a pic. I uploaded my own funny pic and amusing caption. The winner was a blatant google images pic with no caption. I don't think judges read/check even half of the entries most of the time - but it should be stated in the T&C's.

Agreed!

The other thing that irritates me is people submitting pictures taken by professional photographers in photo comps. I was in line to win a grand's worth of Dune shoes - worked really hard in a voting comp to get into the Top 10 - and the majority of the 5 overall winners judged by Dune were people who had submitted photos taken by their wedding photographer of their wedding shoes! The photographer should win the prize in those instances if you ask me!