Which words in a competition scare you away?

kevinb1967

I avoid Facebook ones. I used to do them with a second comping only account but then I read on here that there was a possibility that I was risking losing both my Facebook accounts so I stopped doing them.

compwatcher

Can I just say it's not always the obvious words that should "scare" you away but the subtle ones.

I'll quote you a recent competition that had most regular comping hobbyists fooled. It was run by Tesco / Mondelez and the Entry Form said "WIN WORLDWIDE FLIGHTS. 20 PAIRS OF TICKETS TO BE WON EVERY DAY!

The promotion lasted for three weeks so in theory there should have been over 400 winners, especially as there were many cheaply priced items you could buy to enter. Sweets, chocolate, that sort of thing.

But to date we haven't heard of a single winner, not one. The "scare" is in those not-so-magic words "TO BE WON". That means possible or available to be won. It certainly doesn't mean they will be won. Hence no winners making themselves known as yet.

The problem is the firm operating the competition works on a fixed fee for the promoters. They're given x thousands of pounds to run the show and any prizes have to come out of that budget. So the fewer the winners, the more money in the bank for them. They're hardly likely to be dishing them out hand-over-fist are they. If they give NO prizes out, their profit margin becomes enormous. In this instance we believe the odds against winning must have been astonishingly high, the company wont tell us despite repeated requests (they're called GRG btw).

We'll be keeping a very careful eye on this company in the future and alerting hobbyists when a competition looks extremely difficult to win. We'll also be contacting Tesco to ask why they're adding credibility to these competitions that are almost impossible to win.

The CAP code which governs these things says Terms & Conditions should be clear and unambiguous. Do you think "TO BE WON" sounds clear and unambiguous when it actually means "very unlikely to be won" ? We don't which is why we've reported this promotion to the ASA.

If you are going to enter, look out for the words "to be won" or "available to be won". Then think very carefully as to whether it's worth your time, effort and money. MUST BE WON is what you want to be seeing.

Thank You

One-Eye

CatsWithThumbs wrote: »

Weirdly mine is Candles- I hate candles, they give me the creeps, so do coathangers, but there aren't that many comps giving away coathangers!!!
If the comp said win a candle and £10K I may not be able to enter because if I win I would have to take delivery of a candle............hmmmmmmmm

So the Blue Peter Advent Crown thingy is probably the most frightening thing in the world :eek:

One-Eye

1) Win a place in the marathon/10k/triathlon

2) £100 gift card & personal shopper ("Hi, take me to the cafe and fetch me 33 cappucinos")

3) Get a quote for insurance and be entered in....
......."Hello, would you like a quote for your car insurance?"
......."I don't drive."
......."What about pet insurance?"
......."They don't drive either."

atarisrocks

like and share
vote (as in most voted or friends win)
photo/video effort
highest score

renegadia

Tickets

vikki_louise

Like and share
Highest score wins
Voting competitions (wish everyone would boycott them!)
Twitter
Places like good to know (I used to enter all of them) now people can pay to be entered
Having to enter friends details
Anything spam looking including big legit comping sites, I also don't like great competitions after getting lots of calls about my hobbies (fishing, horses and motorbikes although the guy did apologise when I said I was housebound!)

ecogirl1

Like and share
Highest score wins
Voting competitions
Rafflecopter (although starting to do a few here and there)

jeddentad

highest score, or lowest times.

I know how those things can be gamed. I've done it myself to see if it would work, though never with a time that would win.

I also disagree with how they discriminate against people with disabilities.

(fastest time to click the answers while using a screen reader? fat chance!)

andrew71

compwatcher wrote: »

Can I just say it's not always the obvious words that should "scare" you away but the subtle ones.

I'll quote you a recent competition that had most regular comping hobbyists fooled. It was run by Tesco / Mondelez and the Entry Form said "WIN WORLDWIDE FLIGHTS. 20 PAIRS OF TICKETS TO BE WON EVERY DAY!

The promotion lasted for three weeks so in theory there should have been over 400 winners, especially as there were many cheaply priced items you could buy to enter. Sweets, chocolate, that sort of thing.

But to date we haven't heard of a single winner, not one. The "scare" is in those not-so-magic words "TO BE WON". That means possible or available to be won. It certainly doesn't mean they will be won. Hence no winners making themselves known as yet.

The problem is the firm operating the competition works on a fixed fee for the promoters. They're given x thousands of pounds to run the show and any prizes have to come out of that budget. So the fewer the winners, the more money in the bank for them. They're hardly likely to be dishing them out hand-over-fist are they. If they give NO prizes out, their profit margin becomes enormous. In this instance we believe the odds against winning must have been astonishingly high, the company wont tell us despite repeated requests (they're called GRG btw).

We'll be keeping a very careful eye on this company in the future and alerting hobbyists when a competition looks extremely difficult to win. We'll also be contacting Tesco to ask why they're adding credibility to these competitions that are almost impossible to win.

The CAP code which governs these things says Terms & Conditions should be clear and unambiguous. Do you think "TO BE WON" sounds clear and unambiguous when it actually means "very unlikely to be won" ? We don't which is why we've reported this promotion to the ASA.

If you are going to enter, look out for the words "to be won" or "available to be won". Then think very carefully as to whether it's worth your time, effort and money. MUST BE WON is what you want to be seeing.

Thank You

I have read and reread this post and I still cannot see where you are coming from.
If the competition says to be won then that is what you can win. Nothing about how it is worded or have me and everybody who enter competitions been mislead for the past few years?
If the competition had said Maybe you can win or words to that affect then I would understand more.

Was the competition an instant win competition or did they have to text a code or register online everyday to win the prize and the items that were for sale maybe those unsold contained the winner numbers, prizes, codes etc?
It's similar to if say a company like Walkers Crisps run a competition that says "Win upto £50,000" and then the competition says that anything from £5 to £50,000 to be won by seeing if you have a blue packet inside. The packet containing the main winning prize may not be sold. This is nothing to do with Walkers or any other company, it's just that the prize was never won.


You then say that there should be 400 winners (estimate I would presume) and you have heard of nobody winning on this competition. How do you know? Have the people running this competition actually drawn any winners or have those who have won not published that they have won?