Help! Advice needed re cheating in comp

lea43

Hi all
I've been a regular visitor here for a while but never needed to post before but I need some advice from compers who may have been in a similar situation.
Without naming the company/individuals I entered a short story competition to win a short holiday and found out afew weeks ago I'd been chosen as a finalist, I was thrilled as I've never got anywhere in a comp before and it meant alot that people liked my story -particularly as the story was special to me as it's about my daughter. I was told voting would open and the winning story would be the one to receive most votes in the form of a facebook like button. Voting opened last week and I've done amazingly well, been in the lead all the way through and had some lovely feedback from people about the story. Voting closes on Tuesday (18th) and as the comp nears it's end I expected the other finalists would put the pressure on but I noticed a Canadian man who hadn't had many votes was suddenly receiving alot during the last 2 days. The voting pattern seemed off so I googled the link to his story and it took me to his wifes business facebook page who sells products for babies, on the site 2 days ago she has promised to give a 25 dollar voucher to one of the ladies who votes for his story with a promise of 2 more voucher draws if he wins, of course underneath there are alot of comments from people saying they've voted.
This has left me feeling gutted, I've led the competition purely by spreading the word and have avoided anything like voting exchange sites because if I won in that way it would taint it, I'm an honest person and can't believe someone is buying votes which is clearly working for him as he's quickly catching me up. It just makes me feel like the effort I put into writing the story and all the votes people have made for me is now worthless because I can't compete with offering money. I've sent messages to every contact address I can find for the company running the comp asking them if they can let me know if they condone this because if they do there's not much point continuing to ask friends and family to vote, as it's now the weekend though I've no idea how soon the company will respond.
I took a screenshot of the facebook page and sent this to the company, my worry is they won't care as long as they are getting visitors to their website.
I just want to know what you'd do in this situation? Are there organisations that ensure comps are done fairly that I could contact, would you name and shame the person all over facebook and twitter where the comp is being promoted?
Sorry for the longwinded post, I'm sure many of you will understand how upsetting it is, I was so close to winning but I can't go offering people vouchers to vote for me so I can't play him at his own game.
Thanks for reading,
Lea

Enigmatic_Me

Firstly, congratulations on your story being selected.

Sadly, what you are experiencing always happens with these voting competitions. People buy votes so unless there was anything in the terms and conditions then I am afraid they will probably just award the prize to the entry with most votes.

I never do these voting comps with one exception. I did one last year for a German facebook page (I have a great interest in holidays in Germany). There were three prizes of short breaks in Germany. It was a photo competition and 10 pictures were selected and I was lucky to be one of the ten finalists. There was then a week for votes. I drummed all the support I could from my friends on FB. My picture was in second place all week.......right up to the last day when an Italian entry and a Spanish entry both went from half a dozen votes to hundreds/thousands overnight! On checking some of the people who had voted there were lots of fake facebook accounts which had only just been created.

I had pre warned the company running that this might happen and asked if they would change to them selecting the winners but they would not change. Another entrant also noticed the sudden mass of votes and commented and complained.

Needless to say I never got a prize, I did put my thoughts both to the promoters and the company running the competition and was told they had checked and nothing untoward had occurred. :mad:

As a result, no matter what the prize is I will NEVER enter one of these voting comps again.

I would put it down to experience and hopefully another prize will be on the way for you very soon. As you say, as long as they are getting people to their page/site the promoters are not the slightest bit interested.

Good luck.

lea43

Thanks very much for replying sugarbabe. Yes it's amazing what people will stoop to in order to win, I've always avoided voting comps too but thought this might be different since it's supposedly about talent and I love writing. Interestingly when I looked this guy up he won a photography competition recently with a very similar company so maybe he did the same with that one. I've been taught in life to be completely honest but unfortunately in these comps it seems like honesty & integrity doesn't get you anywhere.
The good news is although he's had another flurry of votes overnight he still hasn't caught me which I hope says something about the quality of our writing, if he continues at same rate though he will catch me before voting ends.
My next question is is it within the forum rules for me to put the link to my entry on here? If so maybe anyone out there who feels same way as me about these comps could help to stop him catching up. Again I don't want to break any rules though!
Thanks everyone, Lea

fire**fly

Hi,

this board is the one for putting your
'vote for me' in...


A reminder about Vote for me Comps

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/635355

lots of good luck x

lea43

Thanks firefly I 'll put a link in relevant forum, don't know if it will be enough to stop this guy overtaking but I've got to try.
Lea x

lea43

Just adding I've posted in vote for me section so if any of you read this and feel same way I do about bribery/cheating please help, I haven't been able to post direct link to my story since I'm a new user but I've left details on how to find it. Unfortunately I can't offer you all vouchers to vote but I hope you genuinely feel my story should win.x

fire**fly

lea43 wrote: »

Just adding I've posted in vote for me section so if any of you read this and feel same way I do about bribery/cheating please help, I haven't been able to post direct link to my story since I'm a new user but I've left details on how to find it. Unfortunately I can't offer you all vouchers to vote but I hope you genuinely feel my story should win.x

hi, I've added link in your posting in the referrals,
(sent you pm)
hope it helps & lots of good luck x

barbaraemmerson

Done and good luck!

Glad

please don't post any more details of your entry in this thread

you do mention in your first post that you would feel tainted if you won by advertising for votes, if you have changed your mind now that you have registered for MSE you can ask for votes in the dedicated thread in the referrers board

hannonle

You never know, after the weekend they might read your correspondence and disqualify him. Some companies do, some don't.


Good luck.

Blulu

I never do voting comps, partly for the reasons you mentioned OP, but I also don't really like the idea of people begging for votes from those they know.

Paying for votes is wrong, but I also wouldn't ask people to vote for me just because they know me.

It's such a shame, because if there was a way of getting people to vote honestly, these comps would be great to enter. I would really like to write a little fun poem, or caption and have it voted on, if it were voted for on merit alone.

People will always try to gain an advantage to win - I resist calling it cheating, because sometimes it isn't cheating, sometimes it's within the T&C.

Nowadays, I will only enter an effort comp if I believe it will be fairly judged.

Blu X