Companies who ignore their own 'rules of entry'

CXL

I find this so annoying, especially the 'winner picked at random' yet they couldn't even be bothered to carry the random draw out and pick somebody who has swayed them instead.

Mini rant due to a recent Pinterest competition that clearly hasn't been drawn at random & the winner didn't follow a hashtag 'rule' either.

I do enter comps for fun & have won some great prizes (so not too bitter about losing out lol) I just wish companies would be more honest and not flaunt their own t&c's!

JessicAhh

Is that the Esty Pinterest comp?

CXL

No (don't think I saw that one) it was made.com's - they clearly picked their winner based on an unasked for drawing she did, because you were supposed to enter via pinning to a board using a specific hashtag which she actually only used on this drawing, not on the relevant pins.

Not having a go at the winner btw, her board entry was lovely, just the company for not drawing randomly!

JessicAhh

I saw that as well, and wondered why she'd done it! Hadn't seen that she'd won... It was a good board, but yes, what a shame, when she hadn't followed the rules...
I'm surprised no one has commented yet on the FB announcement... Usually fellow compers pick up on these things!

The Esty Lingerie one wasn't so much they didn't follow their own terms, just that they picked a frequent contributor to their FB page, and - indeed - a lingerie blogger as their winner....!

This is the problem with competitions that aren't run through a random direct entry through the website system, I guess. I agree, though, it's not fair

CXL

Yes, similar to twitter comps, a lot of companies pick winners because they are swayed (by bloggers, follower numbers or those who plead for the win lol) even though they express the random draw line in their terms!

I did message made.com about their rules, no reply though funnily enough. It is a shame because I noticed a lot of people had entered too.

The_3rd_Zebu

..... And going back to the days of Postcard draws you would get compers declaring how the different types of postcard, the use of stickers, fancy artwork and other embellishments would increase their chances of winning.

CharleyYpres

Similar thing just happened with a friend of mine of facebook, she won festival tickets but conveniently wrote a large paragraph about how she just lost her job and can't afford to go but would give anything to win.

It's not like there are other people who can't afford to go (me included at the minute!), I guess I should start kissing butt to increase my chances

CXL

It happens all the time, especially on twitter. That's why the same names keep winning (some winners even change their @ name regularly which is sneaky lol).
Fair play to them compers if the company don't issue proper t&c's and so can be kiss-ar**d into picking them - but when they claim it's a random draw and have ppl promoting them via hashtagging etc. it really lessens my opinion of the company.

NB. Made.com messaged back saying they used a random number generator to pick the winner. If that was the case the winner only used the # on a picture that actually had nothing to do with what was asked of the pins! therefore shouldn't really have been included in the draw.
I still think they are #lying lol.

robbies_gal

tell them the rules werent followed by the winner

i dont do comps where it says tell us why you want to win etc does my head in

CXL

I have told them & hinted that they picked her based on her just drawing a picture for them.. no reply!

The "tell us why you should win" are stupid, after all, why should one person win over another (why is one sob/funny/tragic whatever reason more valid than somebody else's?!).
Then again I dislike the lack of transparency in email competitions where you have to come up with a creative answer to win. I have seen winners announced (after a bit of prodding from compers) and all you are told is 'name' won, would it hurt to let us know how creative their entry was? (- and therefore how rubbish mine must have been in comparison lol).

CharleyYpres

CXL wrote: »

I have told them & hinted that they picked her based on her just drawing a picture for them.. no reply!

The "tell us why you should win" are stupid, after all, why should one person win over another (why is one sob/funny/tragic whatever reason more valid than somebody else's?!).
Then again I dislike the lack of transparency in email competitions where you have to come up with a creative answer to win. I have seen winners announced (after a bit of prodding from compers) and all you are told is 'name' won, would it hurt to let us know how creative their entry was? (- and therefore how rubbish mine must have been in comparison lol).

I remember before I started comping properly my (now, we were just friends at this point) boyfriend and his band were on the radio. They had a caption contest and you won a pair of festival tickets for the most creative caption.
I'm really really unimaginative so didn't even bother, but emailed in with a song request.

Anyway, an hour later they announce I won the tickets. Apparently they just picked the email at the top of the screen and didn't even bother looking at the captions :rotfl:it makes you wonder what other companies do things like this!