FB Competition - seems dodgy?

dizzyc

Back in November I entered a comp with Blue Bay Travel to win a cruise & stay in Mexico, at the time the question was something about why you have the XFactor and the info on fb was talking about Mel B having filmed her XFactor part at the same hotel in Mexico. In January the competition was still running but the question was changed to why do you think you should be on the maiden voyage - anyway the comp closed two weeks ago and over the weekend they've posted their top 5 entries.....

You can call it sour grapes if you like (yes I'll admit it lol) but the 5 entries were quite crap in all honesty, one of the entries was that old chestnut - **** delights me, ***** excites me, hope **** invites me....which has been around for years and years so hardly original.

They've announced the winner tonight BUT I've searched that person's name on FB and it doesn't exist. Yet you had to have fb to enter!! It all seems a bit dodgy to me, or am I being paranoid?! Not that I expected to win, but take a look at the page and the top entries and see whether you think any of them are worthy of a 12 night cruise & stay in Mexico!!

Any thoughts?

dizzyc

Comping_Crusader wrote: »

Can you remember how you actually entered please? Did you post a comment on the wall, or was it via an app? Can you remember if you used a hashtag?
I agree, there is no one of that name on Facebook. If you can let me know the above information I will post a query on their wall.

Comping Crusader

It was definitely an app - the link is still on the top of their page but it now says expired but it also says powered by woobox. Hope that helps, didn't use a hashtag I just put my answer in the box (I did a poem) then left name & email address.

mjm3346

Someone mentioned they couldn't find her and they replied

**** might be private, you needed to be on Facebook to enter

You can stop a FB search by phone number and e-mail not sure you can do it for a name search though.
But if you typed your name into a form to enter instead of it being set by your FB id then the name would not have to be identical to a FB one.

brownhandbag

that was me mjm3346

dizzyc

mjm3346 wrote: »

Someone mentioned they couldn't find her and they replied



You can stop a FB search by phone number and e-mail not sure you can do it for a name search though.
But if you typed your name into a form to enter instead of it being set by your FB id then the name would not have to be identical to a FB one.

Ah I never thought of that, that could be true because I use my middle initial on fb but dont put it on comp entries. Still seems dodgy though changing the question half way through running the comp - and it' also weird that I can't even find a carnival cruise ship that is doing a maiden voyage in the Caribbean on 17th May - the comp dates were very specific - you had to fly to Miami on 15th May, spend two nights in Miami before boarding the ship and then spend 5 nights on the cruise - but I can't find that cruise?

Maybe I'm going a bit mental or am just disappointed to not be in the top 5 lol, but my gut is telling me something fishy is going on - I've been comping for years and have seen this sort of thing happen before.....

Here's a link to the comp

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5157247

dizzyc

brownhandbag wrote: »

that was me mjm3346

Thanks for doing that, interesting reply & I like your comment about wanting to be able to congratulate her!

mjm3346

I think from your link

WIN yourself (and a friend) a place on the maiden voyage of our exclusive 12nt triple centre Mexico-Caribbean Cruise & Stay

they are talking about it being the "maiden voyage" of their package and not the cruise ship.


(Going back to the original point, they are not an inspiring top 5 )

dizzyc

Comping_Crusader wrote: »

I will drop them an email tomorrow to see if I can find out anymore information.
Comping Crusader

Ah thanks that's very kind of you. Do you think I'm reading too much into it though? Maybe she does exist!

dizzyc

mjm3346 wrote: »

I think from your link



they are talking about it being the "maiden voyage" of their package and not the cruise ship.


(Going back to the original point, they are not an inspiring top 5 )

Ah yeah you could be right there - but still there isn't a Carnival cruise leaving Miami on 17th May as far as I can see so the dates don't match up....

mjm3346

dizzyc wrote: »

Ah yeah you could be right there - but still there isn't a Carnival cruise leaving Miami on 17th May as far as I can see so the dates don't match up....

Depending on timing it might be the 18th not the 17th.

Blue Bay Travel Ltd – We act as The Midcounties Co-operative Limited in connection with the sale of travel products

2013yearofthehouse

I've noticed more and more on FB that winners are just announced by name (in a separate post) and not tagged in any way or (if the winner has written a reply) their post is not replied to etc. so I've started bookmarking and checking back, which is very tedious and annoying. For example, I checked this one today: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Relaxing-BeautySpa/679132472178547?fref=nf the company themselves have said they can't tag the winner, but although just a "like" was required to win, someone with the winners name did actually post a reply on the comp post, so the company could have used that to contact her (someone else has replied to her to let her know she might have won).

I checked several other comps today (ones that actually required a reply to enter) and all of them had a new stand alone post with an untagged winners name, instead of replying to their reply/entry. I couldn't even find a reply that matched the winners name on two of them, so who knows if they're real or not!