Brand Refusing to Honour Prize Because of 'Fake Account'?!

HKSwain

I'm really cheesed off - I was contacted yesterday by a tea retailer, to say that I had been chosen as their prize winner for their most recent Facebook competition (this was visible on their page, but I have been informed that they have now deleted the post and removed any evidence that I had entered), and was asked all the usual stuff that companies need to send out the prize.
At 10pm (when I was asleep), I was contacted again to say that they had been informed that my profile was 'fake', that I was impersonating someone else, and that unless I verified my identity they were revoking the prize. I saw the message this morning, and wrote out a long reply saying that I don't use Facebook as a social page but do for things like competitions and other groups (hence why you won't find a picture of a person on it), but I could produce ID if they wanted that matched my name with the address I gave. It turns out that they'd already blocked my profile on Facebook by this time. I've tried to email them, but there's been no reply there either. They claimed to send out the prize at 5pm yesterday, but it's clear I won't be getting it.
I messaged them on Twitter, but was immediately blocked there too. I have now shared publicly the messages between myself and the company on there because (and I know it's petty) if they won't talk to me privately, let's do it in front of their customers. I shared this on Facebook and we've reached the conclusion there that the brand simply didn't want a 'comper' to win, but they didn't realise until I'd already been informed. Has anyone else ever been in this position? I don't want them to get away with this, because who's to say they won't do it again?

HKSwain

Update: I just got off the phone with the company owner. An overzealous admin worker literally followed my every Facebook move after a 'tip-off' and, because I tag the same few people in competition posts (and post a few competitions in the first place!), decided that I was some kind of bot. What started as very accusing and making me feel like some kind of scam artist eventually turned into me having to define what a comper is. I was also 'very immature-sounding' when I tried to explain it (I'm in my 20s!) They were forced to admit that they blocked me before I could respond though, so 'this time' I'm getting the prize. I suggested that next time they say 'no compers allowed'...

Mariobug25

Which company was this?! 

HKSwain

Mariobug25 said:

Which company was this?! 

I agreed to remove any mention of the company online (I'd made Facebook and Twitter posts too) as a gesture of goodwill as on other platforms I'd been less competition-centric and more highlighting bad business. I might be 'immature' but it's sometimes better to be the bigger person.

Makeandsave

Glad your getting your prize, I saw your post on a facebook group. I did check your page out and its full of competition after competition and does look like a comping/bot account, You might want to add photos etc and add some information, you never know you might win more. Lots of jealous nasty compers out there that will go running to a company. I have had issues before but always got my prizes in the end. Good luck.

HKSwain

Makeandsave said:

Glad your getting your prize, I saw your post on a facebook group. I did check your page out and its full of competition after competition and does look like a comping/bot account, You might want to add photos etc and add some information, you never know you might win more. Lots of jealous nasty compers out there that will go running to a company. I have had issues before but always got my prizes in the end. Good luck.

Thanks, I'm taking some time out from it on Facebook at least because I was sent a few messages showing that a particular group really had it in for me (why I don't know, but that's their problem not mine), but if I start up again I'm definitely going to humanise my profile a bit more. I think I'd got it in my head that I shouldn't have any kind of personal information on it since it does need to be more publicly accessible due to sharing competitions, but I really doubt anyone's going to push the idea that I'm some kind of fraud bot if there's at least a couple more photos on it (though after all this, who knows?).
The oddest thing to me is, like I said on Facebook, I've been around for several years, and have been active for the majority of that time. The people who seemingly have had the issue with me have interacted with my posts and let me join their groups no questions asked, but as soon as I win I'm a scamming fraudster? I've won more than one Facebook competition in the past and the brands haven't even bothered to ask why my profile picture didn't have a person on it, but I of course have no way of knowing if these people have contacted every brand every time I've won (if they've known about it) and just happened to catch the attention of the person on the other end of the messages this time. Ultimately they're going to do this to the wrong person one day and it'll have larger repercussions, but until then I shall simply ignore them.

CompKB

How frustrating! I only use my twitter and Instagram for comping and I worry that companies might think I'm a bot. So I try to make sure to add photos and tweets.