As I flipped through my junk mail tonight, I came across a mailer from a local Chrysler dealer. It had one of those scratch-off squares on it, which I can never resist, so I went ahead and scratched it off. Lo and behold, it tells me, “CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HIT THE JACKPOT!”
I didn’t mean to submit that yet.
Anyway. The prizes were a free oil change, $500 cash, or the jackpot. Here’s the language around that, in small print buried at the bottom of a very loud, jumbled mailer:
That’s all there is. By the actual scratch-off panel, it says that winners must redeem their prizes in person during sale hours, with the dates and hours listed (the last day is this coming Saturday). So, if I go, I know I can expect a very hard sell at the least.
My boyfriend and I were planning a vacation anyway, so we’re actually interested in persuing this, but I don’t want to be a total rube.
Any advice or cautions? Anyone gone through this before and know what I should expect?
Here’s the thing:
The cruise may be free, but only for, say, three days. Yet the boat is out for a min. of five days, so you have to pay for two more days…plus dock fees, and airfare, and every piece of food and what have you has its price jacked up 500%, and you might need a hotel room, etc…
Basically, will it be less than, say, a Carnical cruise? Yes. Will it be crappier? Yes.
No, you didn’t win anything.
I got suckered by this bullshit in the US a good 8 years ago, when I was in a particularly gullible state of mind. My response to my “win” elicited dozens of phone calls from call centers, and a hell of a lot of junk mail, with which came the eventual realization that my “free” vacation would cost me as much as it would cost to fly to South-East Asia and spend a month there, which is a far more pleasant prospect.
I left the country for other reasons, but the bastards then pursued my US-based parents (at the secondary address I’d stupidly given them) after that, until my dad screamed at them never to call him again.
My husband answered the phone once eons ago to learn that he’d “won” a cruise. He got all excited, and I found an article about how much of a ripoff those things were - you were better off booking your own with a reputable travel agent. Naturally, I’m very cynical. Ask a lot of questions - that should tell you if it’s worth it or not.
Well, darn. I didn’t allow myself to feel even a twinge of excitement about this because I sorta figured it would turn out to be a soaking of some sort. But still… would have been nice.
I’d be willing to bet that just about every letter they sent out had the same “Jackpot” when scratched off. These and similar promotions for cruises, paid vacations, free airline trips, etc. are purchased for next-to-nothing by time share promoters, car dealers and others as a way to lure prospective customers.
If you read the fine print on the voucher you get, there are so many hoops to jump through and restrictions on when and where they can be used, and extra incidental fees to be paid that it is next to impossible to redeem them.
As others have said, it’s best to make your own reservations and just pretend you never heard about this “prize.”
You know, your local Chrysler dealer is a bit of an ass for doing this. There should be something you could do to dissuade them from this sort of thing. Perhaps you could call them every hour and ask a stupid question about the free cruise. Heck, if you know the name of the owner, call him at home and ask about it.
I’ve won some fairly big prizes through quiz contests in my time (including a few nice vacations), so let me assure you of this:
IF you’d actually “won” a prize worth more than $600.00, the sponsors would have sent you a certified letter that included some IRS forms you’d have to fill out, as well as some claim forms that you’d have to have notarized and sent back to the sponsors. That’s because, if a contest and prize are legit:
- Your prize is taxable, like any other income, and
- The sponsors want to make sure the right person gets the prize.
If you DIDN’T receive a W-4 form in the mail, that tells you you didn’t really win anything valuable. And if there weren’t any forms that had to be signed in front of a notary, that proves the sponsors don’t care who you are.
Moreover, while you will certainly have to pay your own legitimate expenses on a vacation you win in a legitimate contest (“The PRice Is Right” may give you a fee cruise on Carnival Cruise lines, but you can’t expect them to pay for your drinks, tips, souvenirs, etc.), BUT you should NEVER have to pay money for a “free” vacation. Any “prize” that requires you to pay money is not a prize at all.
Not that I don’t think this isn’t a scam, mind you, but if the game was a scratch off game, they wouldn’t KNOW he won until he came in to claim it, which he has not yet done.
True enough.
One other angle- it’s common to find games that say “JOHN SMITH: YOU HAVE DEFINITELY WON ONE OF THE FOLLOWING PRIZES: A million dollars, a Rolls-Royce, or a beer coozie.”
Guess which of the three you’ve probably “won”?
The whole scratchoff scam may be an elaborate way of getting “winners” to come down to the Chrysler dealership to claim their free oil change… during which time, they’ll have to listen to a hard-sell pitch by a dealer.
astorian, you mean a free oil change that gives them a chance to inspect your car, so that they can ask you whether you want your hydraulic fluid purified (or some such nonsense), and find other things wrong with your car? That free oil change?
Scam.
I like the ones that go a step further:
OHN SMITH: YOU HAVE DEFINITELY WON ONE OF THE FOLLOWING PRIZES: $1,000,000.00; Rolls-Royce; $500,000.00; $50,000.00;$5.00; $5,000.00; $50.00."
Yep- and while they’re working on all those problems, the salesman has you in his office, showing you all the wonderful new models you could buy!
Often, the prize you consider most worthless won’t be the one you seem to have won; it might say:
“You have definitely won one of these prizes: One mEEEllion dollars, a large uneconomical car, a luxury holiday or a small silver plated bracelet”
So you scratch it off, thinking it’s a scam and it’s bound to be the cheap-ass bracelet, only to find to your misadventurous joy that it’s actually the luxury holiday. All you have to do to claim your prize is attend a ‘presentation at the exhibition centre’. The ‘presentation’ turns out to be four hours of hard-sell for timeshares (the ‘exhibition centre’ is of course a dingy rented office).
After enduring the lies and bullshit hard sales, the luxury holiday turns out to be at the very apartments they’re trying to get you buy as a timeshare; you have to find your own flights and when you get there (if you’re dumb enough to go), not only do you discover that the only facilities for miles around are the expensive restaurant and shop in the timeshare complex, but there’s a rep there who keeps pestering you with more hard sell.
Eventually, you find yourself thinking that the silver plated bracelet would have been a fantastic prize.
I once “won” on one of those scratchcards that fall out of every magazine. I spent about five pounds on the phone to get my “personal claim number”, sent off the form, and received a tiny, unpolished emerald that looked like something unpleasant from my nasal cavity. But for only 25 ponds more, I could have it set into a gold chain! I didn’t pursue this. Since then, I occasionally read the small print on similar offers quite carefully, and often it seems you can get a good deal. But I’ve never yet got round to trying again :).
Another thing I’d forgotten - may not apply to the US - but most of this shit (which literally falls out of magazines my missus buys) requires several long phone calls to claim one’s “prize”. And the small print says stuff like “Calls cost a minimum of £4, and £2 per minute thereafter”. Seriously premium rate bullcrap.
AND another thing: though in the competitions where there’s a “lucky draw” with some big prizes that they have to award by law, they can spread the number of participants in these competitions over dozens and dozens of different lucky draws. So even though you got yours tailored specifically to Rat Wool Cushion Knitters’ Monthly, so you think you’ll only be up against 99 other people, you’re actually diluting the same competition with the readers of Time, Newsweek, and I Like Tits.