# Subway scrabble is a rip off **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 16, 2009, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subway-scrabble-is-a-rip-off/496637 "2009-05-16T13:09:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mske](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@mske](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mske)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subway-scrabble-is-a-rip-off/496637/41 "2009-05-18T13:18:26Z")
> [@orcenio](#): > > Home free, right? but wait. What’s this? A skill testing question? Oh yes, these sort of contests always have one of these things… Lets just see… Carry the one… Add the 14… Ah yes. 110! _Clicks Enter_ > > _WRONG_ Sounds more like your math skills are the problem. The “skill-testing questions” aren’t _that_ tough. It is not like you are being asked to prove a theorem or something… :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subway-scrabble-is-a-rip-off/496637/42 "2009-05-18T17:00:39Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Until now I’ve never heard of a contest that requires you to answer unrelated trivia or math questions in order to claim a prize they promote as instantly winning. There have been threads on this in the past, especially as regards why Canadians like the OP have to complete a skill-testing question when they win a prize in a commercial enterprise’s contest. See, for example, “[Sweepstakes has different rules for Canucks? Huh?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=158724)” from early 2003; and “[Skill Testing Questions](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=245381)” from 2004. It seems to me that the OP’s complaint has more to do with the hoops through which he must jump in order to claim his prize: going online and typing in a code and filling out a form and getting one shot at the skill-testing question. He has a point–most places that run contests of this nature don’t worry too much about the skill-testing question, making it either absurdly easy or posting the answer somewhere for the winner’s convenience, or both. Especially when the prize is small (a donut, a meal, a $15 gift card), most places will honor the winning card on the spot without the need for Internet access, PIN or security codes, forms, etc. Answer the (usually) simple skill-testing question, and get your prize right there and then, or even on your next visit. No need for further complication. Subway is making this much harder than it needs to be; and if the OP’s experience is any indication, much harder than the public has come to expect. ---
**Author:** ![muttrox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a8b319/32.png) [@muttrox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muttrox)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subway-scrabble-is-a-rip-off/496637/43 "2009-05-18T17:09:49Z")
The complaint is also is that he doesn’t know he messed up the skill question. Without a “paper trail”, he can’t see if he added incorrectly (as most here have assumed), fat-fingered, or perhaps entered in the correct answer and was cheated. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subway-scrabble-is-a-rip-off/496637/44 "2009-05-18T17:58:17Z")
> [@muttrox](#): > > The complaint is also is that he doesn’t know he messed up the skill question. Without a “paper trail”, he can’t see if he added incorrectly (as most here have assumed), fat-fingered, or perhaps entered in the correct answer and was cheated. Yes, you’re right, and all of those are plausible. I must say, I’m surprised that Subway would force small prize winners to go through the procedure described by the OP–I could see such a thing for the major prizes (cars, big cash, whatever), but not for one of the smaller prizes that could be awarded by any Subway store on the spot. Although I wouldn’t like to think so, that makes your last point just as plausible as the rest. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subway-scrabble-is-a-rip-off/496637/45 "2009-05-18T20:22:43Z")
reminds me of: “Drink more Ovaltine” ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subway-scrabble-is-a-rip-off/496637/46 "2009-05-18T21:11:37Z")
How can you claim a sandwich is tasteless when you control it’s contents? ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subway-scrabble-is-a-rip-off/496637/47 "2009-05-18T22:33:59Z")
> [@Gustav](#): > > Yeah, but > > 12 / 6 \* 4 = 2 \* 4 = 8 > 12 / 6 \* 4 = 12 / 24 = 0.5 Multiplication and division are supposed to have the _same_ precedence, and be done left-to-right (absent other notational considerations like representing division as a giant vertically-stacked fraction with arithmetic in the numerator or denominator). I never learned BOMDAS or any variant and am frankly horrified that anyone has - it’s patently incorrect to separate multiplication and division’s precedences that way. (Addition and subtraction too, for that matter.) While I’m in the neighborhood I’ll mention that exponents are done right-to-left. Not that anybody has said otherwise, but where one error exists, who knows what other rampant ignorance prowls? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subway-scrabble-is-a-rip-off/496637.md?page=2)