Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

thehustle.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 471 posts

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#61

Post by btashton »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #38
coldtea wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Prohibited: "Failing to award and distribute all prizes of the value and type represented." They can't mock-award it to someone of their own?

I'm fairly sure there's federal laws that forbid that. Of course, it's not a crime if you don't get caught. Plus there's a small sub-story in the article about someone that did win a Tesla, but couldn't afford the taxes they had to pay to actually get it. You can win a car but you have to be able to pay taxes and insurance for it, too.

Kind of like stock options at a startup that actually makes it.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#62

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #54
ehnto wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's generally no one doing the work basically. A gym I went to had notoriously bad competitions and advertising. It was never the "last memberships available" and there wasn't actually "10 days left" the counter just changed back on the final day. No one ever got the prizes either, they just never announced a winner, and a new competition started the same day. People still signed up by the hundreds. Hundereds of…

I think it's one of these cultural differences between the USA and Europe. There might be more bureaucracy in Europe, but these officers actually do the work they're paid for. E.g. as for the superannuation issue, you could probably get a court order within 2-3 months here.

I suspect the parent comment or is from Australia.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#63

Post by beaconstudios »

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #54
ehnto wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's generally no one doing the work basically. A gym I went to had notoriously bad competitions and advertising. It was never the "last memberships available" and there wasn't actually "10 days left" the counter just changed back on the final day. No one ever got the prizes either, they just never announced a winner, and a new competition started the same day. People still signed up by the hundreds. Hundereds of…

I think it's one of these cultural differences between the USA and Europe. There might be more bureaucracy in Europe, but these officers actually do the work they're paid for. E.g. as for the superannuation issue, you could probably get a court order within 2-3 months here.

for an alternative viewpoint, I'm from the UK and I see these car sweepstake scams all over the place. I think the region you're in has a strong impact on what the police's priorities are, due to different leadership.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#64

Post by fwdpropaganda »

> In the course of an hour on a Wednesday afternoon, 22 hopefuls fill out the digital form.

Lets take this hour to be an average hour. Over 12 hours in a day that the mall is presumably open, that's 22*12 = 264 leads.

> the mall isn’t behind these giveaways; they merely rent out the advertising space (for around $1.5k per day).

This would imply that these leads need to be worth at least $1500/264 = $5.68 per lead. Does this look like too much to anyone else? I would have guessed that independently of what they're selling, the conversion rate has to be attrocious, as people signed-up not because of their interest for the thing being sold but because they wanted a free car.

Maybe the reason why this works is that people who are stupid enough to give out their names on a mall promotion, are probably also easy to push shit on.

EDIT: I forgot to add at least two other costs: they need to lease the car, and they need to pay employees to keep an eye on everything. So that figure is more of a lower bound.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#65

Post by TheReveller »

throwaway0255 wrote: post #19

I used to know someone who worked for one of the companies behind those "We'll Fix Your Credit Score, Call Us" and "We'll Buy Your House, Call Us" signs on the side of street intersections (among other things), and I asked her to explain to me how those signs could possibly make any money. The way she explained it was (mostly her words), way less than 1% of people are dumb enough to dial the number, but of the people…

This is similar to the reason that household brands have such terrible packaging design. It's a form of price differentiation - if you can afford the more expensive version you'll avoid the ugly one just because it doesn't look nice.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#66

Post by drawkbox »

SpaceManiac wrote: post #3

Reminds me a bit of a process I've been wrestling with to redeem a "rebate" (gift card to a chosen retailer from a list) on an online textbook, negotiated between the professor and the textbook company after the semester start. The stakes are a little lower ($15 rather than a car) but the hoops they make you jump through, and the personal information they want, for what is ostensibly your money definitely make it fee…

Nathan For You did a really funny take on this for a gas 'rebate' in S1E4. Basically jumping through hoops until everyone would give up.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2777064/

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#67

Post by beojan »

drawkbox wrote: post #56
mort96 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did you even need the SSN?

As mentioned by others, sweepstakes sponsors are required to report prizes awarded to US residents to the IRS if the value is $600 or more. For tax purposes some also choose report prizes of lower values especially if they are giving away lots of them that equal substantial value businesses expense out. I thought it was only the 15k prizes above gift tax but it was actually any prize for tax tracking. Lots of people…

Wouldn't it be easier to exempt prizes from income tax and instead have a sweepstakes tax paid by the sponsor instead?

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#68

Post by drawkbox »

beojan wrote: post #67
drawkbox wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As mentioned by others, sweepstakes sponsors are required to report prizes awarded to US residents to the IRS if the value is $600 or more. For tax purposes some also choose report prizes of lower values especially if they are giving away lots of them that equal substantial value businesses expense out. I thought it was only the 15k prizes above gift tax but it was actually any prize for tax tracking. Lots of people…

Wouldn't it be easier to exempt prizes from income tax and instead have a sweepstakes tax paid by the sponsor instead?

It would be easier but it is law and the IRS wouldn't like that. Part of this process of getting the info allows it to be a gift if the sponsor does include paying the taxes, they still need the info to do that.

Basically any transfer of value is tracked and the company that gives it away needs proof to write off the amount and/or declare it a gift.

The SSN and affidavit are the scary part where people think it is a scam.

Anytime you win prizes this happens even if you are on a gameshow. [1]

[1] https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/taxes/pay-taxes-game-show-wi...

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#69

Post by bkor »

beaconstudios wrote: post #63
dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's one of these cultural differences between the USA and Europe. There might be more bureaucracy in Europe, but these officers actually do the work they're paid for. E.g. as for the superannuation issue, you could probably get a court order within 2-3 months here.

for an alternative viewpoint, I'm from the UK and I see these car sweepstake scams all over the place. I think the region you're in has a strong impact on what the police's priorities are, due to different leadership.

> I'm from the UK[..] I think the region you're in has a strong impact on what the police's priorities are, due to different leadership.

Totally agree! The few times I compare ads on television from Netherlands vs England the difference is huge. There's a huge amount of gambling advertisement in England. Advertising regarding something that's addicting is often quickly restricted in The Netherlands. Secondly the loan advertisements. In Netherlands the advertisements have to mention that it costs money (seems super obvious) plus there are restrictions on the interest rate. Seems in England companies can do whatever they want.

If a lot of people get into money problems it'll affect everyone (stealing might go up, or they'll not pay back loans, etc). It is so strange that this is allowed.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#70

Post by invalidusernam3 »

I remember a few years back walking on the beach with my dad and some similar time share scam people asked us if we wanted to enter a competition. We were handed two scratch cards with various prizes; cash, a holiday or the grand prize of a car.

Obviously all the scratch cards were winners for the holiday.

My dad scratched his card and said "Oh great, I won the car!"

The scam guys eyes opened wide and he had a confused look on his face and asked my dad to show him the scratch card. Obviously it was actually for a holiday, but it was great seeing the confusion in the guys face since he knew there was no car.

Post reply on HN