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Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

thehustle.co

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Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#131

Post by saalweachter »

wjossey wrote: post #83
afpx wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is incredibly frustrating that police don’t seem to actively enforce the majority of the laws. My local police seem anemic. There sure are a lot of them, though. Patrol cars are always visible. And, (right-wing) politicians seem to always want to be hiring more and upgrading their gear. For instance, recently they asked for a $30M shooting range. But, if the local newspapers are a good record, it seems that all th…

It depends on the structure of the municipality. You may have a civilian oversight board which has some level of control, and this could be an elected or appointed position. The other option being to become mayor, city manager, or whatever chief executive your area has with oversight over the police force.

In many counties, Sheriff is an elected position.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#132

Post by ilovetux »

extradego wrote: post #16
threatofrain wrote: post #5

Well I would be for penalizing such businesses. Isn't this just bait and switch? Such businesses should have their licenses revoked, as they damage relations for everyone else who wants to use prize incentives. These cheaty businesses also call into question the common person's ability to negotiate with fine print -- it's just too much.

In the USA, this is just how it’s done. I’m not exaggerating; this is business as usual . Penalizing this would be a catastrophe for Americans. I think the sheer volume of the tricks, lies, gimmicks and gotchas cause each one bleed into the next to the point of immersion. The shimmer of the spectacle and hope become one and the same. Because every day is just another swindle at the Big Bazaar Of Life.

This is certainly true. In fact, I would go so far as to say we (those born or raised in the US) are conditioned from a young age to become dependent on our consumer economy in order to lock us into a system where we have to accept this sort of behavior or go to extremes to reject it becoming an outcast or "wierdo".

This leads to the development of an ineffective coping mechanism where one learns to identify scams they have seen in the past and find a defense for it. This is like leaving a firewall wide open and only closing a specific port after an attack has occurred on that port. More precisely this is a reactive approach to defense.

A comprehensive approach to systematically develop effective safeguards in the US probably won't happen, ever. The people who want these safeguards are too busy with their day-to-day lives to dedicate any considerable amount of time to achieving it, meanwhile the people don't want anything to change have the time, money and influence to fight any attempt at reform. Meanwhile value is being extracted from the consumer which leads to a never-ending cycle.

This is getting a little scary with the shift to rent-seeking behavior. This is true from even the more established, trustworthy businesses (think Microsoft). A monthly subscription is not so bad, but when this becomes the normal way to buy things from the big names it legitimatizes the practice so a scammer can get their hands into your pocket forever.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#133

Post by astura »

mort96 wrote: post #48
drawkbox wrote: post #47

On the flipside, I worked on promotions game systems in the brand promotions space with instant win and giveaways after the user played a game. If they won we had to contact them to verify and get info to send them the prize. When someone won the prize we had to get the social security number of the person that won for gift tracking as many were over 15k, their contact info and location to send the prize, you'd be su…

Why did you even need the SSN?

To report it to the IRS so the IRS knows where to send the tax bill.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#135

Post by pc86 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #130
Animats wrote: post #9

Since this is a California on-site thing, California sweepstakes law applies.[1] - "The exact nature and approximate value of the prizes must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously when they are offered." - "The law prohibits the company from misrepresenting the odds of receiving any item offered." - Prohibited: "Failing to award and distribute all prizes of the value and type represented." Online complaint form here…

I'm frankly surprised these aren't being blown out of the water by litigation. One might even be able to make the argument that the mall operator, timeshare commission payers, et cetera are complicit.

Mall operator, really? They're renting space in the mall out, that's it.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#136

Post by saalweachter »

dirktheman wrote: post #14

A couple of years ago I had some time to kill in Vegas since i don't gamble. I was approached by this timeshare dude who offered me free tickets to the Shark Reef and a $100 gift card for a fancy restaurant. I attended the meeting (free breakfast!), politely declined all offers from a range of salesmen with ever hardening sales tactics and walked out with my vouchers two hours later. That was a good day.

Some of these presentations can be a good "deal" if you can resist the sales pressure, the sales staff takes your declination in good humor, and they actually give something of real value as a lure. If not, well the best case scenario is you've wasted an afternoon being yelled at and walked away with a useless "prize".

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#137

Post by moftz »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #53
drawkbox wrote: post #47

On the flipside, I worked on promotions game systems in the brand promotions space with instant win and giveaways after the user played a game. If they won we had to contact them to verify and get info to send them the prize. When someone won the prize we had to get the social security number of the person that won for gift tracking as many were over 15k, their contact info and location to send the prize, you'd be su…

As an individual authenticating callers is difficult. I recently had someone claiming to be from the ATO (Australian Taxation Office) call and ask me to identify myself. Not surprising, my tax filing is overdue. I advised them as a security policy I do not give out PII to unauthenticated callers, asked for a reference number and a return phone number. The number I was given is not listed on the ATO website so I did n…

I've had my bank call me at work because I forgot to pay my credit card off the day after it was due. No callerid info, just a number. The woman on the phone didn't say who she was, who she was calling from, she just immediately asked me if this was blahblah. My work has been the subject of a bunch of scammers calling about financial services lately so I wasn't too keen on saying who I was. I kept asking her who she was calling from and she just kept asking me who I was. Finally she said she was from my bank. I told her I'd call her back. Called up my bank and had to wait through several people for someone to tell me what was up. Not only does there need to be some etiquette when cold calling someone (like using callerid and stating upfront who you are and who you are calling from!) but callerid need an update so you can't spoof it so we can trust it again.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#138

Post by astura »

drawkbox wrote: post #47

On the flipside, I worked on promotions game systems in the brand promotions space with instant win and giveaways after the user played a game. If they won we had to contact them to verify and get info to send them the prize. When someone won the prize we had to get the social security number of the person that won for gift tracking as many were over 15k, their contact info and location to send the prize, you'd be su…

This seems like an easy problem to solve.

Make the winner fill out the tax forms and send them directly to the IRS. The IRS informs the promotion they've received the tax forms, and verifies names, addresses, amount match. The promotion releases the prize to the winner.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#139

Post by freehunter »

pc86 wrote: post #135
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm frankly surprised these aren't being blown out of the water by litigation. One might even be able to make the argument that the mall operator, timeshare commission payers, et cetera are complicit.

Mall operator, really? They're renting space in the mall out, that's it.

It's illegal to rent space to businesses you know to be conducting illegal activities. The mall operator can't rent space to a drug dealer or arms dealer, they can't rent a brothel, they can't rent space to human traffickers. Mall operators are not common carriers.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#140

Post by felipemnoa »

dirktheman wrote: post #14

A couple of years ago I had some time to kill in Vegas since i don't gamble. I was approached by this timeshare dude who offered me free tickets to the Shark Reef and a $100 gift card for a fancy restaurant. I attended the meeting (free breakfast!), politely declined all offers from a range of salesmen with ever hardening sales tactics and walked out with my vouchers two hours later. That was a good day.

Similar experience here. They really do try several tricks to get you to bite. The one trick that they tried was that once we were in the restaurant the lady claimed that it was a mistake and that we were not supposed to be there. The free meal was only for members but she would overlook it and continue with the presentation just for us. Pretty laughable.
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