261–270 of 471 posts
We got a call a few weeks later that I won the iPod mini. I still remember my mom driving me to the mall and them handing me the new iPod Mini. That was my peek. I've never won a raffle since.
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There's a furniture salesman here in Houston who makes heavy use of that sort of promotion. His latest if you spend $3,000 on a mattress and the Astros win the "2018 baseball final championship series" you'll be refunded the purchase price. Not sure why it's worded so formally; must be a legal thing.
Mattress Mack?
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Way back in the day, I had a reinsurance company as a client. For those unfamiliar, reinsurance companies insure insurance companies. For example, they might insure a standard insurance company for automobile accidents, with a $1,000,000 deductible. So the retail insurance company handles payouts up to a million dollars, but when there's a really wild claim, the reinsurance company pays the insurance company for anyt…
Who insures the reinsurance company?
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Roping the unsuspecting into an incredibly expensive time-share using hard-sell boiler-room tactics without ever being up-front about the true costs. I sat through one of these once, curious about how it was going to go, and with the intent going in of not ever buying anything anyway. They present the timeshare as if it costs only pennies a day, and never admit to the true cost unless pressed very hard (and even then…
The real scam is the ongoing, monthly, maintenance fees on your 'timeshare'. Worldmark wanted $100 per month, per week of ownership, in a presentation I saw in Vegas. Which means that 52 weeks x $100 x 12 months = $62,400 per year in 'maintenance' on each unit. So even if you paid cash, they still get $62K per year in addition. This was Worldmark Vegas, buying a 'week' in a townhouse complex of $150,000 units. The mo…
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Roping the unsuspecting into an incredibly expensive time-share using hard-sell boiler-room tactics without ever being up-front about the true costs. I sat through one of these once, curious about how it was going to go, and with the intent going in of not ever buying anything anyway. They present the timeshare as if it costs only pennies a day, and never admit to the true cost unless pressed very hard (and even then…
The real scam is the ongoing, monthly, maintenance fees on your 'timeshare'. Worldmark wanted $100 per month, per week of ownership, in a presentation I saw in Vegas. Which means that 52 weeks x $100 x 12 months = $62,400 per year in 'maintenance' on each unit. So even if you paid cash, they still get $62K per year in addition. This was Worldmark Vegas, buying a 'week' in a townhouse complex of $150,000 units. The mo…
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What the scam? "Free flight" if you buy the timeshare or something?
They make it seem like they want to give you something free, but their only intention is to get money from you i guess
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I believe the contest rules require you to floor it straight out of the mall (the "Left4Dead 2 clause").
What is the L4D2 clause? Google didn't return anything.
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If I recall, there was a basketball one where the insurance company didn’t want to pay because the shooter had paid college ball. The team wound up paying to avoid the PR disaster.
YES! This was at a Chicago Bulls game in the late 90's iirc. I watched the game on TV. The shot was from the free-throw line to the basket on the opposite end of the court. The guy shot one handed, wheeling his arm around wide to throw the ball with a great arc. It took a few seconds to travel through the air, and from the moment he released the ball the crowd was silent - we could all see it was looking on-target. I…
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Telecoms + networking software engineer here: 'tis true - the caller has call release control on the PSTN i.e. the call doesn't end until the caller puts down the phone. There's special handling for e.g. 911 calls so that call release control is given to the callee i.e. the PSAP. This doesn't work for e.g. SIP because the SIP client is not a dumb slave to the network. If I click end call, even if the network doesn't…
This used to be true but I really doubt it’s the case anymore. Most of the “PSTN” nowadays has a bunch of SIP or other digital stuff in the middle, so this breaks down. Not to mention, this was never possible for mobiles to begin with.
Telcos move slowly.
You're right about mobile networks though - that's a different kettle of fish.
About 30 years ago in Australia There was a competition at the local shopping centre. Spend $20 at any shop in the centre, show your receipt and you get a chance to win the displayed car. The chance involved folding a paper plane, and then trying to get it into the car through the sunroof. Which was only open a small crack. A friend of the family tried about 5 times over the day and never got close. They came back qu…
> They came back quite drunk > They walked away with the car. Hopefully they did walk.