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Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

thehustle.co

321–330 of 471 posts

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seem to remember there was a similar case prosecuted at some point where the advertiser claimed that the car was only for illustrative purposes and even drew an analogy with having a model display some goods, saying you wouldn't expect to be buying the model along with the goods. I might have just dreamt all that up though because I can't find anything online.

there was a case of a hooters employee, she expected to win a toyota but manager supposedly said “toy yoda”

She ended up getting a car: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/05/09/toy-yo...

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are companies that specialize in insuring risks like that. It is a whole sub industry of insuring unlikely to win contests. https://www.holeinoneinsurance.com/how-much-does-it-cost.htm...

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…

Wow I'd love to hear some of those stories. What a largely unknown, esoteric and hugely interesting industry.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$3000 on a mattress? WTF? How is that even possible for such a highly commoditized good?

Because it's worth spending money on any product that your spends a third of its life on and which can directly affect your health.

I have the same philosophy about office chairs.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#324
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the scam? "Free flight" if you buy the timeshare or something?

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…

In exchange for sitting through a timeshare presentation, a friend and I received a free trip to Orlando, FL. Instead of going to Disneyland we went to the Kennedy Space Center and the Air Force Missile Museum.

Lesson: Don't just settle for free tickets for a show, find out if they have any other incentives.

http://afspacemuseum.org/visit/

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#325
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to one to satisfy the same sort of morbid fascination as well. I really have to hand it to the sales people, it was one of the most incredible sales pitches I've ever seen. They shuttled us to one of their premier properties where they took us to a sales room and served us breakfast. After a few moments they had everybody gather around a large presentation screen and a salesman who spent the next hour not just…

I did one of these also, and I absolutely don't regret it. I think I learned more about (ruthless) sales tactics in two hours than I ever have from books or classes. It was a timeshare tied to a big-name hotel chain, and as far as I could tell they were selling some hotel rooms as timeshare units to finance construction and maintenance. So the deal wasn't good , but it was substantially less of a scam than the stereo…

This sounds a bit like Marriott Vacation Club, which is notably not affiliated with Marriott International (anymore).

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who insures the reinsurance company?

It eventually ends on a reinsurance company that can shoulder insane amounts of risk, e.g. Munich Re, Berkshire Hathaway, Swiss Re etc.

They are doing it wrong - socialise that risk. Here in New Zealand when a big insurer has something bad happen (eg an earthquake flattens a big city) you get bailed out by the government. Departing staff still got big payouts in that era too, so it doesn’t seem to impose any stringent criteria on companies too. AMI specifically. Sarcasm aplenty in this comment.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#327

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…

Same thing is happening here in Canada, got 2 calls recently. Geez what is going on?

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank You! I was pretty sure it was the Bulls but I couldn’t find it after 3 or 4 Google searches, and chalked it up to too much drinking in college.

I found a story about it, if anyone is curious https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/04/18/Chicago-Bulls-Millio...

It is interesting. It took me a while to find an article that described his "near disqualification" [1]. Am I imagining things, or is it like all the top results, even for an event so long ago, are tilted towards "of course he'll get the money, who said otherwise?" But clearly it was said. Maybe it was a risky play by the prize company to rope in the team & some partners into chipping in to pay for the loss, which might have crippled them [2]. And then a lot of spin after the fact by the team to save face. They were forced to legitimize a shady move by a business partner, who threatened their reputation. Some rough lines to FB/CA?

"It takes time to make up a hit like this . . . but I know this will generate enough business to cover the loss."

[1] https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4165888.html

[2] http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1993-04-16/news/930518041...

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Here's a video of the shot: https://youtu.be/Q_k1qg6_9f4?t=1m10s

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the contest rules require you to floor it straight out of the mall (the "Left4Dead 2 clause").

Any joke that revolves around driving cars inside of a mall needs a mandatory reference to the Blues Brothers mall chase scene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l3CGibsWT8

LOL!

"this place has got everything!"

Thanks for linking to that -- I've always gotten a kick out that scene.

:-D

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