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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

#391

Post by jcl »

gregpilling wrote: post #222
lysp wrote: post #215

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…

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...

Apparently some golf players even carry hole-in-one insurance against themselves, to cover the unexpected cost of the traditional celebratory round of drinks for everyone in the club afterwards.

https://priceonomics.com/why-golfers-buy-hole-in-one-insuran...

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#392

Post by r00fus »

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…

The whole POTS system is archaic and ripe for abuse (which we see with telemarketers able to spoof their numbers).

IMHO the solution would be a calling system where spoofing is difficult/not allowed.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#393

Post by 1024core »

> In simple terms: when you enter one of these contests, you’re allowing telemarketers to not only use your data to make robocalls in perpetuity, but sell it and share it with any “subsidiaries” it chooses.

They don't check if it is you who's entering the information. What could go wrong?

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#394

Post by breischl »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #375
breischl wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to one of the Wyndham presentations a couple years back, partially for the free (albeit shitty) breakfast, free tickets to a local attraction (actually somewhat valuable) and to observe the sales pitch. I came away similarly impressed. They used a lot of tactics like personal vacation stories, highly suspect financial calculations and so forth. But the one I was most impressed by was getting people in the habi…

Unless you signed something stating that you agreed to pay for the tickets, why wouldn't you just walk way and do a charge back?

There was a bunch of crap to sign. I suspect there was some agreement, otherwise people would just not show up to the presentation at all. But TBH I didn't read it all or seriously consider doing a chargeback.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#395

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #315
mathattack wrote: post #268

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...

> Calhoun said he would not be quitting his job as a sales associate at the Reliable Office Superstore in Bloomington

Anyone that thought he could quit his job needs some math lessons and financial education. $1M isn't enough to retire if you're under 30, especially when taxes come out.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#396

Post by toss1 »

astura wrote: post #234
toss1 wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might not be so easy -- it is like paying payroll -- you, not only the recipient, need to report the tax ID of the person/entity that you paid.

Right, so you provide that information to the winner to put on their form. No big deal.

Nope, you need to put the payee info on the forms that you submit as well as the recipient.

If you are paying someone more than $600, you need to cut a 1099 form, which tells the category, such as interst, rent, misc, etc. (1099-Int, 1099-Misc, etc.).

On the 1099, you must put the Tax Id of the recipient, which for a person is their SSN, and for another entity is typically their EIN.

You submit your copy of the 1099, and they submit theirs. They need to match or the IRS see a red flag.

So, no, you can't simply say "here's the form, you submit it".

Source: I'm not a Tax Attny, but I live with one, and have co-owned several businesses that needed to cut and/or receive W-2s, 1099,s etc.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#397

Post by Spivak »

namibj wrote: post #384
mrbill wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mattresses (Casper), office chairs (Steelcase LEAP), keyboards (something with Cherry MX Brown switches). I spend the majority of my life using these bits so I buy quality.

Do you have any arguments to convince an employer to buy Cherry MX Brown (style) keyboards, instead of <15$ flimsy, flat membrane ones?

I feel like it's much less effort to just bring your own. If you're into mechanical keyboards I'm willing to bet you have an old one lying around. Especially since the preference for keys is so personal.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#398

Post by meotai »

logfromblammo wrote: post #278
technofiend wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

Not just the mattress; the bed furniture counts towards the $3,000 too. So $2k for the tempurpedic & you can hit $3k easily.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#399

Post by cornholio »

polynomial wrote: post #152
cornholio wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The car is surrounded by posters that read "Enter to win" above a picture of a white vehicle otherwise similar to the blue car physically present. There is absolutely no doubt that ideogram promises a chance to win the car in exchange for the registration.

> There is absolutely no doubt that ideogram promises a chance to win the car in exchange for the registration. While a naive person may make that inference, a rational person may understand that 'ideogram' does not constitute an assertion that the picture depicts the prize to be won. I sure don't mean to defend such predatory scammers, but I'm pretty sure they are legally safe on that part. I had a friend last year…

> a rational person may understand that 'ideogram' does not constitute an assertion

I'm sorry to see you were downvoted for presenting the other side even if you don't support these schemes.

But I have to ask, what constitutes "an assertion" after all? Written text is just one form of fixing and transmitting ideas; alphabets usually originate in actual ideograms with original meanings that were long lost and were reduced to a sound or syllable.

Transmitting an idea with a text-image combo is just as valid for a contract as any other medium as long as the meaning is clear and unambiguous. And there is no debate here that it's exactly the intention of the organizers to transmit the idea "you can win a car" - and in fact that's what most people understand, with a tiny exception of an educated and naturally suspicious minority. The only debate is if it's legal for the organizers to claim an ideogram that literally reads "Enter to win A CAR" does not imply the car is a prize.

I don't know how a judge would rule, but from a political preference - philosophical point of view I would strongly incline to deny them that right; we get a much nicer society with less scammers, without losing anything of substance.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#400

Post by shostack »

FireBeyond wrote: post #341
Bartweiss wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It's always intriguing to see these things, and how some prey on basic math skills. My girlfriend's mother dragged us to see a presentation associated with one of the "Flipping" TV shows. They, of course, wanted to invite you into their program. It was "hugely successful". How successful? "We've funded $100MM of house purchases for our members! We have nearly 8,000 members across the country!" Well, $100MM in support…

Just curious, but what happens when you prove you can do math? What happens when you start helping others there do math?
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