I Suspect Coles Ran a Fake Competition

0FoxGiven on 03/08/2018 - 12:21
Last edited 03/08/2018 - 13:20

EDIT: TightBottom says he won. So this post is now irrelevant. Request mods to close it.

Ok so a while ago this competition was run by Flybuys/Coles and Cadbury. The prize pool was 10,000 prizes of $50 Coles gift cards. Now looking at those odds, I thought this was pretty much a sure win and I got at least 10 entries in. Sure, there always was a chance that I wouldn't win and that is no biggie. But given the size of the OzB-competition-entering-community, I assumed there would be at least a few winners from OzB but looks like nobody won. This seems almost impossible to me because of the odds. We have winners for competitions that have only 20-50 prizes even, so 10,000 prizes and no wins looks real dodgy to me.

So I rang up flybuys and spoke to a rep and asked him to check if the competition winners were contacted. He had no idea about the competition, he said he couldn't find any info on it. I asked him to double check if such a competition really didn't exist and he said he would and put me on hold. I let that simmer for a while without actually revealing the URL for the competition page which was still up. So after about 2 minutes on hold he comes back to me saying that there is no information about such a competition in their systems and it might not have been a Coles exclusive competition as thought. So then I give him the URL for the competition on the flybuys website and he is like "Oh.. Ok… ye so I guess it happened… the winners would have been contacted by (takes time to check) .. yes they would have been contacted by mail by now". So I tell him I'm part of quite a big community of people who track such competitions and surprisingly we haven't registered a single winner yet. To which he replies, "That maybe because nobody in your community won". I told him that's quite unlikely given the size of the community and the 10,000 prizes. I asked him to double check maybe with a superior if the winners have been contacted and if there is a published list of winners. He puts me on hold for a few mins and then gets back saying "Yes, I have been told that all the winners have been contacted. So I guess, nobody from your community won." I thank him politely and end the call. A $0.5 Million worth prize pool competition and the rep could not find any info on it like it was some minor comp.

So tell me, am I simply thinking too much? Nothing fishy here?

TLDR: Coles/Flybuys & Cadbury ran a competition with very good odds. No OzB winners registered yet on the OzB competition page. I believe the lucky draw never happened

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closed Comments

  • spackbace on 03/08/2018 - 12:52

    No need to 'enter' the comp, just scan flybuys. That immediately makes it more difficult to win

    • 0FoxGiven on 03/08/2018 - 13:03

      Conversely, I would argue that could improve odds (maybe).

      • So many people don't bother swiping flybuys cards
      • They would have to have swiped their cards + bought specific Cadbury bars + during a specific time period.

      Ah its all just a conspiracy theory right now, but is there a law that I can quote that would force them to share the list of winners or get somebody to look into a complaint like this?

  • outlander on 03/08/2018 - 12:30

    Sounds fishy to me, or at least has the potential to be something suss. Whats your next move going to be?

  • John Kimble on 03/08/2018 - 12:30
    +1

    But how many members entered, only 8 up voted it, 14 "entered" with 324 clicks

  • Zedsdeadbabyzedsdead on 03/08/2018 - 12:31

    Have they published a list of the winners names?

  • bobbified on 03/08/2018 - 12:34
    +1

    There is no sure-win's in competitions, otherwise they might as well hand out a prize to everyone.

    IIRC, Competitions must be registered in their corresponding states and their T&Cs should have all the information in there, including the registration number.

    Permits
    NSW Permit No LTPS/18/21304
    ACT Permit No TP 18/00042
    SA Permit No T18/34

    This following the Promoter (not FlyBuys or Coles) so you can try contacting them:
    Loyalty Pacific Pty Ltd
    ABN 82 057 931 334
    800 Toorak Road, Hawthorn East VIC 3123

    • 0FoxGiven on 03/08/2018 - 12:38
      +1

      I agree. Like I stated in my post, I know I wasn't guaranteed a win. But the odds of OzB entrants Vs Prize pool looks really good and thus my suspicion.

      But your suggestion looks like a good idea, will give it a shot.

      • bobbified on 03/08/2018 - 12:43

        But the odds of OzB entrants Vs Prize pool looks really good and thus my suspicion.

        There's likely to be hundreds of thousands of entries across the country though. And even if a few OzB members did win, they wouldn't necessarily go back and update the competition page to indicate they won. I imagine a lot of people would come here in search of information and then leave once they find what they need - as opposed to people like myself who come regularly and participate in the forums, etc.

        I have no idea how to do go about doing what you asked though..

        I've taken the permit numbers and promoters details from the competition's T&Cs page and you can contact them if you really want. (I honestly wouldn't even bother.).

        • 0FoxGiven on 03/08/2018 - 12:55

          Ok so it seems like Loyalty Pacific IS flybuys.. And so the guy I spoke to was their rep itself and he had no idea about the comp and he told me there is no list of winners he could share. Now, I'm more that sure something dodgy is happening

        • bobbified on 03/08/2018 - 12:58

          @0FoxGiven:

          It's often the case in large companies the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

          You might get more information if you put your question in writing to their head office.

  • Baysew on 03/08/2018 - 12:37
    +3

    You should really post your concerns here

  • [Deactivated] on 03/08/2018 - 12:58

    I received my $50 Coles voucher

    • 0FoxGiven on 03/08/2018 - 13:04

      Oh? No Joke?

      Ok I guess that settles it then. It was all just in my head

  • bargainr on 03/08/2018 - 12:58
    +1

    As bobbified said, there is no sure win competition.

    FlyBuys has over 10million members according to Wikipedia. So statistically speaking, even at low conversion rates they would have had more than enough enter that would be a bigger sample size than the 324 Ozbargain clicks/14 entries. Entries were automatic (according to T&Cs) so there were probably 100s of thousand entries. There is no restriction that I can see on someone wiinning multiple times.

    To expect some call center employee to know about the competition is a bit of an ask.

    At the bottom of the T&Cs are permit numbers for NSW, ACT and SA. If you genuinely think the competition was a scam, they can investigate (that’s your next step). Worth knowing that the regulators randomly audit competition draws anyway to ensure scams don’t happen.

    I doubt the competition was a scam. It’s random. The odds of winning are determined by the total number of prizes/entries. The automatic entry mechanism for this competition changes the odds compared to most other competitions.

    Not accurate, quick and dirty math.

    Coles has 807 stores (source Wikipedia)
    Competition ran for over 60 days
    Assume (painfully low) 8 blocks sold per Coles per day to FlyBuys members

    That’s 387,000 or so entries. Your 10entries would be a 0.003 chance of winning.

    All numbers are rough and excuse typos as doing this on my phone.

    • Baysew on 03/08/2018 - 13:03

      would be a 0.003 chance of winning

      Which would mean 99.997% chance of losing?

    • Quantumcat on 03/08/2018 - 13:09
      +1

      He isn't saying he thought he should win. He's saying he thought someone in ozbargain would have won. Probably they did but didn't update the competition page

  • Moderatorscrimshaw on 03/08/2018 - 13:17

    OP has requested to close the thread.

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