Cheated in Facebook competition

Hi all,

I was recently a contestant in a Facebook competition which had a reasonably valuable prize associated with it. The winner was supposed to be chosen on the basis of the 'most likes' at the end of the competition. I have screenshots from multiple sources showing my entry had the most likes at the end of the competition, yet they picked another entry as the winner. I complained to the company running the competition and they told me blatant lies about some likes being 'private' and only visible to them, which I have found evidence from Facebook's privacy policy that this is not possible.

The company are refusing to engage with me over this even though it's obvious they've breached the terms and conditions of the competition (these were published on their page).

Is there any body in Ireland that deals with complaints over unfair competitions? I'm more angry about them lying to me than not winning the competition at this stage so I'm not going to let it go!

Peregrinus

Where is the company based?

Did you pay anything, or do anything, in order to qualify to participate in the competition?

Peregrinus

Peregrinus wrote: »

Where is the company based?

Did you pay anything, or do anything, in order to qualify to participate in the competition?

They're based in Dublin. Yes I had to make something and post a picture of it to qualify for the final, and took part in publicity surrounding the competition.

lifeandtimes

If it's a free competition and you didn't pay anything then you aren't at a lose and can't see you getting anything.

As with all contests their decision is final,I'm not sure there is even anywhere you can complain to other than the company(if it is one) complaints department as facebook have no affiliation with contests run by companies

CeilingFly

Deleted User wrote: »

I complained to the company running the competition and they told me blatant lies about some likes being 'private' and only visible to them, which I have found evidence from Facebook's privacy policy that this is not possible.
!

100% that is possible.

If someone has specific privacy settings you will not see anything from them even if the "like" something

In some case you won't even see another entrant as they only allow their posts to be seen by a select group. This is eaily seen in "comments" You;ll see that there are 20 comments, but you can only see about 10 - guess what, the others are all private even if posted on a public page.

I manage several FB pages and have had a similar issue before and we screenshot every winner of any promotion becasue there are people who think they win and then accuse the page admin of underhand tactics.

ongarite

Not the liberal.ie is it or related website?

RasTa

Get everybody to get on to them via social media. Twitter and FB. This the cake?

gizmo81

Deleted User wrote: »

Hi all,

I was recently a contestant in a Facebook competition which had a reasonably valuable prize associated with it. The winner was supposed to be chosen on the basis of the 'most likes' at the end of the competition. I have screenshots from multiple sources showing my entry had the most likes at the end of the competition, yet they picked another entry as the winner. I complained to the company running the competition and they told me blatant lies about some likes being 'private' and only visible to them, which I have found evidence from Facebook's privacy policy that this is not possible.

The company are refusing to engage with me over this even though it's obvious they've breached the terms and conditions of the competition (these were published on their page).

Is there any body in Ireland that deals with complaints over unfair competitions? I'm more angry about them lying to me than not winning the competition at this stage so I'm not going to let it go!

Would this something the ASAI would take a look at, it's a form of promotional marketing via competition. I'm not sure now but maybe it's a starting point

http://www.asai.ie/asaicode/section-5-promotional-marketing-practices/

CeilingFly

CeilingFly wrote: »

100% that is possible.

If someone has specific privacy settings you will not see anything from them even if the "like" something

In some case you won't even see another entrant as they only allow their posts to be seen by a select group. This is eaily seen in "comments" You;ll see that there are 20 comments, but you can only see about 10 - guess what, the others are all private even if posted on a public page.

I manage several FB pages and have had a similar issue before and we screenshot every winner of any promotion becasue there are people who think they win and then accuse the page admin of underhand tactics.

I've checked Facebook 's privacy policy and they say if you like a public post your like is public, regardless of your own privacy settings. I've also checked through every privacy setting on my account and there is no way for me to hide my likes on public posts. In the situation you described with comments, Facebook still displays the total number of comments even if you can't see all of them, so even if you could hide your like from other people I'm confident the number displayed would still be accurate.

Even if the situation they describe is possible, their terms said the competition would be decided by a public vote on the basis of who got the most likes, and if a like isn't public then it shouldn't count towards the vote. They haven't offered me any screenshots proving they are correct so I'm not just going to take their word for it.

ongarite

ongarite wrote: »

Not the liberal.ie is it or related website?

Hahaha no I'm not that gullible!

RasTa

RasTa wrote: »

Get everybody to get on to them via social media. Twitter and FB. This the cake?

Yep! My friends are pretty outraged so they've already commented on their posts and tweeted them!

goodlad

Deleted User wrote: »

I've checked Facebook 's privacy policy and they say if you like a public post your like is public, regardless of your own privacy settings. I've also checked through every privacy setting on my account and there is no way for me to hide my likes on public posts. In the situation you described with comments, Facebook still displays the total number of comments even if you can't see all of them, so even if you could hide your like from other people I'm confident the number displayed would still be accurate.

Even if the situation they describe is possible, their terms said the competition would be decided by a public vote on the basis of who got the most likes, and if a like isn't public then it shouldn't count towards the vote. They haven't offered me any screenshots proving they are correct so I'm not just going to take their word for it.

You are correct. If you comment or like on someone elses post then that specific comment or like is covered by that posts privacy settings, not your own. The only time you see X number of comments but cant actually see that number is if someone has you blocked. Everyone who looks at a public post will see the same number of likes and comments.

TheDriver

Report to facebook??

CeilingFly

But you don't see everyone's comment / entry and therefore you cannot see every like. Your settings are nothing to do with it.

Its also a reason many places no longer opertae competitions as you get too many people accusing you of underhand tactics and its just not with the hassle.

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CeilingFly

Deleted User wrote: »

Yep! My friends are pretty outraged so they've already commented on their posts and tweeted them!

and that why the company will not engage with you - you've tried them and found them guilty without any proper procedure and refuse to accept that you do not see every post.

The vigilante response shows you up.

CeilingFly

CeilingFly wrote: »

But you don't see everyone's comment / entry and therefore you cannot see every like. Your settings are nothing to do with it.

Its also a reason many places no longer opertae competitions as you get too many people accusing you of underhand tactics and its just not with the hassle.

Yeah sorry but you're wrong about this. The competition was decided by number of likes not comments. There is no way to hide your like (or comments for that matter) on a public post. Facebook even say that if you like or comment on a private post and then the owner of that post later makes it public that your like and comment becomes public too, so it's a fairly robust system.

CeilingFly

CeilingFly wrote: »

and that why the company will not engage with you - you've tried them and found them guilty without any proper procedure and refuse to accept that you do not see every post.

The vigilante response shows you up.

Excuse me, I've only communicated with them privately thus far, I can't control what other people post other than myself. They've lied to me and been completely uncooperative so they shouldn't be surprised if people get upset.

TheDriver

I always wondered does anyone ever win a facebook competition. I particularly dislike the "tag 50 friends and share our page" competitions

TheDriver

TheDriver wrote: »

I always wondered does anyone ever win a facebook competition. I particularly dislike the "tag 50 friends and share our page" competitions

I'm confident the person they picked as the winner will get their prize, just they cheated in how they picked the winner!!

IR1SH RANG3R

TheDriver wrote: »

I always wondered does anyone ever win a facebook competition. I particularly dislike the "tag 50 friends and share our page" competitions

I did actually win a like and share one a few years back run by an Irish company. Won an iPad 2 which was new at the time. So some of them are genuine

The_Valeyard

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I'm confident the person they picked as the winner will get their prize, just they cheated in how they picked the winner!!

Wonder is the winner a friend of the family...

CeilingFly

Deleted User wrote: »

Excuse me, I've only communicated with them privately thus far, I can't control what other people post other than myself. They've lied to me and been completely uncooperative so they shouldn't be surprised if people get upset.

No, as per your own post you communicated with your "friends" and they have made coments and tweeted (no-one uses twitter anymore anyway) to try and damage the company in a vigilante style response.

Is it really that important in your life?

FFS, its a FB competition.

mahamageehad

Any chance you might have been disqualified for buying likes?

c6ysaphjvqw41k

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neonsofa

Don't have any advice/info for you but just wanted to say sorry they cheated you. That really sucks, I follow the baking thread.

CeilingFly

CeilingFly wrote: »

No, as per your own post you communicated with your "friends" and they have made coments and tweeted (no-one uses twitter anymore anyway) to try and damage the company in a vigilante style response.

Is it really that important in your life?

FFS, its a FB competition.

Oh for goodness sake. I haven't made anyone do anything all I've done is told all the people who were following me in the competition what the story is because they're understandably confused as to how I didn't win even though I had the most votes. I'm not responsible for anyone else's actions.

And no the prize isn't that important to me as I said in my original post. It's the principal of the matter, they breached their terms and conditions and then lied to me about it, and I'm not going to accept that because it is insulting.

TheDriver

Aubrie White Badminton wrote: »

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Please tell me more, have u a link to it? I am s**t sick of them.
OP-I think fb might be best place to report it to.

mahamageehad

mahamageehad wrote: »

Any chance you might have been disqualified for buying likes?

I didn't buy any votes so I don't think so! Even if I had though their terms and conditions didn't say anything about what is or isn't allowed regarding getting likes so they wouldn't be able to use that as an excuse after the fact.

c6ysaphjvqw41k

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