Cheated in Facebook competition

gizmo81

I don't think people are being fair and ganging up on Pirate Queen is ridiculous

She has stated from the beginning that she just wanted some clarity on the outcome of the competition.

If people in business are so sensitive that they cannot take any criticism then perhaps business is not for them.

The average Jane/Joe Facebook user hasn't a clue about insights so it's absolutely fair that a company makes it clear to entrants, especially considering that the entrant is expected to drive traffic towards the page, what is counted in the vote.

If the public see the accumulative amount of 300 reactions but the company sees 400 then publish that otherwise there is no transparency and expect tighter regulation to come down the line if the public aren't being respected.

Right2Write

CeilingFly wrote: »

The T&C's said - The photograph with the most ‘likes’ by 8th August will win the overall prize of a KitchenAid Artisan 4.8L Stand Mixer*

Well, at least thanks to above and Google, we can all now see who was running the competition..

Right2Write

Right2Write wrote: »

Well, at least thanks to above and Google, we can all now see who was running the competition..

CeilingFly already named them earlier in the thread, despite my best efforts to keep them anonymous at this stage. :rolleyes:

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Thank you! All I want is transparency for myself and the 1100+ people who voted for me, many of whom are friends who I know went to significant effort to share the competition around and support me. I'm not sure what about that annoys some people on here so much.

CeilingFly

Deleted User wrote: »

Thank you! All I want is transparency for myself and the 1100+ people who voted for me, many of whom are friends who I know went to significant effort to share the competition around and support me. I'm not sure what about that annoys some people on here so much.

And there's the issue.

They shared it, people liked the shared post and therefore their likes must be included as the rules said "all likes".

In fairness I don't think the company thought someone would question it as it was all quite transparent including the heat that you won and they simply included all likes and not just the ones on the organic post as per the competition terms.

As for naming the company - you (or maybe another poster) gave the link to the other thread in the baking forum which gave all the details that it was Dr Oetker (and I thought they just did pizzas)

hots

You've been fairly hard done by OP, someone in they're marketing/PR team has had a shocker really, this thread is sitting on 27k+ views plus whatever negativity is on their fb page. It wouldn't have taken much more than an apology and an extra mixer for not being clear and they'd come out looking like saints.

CeilingFly

CeilingFly wrote: »

And there's the issue.

They shared it, people liked the shared post and therefore their likes must be included as the rules said "all likes".

In fairness I don't think the company thought someone would question it as it was all quite transparent including the heat that you won and they simply included all likes and not just the ones on the organic post as per the competition terms.

As for naming the company - you (or maybe another poster) gave the link to the other thread in the baking forum which gave all the details that it was Dr Oetker (and I thought they just did pizzas)

Maybe we should just agree to disagree at this stage I've outlined my arguments against using off-post likes to determine the vote multiple times already today, and you still haven't addressed my previous comment about how the other contestants also thought that only on-post likes counted as evident by the instructions given on their shares. As a minor point they never said 'all likes' but photograph with the 'most likes', 'all likes' would at least have been a bit more specific.

Also, I can't prevent people from doing their own research to figure out who the company was but I was trying to prevent people who didn't want know or look it up from reading it in this thread, out of fairness for those who wanted to remain impartial.

Mountainsandh

CeilingFly wrote: »

For the OP

If you shared the post and that got say 200 likes on that shared post and then you were told, sorry, whilst these are public likes and they are for your entry, that because the likes weren't on the actual company page but on your own page, that they are not being included - would you be happy about that?

Hazel Angry Grommet wrote: »

While this is all becoming a boring circular argument, which can have no clear outcome here, how can you say what impression "everyone who took part" had?

I think maybe a quote from the actual winner's share posts might help you understand what the OP means :

Thank you so much to everyone who has voted so far and got their friends to do so, ye have managed to put me IN FIRST PLACE!!�� ����Let's keep it that way now! Thank you thank you thank you xx
Please click on the link for the page xxxxxxx Baking Ireland and like the picture of the Chocolate Cheesecake to help me win this competition! ���� Thanks in advance

So the guy who won himself thought that likes on shares would not count, he clearly instructed (just like OP and others) his friends to click link and access the official baking page to like the pic.

I think it is pretty evident that to all contestants, only likes on the original page were going to be counted. It is an omission and an error on the part of that PR company that they did not explain clearly (a simple explanatory post would have done !) that share likes would also count.

edit : the bold and underlining is mine in the quote.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Mountainsandh wrote: »

I think maybe a quote from the actual winner's share posts might help you understand what the OP means :

No, sorry. That clarifies nothing for me. Not being on FB I don't even know what a share post is.

I wondered how the OP knew what impression "everyone who took part" had?

Not that I care, to be honest, at this stage.

mezzz

op you should email mark zuckenberg, he owns facebo

njs030

Op what would you like to happen here?

I think we can all all imagine how frustrating it would be to feel like we had won only to be told we had lost and it doesn't really matter what way I or anyone else think they may have added up their likes, we don't know and it's not helping you to go round in circles so what would you like to be done? I for one would like to help you so let's see what we can do.
I presume you wouldn't want the other person to be stripped of their winner title, would you like to be called joint winner and get a prize?
Or just an explanation of how they worked it out?

Perhaps we could get an email address and send a few emails asking for an explanation and I'm sure your friends would be happy to do so too.

While the competition was run (from their pov) to promote the company the more I think about it the more unfair it seems.

Kintarō Hattori

Hazel Angry Grommet wrote: »

No, sorry. That clarifies nothing for me. Not being on FB I don't even know what a share post is.

I wondered how the OP knew what impression "everyone who took part" had?

Not that I care, to be honest, at this stage.

If you have little knowledge of Facebook or neither care about the OP's issue.... why are you posting here? Genuinely just curious.

Mountainsandh

Hazel Angry Grommet wrote: »

No, sorry. That clarifies nothing for me. Not being on FB I don't even know what a share post is.

I wondered how the OP knew what impression "everyone who took part" had?

Not that I care, to be honest, at this stage.

How qualified do you feel to give an opinion on a Facebook competition when you don't know what a share post is and you are not on Facebook ?

Facebook gives a lot of clues on what people think, and like.
For example when I think a post is interesting, I might decide to share it with my circle of friends. My friends can reasonably assume, since I am showing/sharing this post with them, that I found it interesting/shocking/worthy of showing them.

Now imagine I'm taking part in a baking competition with a paper magazine, a picture of my cake is published, and I show it to my friends. Maybe I even show my friends the competitors' cakes.
They tell me how great mine is.
That's when I say : "thanks a lot, listen, would you mind writing to the magazine to vote for me ?"

That's what the poster is doing when he is telling someone to click on the link and go to the original page, then like the post.
He(the poster) is saying that the comment on his (the poster) cake is not much good to him, unless I go vote somewhere else.

cactusgal

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

If you have little knowledge of Facebook or neither care about the OP's issue.... why are you posting here? Genuinely just curious.

I was wondering exactly the same thing!

Mountainsandh

notjustsweet wrote: »

Op what would you like to happen here?

I think we can all all imagine how frustrating it would be to feel like we had won only to be told we had lost and it doesn't really matter what way I or anyone else think they may have added up their likes, we don't know and it's not helping you to go round in circles so what would you like to be done? I for one would like to help you so let's see what we can do.
I presume you wouldn't want the other person to be stripped of their winner title, would you like to be called joint winner and get a prize?
Or just an explanation of how they worked it out?

Perhaps we could get an email address and send a few emails asking for an explanation and I'm sure your friends would be happy to do so too.

While the competition was run (from their pov) to promote the company the more I think about it the more unfair it seems.

OP has said multiple times what she would like from the company/page.

I agree on the emails.

I also agree with OP. Somehow as customers/public, we have to strive to maintain some control over the jungle that is Facebook, and how commercial it now is. There are so many scams already, dozens of crooks belting out competitions besides honest businesses doing the same.
We just have to be able to trust some of them at least !
There has to be some semblance of fairness, and yes Srameen, it's a big part of people's lives nowadays, whether that concerns everyone or not.

In my opinion, a big name company as referenced here would do well to present as a company that you can trust, rather than a nameless PR company that will throw out competitions and reign in whatever winners they see fit, with no transparency, no clear rules, and thus imo no respect for customers.

Silverbling

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I run facebook competitions, asking for likes and shares is totally against fb rules.

I also use the facebook comp randomiser that picks a winner, as a business owner I think that someone who has tried so hard to win (through my insights) deserves a prize so I will give extra goodies

We have to follow the rules or the page will be shut down, you can not fix the results,

notjustsweet

notjustsweet wrote: »

Op what would you like to happen here?

I think we can all all imagine how frustrating it would be to feel like we had won only to be told we had lost and it doesn't really matter what way I or anyone else think they may have added up their likes, we don't know and it's not helping you to go round in circles so what would you like to be done? I for one would like to help you so let's see what we can do.
I presume you wouldn't want the other person to be stripped of their winner title, would you like to be called joint winner and get a prize?
Or just an explanation of how they worked it out?

Perhaps we could get an email address and send a few emails asking for an explanation and I'm sure your friends would be happy to do so too.

While the competition was run (from their pov) to promote the company the more I think about it the more unfair it seems.

Yep I've said many times already I just want transparency from them.

I'm waiting for a response to an email I sent them on Friday, depending on how they respond I may be happy if anyone on here also felt like sending an email to them! I'm curious whether this thread has been brought to their attention yet either, with the the number of views it has...

neonsofa

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Yep I've said many times already I just want transparency from them.

I'm waiting for a response to an email I sent them on Friday, depending on how they respond I may be happy if anyone on here also felt like sending an email to them! I'm curious whether this thread has been brought to their attention yet either, with the the number of views it has...

Think someone said earlier that they tweeted/sent them the link?? Or maybe I am mixed up!

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

... why are you posting here? Genuinely just curious.

I said 'at this stage'. It's a consumer issue of sorts. I had an interest in this but lost said interest after the cycle of argument did about four revolutions without any deviation.

SteelyDanJalapeno

This thread is classic internet, some people would argue with a dolphin

Eponymous

TiltedBrain wrote: »

This thread is classic internet, some people would argue with a dolphin

Don't get me started on those fcuking dolphins.

sullivlo

TiltedBrain wrote: »

This thread is classic internet, some people would argue with a dolphin

No they wouldn't.







:pac:

OP - hope you get sorted. Having voted for your cake I do think that it was the winning cake, and I think you're right to pursue the company for a transparent outline of how they chose the winner.

Very pleased to update and say I've just got off the phone with the PR company, and they've agreed to offer me a KitchenAid in my choice of colour!

I tried to get a clear explanation about how they counted the votes and got a confusing explanation about adding the 1k likes + loves that the public saw, which sounds like they didn't realise that FB rounds to nearest 100 after 1000, but they wouldn't go into any more detail and said they can't share their page insights with anyone other than their client (which is fair enough I suppose). The story about private likes was noticably absent. They did say they'll be careful to manage their future competitions differently though so I guess I brought some oversight or fault to their attention.

Many thanks for everyone's support & suggestions on this thread, I really appreciate it and am glad I don't need to take any further action

hots

Deleted User wrote: »

Very pleased to update and say I've just got off the phone with the PR company, and they've agreed to offer me a KitchenAid in my choice of colour!

I tried to get a clear explanation about how they counted the votes and got a confusing explanation about adding the 1k likes + loves that the public saw, which sounds like they didn't realise that FB rounds to nearest 100 after 1000, but they wouldn't go into any more detail and said they can't share their page insights with anyone other than their client (which is fair enough I suppose). The story about private likes was noticably absent. They did say they'll be careful to manage their future competitions differently though so I guess I brought some oversight or fault to their attention.

Many thanks for everyone's support & suggestions on this thread, I really appreciate it and am glad I don't need to take any further action

Can't say fairer than that really, they'll learn from it and you get a mixer winner's alright!

neonsofa

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Very pleased to update and say I've just got off the phone with the PR company, and they've agreed to offer me a KitchenAid in my choice of colour!

I tried to get a clear explanation about how they counted the votes and got a confusing explanation about adding the 1k likes + loves that the public saw, which sounds like they didn't realise that FB rounds to nearest 100 after 1000, but they wouldn't go into any more detail and said they can't share their page insights with anyone other than their client (which is fair enough I suppose). The story about private likes was noticably absent. They did say they'll be careful to manage their future competitions differently though so I guess I brought some oversight or fault to their attention.

Many thanks for everyone's support & suggestions on this thread, I really appreciate it and am glad I don't need to take any further action

Woohoo!! Well done!

Fred Swanson

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ShatterProof

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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ahem ahem , who ever that client was.....

Mountainsandh

Delighted for you, and here's a PR company/client that we can probably fully trust from now on, plus other may have seen this thread and will take extra care in explaining rules clearly before the start of their online competitions.

Goes to show it pays to speak your mind, rather than keep quiet and accept whatever situation because "reasons" (as my 12 year old says).

Mountainsandh

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Delighted for you, and here's a PR company/client that we can probably fully trust from now on, plus other may have seen this thread and will take extra care in explaining rules clearly before the start of their online competitions.

Goes to show it pays to speak your mind, rather than keep quiet and accept whatever situation because "reasons" (as my 12 year old says).

Absolutely, I know some people thought I was just being 'difficult' but I really do believe it's important that people speak up about these things for the benefit of everyone going forward.