6 ms·

"I Won The Windows Phone Challenge, But Lost 'Just Because'"

408 points by AgentConundrum 15y ago

fruchtose 15y ago
There needs to be a public apology over this. Maybe I am too naive, but it's disheartening that Microsoft would use such shady advertising tactics. I am sure that employees were not allowed to actually award participants any money. If this instruction did not come down from corporate, it probably originated from a manager with a desire to impress the higher-ups.
wizzard 15y ago
How maddening. Don't create promotions like this if you're not going to pay out.
- mlreed328 15y ago
  Seriously. Who dreams this stuff up? It can't go well in the age of the Internet. This is the top story on a couple of sites I read. All it would take is for the mainstream (non-tech) press to pick it up to create some real bad publicity.
Vergle 15y ago
Incredibly grating story, I hope someone is made to apologize.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
bravura 15y ago
After you say you won but were told you lost, 'I was then asked to snap a photo in front of a sign that read along the lines of “My Android was smoked by Windows Phone” before leaving the store.' You should have declined.
- AgentConundrum 15y ago
  I didn't write this post. I added quotes around the title to try to distinguish this point. That said, I agree. The OP commented on the reddit thread for this[1], which is where I found this before posting it to HN, and said that he took the picture because he had signed something agreeing to be used in advertising. Other commenters pointed out that Microsoft had broken the agreement already so he was under no obligation to comply. Without having read the rules, which may list specific obligations, my reaction is that I would have told them that they were perfectly welcome to use whatever footage or photos they had taken during the event, but that there was no way I would pose for them after they refused to admit I'd won. [1] http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rdgtz/i_won_the_windows_phone_challenge_but_lost_just/ http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rdgtz/i_won_the_...
  - bravura 15y ago
    "Other commenters pointed out that Microsoft had broken the agreement already so he was under no obligation to comply." Additionally, it would have turned into a way worse PR fiasco if in any way they tried to force him to comply. So legally and practically, nothing would have happened.
- SoftwareMaven 15y ago
  But how much more fun would it be to get profiled as a "loser", then show people this story. The employees were dumb to even ask: "let's see how much salt we can rub into this".
- rbanffy 15y ago
  I'd have politely pointed to the sign with my middle finger. Just to prevent them from ever showing that picture to anyone. Unless they want to start the even more boneheaded campaign showing sore losers.
vibrunazo 15y ago
How exactly does these work? Are the competitor only told the rules (what you should actually do) just at the time and not allowed to make any preparation. While the windows phone is prepared specifically for that task? (I'd imagine showing 2 separate weather apps in the homescreen isn't something the average windows phone will be prepared for. Or the ones I saw certainly didn't)
atularora 15y ago
Someone from Microsoft did apologize - https://twitter.com/#!/BenThePCGuy/status/184123838949359616 https://twitter.com/#!/BenThePCGuy/status/184123838949359616
- potatolicious 15y ago
  Wow. Just wow. Just when you think they couldn't possibly bungle this any further. tl;dr: MS rep apologizes and invites him back for a rematch. Because it's like he hasn't already won the challenge or something.
  - zalew 15y ago
    did you just provide a TLDR for a tweet?!
    - Brajeshwar 15y ago
      And I voted him for that. I don't have to click, switch tab and read the tweet. :-)
    - jsnell 15y ago
      I appreciate it, given how long a web page showing a single tweet takes to load.
    - ben0x539 15y ago
      Following a twitter link involves copying the url, pasting it to the address bar, backspacing the "#!/" and adding "m." before twitter.com, because twitter's dumb hashbang scheme can't deal with noscript. Reading the tl;dr is much faster!
      - xenophanes 15y ago
        The link works for me in mac safari.
      - ranit8 15y ago
        I use noscript and I get this horrible url, but it shows the correct tweet (i'm not logged in). Yet it's much better reading the posted tldr. https://twitter.com/BenThePCGuy/statuses/184123838949359616?_escaped_fragment_=/BenThePCGuy/status/184123838949359616#!/BenThePCGuy/status/184123838949359616
noonespecial 15y ago
It sounds to me like all of the contests were set to be won by preconfiguration, not phone speed. Having two live-tiles already set up with the winning condition, known in advance only by the employee is hardly a contest. They didn't just not want to pay out. They likely didn't even know how. It was never even considered a possibility.
- recoiledsnake 15y ago
  >They didn't just not want to pay out. They likely didn't even know how. It was never even considered a possibility. There have been previous losses and money was paid. http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/archive/2012/01/12/video-windows-phone-wins-88-of-smokedbywindowsphone-challenges-at-ces-2012.aspx http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/arch... This might be a couple of rogue employees doing this instead of a company policy.
  - vibrunazo 15y ago
    That seems like a different and very specific event. But have there been any actual laptops awarded on these window store competitions?
tbsdy 15y ago
Perhaps time to provide the store with some feedback? http://mymfe.microsoft.com/Microsoft%20%20Store/Feedback.aspx?formID=70&Market=en-us http://mymfe.microsoft.com/Microsoft%20%20Store/Feedback.asp...
Lewisham 15y ago
Microsoft has a knack for choosing (and approving) the most boneheaded PR stints in the business... do they pay companies for this nonsense or do they just come up with it themselves? In a nutshell, the campaign is "Watch us humiliate you and the phone you are spending a lot of your hard-earned money on." Why would anyone think that making consumers feel bad is going to lead them to having the warm, fuzzy feelings necessary to buy their product? Last year's marketing for Windows Phone was awful because it didn't show the phone. Show the phone! It looks great. Tell consumers why they should want it. Not "it does what your phone does, just a bit faster in rigged competitions." Show it working with Xbox. With Hotmail. Show its hubs. "Ever wonder what Dave is doing? On Facebook? On Foursquare? On Twitter? Now you know." Apple and Google keep knocking their campaigns out the park because they're built on honesty. Microsoft's campaigns are built on gimmicks and bullshit, and it shows.
- stfu 15y ago
  Absolutely. The idea is just asking for trouble - there will always be at least some dude who feels that he was treaded unfairly and reallies up the internets. Plus I am not sure how important the "speed" factor for most users really is. There are the fuzzy Apples, the Androids of freedom, the business berrys, but I am not sure if speed is an adequate positioning.
  - ugh 15y ago
    Emphasizing speed misses qualities people actually love about Windows Phone 7 by miles. Only someone who is disconnected from or unfamiliar with the product will come up with stuff like that. There is the stark and fresh design that (independently of whatever merits it might have) makes other mobile operating systems look old. There is the cohesiveness of the experience that even makes iOS look like it doesn’t know what it wants to be. There is the integration with Facebook that makes the phone personal without having to do anything†. All those are things actual people praised about Windows Phone 7. Not speed in some highly constrained scenarios. — † If you use Facebook a lot. This might shock some people on HN, but most people who also can buy a smartphone do.
    - 15y ago
Hari_Seldon 15y ago
Still can't get used to these Microsoft Stores. I should probably get over it, but every time time I see one, it strikes me that they're copying Apple in a really lame way.
- joelrunyon 15y ago
  Apple would not have a contest. They would say. This is our product. We think it's awesome. You should think it's awesome too. If you don't want to buy it, don't. They wouldn't hold cheesy PR stunts to try and "prove" how much better they are.
  - dangrossman 15y ago
    Have we already forgotten the years of "I'm a PC" exaggerated comparison ads?
    - calloc 15y ago
      Yes.
    - kamjam 15y ago
      Have you forgotten Apple fanboys have short memories when it comes to facts?
    - acdha 15y ago
      I do recall a lot of aggrieved Windows fanboys complaining about them – and each time concluding that the problem was failing to understand the priorities of average users or how badly the traditional PC market had failed the average user. The situation is quite similar today with spec-obsessed Android reviewers failing to understand why everyone else is buying iPhones because most people just don't care about an extra 100Mhz or .3" screen size difference when the trade-off is a carrier-mangled UI or worse apps.
- Drbble 15y ago
  Visiting UVillage in Seattle is bizarre. You get the Apple Store that we all know. And you get the Sony Style store which is like the Apple Store but overcomplicated and weird in that Sony way, with 3-D TVs and pink Memory Sticks. And now we have the Microsoft Store, directly across the parking lot from Apple, with exactly the same floorplan and layout, but made with chintzier materials and a distracting video wall and Surface table locked on to a nonsensical tower defense game. It's like Windows incarnate: an ugly copy of Apple design, with no comprehension of why the Apple design works. Google should open a store too, and fill it with a bunch of free toys and cover the walls with third-party ads.
hsshah 15y ago
This reminds me of their Vista PR stunt where they tricked unsuspecting users to give favorable feedback about Vista on camera.
- jasonlotito 15y ago
  While what you say is accurate, its misleading. The reviews were accurate, and favorable. They just weren't told it was Vista (iirc, they were told it was the next version).
robryan 15y ago
Can't say the ability to see 2 cities weather at the same time has even been important in my choice of phone. These should really be based on things people are actually considering when buying a phone otherwise they seem really pointless.
bobbles 15y ago
This reddit discussion has many people coming forward that 'won' and then didn't get anything for it: http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rdgtz/i_won_the_windows_phone_challenge_but_lost_just/ http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rdgtz/i_won_the_... There is also a post by someone that 'tied' and then went to win on the next turn, even though their own terms of the contest state that in the event of a tie, the customer wins.
- ilamont 15y ago
  Here's one example: TL;DR They were throttling their wifi and when I beat them with LTE they didn't pay up saying it has to be one the first try. http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rdgtz/i_won_the_windows_phone_challenge_but_lost_just/c45037b http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rdgtz/i_won_the_... Another one: I too took on the challenge. Which was to post a message to facebook and email the same message to myself as well. Microsoft phone has a me tile, that posts to social media through windows live. Which is connected to your other social media networks such as Facebook, twitter and linked in. However, it does not email you. The guy argued that posting a status to windows live did the same thing. It does not, and therefore I lost. http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rdgtz/i_won_the_windows_phone_challenge_but_lost_just/c44yu6a http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rdgtz/i_won_the_... But a few said they were able to win a gift certificate, like this person: The first challenge was to find a five star restaurant in the area. I used my voice feature to search Google and yelled got it. Right when I said got it the employee was naming a restaurant and said we tied...So the second one was find a movie time for a movie playing in the theater at Tysons Corner. I used my voice to text feature again to search Google and found a time. This time there were like 3 other employees around and one of them said, "Dude, he got it." The manager eventually came out with my $100 gift card. They have it all set up on their phone to just click a button and the answer pops up. For some reason, the movie application took longer to load then normal which is why I won. http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rdgtz/i_won_the_windows_phone_challenge_but_lost_just/c44zwkz http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rdgtz/i_won_the_...
acerimmer 15y ago
Perhaps the employees can keep every $1000 they don't lose. That would be a strong motivation for cheating. Or they have a quota for losses per day.
- kamjam 15y ago
  You think that perhaps they get to keep the quota of laptops that have not been won? I know if I was working in one of those stores an awful lot of my friends would be smoking the windows phone... sorry, ahem, not friends, I meant "random strangers that I have never met before, isn't that right"...
rbanffy 15y ago
Actually, a much more realistic image of that specific Microsoft Store is here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/112837958187789332975/albums/5719596296605234049/5719613308177275186 https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/112837958187789332975/alb...
- jcromartie 15y ago
  I was confused as to why there was a picture of an Apple Store with the article... I always forget that there is such a thing as a Microsoft Store.
  - rbanffy 15y ago
    The funny trivia is that Microsoft's store is almost exactly in front of the Apple Store. The previous picture in the album was taken from that Apple Store a couple seconds earlier.
alvarosm 15y ago
All Microsoft contests are like that, just promotional. They choose the winner according to what they think will look better for Microsoft itself. I participated in the Imagine Cup a few years ago when I was finishing college and our project was technically light-years ahead of the others. We got only the 3rd place. Two ridiculous web app-like gimmicks were 1st and 2nd. Oh and the guy in 5th place clearly deserved the 2nd place. Even though I knew what it would be like beforehand, I have to admit I didn't anticipate getting screwed so badly. Our project was so cool there was no way it couldn't win, right? apparently not, Microsoft has no shame. It left a bitter aftertaste. On the other hand, I liked the 3rd place prize better than the 1st prize :)
- TomGullen 15y ago
  How can we possibly sympathise with this? The OP is about a definitive injustice, no one could possibly comment on your case
  - alvarosm 15y ago
    ¿? I don't want you to sympathise or comment on my case, why would I?. I'm just saying that's how any Microsoft contest works, they use people and when things don't turn out the exact way Microsoft wants they screw them. My point is this is not an isolated case, it's Microsoft policy.
talmand 15y ago
Seems to me the MS employee was cheating to begin with by choosing a task the phone was already configured for that is not a normal use. The guy even realized this at that moment when he felt he won out of pure luck. The challenge might as well have been "let's see who can display a logo of a Microsoft product on the screen first".
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
pbhjpbhj 15y ago
Isn't this fraud?
lucisferre 15y ago
Anyone remember the Pepsi challenge? Anyone remember Pepsi?
KenCochrane 15y ago
Well, even if you did really win, you would have still lost, your prize would have been a windows laptop, who wants one of those anyway?
pasbesoin 15y ago
I'm not certain how one would gain sufficient attention/interest to cause an effective response, but IIRC (and IANAL) such contests typically have rather strict laws to follow; the foremost but not sole reason being, to avoid being categorized as gambling. Another being to avoid being used or misused as a mechanism to distribute payments to favored parties (one reason for the ubiquitous disclaimers that employees of company XYZ are ineligible to participate). If they are not adhering to the rules that define their contest, they may be at risk of some significant criminal infractions.

408 points by AgentConundrum 15y ago

There needs to be a public apology over this. Maybe I am too naive, but it's disheartening that Microsoft would use such shady advertising tactics. I am sure that employees were not allowed to actually award participants any money. If this instruction did not come down from corporate, it probably originated from a manager with a desire to impress the higher-ups.

wizzard 15y ago

How maddening. Don't create promotions like this if you're not going to pay out.

mlreed328 15y ago
Seriously. Who dreams this stuff up? It can't go well in the age of the Internet. This is the top story on a couple of sites I read. All it would take is for the mainstream (non-tech) press to pick it up to create some real bad publicity.

Vergle 15y ago

Incredibly grating story, I hope someone is made to apologize.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

bravura 15y ago

After you say you won but were told you lost, 'I was then asked to snap a photo in front of a sign that read along the lines of “My Android was smoked by Windows Phone” before leaving the store.' You should have declined.

AgentConundrum 15y ago
I didn't write this post. I added quotes around the title to try to distinguish this point. That said, I agree. The OP commented on the reddit thread for this[1], which is where I found this before posting it to HN, and said that he took the picture because he had signed something agreeing to be used in advertising. Other commenters pointed out that Microsoft had broken the agreement already so he was under no obligation to comply. Without having read the rules, which may list specific obligations, my reaction is that I would have told them that they were perfectly welcome to use whatever footage or photos they had taken during the event, but that there was no way I would pose for them after they refused to admit I'd won. [1] http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rdgtz/i_won_the_windows_phone_challenge_but_lost_just/ http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rdgtz/i_won_the_...
- bravura 15y ago
  "Other commenters pointed out that Microsoft had broken the agreement already so he was under no obligation to comply." Additionally, it would have turned into a way worse PR fiasco if in any way they tried to force him to comply. So legally and practically, nothing would have happened.
SoftwareMaven 15y ago
But how much more fun would it be to get profiled as a "loser", then show people this story. The employees were dumb to even ask: "let's see how much salt we can rub into this".
rbanffy 15y ago
I'd have politely pointed to the sign with my middle finger. Just to prevent them from ever showing that picture to anyone. Unless they want to start the even more boneheaded campaign showing sore losers.

vibrunazo 15y ago

How exactly does these work? Are the competitor only told the rules (what you should actually do) just at the time and not allowed to make any preparation. While the windows phone is prepared specifically for that task? (I'd imagine showing 2 separate weather apps in the homescreen isn't something the average windows phone will be prepared for. Or the ones I saw certainly didn't)

atularora 15y ago

Someone from Microsoft did apologize - https://twitter.com/#!/BenThePCGuy/status/184123838949359616 https://twitter.com/#!/BenThePCGuy/status/184123838949359616

potatolicious 15y ago
Wow. Just wow. Just when you think they couldn't possibly bungle this any further. tl;dr: MS rep apologizes and invites him back for a rematch. Because it's like he hasn't already won the challenge or something.
- zalew 15y ago
  did you just provide a TLDR for a tweet?!
  - Brajeshwar 15y ago
    And I voted him for that. I don't have to click, switch tab and read the tweet. :-)
  - jsnell 15y ago
    I appreciate it, given how long a web page showing a single tweet takes to load.
  - ben0x539 15y ago
    Following a twitter link involves copying the url, pasting it to the address bar, backspacing the "#!/" and adding "m." before twitter.com, because twitter's dumb hashbang scheme can't deal with noscript. Reading the tl;dr is much faster!
    - xenophanes 15y ago
      The link works for me in mac safari.
    - ranit8 15y ago
      I use noscript and I get this horrible url, but it shows the correct tweet (i'm not logged in). Yet it's much better reading the posted tldr. https://twitter.com/BenThePCGuy/statuses/184123838949359616?_escaped_fragment_=/BenThePCGuy/status/184123838949359616#!/BenThePCGuy/status/184123838949359616

noonespecial 15y ago

It sounds to me like all of the contests were set to be won by preconfiguration, not phone speed. Having two live-tiles already set up with the winning condition, known in advance only by the employee is hardly a contest. They didn't just not want to pay out. They likely didn't even know how. It was never even considered a possibility.

recoiledsnake 15y ago
>They didn't just not want to pay out. They likely didn't even know how. It was never even considered a possibility. There have been previous losses and money was paid. http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/archive/2012/01/12/video-windows-phone-wins-88-of-smokedbywindowsphone-challenges-at-ces-2012.aspx http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/arch... This might be a couple of rogue employees doing this instead of a company policy.
- vibrunazo 15y ago
  That seems like a different and very specific event. But have there been any actual laptops awarded on these window store competitions?

tbsdy 15y ago

Perhaps time to provide the store with some feedback? http://mymfe.microsoft.com/Microsoft%20%20Store/Feedback.aspx?formID=70&Market=en-us http://mymfe.microsoft.com/Microsoft%20%20Store/Feedback.asp...

Lewisham 15y ago

Microsoft has a knack for choosing (and approving) the most boneheaded PR stints in the business... do they pay companies for this nonsense or do they just come up with it themselves? In a nutshell, the campaign is "Watch us humiliate you and the phone you are spending a lot of your hard-earned money on." Why would anyone think that making consumers feel bad is going to lead them to having the warm, fuzzy feelings necessary to buy their product? Last year's marketing for Windows Phone was awful because it didn't show the phone. Show the phone! It looks great. Tell consumers why they should want it. Not "it does what your phone does, just a bit faster in rigged competitions." Show it working with Xbox. With Hotmail. Show its hubs. "Ever wonder what Dave is doing? On Facebook? On Foursquare? On Twitter? Now you know." Apple and Google keep knocking their campaigns out the park because they're built on honesty. Microsoft's campaigns are built on gimmicks and bullshit, and it shows.

stfu 15y ago
Absolutely. The idea is just asking for trouble - there will always be at least some dude who feels that he was treaded unfairly and reallies up the internets. Plus I am not sure how important the "speed" factor for most users really is. There are the fuzzy Apples, the Androids of freedom, the business berrys, but I am not sure if speed is an adequate positioning.
- ugh 15y ago
  Emphasizing speed misses qualities people actually love about Windows Phone 7 by miles. Only someone who is disconnected from or unfamiliar with the product will come up with stuff like that. There is the stark and fresh design that (independently of whatever merits it might have) makes other mobile operating systems look old. There is the cohesiveness of the experience that even makes iOS look like it doesn’t know what it wants to be. There is the integration with Facebook that makes the phone personal without having to do anything†. All those are things actual people praised about Windows Phone 7. Not speed in some highly constrained scenarios. — † If you use Facebook a lot. This might shock some people on HN, but most people who also can buy a smartphone do.
  - 15y ago

Hari_Seldon 15y ago

Still can't get used to these Microsoft Stores. I should probably get over it, but every time time I see one, it strikes me that they're copying Apple in a really lame way.

joelrunyon 15y ago
Apple would not have a contest. They would say. This is our product. We think it's awesome. You should think it's awesome too. If you don't want to buy it, don't. They wouldn't hold cheesy PR stunts to try and "prove" how much better they are.
- dangrossman 15y ago
  Have we already forgotten the years of "I'm a PC" exaggerated comparison ads?
  - calloc 15y ago
    Yes.
  - kamjam 15y ago
    Have you forgotten Apple fanboys have short memories when it comes to facts?
  - acdha 15y ago
    I do recall a lot of aggrieved Windows fanboys complaining about them – and each time concluding that the problem was failing to understand the priorities of average users or how badly the traditional PC market had failed the average user. The situation is quite similar today with spec-obsessed Android reviewers failing to understand why everyone else is buying iPhones because most people just don't care about an extra 100Mhz or .3" screen size difference when the trade-off is a carrier-mangled UI or worse apps.
Drbble 15y ago
Visiting UVillage in Seattle is bizarre. You get the Apple Store that we all know. And you get the Sony Style store which is like the Apple Store but overcomplicated and weird in that Sony way, with 3-D TVs and pink Memory Sticks. And now we have the Microsoft Store, directly across the parking lot from Apple, with exactly the same floorplan and layout, but made with chintzier materials and a distracting video wall and Surface table locked on to a nonsensical tower defense game. It's like Windows incarnate: an ugly copy of Apple design, with no comprehension of why the Apple design works. Google should open a store too, and fill it with a bunch of free toys and cover the walls with third-party ads.

hsshah 15y ago

This reminds me of their Vista PR stunt where they tricked unsuspecting users to give favorable feedback about Vista on camera.

jasonlotito 15y ago
While what you say is accurate, its misleading. The reviews were accurate, and favorable. They just weren't told it was Vista (iirc, they were told it was the next version).

robryan 15y ago

Can't say the ability to see 2 cities weather at the same time has even been important in my choice of phone. These should really be based on things people are actually considering when buying a phone otherwise they seem really pointless.

bobbles 15y ago

This reddit discussion has many people coming forward that 'won' and then didn't get anything for it: http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rdgtz/i_won_the_windows_phone_challenge_but_lost_just/ http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rdgtz/i_won_the_... There is also a post by someone that 'tied' and then went to win on the next turn, even though their own terms of the contest state that in the event of a tie, the customer wins.

ilamont 15y ago
Here's one example: TL;DR They were throttling their wifi and when I beat them with LTE they didn't pay up saying it has to be one the first try. http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rdgtz/i_won_the_windows_phone_challenge_but_lost_just/c45037b http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rdgtz/i_won_the_... Another one: I too took on the challenge. Which was to post a message to facebook and email the same message to myself as well. Microsoft phone has a me tile, that posts to social media through windows live. Which is connected to your other social media networks such as Facebook, twitter and linked in. However, it does not email you. The guy argued that posting a status to windows live did the same thing. It does not, and therefore I lost. http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rdgtz/i_won_the_windows_phone_challenge_but_lost_just/c44yu6a http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rdgtz/i_won_the_... But a few said they were able to win a gift certificate, like this person: The first challenge was to find a five star restaurant in the area. I used my voice feature to search Google and yelled got it. Right when I said got it the employee was naming a restaurant and said we tied...So the second one was find a movie time for a movie playing in the theater at Tysons Corner. I used my voice to text feature again to search Google and found a time. This time there were like 3 other employees around and one of them said, "Dude, he got it." The manager eventually came out with my $100 gift card. They have it all set up on their phone to just click a button and the answer pops up. For some reason, the movie application took longer to load then normal which is why I won. http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rdgtz/i_won_the_windows_phone_challenge_but_lost_just/c44zwkz http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rdgtz/i_won_the_...

acerimmer 15y ago

Perhaps the employees can keep every $1000 they don't lose. That would be a strong motivation for cheating. Or they have a quota for losses per day.

kamjam 15y ago
You think that perhaps they get to keep the quota of laptops that have not been won? I know if I was working in one of those stores an awful lot of my friends would be smoking the windows phone... sorry, ahem, not friends, I meant "random strangers that I have never met before, isn't that right"...

rbanffy 15y ago

Actually, a much more realistic image of that specific Microsoft Store is here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/112837958187789332975/albums/5719596296605234049/5719613308177275186 https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/112837958187789332975/alb...

jcromartie 15y ago
I was confused as to why there was a picture of an Apple Store with the article... I always forget that there is such a thing as a Microsoft Store.
- rbanffy 15y ago
  The funny trivia is that Microsoft's store is almost exactly in front of the Apple Store. The previous picture in the album was taken from that Apple Store a couple seconds earlier.

alvarosm 15y ago

All Microsoft contests are like that, just promotional. They choose the winner according to what they think will look better for Microsoft itself. I participated in the Imagine Cup a few years ago when I was finishing college and our project was technically light-years ahead of the others. We got only the 3rd place. Two ridiculous web app-like gimmicks were 1st and 2nd. Oh and the guy in 5th place clearly deserved the 2nd place. Even though I knew what it would be like beforehand, I have to admit I didn't anticipate getting screwed so badly. Our project was so cool there was no way it couldn't win, right? apparently not, Microsoft has no shame. It left a bitter aftertaste. On the other hand, I liked the 3rd place prize better than the 1st prize :)

TomGullen 15y ago
How can we possibly sympathise with this? The OP is about a definitive injustice, no one could possibly comment on your case
- alvarosm 15y ago
  ¿? I don't want you to sympathise or comment on my case, why would I?. I'm just saying that's how any Microsoft contest works, they use people and when things don't turn out the exact way Microsoft wants they screw them. My point is this is not an isolated case, it's Microsoft policy.

talmand 15y ago

Seems to me the MS employee was cheating to begin with by choosing a task the phone was already configured for that is not a normal use. The guy even realized this at that moment when he felt he won out of pure luck. The challenge might as well have been "let's see who can display a logo of a Microsoft product on the screen first".

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

pbhjpbhj 15y ago

Isn't this fraud?

lucisferre 15y ago

Anyone remember the Pepsi challenge? Anyone remember Pepsi?

KenCochrane 15y ago

Well, even if you did really win, you would have still lost, your prize would have been a windows laptop, who wants one of those anyway?

pasbesoin 15y ago

I'm not certain how one would gain sufficient attention/interest to cause an effective response, but IIRC (and IANAL) such contests typically have rather strict laws to follow; the foremost but not sole reason being, to avoid being categorized as gambling. Another being to avoid being used or misused as a mechanism to distribute payments to favored parties (one reason for the ubiquitous disclaimers that employees of company XYZ are ineligible to participate). If they are not adhering to the rules that define their contest, they may be at risk of some significant criminal infractions.