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"Congrats, you win a Vita, and we're not kidding!" Taco Bell: "OK, we were lolol"

I got a winning screen when I played the Dojo game on the Taco Bell app, but when I went to submit my info I got an error saying I didn't have an internet connection :/ I already emailed the company about it, they have my email and phone number from when I entered the contest so I hope I hear some good news... : (
 
noooooo an article originating from sacramento *explode*

and i bought two $5 boxes to try and get that stupid vita. NOT WORTH IT. dsjal;bkfmsgfb;lkm
 
You're being a douchebag. Get off your high horse, it's obvious why anyone would be pissed when they were told they won something and then told they weren't. And shocker, the amount of people only came out to 300 or so with this false positive, and Taco Bell is too cheap to comp them the prize they told them they won.

Look, all I said is shit happens and someone screwed up their contest so I can understand why some of the winners really are not winners. I'm not on any high horse, your just getting angry at me because I have a different opinion. U mad?
 

CrunchinJelly

formerly cjelly
Of what did the "tampering" supposedly consist? Did people find a way to generate codes to enter on the web page or something?

The 'congratulations' page was a public page anyone who knew the URL could access... hence it got passed around a lot. Took them a few days to fix, IIRC.
 
What's not to make sense? It's not that they wanted to scam people, but for some reason at times it was putting out more winners than they intended. So it was telling a group of people "you won a Vita" far more frequently than it should had, supposedly because someone maliciously messed with the system, leading all these normal people who put in a code during those times to get a winner screen.

It's not non-winners are lying, it's that Taco Bell fucked up with the promotion and instead of taking the hit for the false positives, they're just telling them 'nuh uh it's not real because we fucked up.'

Guess I don't how the code -> winner process works. Taco Bell was in control of it. How is too many winners even a possibility if only a certain number of codes were winning codes?
 
Is that legal?

Taco Bell will make it legal

sith_master_bg.jpg
 
I was one of those "lucky" winners from the end of January who got screwed. Put in my code on the website and saw the winning (lies) screen telling me I had won. A week of pure joy at actually winning a contest followed...but that didn't last long and I have pretty much stopped caring about the stupid contest.
 

TheNatural

My Member!
Look, all I said is shit happens and someone screwed up their contest so I can understand why some of the winners really are not winners. I'm not on any high horse, your just getting angry at me because I have a different opinion. U mad?

No I'm getting angry at you for being a douchebag. How about not being a douchebag? The point of a contest is to have winners, and if you tell someone they're a winner, then you don't go and say "oh sorry you're not really just kidding." Of course that would make me angry if it happened to me. It's not that fucking complicated to run a contest, and if you fuck it up, then its on you to fix it, not cop out on it.

So yes, please kinda shut up the hell up about people not having the right to be mad about this and giving "go make money" lines. It's not about that, it's about not being a dick and telling someone they won when they didn't and not making amends when Taco Bell has more than enough cas hthat it wouldn't even be a blip on the radar screen to make amends for this.

So yeah, it does bother me when multi-billion dollar corporations are penny pinching on their own fuck ups.
 
Look, all I said is shit happens and someone screwed up their contest so I can understand why some of the winners really are not winners. I'm not on any high horse, your just getting angry at me because I have a different opinion. U mad?

He's getting angry because the post he quoted was of you being a douchebag, implying that these people are lazy and a bunch of crybabies for expecting a company to own up to its mistakes in a contest.
 
Guess I don't how the code -> winner process works. Taco Bell was in control of it. How is too many winners even a possibility if only a certain number of codes were winning codes?

The codes themselves don't determine if you've won or not already. They're used to id a winner. So no code out there is a winner. It depends when its redeemed and who else has redeemed and some other algorithm to see if they decide you win.
 

lifa-cobex

Member
Wheres my elephant!?

Bitch and moan enough and i'm sure he will succeed.
Pathing the way for others to bitch and moan.
 
The codes themselves don't determine if you've won or not already. They're used to id a winner. So no code out there is a winner. It depends when its redeemed and who else has redeemed and some other algorithm to see if they decide you win.

ah. i see. thank you.
 

iceatcs

Junior Member
I totally get it!

Toyota

Toy Yoda

- sounds the same!

It must be really embarrassing for her.

Waiter - Congratulation! you have won a Toy Yoda.
Girl - OMG!!!! *Scream* I've WON A TOYOTA.
Waiter - ಠ_ಠ ~(Crazy Starwars fangirl!)
 
For what it is worth, I received my Vita from this promotion, and I do believe many (not all) of the people complaining passed around the URL when it was openly visible.

However, I feel really bad for those that didn't do anything wrong :(
 

daycru

Member
Wait a second. You spend the money to buy the meal, which doubles as a lottery ticket. The fact that it was a lottery ticket was part of your motivation for spending the money. You are told you won. You are then told "naw, just playin'." You shouldn't be upset about being conned? That's being entitled?
 
It must be really embarrassing for her.

Waiter - Congratulation! you have won a Toy Yoda.
Girl - OMG!!!! *Scream* I've WON A TOYOTA.
Waiter - ಠ_ಠ ~(Crazy Starwars fangirl!)

It wasn't a promotional contest for customers. It was the other way around and completely illegal. It was a sales contest at Hooters for the waitresses--the whole point was for management to sucker them into boosting their sales for what they thought was a new car but was actually a "toy Yoda".

Sounds to me like Hooters had a really shitty Attorney :p

I doubt it--it would probably take a very skilled attorney, in fact, to successfully argue that the sales contest was not intentionally misleading if not outright fraudulent. If they never explicitly stated that the prize was an action figure and did not disabuse the staff of the notion that it was not a car, they would be fucked. Which seems to be the case.
 

zugzug

Member
Its sorta amazing the troll responses in this thread.

Its times like this I wish I were a red name to slap down some bans.

This Taco Bell contest has indeed seem false completely.

Every 15minutes my ass Taco Bell.
 
Wait a second. You spend the money to buy the meal, which doubles as a lottery ticket. The fact that it was a lottery ticket was part of your motivation for spending the money. You are told you won. You are then told "naw, just playin'." You shouldn't be upset about being conned? That's being entitled?

Nobody has been conned. It sucks to get a false notification of winning but unless they aren't actually giving out the number of prizes they promised then nobody got conned or screwed.
 

iceatcs

Junior Member
It wasn't a promotional contest for customers. It was the other way around and completely illegal. It was a sales contest at Hooters for the waitresses--the whole point was for management to sucker them into boosting their sales for what they thought was a new car but was actually a "toy Yoda".

I know, the parking lot part was quite obviously.
I wish it was in this case.
 

gaming_noob

Member
Uh, exactly how much do you eat? Say all you want about the actual quality, Taco Bell gives you a box of food for five dollars.

Maybe Canada's paying more for their food? Last I ate there was about 3 months ago. I remember paying nearly 9$ after tax for a chicken quesadilla with a drink and "fries surpreme" which had barely any fries.
 

distrbnce

Banned
Maybe Canada's paying more for their food? Last I ate there was about 3 months ago. I remember paying nearly 9$ after tax for a chicken quesadilla with a drink and "fries surpreme" which had barely any fries.

Excuse me but are you saying canadian taco bells sell fries? Taco bell is like the cheapest place to fill up, too.
 

lifa-cobex

Member
Its sorta amazing the troll responses in this thread.

Its times like this I wish I were a red name to slap down some bans.

This Taco Bell contest has indeed seem false completely.

Every 15minutes my ass Taco Bell.

I can see where your coming from and you are indeed correct in my opinion.

However its kind of a "step back and look at the bigger picture" kinda thing.
There are worse problems in the world other than "Whaa i didn't get my free toy".

It's not the first time a company has screwed consumers over and it wont be the last.
 
It wasn't a promotional contest for customers. It was the other way around and completely illegal. It was a sales contest at Hooters for the waitresses--the whole point was for management to sucker them into boosting their sales for what they thought was a new car but was actually a "toy Yoda".



I doubt it--it would probably take a very skilled attorney, in fact, to successfully argue that the sales contest was not intentionally misleading if not outright fraudulent. If they never explicitly stated that the prize was an action figure and did not disabuse the staff of the notion that it was not a car, they would be fucked. Which seems to be the case.

Well i assume they had on paper that they would win a Toyota, because if it was a verbal "you win a Toy Yoda" than this chick would have no case.
 

TheNatural

My Member!
I can see where your coming from and you are indeed correct in my opinion.

However its kind of a "step back and look at the bigger picture" kinda thing.
There are worse problems in the world other than "Whaa i didn't get my free toy".

It's not the first time a company has screwed consumers over and it wont be the last.

Yet, people come into the thread to troll about it.

I never get why people say something is "no big deal" when the "no big deal" part falls squarely on the party who fucked up easily having the resources to compensate for it. There needs to be more consumer activists in this world.
 

lifa-cobex

Member
Yet, people come into the thread to troll about it.

I never get why people say something is "no big deal" when the "no big deal" part falls squarely on the party who fucked up easily having the resources to compensate for it. There needs to be more consumer activists in this world.

yup
But its kinda hard to fight a faceless corporation ya-know.

Don't get me wrong, it's apart of the whole grand evil scheme of things that i hate, but i think the only way to have a proper stab would be to be a faceless corporation.

Two wrongs don't make a right
 
Well i assume they had on paper that they would win a Toyota, because if it was a verbal "you win a Toy Yoda" than this chick would have no case.

I'm sure they had shit up in the employee area about it. But, even without, verbal agreements can absolutely hold up in court. Especially when she probably had other employees to confirm the contest. Also, how do they explain blindfolding her and bringing her to the parking lot to reveal her toy Yoda?
 

Chesskid1

Banned
didn't the URL to claim as a vita winner leak out?

so they have like a bizillion people claiming to be winners now. dunno if they can see who used what code, etc.
 
I'm sure they had shit up in the employee area about it. But, even without, verbal agreements can absolutely hold up in court. Especially when she probably had other employees to confirm the contest. Also, how do they explain blindfolding her and bringing her to the parking lot to reveal her toy Yoda?

A verbal agreement about winning a "Toy Yoda" instead of a Toyota would in my opinion be very hard to hold up in court. It would be so easy to say "Yeah, we clearly told her they could win a Toy Yoda". They screwed themselves obviously by making it obvious they wanted the waitresses to think car hence the rouse with the blindfold and parking lot. Could definitely have been handled differently
 
Also in the group of winners that didn't actually win along with the couple others already posted. I think there's one or two others, at least, that posted in the larger thread? We are the 300?

And it wasn't as simple as the congratulations screen being able to be passed around. I noticed that myself the night I won because I accidentally refreshed the page after being sent back to it from sending in my data for the contest (after being told you won you submit name, birthdate, e-mail, address, and maybe something else?) and the page refreshed fine since it's a simple URL that didn't require data to reach. What seems to have happened was that someone found how to access that winner's form, which wasn't as simple as the congratulations screen, and apparently there was a way to trick it into saying they were a proper winner by entering multiple codes until it eventually just let the person through. And in doing so I guess that somehow glitched there system into then allowing too many winners, slowly, over the course of twelve or more hours? I don't fully understand how that glitch caused it to raise the rate over a span of time but whatever.

It sucks a bit but I can't say I'm overly angry. Annoyed, sure. But I'm shrugging past it and moving on. I've got other stuff to play and I'll eventually get myself a Vita but Sony isn't getting my money for Vita games I'd be buying right now and will likely end up grabbing much cheaper a year from now. Oh well. I'd love to be one of the second chance winners but I'm not holding out hope since currently the odds are 1:150, with the possibility of going up a bit due to how that second chance drawing works with unclaimed Vitas.

I'd love to see it get enough bad press that Taco Bell caves but I honestly don't see that happening. I know the people in that Facebook group posted earlier are trying to get the word out to as many people as possible and some are even trying to go through lawyers and the Better Business Bureau but I think that's a bit much. Their contest rules are solid and have a clause for this sort of situation so at this point we just have to suck it up and move on with things. And maybe cross our fingers and hope that Taco Bell at the very end goes all favorite uncle on us and says, "We can't leave all of you unhappy, here's a Vita for all of you. Look how great we really are!" and suddenly everyone thinks Taco Bell is the best thing ever.
 
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