Vodacom ordered to stop BMW competition

He advised people who might feel they lost money unjustifiably, to contact their local Consumer Advice offices.
Click to expand...
Seeing as Vodacom was operating an "illegal lottery" wouldnt that be everyone who entered?
 
The correct thing would be to force them to repay/carry the costs of all those sms entries
 
Wonder what happens to the people who got their cars already, do they have to return them, can they sue
 
surely when you send a sms you know it's costing you money? these people who running into these huge debts are plain stupid.

This competition wasn't very clear, in the rules they do say however the amount of sms do count, makes you stand a better chance of wining not you will win,very fishy
 
In the other thread, it said the Vodaquoi would be awardnig the remaining BMWs after a draw today - I guess thart would kind of remove people's options for claims against VC. After all, that would be like entering a competition and complaining because you didn't win.
 
Vodacom is on thin ice with this one, but i think they will manage to find a loophole...
 
I'm sorry I don't get it. Vodacom ran a cool compo, giving people a chance to win something they'd never get to own if it where up to their paychecks. The lotto should just continue with it's backslide, with it's cheapass presentation, and jst leave others be. Just look at the lotto draw show it now has compared to the whole gameshow it used to run; the only thing there worthwhile is Vanessa Carrera and the jury's still out on that one!
 
No one put a gun to anyone's head, forcing them to send 1000's of SMS's per day...come on...!!!
It was a competition - you send an SMS for R10 and you might win a car...great...
I did not win but WTF's next - taking Sin City to court by gamblers for not winning...?

This was not even a "lottery" if you look at the terms ad conditions - the entry is all credit for playing mobile games.

The blame for this mess should once again be put at the feet of the people who believe to rule a country is the right to be corrupt and put a Rand sign on everything. The only reason the power that be stopped this was because they did not get the new car/money etc...

Well done to Vodacom for attempting this...!
 
If Vodacom has any moral sense they will voluntarily refund all monies scammed off their user base in this illegal lottery.
 
Related news from 14 days ago:

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/bottomline.aspx?ID=BD4A698883

Misplaced sympathy for a BMW fan in SMS overdrive

VIRGIN Mobile is out to win good publicity by paying a R48000 bill run up by a pensioner who entered an SMS competition to win a BMW.

Cape Town’s Hendrikus Wessels made the news with his bill from Vodacom after sending numerous entries without checking the cost.

Wessels must have sent more than 320 text messages every day before someone from Vodacom warned him that things were getting a touch expensive. So Virgin Mobile has “offered to settle his exorbitant Vodacom bill” in its quest to be the consumers’ champion.

Excuse the Insider for being cynical, but the sympathy level is decidedly lacking here. Anyone with insufficient gumption to figure out that sending 320 messages a day may be straining the wallet hardly seems like a deserving target for a bit of corporate largesse.
 
I heard this on 702 this morning, they all seem to think this was a subscription based service....:rolleyes:
 
Just like Telkom, Vodacom thinks they can do whatever they feel like... even ignoring the law of the land.
 
Uh, what exactly is Win Ekhaya & Brainbox? I for one hate these competitions, especially with an economy like ours. But you can't just prosecute one and let others get away with it. All or none.

Vie said:
VIRGIN Mobile is out to win good publicity by paying a R48000 bill run up by a pensioner who entered an SMS competition to win a BMW.
Click to expand...

Are they going to pay his arthritis bill too?

Unless he had Alzheimer's or something or he had a few weeks to live, thats just plain stupid! And Virgin, stop condoning people for being as thick as a brick.
 
Last edited:
As reported in the media, the main problem was the part of the competition that said the person sending in the most SMSs for a certain week would automatically win a BMW. People then received SMSs saying they are in the top 1% of those sending in, making them think they are almost there, so sending in more. Later it seemed like a number of people with varying number of entries were receiving this "in the top 1%" SMS. That type of practice just sounds shady.

I don't think the competition itself was the problem (as said previously, it's similar to other competitions), it was this constant "urging on" to enter the competition or send in more entries.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X