Audi Galway's fake 'Free Car' competition

paulmclaughlin

The Audi dealership based in Galway created a like & share competition on Facebook, with the prize being a brand new Audi A3 Cabrio. More than 30,000 people entered and once the winner was announced, SHTF.

The profile associated with the win was seemingly a fake profile, supposedly of the true winner's mother

The competition has since been removed from Facebook, along with the winner announcement but Joe.ie have screenshots of the developments.

TrailerBob

It was also misleading in that the competition was only for the 'use' of the A3 for the bank holiday weekend... Then the fake profile... Very dodgy for a supposedly respectable business

Toyotafanboi

i don't know what's worse; the farcical competition itself or actually wanting to win an A3 for the weekend as if it's some sort of performance/ luxury/ exciting car.

Jan Laco

I'd say there are more at it. A bmw dealership in Dublin had a page with a competition on it but as soon as the deadline went the page disappeared. And no winner announced.

Atlantic Dawn

It's kind of a foolish prize, the winner will require fully comp insurance and they probably won't want a 17 year old to win the prize. A set of Audi stickers or a jacket would be more like it.

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Won't make an iota of difference to them. Minor boo-boo. Anyone that's gonna be buying a car off them won't feel the need to 'like' and 'share' on Facebook, and anyone that did like and share couldn't afford one anyway.

ironclaw

Apparently the car was won by a gent who subsequently passed the prize to his mother. Whether you believe that or not is another question.

But from working with numerous brands and running this type of competition, begrudgingly against my own advice, it's nothing but heartache. The nonsense you endure from Joe Public is astounding. Fake shares, opening profiles just to share, private shares to up your count etc etc. For example, this competition cost nothing to enter, zilch, and everyone loses it when there is a little discrepancy in the prize, that could be an entirely honest mistake. You'd swear someone had rigged a raffle at €50 a ticket and ran off with the money. Its something for free, take a punt and forget about it. We are an absolutely nation of moaners when it comes to it.

mickdw

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Doesnt surprise me at all from Audi. I gave them a loan of my TT for an event and they promised to valet my car and give me a lend of a new TT when it launches. They damaged my car cleaning it and after about 12 emails and a number of fobbed off phonecalls no lend of a car.

Jesus that is a poor carry on.

colm_mcm

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

i don't know what's worse; the farcical competition itself or actually wanting to win an A3 for the weekend as if it's some sort of performance/ luxury/ exciting car.

It was a cabrio AFAIK

ba_barabus

colm_mcm wrote: »

It was a cabrio AFAIK

SCRAP IT,

seriously

I wound MG UK up a few months back when they ran a similar competition to giveaway an MG for their 90th anniversary. They tried to cover up but I had screen shotted everything. In the end the competition was cancelled due to "lack of sales" even though they had already stated they sold out of the cars.

All they had to do was sell 90 cars in 90 days. They only sold the last of them this week. So it took 10 months............

colm_mcm

I'd take a loan of a cabrio if the sun was shining.

mickdw

Audi Galway is owned by the same guys as Audi sligo and ballina.
Its pretty bad that they have the entire north west sown up for audi sales.
I've had my issues with them but the management wouldn't be so petty as to get involved in a silly scam as some suggest.

mhackett102

After Hours already have a thread about this --> http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057470414

From what I can gather, the amount of "likes" on the page has up 999.5% from last week BUT since 3pm today, the "reviews" on the page have gone from 4.8 out of 5, down to 2.3 out of 5.. Along with a couple of hundred people giving out about it on thier page.

What makes the garage look even worse now is that they have deleted all the posts regarding the competition, so now it looks like that there was never one.

evolving_doors

ironclaw wrote: »

Apparently the car was won by a gent who subsequently passed the prize to his mother. Whether you believe that or not is another question.

But from working with numerous brands and running this type of competition, begrudgingly against my own advice, it's nothing but heartache. The nonsense you endure from Joe Public is astounding. Fake shares, opening profiles just to share, private shares to up your count etc etc. For example, this competition cost nothing to enter, zilch, and everyone loses it when there is a little discrepancy in the prize, that could be an entirely honest mistake. You'd swear someone had rigged a raffle at €50 a ticket and ran off with the money. Its something for free, take a punt and forget about it. We are an absolutely nation of moaners when it comes to it.

I thought FB don't allow like and share competitions anyway.??

https://www.facebook.com/help/community/question/?id=10152108788206281

Anyhow, here's another epic FB comp fail of boards times of yore..
Basically the 'winner' of the ring 'Lynda Speers' logged in to post her thanks (but ended up mysteriously posting from the Skillens company account by accident!)

Noccy_Mondy

As pointed out, audi Galway, Sligo and Ballina are all run by Connollys. Didn't know that.

The Ballina branch did the same competition this time last year with an a6 s line. All seemed to run smooth though.

pred racer

I had seen this story, but I presumed it was to win the car. Now that I know it was just the use of the car for a weekend, story becomes meh.......

BMJD

Car dealers and internetty stuff don't seem to go very well together, do they?

ironclaw

Gebgbegb wrote: »

I thought FB don't allow like and share competitions anyway.??

https://www.facebook.com/help/community/question/?id=10152108788206281

Yes, they are against the rules and regulations, but they are rarely enforced. However the critical differences between that ring story and this one are the prize was a loan, not a free car and there was no willful wrongdoing or deceit.

When you think about it, what's in it for them to rig a competition like this? Absolutely nothing. It costs them nothing at all to loan out the car except a valet and some fuel.

As I said, nation of moaners at times!

mickdw

pred racer wrote: »

I had seen this story, but I presumed it was to win the car. Now that I know it was just the use of the car for a weekend, story becomes meh.......

Yep, a weekends use of a car is not reason for a dealer to go messing about.
They would probably give a car out to anyone who said they were thinking of buying it.
They have given me an A6 before for a weekend to see if I liked it.

LynnGrace

Gebgbegb wrote: »

I thought FB don't allow like and share competitions anyway.??

https://www.facebook.com/help/community/question/?id=10152108788206281

Anyhow, here's another epic FB comp fail of boards times of yore..
Basically the 'winner' of the ring 'Lynda Speers' logged in to post her thanks (but ended up mysteriously posting from the Skillens company account by accident!)

Love this!

Audi Galway now have posted a photo of the winner on their Facebook page. :pac:

whiterebel

ironclaw wrote: »

Yes, they are against the rules and regulations, but they are rarely enforced. However the critical differences between that ring story and this one are the prize was a loan, not a free car and there was no willful wrongdoing or deceit.

When you think about it, what's in it for them to rig a competition like this? Absolutely nothing. It costs them nothing at all to loan out the car except a valet and some fuel.

As I said, nation of moaners at times!

Moaners? People getting fed up with sub-standard shyte, rip-offs and bad organisation more like.

Youngblood.III

I heard they are now offering a free Unicorn if you buy an Audi off them during race week...

Noccy_Mondy

Brings this to mind. :pac:

Supergurrier

Poor prize to begin with

dr.fuzzenstein

They May have Lydon this ad.

I'll just take the MX5 out. Anyone up for cars&coffee in Limerick tomorrow?

Supergurrier

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

They May have Lydon this ad.

I'll just take the MX5 out. Anyone up for cars&coffee in Limerick tomorrow?

Im off. Might head down

bladespin

Still a bit suspect and yes I can afford an A3 and no I wouldn't buy one from them after that, dealers get a fairly tough time , usually unwarranted, it's good to see some 'true colors' though, helps make up the mind.

the dark ken night

LIGHTNING wrote:

Doesnt surprise me at all from Audi. I gave them a loan of my TT for an event and they promised to valet my car and give me a lend of a new TT when it launches. They damaged my car cleaning it and after about 12 emails and a number of fobbed off phonecalls no lend of a car.

I don't know what's worse! This ^^ or admitting you own a TT..........

Thargor

Haha they dragged in someones mother to pretend to be May now, she doesn't look too happy about it:

https://www.facebook.com/AudiGalway/photos/a.421993664593379.1073741827.225457847580296/742850965840979/?type=1&theater

Noccy_Mondy

the dark ken night wrote:

I don't know what's worse! This ^^ or admitting you own a TT..........

What's wrong with owning a TT?

Autosport

the dark ken night wrote: »

I don't know what's worse! This ^^ or admitting you own a TT..........

What's wrong with a TT?? Quite a beauty of a car

mickdw

the dark ken night wrote: »

I don't know what's worse! This ^^ or admitting you own a TT..........

Ya ya hairdressers porsche, golf in a fancy dress and all that.
Have you ever driven one?

ironclaw

whiterebel wrote: »

Moaners? People getting fed up with sub-standard shyte, rip-offs and bad organisation more like.

What was sub-standard, rip off or badly organised about this?

Decent competition and prize, no money down for the punter and people got suspect when the winner wasn't in the 30,000 odd entries and didn't have a profile. You do understand that gaming law requires that an entry can be made in other avenues? A completely plausible explanation is someone wanted to hand the gift to their son, friend, mother, aunt, whatever. I've often done this with raffle prize. And then social media loses their mind and hammers the rating of a business.

People on social media expect businesses to just hand out the freebies. I appreciate I'm taking a pretty hard line on the general public but it comes from years of dealing with them. You have absolutely no idea the erk some people get over the most trivial of matters.

Thargor

ironclaw wrote: »

What was sub-standard, rip off or badly organised about this?

Decent competition and prize, no money down for the punter and people got suspect when the winner wasn't in the 30,000 odd entries and didn't have a profile. You do understand that gaming law requires that an entry can be made in other avenues? A completely plausible explanation is someone wanted to hand the gift to their son, friend, mother, aunt, whatever. I've often done this with raffle prize. And then social media loses their mind and hammers the rating of a business.

People on social media expect businesses to just hand out the freebies. I appreciate I'm taking a pretty hard line on the general public but it comes from years of dealing with them. You have absolutely no idea the erk some people get over the most trivial of matters.

What a bizarre thing both to defend and get upset over...

Voodoomelon

For a dealer to actually give away a new car, they have to get something MAJOR in return, not a few thousand "likes".

Noccy_Mondy

Voodoomelon wrote:

For a dealer to actually give away a new car, they have to get something MAJOR in return, not a few thousand "likes".

Was just for the weekend though.

dr.fuzzenstein

Supergurrier wrote: »

Im off. Might head down

Watch out for old, sh*the, dirty, silver mx5.

Supergurrier

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Watch out for old, sh*the, dirty, silver mx5.

Wherabouts is the meeting point again ?

Will be coming via the metropolis that is Gort

dr.fuzzenstein

Supergurrier wrote: »

Wherabouts is the meeting point again ?

Will be coming via the metropolis that is Gort

Ah yes, Grot. At least motorway all the way.
Just exit the motorway for the Ballysimon Road (B&Q, BMW dealer, etc..), go to the roundabout where the BMW dealer is and take a right as if heading towards UL and TK Maxx. The Northern Trust Building on that road (big building on it's own with big car park), that's where it's at.

http://www.irishfestivalofspeed.com/ifs-cars-coffee/

edit:
Man, that's gone a bit off topic!

Noccy_Mondy

dr.fuzzenstein wrote:

edit: Man, that's gone a bit off topic!

Yeah, how did ye bring ye'rr meet into a thread about an audi dealer

mickdw

Voodoomelon wrote: »

For a dealer to actually give away a new car, they have to get something MAJOR in return, not a few thousand "likes".

A prize of 1 years driving shouldn't be a major issue for a big main dealer.... After all this same dealer gave the use of a car to f*cking Hector.
This weekend prize is a non issue and there is no way the dealer went to silly levels of cover up to avoid it.

Duke O Smiley

:pac: :pac:

dr.fuzzenstein

Noccy_Mondy wrote: »

Yeah, how did ye bring ye'rr meet into a thread about an audi dealer

We got lost on the way to the motor's chat thread!

power pants

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

i don't know what's worse; the farcical competition itself or actually wanting to win an A3 for the weekend as if it's some sort of performance/ luxury/ exciting car.

takes a second or less to enter the free competition. I doubt people care if is a luxury car or not.

A chance to win something for doing very little always appeals to the masses

The A3 is probably better than what a lot of scrap some people drive too I would imagine

RedorDead

ironclaw wrote: »

What was sub-standard, rip off or badly organised about this?

Decent competition and prize, no money down for the punter and people got suspect when the winner wasn't in the 30,000 odd entries and didn't have a profile. You do understand that gaming law requires that an entry can be made in other avenues? A completely plausible explanation is someone wanted to hand the gift to their son, friend, mother, aunt, whatever. I've often done this with raffle prize. And then social media loses their mind and hammers the rating of a business.

People on social media expect businesses to just hand out the freebies. I appreciate I'm taking a pretty hard line on the general public but it comes from years of dealing with them. You have absolutely no idea the erk some people get over the most trivial of matters.

Come in Audi Galway - weve been waiting for you to surface!

All jokes aside though i agree. People get annoyed about the stupidest things. You'd swear they were actually giving a car away.