Cheated in Facebook competition

Hi all,

I was recently a contestant in a Facebook competition which had a reasonably valuable prize associated with it. The winner was supposed to be chosen on the basis of the 'most likes' at the end of the competition. I have screenshots from multiple sources showing my entry had the most likes at the end of the competition, yet they picked another entry as the winner. I complained to the company running the competition and they told me blatant lies about some likes being 'private' and only visible to them, which I have found evidence from Facebook's privacy policy that this is not possible.

The company are refusing to engage with me over this even though it's obvious they've breached the terms and conditions of the competition (these were published on their page).

Is there any body in Ireland that deals with complaints over unfair competitions? I'm more angry about them lying to me than not winning the competition at this stage so I'm not going to let it go!

Peregrinus

Where is the company based?

Did you pay anything, or do anything, in order to qualify to participate in the competition?

Peregrinus

Peregrinus wrote: »

Where is the company based?

Did you pay anything, or do anything, in order to qualify to participate in the competition?

They're based in Dublin. Yes I had to make something and post a picture of it to qualify for the final, and took part in publicity surrounding the competition.

lifeandtimes

If it's a free competition and you didn't pay anything then you aren't at a lose and can't see you getting anything.

As with all contests their decision is final,I'm not sure there is even anywhere you can complain to other than the company(if it is one) complaints department as facebook have no affiliation with contests run by companies

CeilingFly

Deleted User wrote: »

I complained to the company running the competition and they told me blatant lies about some likes being 'private' and only visible to them, which I have found evidence from Facebook's privacy policy that this is not possible.
!

100% that is possible.

If someone has specific privacy settings you will not see anything from them even if the "like" something

In some case you won't even see another entrant as they only allow their posts to be seen by a select group. This is eaily seen in "comments" You;ll see that there are 20 comments, but you can only see about 10 - guess what, the others are all private even if posted on a public page.

I manage several FB pages and have had a similar issue before and we screenshot every winner of any promotion becasue there are people who think they win and then accuse the page admin of underhand tactics.

ongarite

Not the liberal.ie is it or related website?

RasTa

Get everybody to get on to them via social media. Twitter and FB. This the cake?

gizmo81

Deleted User wrote: »

Hi all,

I was recently a contestant in a Facebook competition which had a reasonably valuable prize associated with it. The winner was supposed to be chosen on the basis of the 'most likes' at the end of the competition. I have screenshots from multiple sources showing my entry had the most likes at the end of the competition, yet they picked another entry as the winner. I complained to the company running the competition and they told me blatant lies about some likes being 'private' and only visible to them, which I have found evidence from Facebook's privacy policy that this is not possible.

The company are refusing to engage with me over this even though it's obvious they've breached the terms and conditions of the competition (these were published on their page).

Is there any body in Ireland that deals with complaints over unfair competitions? I'm more angry about them lying to me than not winning the competition at this stage so I'm not going to let it go!

Would this something the ASAI would take a look at, it's a form of promotional marketing via competition. I'm not sure now but maybe it's a starting point

http://www.asai.ie/asaicode/section-5-promotional-marketing-practices/

CeilingFly

CeilingFly wrote: »

100% that is possible.

If someone has specific privacy settings you will not see anything from them even if the "like" something

In some case you won't even see another entrant as they only allow their posts to be seen by a select group. This is eaily seen in "comments" You;ll see that there are 20 comments, but you can only see about 10 - guess what, the others are all private even if posted on a public page.

I manage several FB pages and have had a similar issue before and we screenshot every winner of any promotion becasue there are people who think they win and then accuse the page admin of underhand tactics.

I've checked Facebook 's privacy policy and they say if you like a public post your like is public, regardless of your own privacy settings. I've also checked through every privacy setting on my account and there is no way for me to hide my likes on public posts. In the situation you described with comments, Facebook still displays the total number of comments even if you can't see all of them, so even if you could hide your like from other people I'm confident the number displayed would still be accurate.

Even if the situation they describe is possible, their terms said the competition would be decided by a public vote on the basis of who got the most likes, and if a like isn't public then it shouldn't count towards the vote. They haven't offered me any screenshots proving they are correct so I'm not just going to take their word for it.

ongarite

ongarite wrote: »

Not the liberal.ie is it or related website?

Hahaha no I'm not that gullible!

RasTa

RasTa wrote: »

Get everybody to get on to them via social media. Twitter and FB. This the cake?

Yep! My friends are pretty outraged so they've already commented on their posts and tweeted them!

goodlad

Deleted User wrote: »

I've checked Facebook 's privacy policy and they say if you like a public post your like is public, regardless of your own privacy settings. I've also checked through every privacy setting on my account and there is no way for me to hide my likes on public posts. In the situation you described with comments, Facebook still displays the total number of comments even if you can't see all of them, so even if you could hide your like from other people I'm confident the number displayed would still be accurate.

Even if the situation they describe is possible, their terms said the competition would be decided by a public vote on the basis of who got the most likes, and if a like isn't public then it shouldn't count towards the vote. They haven't offered me any screenshots proving they are correct so I'm not just going to take their word for it.

You are correct. If you comment or like on someone elses post then that specific comment or like is covered by that posts privacy settings, not your own. The only time you see X number of comments but cant actually see that number is if someone has you blocked. Everyone who looks at a public post will see the same number of likes and comments.

TheDriver

Report to facebook??

CeilingFly

But you don't see everyone's comment / entry and therefore you cannot see every like. Your settings are nothing to do with it.

Its also a reason many places no longer opertae competitions as you get too many people accusing you of underhand tactics and its just not with the hassle.

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CeilingFly

Deleted User wrote: »

Yep! My friends are pretty outraged so they've already commented on their posts and tweeted them!

and that why the company will not engage with you - you've tried them and found them guilty without any proper procedure and refuse to accept that you do not see every post.

The vigilante response shows you up.

CeilingFly

CeilingFly wrote: »

But you don't see everyone's comment / entry and therefore you cannot see every like. Your settings are nothing to do with it.

Its also a reason many places no longer opertae competitions as you get too many people accusing you of underhand tactics and its just not with the hassle.

Yeah sorry but you're wrong about this. The competition was decided by number of likes not comments. There is no way to hide your like (or comments for that matter) on a public post. Facebook even say that if you like or comment on a private post and then the owner of that post later makes it public that your like and comment becomes public too, so it's a fairly robust system.

CeilingFly

CeilingFly wrote: »

and that why the company will not engage with you - you've tried them and found them guilty without any proper procedure and refuse to accept that you do not see every post.

The vigilante response shows you up.

Excuse me, I've only communicated with them privately thus far, I can't control what other people post other than myself. They've lied to me and been completely uncooperative so they shouldn't be surprised if people get upset.

TheDriver

I always wondered does anyone ever win a facebook competition. I particularly dislike the "tag 50 friends and share our page" competitions

TheDriver

TheDriver wrote: »

I always wondered does anyone ever win a facebook competition. I particularly dislike the "tag 50 friends and share our page" competitions

I'm confident the person they picked as the winner will get their prize, just they cheated in how they picked the winner!!

IR1SH RANG3R

TheDriver wrote: »

I always wondered does anyone ever win a facebook competition. I particularly dislike the "tag 50 friends and share our page" competitions

I did actually win a like and share one a few years back run by an Irish company. Won an iPad 2 which was new at the time. So some of them are genuine

The_Valeyard

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I'm confident the person they picked as the winner will get their prize, just they cheated in how they picked the winner!!

Wonder is the winner a friend of the family...

CeilingFly

Deleted User wrote: »

Excuse me, I've only communicated with them privately thus far, I can't control what other people post other than myself. They've lied to me and been completely uncooperative so they shouldn't be surprised if people get upset.

No, as per your own post you communicated with your "friends" and they have made coments and tweeted (no-one uses twitter anymore anyway) to try and damage the company in a vigilante style response.

Is it really that important in your life?

FFS, its a FB competition.

mahamageehad

Any chance you might have been disqualified for buying likes?

c6ysaphjvqw41k

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neonsofa

Don't have any advice/info for you but just wanted to say sorry they cheated you. That really sucks, I follow the baking thread.

CeilingFly

CeilingFly wrote: »

No, as per your own post you communicated with your "friends" and they have made coments and tweeted (no-one uses twitter anymore anyway) to try and damage the company in a vigilante style response.

Is it really that important in your life?

FFS, its a FB competition.

Oh for goodness sake. I haven't made anyone do anything all I've done is told all the people who were following me in the competition what the story is because they're understandably confused as to how I didn't win even though I had the most votes. I'm not responsible for anyone else's actions.

And no the prize isn't that important to me as I said in my original post. It's the principal of the matter, they breached their terms and conditions and then lied to me about it, and I'm not going to accept that because it is insulting.

TheDriver

Aubrie White Badminton wrote: »

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Please tell me more, have u a link to it? I am s**t sick of them.
OP-I think fb might be best place to report it to.

mahamageehad

mahamageehad wrote: »

Any chance you might have been disqualified for buying likes?

I didn't buy any votes so I don't think so! Even if I had though their terms and conditions didn't say anything about what is or isn't allowed regarding getting likes so they wouldn't be able to use that as an excuse after the fact.

c6ysaphjvqw41k

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TheDriver

TheDriver wrote: »

Please tell me more, have u a link to it? I am s**t sick of them.
OP-I think fb might be best place to report it to.

Unfortunately I don't think Facebook will be of any help, they specifically state they are not responsible nor do they regulate competitions run on their platform. The only thing you can report to them are competitions against their T&Cs eg ones that require you to share or tag friends to enter.

poeticjustice

CeilingFly wrote: »

No, as per your own post you communicated with your "friends" and they have made coments and tweeted (no-one uses twitter anymore anyway) to try and damage the company in a vigilante style response.

Is it really that important in your life?

FFS, its a FB competition.

It's hilarious how defensive and bitter you are being towards the OP. Is it because he proved you wrong despite the fact you 'manage several fb pages'? Clearly he hit a nerve...

Keep fighting the good fight OP!

CeilingFly

poeticjustice wrote: »

It's hilarious how defensive and bitter you are being towards the OP. Is it because he proved you wrong despite the fact you 'manage several fb pages'? Clearly he hit a nerve...

Keep fighting the good fight OP!

No - i see this rubbish regulary of people accusing palces of not doing things, hence we do screenshots of all winners, though we don't bother with many these days as they are too much hassle for exactly the reason the OP is complaining about.

Even with screenshots some people still complain and they say they cannot see the post that the screenshot shows and then they try and shame you by gettign their friends to make comments - of course "they didn't know"


But its a FB comp. FFS, a little miminal prize.

poeticjustice

poeticjustice wrote: »

It's hilarious how defensive and bitter you are being towards the OP. Is it because he proved you wrong despite the fact you 'manage several fb pages'? Clearly he hit a nerve...

Keep fighting the good fight OP!

Thanks for your support!

I'm not bothered by people who think I'm being petty or whatever, and some of the 'winner's' friends have been saying similar things in the comments to my friends. I took part in a competition in good faith under their terms and conditions, took part in their promotional posts, and drove the 1100+ people who voted me to their page, providing them with traffic and social media engagements. That after all of that they would have the audacity to cheat and then lie about it to me afterwards is an insult not just to me but to everyone who took part, including everyone who voted for me. I'm not going to lie down and take it, and people who would have me accept such an injustice are part of the problem why companies think they can get away with this behaviour.

I think my next plan of action will be to give the PR company running the competition one last chance to respond to my evidence that they lied to me, and if they are still uncooperative I'll contact the company they're representing and see if they'll be as happy to stand by the actions of their PR company.

TheDriver

Ahhhhh its a pr company?? I would get onto the actual company because its their public image, not pr company.
Regarding a petty fb comp, it sounds like a lot more than usual like type of comp. Op sounds like she had to make something for it.

CeilingFly

CeilingFly wrote: »

No - i see this rubbish regulary of people accusing palces of not doing things, hence we do screenshots of all winners, though we don't bother with many these days as they are too much hassle for exactly the reason the OP is complaining about.

Even with screenshots some people still complain and they say they cannot see the post that the screenshot shows and then they try and shame you by gettign their friends to make comments - of course "they didn't know"


But its a FB comp. FFS, a little miminal prize.

As I've said before the prize isn't what I'm annoyed about, but it's valued at ~€600 so I'm not sure I'd call that 'minimal'.

poeticjustice

CeilingFly wrote: »

No - i see this rubbish regulary of people accusing palces of not doing things, hence we do screenshots of all winners, though we don't bother with many these days as they are too much hassle for exactly the reason the OP is complaining about.

Even with screenshots some people still complain and they say they cannot see the post that the screenshot shows and then they try and shame you by gettign their friends to make comments - of course "they didn't know"

But its a FB comp. FFS, a little miminal prize.

As honest as some places may be regarding competitions, there is just as many places likely to be dishonest and try to con people. That is why transparency is so important. The most number of likes should be clear for all to see. I'm sure fb could clear this up for you OP.

Sounds like you've been burnt before ceilingfly but don't take this so personally. And don't belittle his/her attempts at justice!

Colser

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Yep! My friends are pretty outraged so they've already commented on their posts and tweeted them!

I voted for you and you definitely had the most likes.Stick with it and don't let it go,you put huge effort into it.

Zillah

CeilingFly wrote: »

No - i see this rubbish regulary of people accusing palces of not doing things, hence we do screenshots of all winners, though we don't bother with many these days as they are too much hassle for exactly the reason the OP is complaining about.

Even with screenshots some people still complain and they say they cannot see the post that the screenshot shows and then they try and shame you by gettign their friends to make comments - of course "they didn't know"


But its a FB comp. FFS, a little miminal prize.

You really should just stop posting. You don't seem to understand Facebook, and now that you've been shown to be wrong you're resorting to belittling the OP. Just shoo. Shoo. You're of no use to anyone.

munster87

CeilingFly wrote: »

But you don't see everyone's comment / entry and therefore you cannot see every like. Your settings are nothing to do with it.

Its also a reason many places no longer opertae competitions as you get too many people accusing you of underhand tactics and its just not with the hassle.

If you can't see all comments under the post you may have 'top comments' selected. Selected 'comments unfiltered' I think and you will see them all

CeilingFly

Zillah wrote: »

You reallyyou're resorting to belittling the OP. Just shoo. Shoo. You're of no use to anyone.

No, I just despise people who try and publicly shame places without getting to the end of any resolution.

As the OP said, her "friends" have tweeted and posted their comments about her not winning - surely they'd only know if she told them and that's where the vigilante justice comes ion and that when the OP or any one esle loses the argument.

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lifeandtimes

Is there any law regarding social media and competitions? I know lottery and things with money may be governed by independent judicators but not sure about a prize by pr company on behalf of another company.

If there isn't other than writing a bad review and not using their service is all that be done.

The whole having friend hound them and say bad things doesn't really get people anywhere unless you were seriously aggrieved or put out by this company in person. I'm not saying op is having their friends do this I'm just referencing it.

Things like airlines and companies only play ball with that is when someone actually used their services and paid and were seriously screwed over. Not Sure them selecting a different winner for a competition and people getting will worry them as it will blow over within a day.

mel123

NO real advice OP, but keep at it, as you said its a point of principle now. I'm sure the company in question would be mortified to hear this is going on, I'd get on to them.

CeilingFly

CeilingFly wrote: »

No, I just despise people who try and publicly shame places without getting to the end of any resolution.

As the OP said, her "friends" have tweeted and posted their comments about her not winning - surely they'd only know if she told them and that's where the vigilante justice comes ion and that when the OP or any one esle loses the argument.

I didn't have to tell them, my friends were supporting me and watching the votes as the competition ended. They took their own screenshots, and they posted them to the page themselves to ask why I wasn't chosen as the winner. They haven't received a satisfactory response yet, so they're going to keep asking questions, and I'm not going to tell them to stop.

You can call it 'vigilante justice' all you like, but I've tried to communicate with the PR company clearly and calmly in private and they have responded to me only with lies and refusals to engage with me. If they really were in the right then they'd have more to show for it.

kathleen37

I followed the OP's link to the 5 finalists - the two highest is showing as - the chocolate cake - 1.2k likes and the meringue kiss cake 1.1k likes. The other 3 cakes are less than a couple of hundred likes.

Is that what other people are seeing??

*edit*

Ahhh, is it to do with the number of likes at the time of competition closure?

dudara

Posters - that's enough focus on this aspect. Let's see what constructive suggestions we can offer the OP

dudara

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kathleen37

kathleen37 wrote: »

I followed the OP's link to the 5 finalists - the two highest is showing as - the chocolate cake - 1.2k likes and the meringue kiss cake 1.1k likes. The other 3 cakes are less than a couple of hundred likes.

Is that what other people are seeing??

Hi, the official end to the competition was a few days ago at a specified time. At that time I was in the lead. Since the other entry was selected as the winner it has naturally accrued a few more likes than mine, but I have multiple screenshots from the time the competition ended showing I had the most votes.

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Haha you're not the first person to suggest Joe I'll definitely be getting onto the actual company next, thanks!