Hundreds of competition entrants left angry after they were unable to buy a Jeep

Wow. What a mess. While on one hand Jeep has created a negative view of their brand (in the short term at least), talk of class action etc is a little extreme. It will be interesting to see if and how Jeep responds!

My partner got though at 9.04 (apparently a minute before they were all taken) but there was nothing on the end of the line and it cut out after 10 seconds.
Oh well, looks like we’ll have to keep driving our little Renault.

I imagine the winners had set up automatic dialers after knowing the number last night.

Oh dear… Lovely but of brand building this

Did she also mention that the app failed at 9pm last night 12 hours before the competition closed (got the screen shots) and that this is when the number was released. Did she say why jeep didn’t invoke clause 21 when they knew there was a fault…. I for one reject the claims… I don’t have a pad only a phone…and I didn’t the number or a call button just a compass.
can she also explain why there is possible evidence,of people being successful and getting a car before the 9am timer (because they had the number already)….

Mumbrella, please add in your article that the terms and conditions for the competition clearly state that if there were issues regarding hacking, or failure to it being a fair competition then Jeep Australia would not continue with it or change the rules. The issue here is Jeep Australia fail to recognise that there have been issues here and failed to do the competition in a different manner which would have been a better option.

What’s the point of having terms and conditions if you aren’t going to comply with them?

Never got a number to when my phone count down hit zero , how’s that fair ?? Well done jeep ! Fail !

It could probably have been run better, but shows the ‘entitlement mentality’ that social media fosters in consumers. No wonder some brands are still fearful of it.

Car manufacturers & social media bellyflop strategies – just say no.

I would have won for sure!

What a pack of whingers. It was a competition. Clearly 10 people managed to get through, so that’s all that counts. People are acting like they were entitled to win. I can’t see how this would damage a brands reputation. The people complaining on facebook are more at risk of ruining their reputation by being such sore losers.

There could only ever be 10 winners, and 10 winners there are, so the rest of you 29990 losers need to get over it and get a life. How is this different to any other radio competition?
Got nothing better to do now than complain or sue? Obviously most of the entrants are professional competition hunters who need to get a real job.

Is this any different from trying to buy concert tickets to a big name artist/band? You can never get through when the lines open, but you don’t sue over it. It’s a competition, first in best dressed.The odds were always long so not sure why everyone’s so upset.

@Yolanda. You speak truth, but the responsibility of the agency is to anticipate any negative sentiment – whether justified by glitches or numbers being posted early, or just irrational whingeing.

It strikes me that the agency has on its staff a qualified consumer psychologist: should he not have figured out how this might negatively affect the brand and put in place contingencies to address this? A Jeep cap for the losers? Some sort of gesture that doesn’t have people sharing their overwhelmingly negative experiences online and otherwise?

So far, Jeep has a big tick from 10 people and approximately 29,990 pissed off potential customers. Not sure the ROI on this one is a success.

Yolanda and Hayley you fail to get the point I’m afraid.
Have you read the article?
Consumers are rightly angered when a competition doesn’t provide a level playing field and fails to deliver the terms and conditions stipulated.
If you played by the rules you stood no chance whatsoever of winning.
All of the winners would have been people who obtained the number in advance of it’s scheduled release.
Lets hope that Jeep don’t adopt the same dismissive attitude as yourselves or the brand may take years to recover.
The competition was a monumental stuff up and the sooner Jeep admit as such the better.
The longer they maintain the current silence the more damaging it will be.

Sounds like Veruca Salt…. “But I wan’t my $10,000 Jeep now Daddy, Now!!!

What entrants are rightly upset about is that unfortunately the number to call was available (apparently by setting the phone time and date forward) some hours before the official release time. This allowed some entrants to gain an advantage in that they could pre-dial, auto-dial or fast dial the number just prior to or right on the official release time and therefore be first in queue.

Term’s and Conditions are put in place to serve the company and protect them from any loopholes people might read in their marketing assets. Holding them to this is pointless as they would never clause “if something fails we will fix it”

Instead, they should be held to guidelines set by the Casino Gaming Authority and the ACCC which would clearly state a variety of situations that if the competition ‘broke’ at any stage – for any reason – that it should be put on pause until fixed. Jeep ignored this and continued with the competition. That’s the problem here.

Didn’t know about this competition until i read it on news.com.au however, why do I get a 404 error when I click on Terms and conditions on the Jeep webpage?
http://ultimatesearchengine.com.au/terms

The “competition” sounds so dodgy, did these 30,000 callers have to pay for the telephone call?

What about the personal details of the 49,000 signing up, what happens to their data Jeep now has?

You should work in Jeep’s PR department JR?
You seem to have a gift for reading the mood of the people.
It’s trite arrogance of this kind that gives the advertising industry the reputation it so richly deserves JR……or were you trying to be funny?

@I tried and failed it is you, not Yolanda and Hayley, who fail to get the point. Ten Jeeps, thousands of people who want to win. Ten did, the rest didn’t and from some of the posts it is a good thing they are not driving as it would be too challenging for them. Why don’t you go out and buy a lottery ticket, and when you don’t win throw a tanti. We’ll understand

When technology fails……………………………

It’s a pretty ugly car.

Given the client is an ex Media Agency chief you’d think there would have been a greater attention to detail.

Let’s do print ads again

OtherAndrew : What entitlement this is plain and simple sale by deception – dont bring social media into it – its the 1980’s with the 10 Fridges for $50 each on boxing day at your local department store…. except this time.. the back door was open, the supplier knew the door was open – the customers were telling it was open 12 hours before the sale and they did nothing…. of course people feel ripped off when people are claimning they had dialers running from 8am and got through and won the 8th car at 8:58am….. what would you expect to happen if everyone out front of the department store was watching people come thorugh the back door and buying the fridge you queued all night to get??? No social media here —this is consumer law and consumer protection PLAIN and SIMPLE.

The competition failed in that the application crashed, the number was not revealed to the majority and when it was, the line was ‘unavailable’ The correct number was released early and revealed on the whirlpool forum. It wasn’t a fair playing field. An OBVIOUS breach of the terms & conditions of the competition, namely; 21. If for any reason the Promotion is not capable of running as planned (whether caused by infection by computer virus, line drop out, bugs, tampering, unauthorised intervention, fraud, technical failures or any other cause beyond the control of the Promoter which corrupts or affects the administration, security, fairness or integrity of the Promotion) the Promoter reserves the right in its sole discretion, (subject to any written direction given by a relevant regulatory authority), to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Promotion.

Hayley : this is not a competition… they were selling a product – everyone needs to understand that the competition existed between the people who wanted to buy.. There is no State by State permit applciaiton to run a competition here…they advertised 10 Jeep…for $10K then let people come through the back door before the sale started. and even sold apparently 7 before the sale started at 9:00:20am…. Like I said before 10 fridges for $50 bucks each on boxing day ….

All they had to do is change the number. Failure to do that is negligence. Like many others I never got the green call button. My phone time was correct and on satellite time. My wife got it and told me to press the green button at the top of the screen but I didn’t have it to press. Had to restart the app. Then tried a number of times before getting thru to the message that “all 10 had gone” The correct time being 9:01:52am.
If I had the green button, known of the green button or had the number beforehand I would now have a $10,000 jeep. My advice to the winners. Watch out for the drift and body roll. This is why we didn’t buy one when we had a test drive. We think it is unsafe and dangerous but at $10,000 we would have traded it in on a Prado and been very happy.

Groucho : Lotteries are run to rules…strict rules – you know the lottery officials you see before each draw…So you didnt enter??? great..slagging others off because fair play has been dealt a savage blow today maybe a reflection on a character (mirror needed) other than those trying to get a mutinational to come clean about what went on… given that you are not accepting of the need for rules – please let me know when you are next on the road… as it may be your driving that we need to look out for.

Yolanda: find and read thedefintion of a competiition – this isnt one its an advertised sale or promotion.. you had to BUY the car they were NOT giving it away…. you werent buying product A to win Product B… its nothing like a radio competition… its a SALES PROMOTION … Sales promotions = protection under consumer law

Having run 1000s of promotions, I have no doubt that these claims of winning prizes before 9am are totally bogus.

The worst that will have happened is people will have found the phone number earlier by adjusting their phone clocks.

That was a little silly but by no means a complete and I level playing field, other had access to the number from 9am and simply needed to dial.

Obviously this has created some negative sentiment, but it won’t last.

People need to stop stirring shit and toughen up. No laws were broken, the promo will have been run as fairly as technology has allowed.

Steve, read the spokespersons statement, she states it was a competition.

Steve – you claim “apparently 7 were sold before 9am” in one post and “people are claimning they had dialers running from 8am and got through and won the 8th car at 8:58am” in another.

Can you provide links to these?

To enter this contest , jeep required you to register your name , email and phone number.

I just hope they dont use those details for telemarketing – the poor saps on the phones will probably break down by mid-day from the abuse.

I think we are missing the bigger problem.
We are becoming a society that is in a content state of OUTRAGE. We are veering from one outrage to the next, don’t people ever get tired of this.
God I hate humanity.

Guess you’ll have to go back to chopping up cereal boxes, whinging losers….

I would say the risk of someone posting the number online definitely should/ perhaps was thought about in the planning.

The original idea of the promotion was great but the failure to mitigate against this risk ultimately led to this problem they now face. They will now have to resolve Office of Fair trading complaints however justified they may be.

Steve: In some cases, first x to enter promotions still require trade promotion permits from NSW (if the number of claims exceeds the prizes on offer) and from SA (if the value is over $5k), you can call the OLGR to check if you like.

@Grant
I think you are wrong Grant on a number of counts:
Firstly the failings were human rather than technology based.
Somebody created an App for the promotion that wasn’t secure and released a phone number early.
The number to dial didn’t appear on 30,000 phones until after the cars had been won by those with the number early through App error.
Secondly I disagree that the negative sentiment will dissipate quickly.
It was a great promotion that engaged well with a very large audience.
It is easy for consumers to accept losing when things are transparent and fair but to realise they never stood a chance leaves a very bad taste in the mouth.
Of the thousands of promotions you ran as fairly as you could in a kind of incomplete level playing field way…were many successful or ruined by tiresome softies stirring up shit?

Who the hell came up with this idea. It’s not 1996.

@JR
Mate you may want to look at optimising your website for mobile devices. Everything is chopped in half

By changing your phones internal clock you could get the number last night, however when calling this morning you could get through then copped the msg this number is disconnected. Look at terms and condition 21 and they are in breach of there own regulation.

Put me down for the class action. Poorly executed. Embarrassingly run.

To all the people claiming that this I just a sense if entitlement don’t fully understand what happened here…if it was simply about not getting through the I guess most people would have accepted that, but let’s list the failures that made the competition an uneven playing field:
– Phone number released online night before the countdown finished
– App failed the night before the deadline (rectified in time for the comp deadline)
– People claiming the were getting through before 9am
– People claiming different countdown times on different devices
– App freezing at 9am when countdown finished so no phone number or location details.
– Once app worked some people had location service setting problems which were not identified by Jeep as bring required prior to the countdown ending
– In my case the phone number didn’t come through

Continued from above
Until 9.06. Other people claim they didn’t get theirs until later or at all.

As I said not a case of just not winning, it’s a case of not even having the chance. Steve’s fridge example is a great example of how this was unfair!

Farce.

Someone at Wonder (or Cummins Ross) needs to take a good hard look at themselves, and then leave the room.

Started getting 4 letter phone tirades from angry competion entrants at dealership from 8am yesterday, which climaxed with a person being asked to leave the dealership or police being called because of the level of threatening words and gestures coming forth. Remember the dealers had basically had nothing to do with this promotion other than supplying the winner cars if eligible. The sales people and front-line staff at dealerships did not hack the app, nor do they manage the competition. Clearly there needs to be a deep breath taken here, and if improper procedures did occur, an investigation of some sort should arise. Direct complaints to Jeep Australia at 1300 133 079 or whatever Government Body you feel should hear your tales of woe but remember that 1/ dealerships are not at fault here 2/ remember manners 3/how you speak to says a lot about you as I know you won’t swear and threaten when your phone calls are being recorded at a Government agency complaint line

To Whom it may Concern.
I wish to make a complaint against Chrysler Australia Pty Ltd (ABN 23 125 956 505) in regard to their Most Remote Dealership promotion/competition.

The basis of this complaint is that I believe that this competition was flawed and Chrysler Australia Pty Ltd (ABN 23 125 956 505) did not do enough to ensure that the execution of this completion was fair to all contestants.

Main issues of this competition that I believe need to be investigated:
• Alleged release of the competition telephone number to the general public 5 hours before competition opened.
• Issues with the competition “app” which did not release the competition telephone number at the correct time and in a timely manner to allow all contestants equal chance to enter the competition. The issue with the “app” allowed anyone who had the competition number when it was released hours earlier an unfair advantage.
• Competition Line Overload. Chrysler Australia Pty Ltd (ABN 23 125 956 505) would have prior knowledge of the amount of contestants which has pre-entered the competition and should have had competition line facilities available appropriate to the level of expected calls to that line. When this line was contacted over 50times in the first 15minutes of the competition the line either failed (did not give an engaged signal) or gave a voice recorded message to say that the number was incorrect. But I did get through once for 3 sec. Then to be hung u on.

Overall I believe Chrysler Australia Pty Ltd (ABN 23 125 956 505) should done more to allow all contestants fair and equal chance for an opportunity to win this competition.

Who won ??
list of names plus runners up would be good Jeep !!

#firstworldproblems guys

There appears to have been a lack of attention to detail in this campaign.

Any campaign which asks the general public to take action at a specific time is fraught with risks – one wonders if a detailed risk assessment was carried out?

The main issue here is that Jeep refuse to admit that there is an issue here – when clearly there are enough posts to suggest an investigation is needed – similar to the Volkswagen gearbox issue.

This creates negative brand goodwill.

They absolutely need to be made to delete their database obtained through this comp. If anyone contacts me for marketing using my details from this comp I will be forwarding them to the police and other authorities. I only gave them my details in return for a fair entry into the comp. this did not happen, therefore they have my details illegally.

I didn’t even know there was a legitimate competition going on. I saw the TVC and I thought it was an Aussie gee-up ad taking the p*ss – “You can buy a Jeep for $10,000 but you’ve got to come out here” with no address given. I thought it was much better than their usual ads because of the Irish larrikin element and the absence of “I bought a Jeep”. It’s a pity there was an actual competition which has proved to be a PR disaster because the ad itself was very creative.

They don’t have to publish anything people it wasn’t a comp it was a sales promotion…”sale” details are private that’s how they got around the bulk of the competition legislation and regilations but they must now comply with consumer law…thats the bit that’s missing here what was breached in the poor running of this comp

@I tried and failed:

Several of the promotions (from thousands) I have run have been accused of releasing prizes early. On every occasion, we’ve been able to demonstrate that it is a load of BS from shit-stirrers.

I will absolutely eat my hat if anybody can prove that they won a car before the time this promotion commenced.

Maybe the app was running slowly due to their server, or due to network problems, or due to connectivity problems, or a problem on some phones. It doesn’t really matter. It’s frustrating, but these things can happen and The Promoter will have indemnified themselves to protect themselves from penalties / complaints of this nature.

Shit happens, but on the “evidence” presented nobody has a legitimate claim and people need to get on with their lives.

will probably win a Lion at Cannes now…..

Any objections if any of general public go to presentation at remote dealership.

What was answer to! Can anybody go to presentation at remote dealership?

i like many others stood dialing from 9am until 9- 50 not letting up,surely they could have pulled the plug before they did if they were all sold.do hope the people who won were for real. Im old [80] i still would try again if it ever happened again.[ bucket list]

My god, even if everything had of worked as planned this still would have been a totally lame campaign – have we totally run out of ideas folks?

Accc is accepting complaints.Join the line

Can’t wait for the next promotion jeep puts out, I am sure it will be as successful as this one, not, maybe they will wait until a new model comes out, people would have forgotten by then of the stuff up.

It’s a competition!!!

My daughter and I applied for promotion on our iPhones and my husband on his iPad, only my daughter had the phone number come up. But I rang the number she had. We both had the number ring three times for myself twice for her then nothing. A friend of hers came over but and we were talking about what a scam it seemed to be. Then she asked what number we were calling and it was completely different than the one she had. How wrong is that. Now it is being said that the real number was released early or that people were allowed to win the opportunity to purchase prior to 9 am either way I think everyone who registered and has $ 10,000 should be allowed yo purchase a car. It’s not just bad form or a computer glitch it would seem that this promotion was an illegal scam to get 30,000 people’s contact details, I wonder who they’re going to sell that list to. So horribly wrong and immoral.

Having owned a Jeep previously, This would have been fun to be a part of…..

However on the day, I turned on the APP, with ten minutes to spare, my wife turned on hers, and the numbers was there. The App drew on the time on the phone for the countdown, something that gave her the number 8 minutes prior to me (her phone is set to the school bell of our sons school.

So as for all being fair and at the same time, I doubt it.

A competition yes, a fair competition, yet to be proven.

Either way, Jeep not a good outcome for you.

If I can help with any legal action I would be more than happy.