mcewan@uiucdcs.UUCP (12/04/84)
I just got a call from an outfit called Gold Coast Distributers of
Los Angeles, telling me that I am one of 2500 people chosen for a
special promotion. The bottom line on his spiel is that if I pay
$298 for a year's supply of vitamins I will also get one of 5 "gifts".
The gifts are:
1) An 18 food cabin power boat.
2) A Sony home entertainment center (projection TV, VCR and stereo).
3) A cable TV satellite dish.
4) An IBM PC jr with monitor and printer.
5) A 1985 Cadillac.
This sounds pretty good. Is there something here that I'm missing?
It looks like the PC jr is the cheapest thing here, and is easily
worth more than $300 (I could use a printer, too). The only additional
charge is a handling charge of between $5 and $50, depending on
which one you get. Also, if you don't like your gift, you can
substitute for something of equal value from a list of items (4 or
5 substitutes available for each item, he didn't tell me what they
were). Has anyone had any experience with this outfit?
Scott McEwan
{ihnp4,pur-ee}!uiucdcs!mcewan
Just because something is obvious doesn't mean that it's true.makaren@alberta.UUCP (Darrell Makarenko) (12/04/84)
> I just got a call from an outfit called Gold Coast Distributers of > Los Angeles, telling me that I am one of 2500 people chosen for a > special promotion. The bottom line on his spiel is that if I pay > $298 for a year's supply of vitamins I will also get one of 5 "gifts". > The gifts are: > 1) An 18 food cabin power boat. > 2) A Sony home entertainment center (projection TV, VCR and stereo). > 3) A cable TV satellite dish. > 4) An IBM PC jr with monitor and printer. > 5) A 1985 Cadillac. From information I have seen on the net before I think it is 3) The cable TV satellite dish This dish is not your standard full size $2-3K type of dish but is in fact a small (1-2ft diam) cheap receiving dish with no accompanying sophisticated electronics worth maybe fifty bucks. Don't expect a high quality signal from this one. Of course with all those vitamins to eat you probably won't have much time to watch TV anyway.
dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale) (12/04/84)
> The bottom line on his spiel is that if I pay > $298 for a year's supply of vitamins I will also get one of 5 "gifts". > The gifts are: > > 1) An 18 food cabin power boat. > > 2) A Sony home entertainment center (projection TV, VCR and stereo). > > 3) A cable TV satellite dish. > > 4) An IBM PC jr with monitor and printer. > > 5) A 1985 Cadillac. > > This sounds pretty good. Is there something here that I'm missing? Are you sure that one of the gifts isn't a toy version of the real thing, and that virtually everyone will get that "gift"? I mean, wouldn't you feel silly having paid $298 for a beautiful 6 inch scale model 1985 Cadillac?
adm@cbneb.UUCP (12/04/84)
>The bottom line on his spiel is that if I pay $298 for a year's >supply of vitamins I will also get one of 5 "gifts". >The gifts are: >1) An 18 foot cabin power boat. >2) A Sony home entertainment center (projection TV, VCR and stereo). >3) A cable TV satellite dish. >4) An IBM PC jr with monitor and printer. >5) A 1985 Cadillac. >This sounds pretty good. Is there something here that I'm missing? ............................................................................ The catch with the "gifts" is the "cable TV satellite dish". What you get is nothing more than an AM/FM radio that picks up TV audio signals. It is very clearly marked "TV satellite dish" but, that is just a company product name. Sorry, but the boat, home system, IBM and the caddie goes to the first people to buy the products: (eg) president,VP chairman of the board, etc. There goes your baby blue and printer. Gary W. Sanders (N8EMR) ihnp4!cbnap!gws
dbg@u1100a.UUCP (D B Grooms) (12/05/84)
Regarding gifts for buying $298.00 worth of vitamins:
Although I have no knowledge about the particular firm in question,
it is wise to be wary of deals like this. It sounds like the deals where
they give gifts for visiting resort sales offices. Often the cheapest gift
is not the one it appears to be. One of these schemes offered a
"power boat" as one of the prizes which was really a *toy* boat.
Perhaps the "cable TV satellite dish" is a piece of junk with little value.
Check the fine print or in some other way find out the value of each gift
and the odds of receiving it.
David Grooms
{ihnp4,allegra,pyuxww}!u1100a!dbghosking@convexs.UUCP (12/05/84)
Use your imagination. What's the cheapest thing you could make
that could be called a cable tv dish ? Would it be enough to keep you
out of jail for fraud but still be enough to entice people to pay
possibly inflated prices for something that they otherwise might not
buy ? Does it sound like a good marketing game ? I have yet to see
something like this where the cheapest prize is really as good as what
it appears to be. I'd be really surprised to find this case to be any
different. I've had no dealings with this particular company, so I can't
say for sure that they're playing this sort of game, but I would be very
hesitant to put my own money down on something like that just because of
a promotional deal which APPEARED to be a great deal.
If it sounds too good to be true.... it probably is.
Doug Hosking
{allegra,ihnp4}!convex!hoskingrobison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) (12/06/84)
In article <44000013@uiucdcs.UUCP> mcewan@uiucdcs.UUCP writes: >I just got a call from an outfit called Gold Coast Distributers of >Los Angeles, telling me that I am one of 2500 people chosen for a >special promotion. The bottom line on his spiel is that if I pay >$298 for a year's supply of vitamins I will also get one of 5 "gifts". >The gifts are: > >1) An 18 food cabin power boat. > >2) A Sony home entertainment center (projection TV, VCR and stereo). > >3) A cable TV satellite dish. > >4) An IBM PC jr with monitor and printer. > >5) A 1985 Cadillac. Lok out for that power boat! Some foods only last a few days. - Toby Robison (not Robinson!) {allegra, decvax!ittvax, fisher, princeton}!eosp1!robison
ribl@hou4b.UUCP (R Blechman) (12/06/84)
A Cable TV Dish? Must be for use with "TV Dinners"! :) -r.blechman (hou4b!ribl)
bill@crystal.UUCP (12/06/84)
> > The gifts are: > > 1) An 18 food cabin power boat. > > 2) A Sony home entertainment center (projection TV, VCR and stereo). > > 3) A cable TV satellite dish. > > 4) An IBM PC jr with monitor and printer. > > 5) A 1985 Cadillac. > > From information I have seen on the net before I think it is > 3) The cable TV satellite dish > > This dish is not your standard full size $2-3K type of dish but is in > fact a small (1-2ft diam) cheap receiving dish with no accompanying > sophisticated electronics worth maybe fifty bucks. Don't expect > a high quality signal from this one. Of course with all those vitamins > to eat you probably won't have much time to watch TV anyway. Note that the list says DISH, not DISH WITH ASSOCIATED ELECTRONICS. You'll get to buy your own down-converter, etc, plus a super amp to boost the signals from your 12" dish to something usable :-) -- a spun aluminum dish without mounting stuff or electronics can be had for around twenty bucks or so. -- William Cox Computer Sciences Department University of Wisconsin, Madison WI bill@uwisc ...{ihnp4,seismo,allegra}!uwvax!bill
mikey@trsvax.UUCP (12/22/84)
Aren't they supposed to provide a list of odds for the awards? Ask to see a list, and look for the prize with the highest odds of winning. mikey at trsvax
ed@mtxinu.UUCP (Ed Gould) (12/28/84)
> > > Aren't they supposed to provide a list of odds for the awards? Ask > to see a list, and look for the prize with the highest odds of > winning. > > mikey at trsvax I've noticed that the odds are usually stated something like Prize one: one in one hundred thousand, prize two: seven in one hundred thousand, prize three: ninty nine thousand nine hundred ninty-two in one hundred thousand. Besides being nearly impossible to read, the odds of winning some prize almost always are exactly one in one. I don't know about Gold Coast, but this seems to be the pattern with the "You've won a prize" promotions. -- Ed Gould {ucbvax,decvax}!mtxinu!ed
dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale) (12/31/84)
One interesting piece of info: We were one of the households in Waterloo that received the "TV survey" version of the "you have already won one of these prizes" scam. But figuring out which was the worthless prize was more difficult because there was no list of the odds of winning the various prizes. Why not? Must be a difference between the U.S. and Canadian laws covering such things. There *are* times when I'd like to live in the U.S.