AMD / ATI Gift Buster winner or fraud?

toolegit2quit · Post by **toolegit2quit** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 12:14 pm

So back in Nov 06 I received an email with the link to go to this contest site:

http://ati.amd.com/online/campaigns/11082/index_02.html

And I said what the hey Ill do it. I played the game several times and "won" an ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card ( dont know if it was PCIe or AGP)

I receive the email November 13th: Congratulations! You have won an ATI Radeon x1600 Pro playing Gift

Buster! Fax in my information....

And so I wait ... .and wait....

And i send an email to the launchfire.com rep that notified me of my win in January

And I receive this reply on Jan 19th:

We normally try to send everything out the prizes in groups (Ie: we aim
to ship all of the X1600 at once) to avoid having one or two winners
fall through the cracks and get missed. As such, we are still waiting
on winners to return their form in order to release the shipment. We
are working our fastest to get things moving however it may be another
week or two before things are ready to ship. I apologize for any
inconvenience this may cause. Thank you in advance for your patience.

Well my patience is run out. Any advice as to my steps to "remedy" this situation? I just want them to honor their contest.

Post by **Apoptosis** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 12:35 pm

send me the e-mail that said you won or copy/paste it in this thread and I'll send this URL to ATI.

toolegit2quit · Post by **toolegit2quit** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 12:40 pm

ok ty

slugbug · Post by **slugbug** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 1:02 pm

I've read similar stories about ATI's contests on other forums. Apparently winners from some of their earlier contests are still waiting for their prizes.

Post by **Apoptosis** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 2:51 pm

No word from ATI, but the company that ran the contest already responded. To say that X1600 and X1300 series cards are back ordered is insane.

Hello Nathan,

As a have articulated to Mr. [Name Removed For Privacy], I have contacted our client over at ATI/AMD and she has informed me that the X1600 and X1300 are currently backordered and the prize orders are being filled as product becomes available. We do try our best to fulfill prize claims as quickly as possible, but sometimes situations arise that are beyond our control.

Launchfire administers dozens of contests annually and delivers hundreds of prizes all over the world. I assure you, Mr. [Name Removed For Privacy] will receive his prize as soon as we can and manage and we apologize again for any inconvenience this wait may have caused him.

[Name Removed For Privacy]
Launchfire Interactive
http://www.launchfire.com

I sent a response back and am waiting on what their next move is.

HONkUS · Post by **HONkUS** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 3:16 pm

by the time you get your prize that card will be beyond old news. That sucks.

dgood · Post by **dgood** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 3:18 pm

That sucks but at least you won and will (hopefully) get the product. I did that contest every day of it and never won once lol. But then I won one here.

snowking03 · Post by **snowking03** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 3:35 pm

That's why I'm leery of such big scale contests, because it's so easy to sweep under the rug because they are out of touch.

toolegit2quit · Post by **toolegit2quit** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 5:39 pm

This was my reply to the above email that I received:

Thank you for the prompt reply.

Backordered is really ubsurd to be polite and an insult to my intelligence.

How do they post a contest that they don't have prizes to supply?

How does launchfire launch a contest of said company considering the fact that these prizes do not exist?

At this point I really don't care about the prize so much as AMD/ATI simply honoring their contest.

Thank you again,

Then its really simple.

Notify your winners of "some" time frame (any time frame) and meet it.

I don't really care if they said 4 - 6 months but to just leave you hanging suggests to me, that :

a) They don't give a rip about you; fine ill live with that.

b) They aren't concerned about honoring their contest; that is one that has me mad.

slugbug · Post by **slugbug** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 1:19 am

I won an mp3 player last September from a Hershey Canada contest. Contest rules stated winners would receive their prizes 6 - 8 weeks after they faxed in the claim forms. Well to make a long story short, it took 5 months until I finally got my prize.

Post by **Apoptosis** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 8:01 am

Just wanted to update this thread as I have sent a few e-mails back and forth with AMD/ATI due to this thread...

1) The X1600 is no longer being produced and has been replaced by the X1650, which means you will more than likely get the X1650...

2) ATI was kind of in the dark on this one and this last e-mail I got from one of the higher ups at ATI was this:

Hey Nate, apparently this is in the process of being sorted out and prizes should go out in the next couple of weeks. I'm looking into this. The X1600 family is essentially discontinued -- whatever's still in the channel will sell through, but otherwise the mid-range has been replaced by the X1650 family. The X1300 is still around though.

soodanim · Post by **soodanim** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 10:31 pm

At least you are getting replies....I've had none

I was sent confirmation of my form on the 4th January for the same prize.

Would be nice if they made some response. I have contacted launchfire and ATI with noone bothering to get back to me.

Sound like it might take awhile, which kind of sux but I guess there's no such thing as a free lunch after all...lol

mlhand00 · Post by **mlhand00** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 11:57 am

I too won something from playing Gift Buster. I won 3 PC video games on December 18th. I have not received my prize or a single response from my emails. I contacted launchfire and AMD/ATI and haven't heard a word. Originally it was supposed to take 8-10 weeks to receive my games and now it has been over 15. If I'm not going to receive the games I wish they would just tell me that.

slugbug · Post by **slugbug** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 6:30 pm

One guy on another forum said he got his prize today via FEDEX. Here's the link: http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/show ... tcount=137

soodanim · Post by **soodanim** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:34 pm

better late than never....

upgrade to the 1650 Pro too as mentioned above....

They should really sort their shite out tho....the delays are a tad embarrassing for them

Post by **Apoptosis** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 7:49 am

glad you got your cards and glad you got upgraded as they told me you would be... worked out for the best in the end though... at least you got faster cards!

toolegit2quit · Post by **toolegit2quit** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 10:48 am

Have been away and yes indeed I finally recieved a X1650 Pro April 5th. Is this card any thing worth keeping over my 7800OC?

And btw, at this point it didnt mean a hill of beans that they delivered, but the fact that they took 5 months to do so is cheezy to be generous. Once again big thank you to Apoptosis for keeping on top of this... I wonder if they would have fulfilled their obligation if I didn't bring it to your attention.

tomato · Post by **tomato** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:32 am

Wow, kudos to Apoptosis & LR for helping out here! I entered those ATI contests as well, and always wondered if anyone had actually won anything, and if they actually received the prize that they had won.

Glad to hear that all of that time was not wasted

(but really was wasted time, as I didn't win anything

)

Legit Reviews

AMD / ATI Gift Buster winner or fraud?

AMD / ATI Gift Buster winner or fraud?

Me too

YAY! finally...