Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site cbosgd.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!cbosgd!mark From: mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) Newsgroups: net.consumers Subject: Re: $2.00 diamond ring Message-ID: <994@cbosgd.UUCP> Date: Mon, 20-Feb-84 23:58:18 EST Article-I.D.: cbosgd.994 Posted: Mon Feb 20 23:58:18 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 21-Feb-84 08:26:25 EST References: <980@minn-ua.UUCP> <475@abnjh.UUCP> <560@ihuxk.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus Lines: 22 Yeah, you gotta read the odds and you'll know which prize you got. We received two of those things recently. One listed several things whose value was claimed at over $100, and $100 in cash. The odds showed we would get the luggage, claimed to be worth $150, but no doubt costing them far less. Then we got a second one (I'm quoting from memory here) where the cheapest prize (other than $100 cash) was a Timex Sinclair computer, claimed to be worth $250. (I'm not sure what Sinclair makes that lists at $250, but it got me to look closer.) Then we looked at the odds, and discovered that the sum of the odds listed was something less than 5%. Rereading the text of the article, it indicated that we MAY have won one of the prizes listed! That's right, most people get ZIP for sitting through the presentation. My father-in-law went to one of these things, figuring he'd get a walkman for his time. He wound up leaving without even the walkman, deciding that the bull he had to go through to get it was not worthwhile. In essence, the ad he had been mailed was false - he had to do more paperwork (or something - I can't remember the details) than he'd expected. Mark