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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