The dealership eventually gave in, but it put up a big fight over a fraction of a second delay.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19704884

A Purdue University student thought he kicked his way to a two-year car lease for making three field goals in a contest held during the Boilermakers’ season opener in West Lafayette. However, the dealership sponsoring the giveaway later reneged on the deal because of a technical. The final kick – a 40-yarder – left his foot just a split second too late on August 31. Car dealerships really cannot help but be bastards, can they?

…

  • MeekerThanBeaker@lemmy.world
    110·
    2 months ago

    It was a two year lease; they weren’t giving it away. The whole point of these giveaways is to attract good attention toward the dealership. Not following through just does the opposite.

    • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
      80·
      2 months ago

      Businesses that make these offers usually buy an insurance policy against someone winning. If it’s a $10,000 prize, but extremely difficult (like a hole in one challenge), the insurance might be like $1,000. The business pays win or lose, so they’re hoping someone wins because it’s great publicity. It’s much more fun when the person awarding the prize is happy and celebrating with the winner, so in that sense it’s a good idea.

      The insurance company, however, will have very specific language and will try to avoid paying even if it makes the business look bad.

      I don’t know the specifics in this case, but I worked for a generator company that sponsored a long-putt challenge at a golf fundraiser. Someone won a free generator, and the insurance company tried everything to weasel out of paying. We ended up giving them the generator anyway, because the publicity would have been horrid, and it took like 18 months to get the insurance company to pay up.

      Either way, it was stupid of the dealership to try to weasel out of the prize. A lease is like $350 a month times 24 months is $8,400. The kick happened at a football field named after the owner of the dealership after he donated $15 million to the university.

      • casmael@lemm.ee
        51·
        2 months ago

        Good info. I have decided that I will ban companies and replace them with not having companies any more. Thanks for coming to my ted talk. X

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
    69·
    2 months ago

    Just so you know how this stuff works… Dealers don’t pay for this out of pocket. They pay for “prize insurance” in case someone wins and the insurance pays out.

    In this case, what looks like happened is the insurance company reviewed the footage and went “Nope, not paying.” Which then fell back on the dealership to make good.

    Source: Was a judge on a “hit a hole in one, win a Cadillac!” at a golf tournament. Someone did, in fact, hit a hole in one on my hole and won the car.

    • Maeve@kbin.earth
      32·
      2 months ago

      It wasn’t even he won a car, either. It was a two-year lease. Also

      To get out of some of the responsibility for this PR fuck up, the group attributed the issue to an insurance company…In a post on LinkedIn, Trey Rohrman said Spangler missed winning the Kicks for Cash contest by 0.07 seconds…

      Dealerships, insurance companies, they ask really are dirty.

        • Maeve@kbin.earth
          6·
          2 months ago

          It was from several different angles, from four? Cams with discrepancies between them.

              • Trailblazing Braille Taser@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                14·
                2 months ago

                Oh, this’ll blow your mind. Digital cameras don’t capture the entire image all at once. They typically capture one row of pixels at a time, so each row comes from a different moment in time.

                So the point I was alluding to is that two adjacent frames in a video carry slightly more timing information than they might appear to based on timestamps.

                Specifically, if you have two frames where a dot appears at the bottom and then a second dot appears at the top, you can’t be 100% certain that the first dot to appear actually showed up first, or whether it’s an artifact of the rolling shutter effect.

                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_shutter

                • Maeve@kbin.earth
                  7·
                  2 months ago

                  I’ll check out the wiki, but your explanation is pretty simple to understand and concise! Well done and thanks so much!

                  ETA: just read it. Those distortions in the propeller and helicopter blades are wild. While not being a fan of car dealerships, I’m also not a fan of insurance companies. It would be fascinating to know the answer to this mystery.

    • dan@upvote.au
      17·
      2 months ago

      I don’t even understand why they still exist. What value do they even add? Having to compare prices across several dealerships, then try to get them to beat each other’s prices, is a massive pain.

      I was test driving a Polestar 3 a while back. They have stores where you can look at their cars, test drive them, and ask questions, but all purchasing is done online. No sales pressure at all in their store.

      • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldEnglish
        15·
        2 months ago

        They exist because they’re a powerful lobby who can bribe laws onto the books that say cars need to go through dealerships or provide other roadblocks to direct purchase. They add value to their own pockets by being a useless middleman.

      • ValenThyme@reddthat.comEnglish
        121·
        2 months ago

        I hate them, but if you treat it like a game and operate within their rules it can be fun instead of a pain. I think if it a lot like poker. I sure would bluff my own grandma to win a pot. Same thing in car buying. They aren’t your friends but your adversaries.

        I have bought 7-8 cars of my own over the years and helped 4 friends buy cars because they know I love doing it.

        First, if at all feasible bring several thousand dollars cash, no matter what your goal is. When you buy a car without cash the sales people get their cut at the end of the month in a lot of places but if your cash down payment is large they will usually get their cut immediately and this puts them a little more on your side at the close. Make sure you show them the cash when you’re safely doing a test ride and tell them you want to give it to them! Don’t do this if you can’t do it while feeling safe i’m very large and do car shopping mostly in big safe city areas.

        Second, don’t ever fall in love with a car. You always have to be prepared to walk away from a bad deal. And in fact you will find that your willingness to walk away can often get you a better deal. I balked once over a $300 dealer fee, that only popped up while signing paperwork. They bitched at me, a lot, (we had been at the deal for about five hours) but they got the fee worked off.

        Third, do not ever let them get you into the ‘four square’ that’s a suckers game. Negotiate the price of the vehicle directly or go to another dealership that will. I have been forced to leave when the sales guy told me flat out the four square was a requirement at their dealership. Smart for them but lame for you it’s like playing a complicated game for the first time against someone who plays it many times a day and is hugely financially incentivized to confuse you with it. Refuse it.

        If you are buying a new car (which i don’t really recommend) wait until they have given you the absolute rock bottom lowest price. Then tell them that you think there’s still a little room. On speakerphone call other dealerships in your area and tell them the price you’re getting offered on that exact make and model. If it’s actually a good price they will tell you they can’t beat it. I have been invited across town to save $1,000, whereupon the now angry sales manager agreed to match that price. You gotta do it on the speakerphone with them hearing the better offer though or you’ll have to drive to the other dealership. They have heard that ‘it’s $1000 cheaper over on the eastside’ before.

        Don’t be rude, don’t be an intentional dick, but play their sleezy game with their rules and you can save a lot of money.

        It’s a shitty system that should be abolished.

        • Gumby@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          2 months ago

          Can you elaborate on “four square”? It’s been a while since I bought a car.

          • ValenThyme@reddthat.comEnglish
            3·
            2 months ago

            Sure, the sales guy sits down and shows you this:

            and you see that monthly payment and go 🥴 and then your new ‘friend’ helps you get that payment down to something you can afford.

            They then go through a bunch of antics designed to confuse you, the monthly payment drops a ton but overall you’re getting reamed on the deal (often longer payments at worse terms for instance) then they get you to initial it and will then hold that over your head as if it’s legally binding.

            It’s a huge pain in the ass, and you won’t win, they are experts at it. Negotiate the price of the car and the price of your trade in separately. Ideally you will have sold your ‘trade in’ on the private market and pre secured your loan through a credit union but that isn’t always possible.

            For a better more comprehensive explanation see the article i just stole that image from: https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/buying-a-car/beat-four-square-and-other-car-dealership-sales-tactics-a7590220303/?srsltid=AfmBOopFCHIp5zbHgU1xngvt_LLdWvkEu_3zG6cCGcAFp9JWpwYtGL5_

  • x2Zero7
    15·
    2 months ago

    It’s doubly messed up when considering the dealership [Rohrman] paid a bunch of money to the recent stadium renovation so they could have their name on the field [Rohrman]