You've won 25,000 AA miles -- oh wait, no you didn't....

[KiminChicago]

A little while ago I entered the Kellogg's 25,000 Miles a day giveaway from their website. Yesterday I get a congratulatory email from Kellogg's telling me that I had won and I needed to email them my name and address. So I did.

Today I get a new email telling me that due to technical malfunctions on their end, I was erroneously informed that I had won the miles but as a gesture of good faith, they will give me 500 miles. All I have to do is click on a link and I'll be taken to a screen where I can fill in my personal information. I click on the link several times. At first I keep getting a "Server not found" error, so I figure that they've probably messed up big time and the server is overwhelmed. Now I click on the link and I get a message saying that I should have a "tag number" and since the link doesn't have the tag, I can't get into the site.

Did anyone else have this happen to them? I was really disappointed because that 25,000 miles would have been another trip to WDW for me!

 

[olena]

That's just rotten....

 

[CEDmom]

Seems to me if you get an email saying you won something that the company in good faith should give you THAT prize. I would contact Kellogg and try to get them to give you the 25,000 miles or at least do better than 500. Good luck.

 

[December99]

I also would contact Kellogg..AND...I would not fill out any information until I know for sure that this is real. If they sent you an email and they need your info one would think they wouldn't have THAT hard a time accessing the website. Also - if you had entered a contest you should have already provided the information they are asking for....so why are they are asking for it again? I'm just too paranoid about the internet sometimes I guess.

 

[dcgrumpy]

I didn't personally recieve the email, but dozens of people on several sweepstakes boards I read received it.

 

[Mish19]

There's around 2-3 people on the DIS Rewards board who "won"
the same contest (there's a thread there). So, Kellogg's did mess up big time.

 

[Tina]

Here's a news article on the contest flub:


Wrong E-Mail Tells People They Won Prize
Updated: Monday, Apr. 28, 2003 - 12:34 AM EST.

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (AP) - Kellogg Co. said a computer glitch involving its American Airlines online sweepstakes resulted in several thousand people being informed erroneously by e-mail that they had won a grand prize of 25,000 of the airline's frequent-flier miles.

American spokeswoman Laura Mayo said Monday that all were customers who take part in the AAdvantage loyalty program. They received the erroneous notification sometime over the weekend, she said.

The Kellogg's-American Airlines 25,000 Miles-a-Day Sweepstakes started April 7 and continues through June 5. Only 60 grand prizes _ one per day _ were supposed to be awarded. Each grand prize has a retail value of $700.

Kellogg spokeswoman Christine Ervin said the glitch was corrected and the contest is continuing, she said.

As a goodwill gesture, Kellogg will issue credits for 500 AAdvantage miles to each household that received the erroneous message, she said.


(Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

 

[SideshowBob]

SSB thinks pretty rotten...

Last year I was informed that I had won not only my league Fantasy Football prize of $100, but a Divisional prize of $500 also....

Literally, that night, I sent the equivalent of the prize money out to basically a charity (helping someone out) and then two days later get a note saying that they had made a mistake... oops. SSB was pretty ticked, as could not believe that they could do that, and just say "oops". Emailed several levels of persons back and forth, and eventually got no where. NO fan of CBS Sportline, that is for certain...

Sorry about your non-prize, my friend... ack!!!!!

 

[chris1gill]

Yup, same thing happened to me, only I got my "winning" notification on Saturday.... There are a few threads on www.flyertalk.com under FT MILES/American Airlines... plenty of people "won"!! 500 miles is no restitution IMHO... the whole contest is a sham now, because apparently some reported they'd been told there was no way to know who the ACTUAL winners were.....

 

[KiminChicago]

Ah, but has anyone actually been able to claim even the 500 miles? I finally gave up trying and called Kellogg's directly. The woman I spoke to was very apologetic but her only solution was for me to try again later tonight. So, I don't even have the 500 miles to show for all the excitement.

 

[Princess_Aurora]

The same thing happened to one of our local morning DJs. They said there were really only suppose to be six winners but soneone got confused and picked six HUNDRED winners. 500 isn't much of an apology though...I think maybe 2500 would be good but what's 500 gonna get you???