"Smoked By Windows Phone" is a Scam

[Qaaf]

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[Mitlov]

So what did you lose besides 30 seconds of your time? NOTHING. On the other hand, if you win, you win a $1000 laptop. Do you really expect that they won't stack the odds in their favor?

Also relevant: Microsoft apologizes to "Smoked by Windows Phone" winner - Tech Talk - CBS News

 

[dkp23]

Should of cheated like that other dude with widgets ready to go.

This is a marketing program by MS, do you think they really would do a contest giving out $1k PCs to people that challenge with equal playing field rules? Lets get real here. They would end up giving thousands away.

If you expected the contest to be fair, then you are delusional, you can simply ask to have a contest to make a screen capture on your phone and upload to FB and you will automatically win, why? Because WP7 cant screenshot at all unless you interop unlock the phone.

Moral of the story, MS made this contest for the purpose of a marketing campaign to promote the product with the small incentive of giving up laptops. The contest will be skewed towards MS and if you expected otherwise?

The only thing i see that MS is at fault is having some stupid store rep run this contest. They should have MS reps running the contest vs. store reps. Store reps dont know anything more than you or me do.

Oh and what did you lose out of this? Nothing ...so how is this a scam?

 

[Mr_pither]

I don't give a damn about the contests either way. Who cares if you can get the weather in two cities one second faster??? Spend that damn money on getting the apps that aren't on the platform yet instead, idiots.

 

[Qaaf]

You guys are missing the point. I understand it is a marketing campaign, but do not call it a challenge. If the point of this whole thing is to show that WP is superior, then have a level playing field and let the chips fall where they may. Each OS has their strength and weaknesses, but if you want to have a head-head comparison of the same function, one party can not have a head start.

 

[canesfan625]

soooooooooo whats the scam? what were you defrauded of?

 

[dkp23]

Pound for pound, WP7 would lose out to droid/iphones in terms of features.

I understand your point, but i understand that there is no way MS would create a challenge that is fair, it would not make business sense since they would easily lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes.

I like the WP7 platform, but there is no way this platform can compete feature for feature with the other platforms. Like you said, there are strengths and weaknesses and it makes sense for MS to create a challenge that demonstrates their strengths only. Not saying it is fair, i am saying it is expected and makes sense to do that on MS's side.

 

[threed61]

For every one person who has heard that a Windows Phone has smoked a competitor, a hundred have heard that they are a bunch of scammers who can only win by cheating.
They should have smiled, given the guy his laptop and congratulated him on his ingenuity.
The bad press on this has pretty much ruined a good campaign.

 

[HeyCori]

You guys are missing the point. I understand it is a marketing campaign, but do not call it a challenge. If the point of this whole thing is to show that WP is superior, then have a level playing field and let the chips fall where they may. Each OS has their strength and weaknesses, but if you want to have a head-head comparison of the same function, one party can not have a head start.

As others have stated, you were a fool to think this contest wasn't tailored made to show WP in the best light. The fact that you registered here to tell us your, probably fake, story only makes you look more naive. Your beef is only several months and several discussions late.

 

[JustinMSalvato]

Here's the problem:

Ben Rudolph understands what the contest is about. He understands the limitations of other phones such as Android and iOS and knows the strengths of Windows Phone. So he designs the contest to show off the fluidity and uniformity of the Windows Phone operating system.

The problem is letting ANY Microsoft employee to get involved.

Microsoft allows the employee to create their own contest which is a HORRIBLE MISTAKE, because as we have seen with the Kattas situation, some employees resort to STUPID contests that have no real value to mobile situations: 2 different cities' weather? Who cares?! And not only that, the employee asked that because he ALREADY pinned tiles of them to his Start screen?? LAME!

Ben Rudolph has shown how awesome Windows Phone is at having key features integrated throughout the OS such as taking a photo and posting it to a social network without having to resort to opening multiple apps.

Anyone else is just trying to get through the work day..

 

[freestaterocker]

Either way, @benthepcguy has stepped up to make it right, tweeting to Kattas to email him in order to receive a PC, a WP device, and an apology. Man, that guy is awesome.

 

[based_graham]

Hello everyone,
I made this account specifically to post my complaint about the unethical behavior of the MS employees and the technique they use to "beat" you in these challenges. Essentially what they are doing is to cheat to beat you. For the record, I am not a hater and own a WP7.
I and my wife (owner of HTC sensation) visited the MS store in Scottsdale, Arizona. I convinced her to take the challenge, which turned out to be a sham. The employee offered only 3 options for the challenge, one of which was to check the weather in two different cities. I know about live tiles etc, but my wife's phone can also have live updates about different cities. Obviously, the employee has been doing the same challenge multiple times and picked the cities that are already Pinned on her home screen. My wife is able to get the update about the city that we are on her home screen as well and can "pin" updates from other cities as well (but why would she, since she doesn't need to know the weather in Faceville, Georgia, etc). They both got weather info about the city we were on their home screen at the same time after swiping the lock screen, but my wife obviously lost trying to get the weather from the second city.

In order for a challenge to be fair, there has to be ground rules. There has to be a level playing field. You can't have rules pre-defined by one party without giving the other side a chance to play to their strength.

I like the idea of the "Smoked.....", but it was very embarrassing to see how the employee cheated to "beat" us. My wife asked for a rematch of picking two random cities. Obviously the MS crew knew that they probably wouldn't win and they didn't accept the rematch. It was really pathetic to see how they try to "beat" you and boast that WP is better than others (by the way, i believe it is except for that App store). In order to be legit, one has to play by and have fair rules. I still like my WP and wouldn't give up, but I hated they way MS is conducting these challenges.

The thing about the weather contest its too show that Windows Phone can pin multiple things from a single application weather is probably the best pick you can stocks, sports scores but nobody cares about that weather is the ideal pick.

The weather pick is great against iPhones because they cant do that unless they use the notification menu but IMO WP is still faster.

I think its a fair game. Some people like having two different weather locations on their home screen. I think the outline on where the competitor should start should be changed. Everybody should start from a locked screen.

 

[Seketh]

There's only one thing you should tell to people who think "Smoked by Windows Phone" is a scam:

Go to a Microsoft Store, take the challenge, and see for yourself if it's a scam.

It's free, and you've got nothing to lose. Otherwise, kindly GTFO.

 

[threed61]

There's only one thing you should tell to people who think "Smoked by Windows Phone" is a scam:

Go to a Microsoft Store, take the challenge, and see for yourself if it's a scam.

It's free, and you've got nothing to lose. Otherwise, kindly GTFO.

The OP stated that he and his wife went to the MS store and took the challenge.

 

[selfcreation]

would you like some cheese with that whine?!

 

[Pronk]

Hate to say I told you so, but the negative press is outweighing the positive now by some margin.

 

[Exomondo]

The worst thing about this scenario is if the challenge were to get the weather of 2 cities onto your home screen i reckon WP would probably win, by the time you got 2 weather widgets configured on the home screen on android i reckon a WP would have smoked you getting 2 live tiles pinned.

Ben Rudolph understands how this game should be played, unfortunately some marketers have seen this as an opportunity and just rolled it out en-masse without actually understanding why it's such a good challenge, now they've ruined it.

 

[DougB541#CB]

Hate to say I told you so, but the negative press is outweighing the positive now by some margin.

I'm curious to see your statistical data to back this claim up.

 

[JPDVM2014]

You know what pisses me off? That I never seem to walk away from a casino with more money then I walked in with. Those scammers! /s Rule of Thumb: The house always has the upper hand...

 

[Mikes2nd]

I was scammed when I got a free phone! OMG...

pound for pound WP7 is just faster doing stuff. Face it.

I could care less about Angry Birds also