Car Dealership’s ‘Match Game’ Mailers Leave Consumers Feeling Deceived
A Charlotte resident, believing she won $5,000 from a local Kia dealership flyer, felt deceived upon learning she hadn’t won anything
- A Charlotte resident says she feels like she was deceived after receiving a “Match Game” themed flyer from a local dealer.
- The dealership says the flyer was not a scam, and mailers that seem to promise large prizes but actually award much smaller ones are commonly used across the country.
- Some legal experts have attempted to take action against the promotional tactic.
Dutch Miller Kia is leaving some consumers feeling misled after it sent out 50,000 flyers to people around Charlotte, North Carolina, with a game dubbed the “Prize is Right.” Incomprehensibly modeled after “The Match Game,” a different game show, the mailer seemed to promise recipients a prize if two sections on either side of the page matched once removable tabs were pulled away.
This seemed deceptive to Rachel Moran, who recently received one of the flyers in her mailbox, and believed she had $5,000 based on the game on the flyer. Unfortunately, when she arrived at the dealership, she discovered that the rules were a little different than she had thought.
Read: Five Nissan Dealerships To Pay $1.9 Million For Allegedly Ripping Off Customers
She eventually discovered that the pull tabs, and any information found under them, was more or less irrelevant, she told WSOC-TV. The only way to determine if the recipient had won a prize was by comparing the confirmation number on the flyer against the one on the prize board at the dealership.
Even though Moran said she was skeptical about the flyer, and that she read through the fine print on it, she was still disappointed to learn that she had not won $5,000.
“I feel like I was being taken advantage of and just deceived,” said Moran. She adds that the speed with which dealer employees started trying to sell her a new Kia only contributed further to the feeling of being duped.
Dutch Miller Kia told WSOC-TV that it takes integrity very seriously, and that its promotion has been vetted by specialists to ensure that it is not a scam. Whether or not they’re deceptive, such flyers are common, as people in other parts of the country have reported being disappointed by similar tactics.
In one case, YouTuber Jen Doyle said she received a flyer with what looked like a scratch-off lottery ticket on it. After playing, she believed she had won $5,000. In a video, she said she even called the hotline number on the ticket to confirm that she had won, and the person on the other line said she had.
However, once she arrived at the dealership, she learned that she had only won $5, and the amounts under the scratchable sections of the flyer did not determine the prize amount. Instead, a confirmation code determined her prize, and obscured its amount from her.
By the time she and her husband left the dealership, she said, “we just had this feeling of sliminess. You know, you feel like you’ve been taken advantage of, and I felt so dumb. It’s so deceptive the way they’ve done it.”
Some legal authorities agree. In 2019, Indiana’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit against a marketing company for its use of similar flyers, per WRTV. Despite that, their use continues across the country, so be forewarned next time you receive one in the mail.
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