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Anti-jeep Contests From Florida Native


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I just want all Floridians and anyone else that would like to join the cause to write, email, and/or call and demand that Jeep include us in their contests or boycott them for excluding us! I feel so cheated in this that I had to voice my total displeasure with them for doing this for the second year in a row. I know and understand why but I feel that they are a big enough company and could/should follow the rules of Florida and still offer us the chance to enter into the contests. I will be creating a web site soon to follow these thoughts and I will post it here later. Anyone else that has any good ideas about how to resolve this or to make our voices heard at Jeep please let me know. Thank you all for your help!

 

Dale

Edited by DangerousDale
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Anyone else that has any good ideas about how to resolve this or to make our voices heard at Jeep please let me know. Thank you all for your help!

Well, you've already used the big red font, so a letter to your congressman would be the next step.

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I believe your anger is mis-directed. Send your petitions and letters to your Florida state legislator. Florida's sweepstakes laws are among the most burdensome anywhere. All the contest rules must be disclosed in any advertisement mentioning the contest, whereas other states say that it's OK to refer the reader to a website or mailing address to obtain a complete list of the rules. By excluding Florida and its dumb laws, the rest of the country can see an ad by Jeep in a magazine, without ten inches of fine print legalese.

 

I work as a lawyer for a company that also conducts sweepstakes, and which does business in Florida. Every time there's a promotion, the company has to pay lawyers to deal with compliance in states with unfavorable laws. There is a breakpoint where the marketing department will say "the heck with it, just exclude that state." Jeep made that determination in regards to Florida.

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All the contest rules must be disclosed in any advertisement mentioning the contest, whereas other states say that it's OK to refer the reader to a website or mailing address to obtain a complete list of the rules.  By excluding Florida and its dumb laws, the rest of the country can see an ad by Jeep in a magazine, without ten inches of fine print legalese.

And I do not know all there is about this problem, but I do understand most of it. My point being that I think that Jeep could put 10 inches of disclaimer in their contest ads if it meant not pissing off a whole state of consummers! And I would like them to hear this from us as opposed to simply going "oh well, Jeep dissed us again, nothing we can do about it"! Squeaky wheels gets the oil, without our voices of discontent how will they know we care?

Dale

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My point being that I think that Jeep could put 10 inches of disclaimer in their contest ads if it meant not pissing off a whole state of consummers!

Sure, if they wanted to annoy the 264 million people who DON'T live in Florida...

 

I'm with the rest of the group on this one. Sorry, Florida, it's your own fault.

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Not voting on a particular subject or law is nothing new. Laws are put in by the peeps (LAWMAKERS) you voted on. You might not have voted for those in office but the majority did. You want it changed, vote people in who have the same values as you do. Some call it democracy. I'm sure Jeep and others would be more than happy to see some changes in FL and other places.

 

If you want to boycott Jeep, that too is your right as a consumer in the state of FL or anywhere else. You have your right to free speech... so does everyone else on here. Be careful.

 

Carry on!!!

;)

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Seems like FLA made it's own bed.

I don't remeber voting for any contest rules. ;)

I don't recall hearing of South Carolina taxpayers voting to ban geocaching in certain locations...but it looks like thats where it's heading. If the SC issue becomes law, your logic would make it geocaching.com's fault.

 

Florida is excluded from most sweepstakes because of their extraordinarily restrictive laws.

 

I'm betting that jeep would like nothing better than to include as many people as possible.

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Jeep didn't diss you. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services dissed you. (Agriculture? Holy crap). So quit directing your angst towards Jeep and try to figure out how the DACS can change the law so it doesn't take a full page of advertising to print the rules.

 

I do believe that the second part of the contest will be eligible to Florida residents, but I have to check in on that.

Edited by hydee
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If Florida didn't have the insane and tedious rules in place regarding contests, Jeep would not be FORCED to disqualify that state, and you wouldn't be in this predicament.

 

Notice any other nationwide contest. Fast food, retailers, etc. They always exclude Florida.

Edited by Marcie/Eric
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If only they made the lawmakers use those same confusing voting booths to vote laws in, then there would be no laws (or they would just be the wrong one Mr. Lawmaker actually wanted to vote for). Actually my township has some of those actual punchcard ballot (butterfly) machines. They were bought on sale from Florida. Now we can't sem to get anything right here.

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I'm gonna ship all the purple hairs back to their home states and then we'll see what happens in the next election!!

You mean Cuba?

 

oops.

 

Back to topic. Umm.. Someone from Florida:

 

Why DOES FL have these stupid rules, and what exactly are they?

Edited by Marcie/Eric
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There are many companies who manage to meet the legal requirements for including Florida. It's up to Daimler-Chrysler to make up their own mind about whether or not to include the Sunshine State (let's not forget that DC was left out).

 

In the meantime, if you don't like it, don't buy a Jeep. It's for sure you won't be winning one! ;)

 

'Scuse me while I visit the Land Rover dealer.

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And I do not know all there is about this problem, but I do understand most of it. My point being that I think that Jeep could put 10 inches of disclaimer in their contest ads if it meant not pissing off a whole state of consummers! And I would like them to hear this from us as opposed to simply going "oh well, Jeep dissed us again, nothing we can do about it"! Squeaky wheels gets the oil, without our voices of discontent how will they know we care?

Dale

Seems to me while everyone is trying to find ways to get less advertising and SPAM, you're complaining because you can't get enough.

 

The little yellow guys will once again, undoubtedly wander down there. Your Your sending your participation conerns to the wrong J, it should be Jeb not Jeremy.

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All the contest rules must be disclosed in any advertisement mentioning the contest, whereas other states say that it's OK to refer the reader to a website or mailing address to obtain a complete list of the rules.  By excluding Florida and its dumb laws, the rest of the country can see an ad by Jeep in a magazine, without ten inches of fine print legalese.

And I do not know all there is about this problem, but I do understand most of it. My point being that I think that Jeep could put 10 inches of disclaimer in their contest ads if it meant not pissing off a whole state of consummers! And I would like them to hear this from us as opposed to simply going "oh well, Jeep dissed us again, nothing we can do about it"! Squeaky wheels gets the oil, without our voices of discontent how will they know we care?

Dale

I just got out of a meeting about buying ad space in trade magazines. Around $1500 a month for a quarter page add in a rag with circulation in the thousands. Advertise in a publication that people actually read and you pay a lot more, and I mean a lot. So 10 inches in a full page add could represent a considerable outlay even for Chrysler. And I'm sure they would rather put stuff that makes you want to buy their product there.

 

BTW any particular reason you use red text?

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I just want all Floridians and anyone else that would like to join the cause to write, email, and/or call and demand that Jeep include us in their contests or boycott them for excluding us! I feel so cheated in this that I had to voice my total displeasure with them for doing this for the second year in a row. I know and understand why but I feel that they are a big enough company and could/should follow the rules of Florida and still offer us the chance to enter into the contests. I will be creating a web site soon to follow these thoughts and I will post it here later. Anyone else that has any good ideas about how to resolve this or to make our voices heard at Jeep please let me know. Thank you all for your help!

 

Dale

As the others above have suggested, write your congressman. Tell him you want the sweepstakes rules changed to be like other states "for a copy of the complete rules, visit www.jeep.com" instead of requiring the full rules be posted in any and all advertising.

 

It's bad enough here in Colorado that the bottom 1/2 inch of a 10 inch magazine page is covered in fine print. I wouldn't want that reversed, and obviously Jeep doesn't either.

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Printing of Full Rules

 

§ 849.094(3) states that "[t]he operator of a game promotion shall conspicuously post the rules and regulations of such game promotion in each and every retail outlet or place where such game promotion may be played or participated in by the public and shall also publish the rules and regulations in all advertising copy used in connection therewith. Radio and television announcements may indicate that the rules and regulations are available at retail outlets or from the operator of the promotion." There have been varying interpretations of this provision in the past, such as requiring full rules on all point-of-sale materials and in all print advertisements.

HOLY COW! So that means to conform to FL law every geocache in the world (as well as every Jeep dealer) would need to contain a full copy of the contest rules in a conspicuous place?????? What, gotta be laminated to the outside of the ammo box?

 

Also this one seems well-intentioned but poorly thought out (much like the current SC geocaching law):

All Prizes Must Be Awarded

 

Recently, a number of game sponsors attempting to register their promotions in Florida, have had their sweepstakes filing materials rejected because of failure to include a provision in the official rules stating that "all prizes will be awarded." According to §849.094(2)©, "it is unlawful for any [game promotion] operator to...fail to award prizes offered." This provision has particular significance in instant-win promotions because it means that any leftover/unclaimed prizes at the end of the redemption period must be awarded in a random drawing, and this must be stated in the official rules. Internet programs are impacted as well, because such programs usually have language that allows the sponsor to cancel the program due to electronic malfunctions, bugs or errors. If such Internet language is present, there must now be language in the official rules stating that prizes that are not awarded due to reasons that are beyond the control of the operator will be awarded by some other mechanism-such as a random drawing.

Edited by Mopar
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Well, I'm glad to finally see an answer on why FL isn't included in the contest. The official rules simply state that FL isn't included, and my two e-mails asking why have gone unanswered :P

 

Obviously, it's disappointing that we Floridians can't partake in the contest; but, seeing the disclosure law, I now understand that it's on the books to protect one set of our imported citizens from another set of our imported citizens :D

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All Prizes Must Be Awarded

 

Recently, a number of game sponsors attempting to register their promotions in Florida, have had their sweepstakes filing materials rejected because of failure to include a provision in the official rules stating that "all prizes will be awarded." According to §849.094(2)©, "it is unlawful for any [game promotion] operator to...fail to award prizes offered." This provision has particular significance in instant-win promotions because it means that any leftover/unclaimed prizes at the end of the redemption period must be awarded in a random drawing, and this must be stated in the official rules. Internet programs are impacted as well, because such programs usually have language that allows the sponsor to cancel the program due to electronic malfunctions, bugs or errors. If such Internet language is present, there must now be language in the official rules stating that prizes that are not awarded due to reasons that are beyond the control of the operator will be awarded by some other mechanism-such as a random drawing.

Note: there are businesses exploiting the "electronics malfunction" clause to cancel advertised promotions in middle of transactions, which puts pressure on consumers to go ahead with a small fee, or cancel.

 

Nope, this isn't really off-topic, because the above leads to the question, what event or series of events led to the Florida sweepstakes law? I doubt attorneys or lawmakers just sat around and decided one day to pass this law - since it's anti-corporate sector, it's unlikely to have been the result of "donations." :P

 

I'm speculating that some entity exploited the sweepstakes so much in Florida that this law was the unfortunate backlash. It'd be nice if someone who might be familiar with the history of this law to post something here - we can all learn something from it, so we can prevent other states from becoming Florida.

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Printing of Full Rules

 

§ 849.094(3) states that "[t]he operator of a game promotion shall conspicuously post the rules and regulations of such game promotion in each and every retail outlet or place where such game promotion may be played or participated in by the public and shall also publish the rules and regulations in all advertising copy used in connection therewith. Radio and television announcements may indicate that the rules and regulations are available at retail outlets or from the operator of the promotion." There have been varying interpretations of this provision in the past, such as requiring full rules on all point-of-sale materials and in all print advertisements.

HOLY COW! So that means to conform to FL law every geocache in the world (as well as every Jeep dealer) would need to contain a full copy of the contest rules in a conspicuous place?????? What, gotta be laminated to the outside of the ammo box?

Oh come on Mopar, don't be silly. Every cache on earth? I think not!

 

Their laws could only apply to every cache in Florida...Surely Chrysler would have no problem personally visiting and putting a laminated flyer on all 6007 currently approved caches in the state. :P

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Jeep didn't diss you. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services dissed you.

That's some pretty good research. Can you look up who dissed Chicago in the last contest?

Why yes, I'd be delighted to research that. According to the distribution records, Illinois received 80 YJTB's last year. I'm sure a similar amount of WJTB's will be shipped this year. That's about normal for a state of its "size," geocaching-wise.

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Jeep didn't diss you. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services dissed you.

That's some pretty good research. Can you look up who dissed Chicago in the last contest?

Why yes, I'd be delighted to research that. According to the distribution records, Illinois received 80 YJTB's last year. I'm sure a similar amount of WJTB's will be shipped this year. That's about normal for a state of its "size," geocaching-wise.

Ok, let me know when you find out why Chicago was dissed.

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So, roughly 40 posts repeating that the original poster didn't understand that Florida's contest laws are cumbersome.

 

 

Is there any reason that this topic hasn't been locked to make room for something like "My Favorite Geocaching Snack" or the like?

 

RJ

I like carmel and cheese popcorn and beer with my forum anguish. :o

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