Prizes - are they always good?
 

So I was at a business event the other day, and they offered a bunch of prizes to attendees, with the top one being a $1,000 airline ticket voucher, which I would like to have. There were perhaps 500 people there, and only about 250 were eligible for the prizes, so I thought it was worth putting my name in the hat.

They also had about 20 or 30 other prizes that ranged from cool to relatively lame, but whatever.

I got an e-mail today that said that I won $100 worth of landscaping services. I wrote back and said thanks, and then got an e-mail from the landscaping company. They said, "Go look at our website and tell us what you want, and we'll credit $100 toward it."

They do lawn care and landscaping and tree trimming and stuff. From the language of the e-mail, it's pretty clear that they expect any service to exceed $100 in value, likely significantly, and I'm thinking, "This isn't a prize, this is just a coupon", and it kind of ticks me off. I figure that my "prize" is going to be a sales call with $100 off a price that is marked up by $100.

I've written to them to ask if they do lawn raking, because I got my lawn raked for $80 last year. (I have a very small lawn.) Maybe there's some kind of one-time fertilizing or something I could get. Any other services that are $100 or less that I can use?

And am I being too cynical about this? If I can get $100 of free stuff, I'm all for it. Is this a legitimate prize that I should be happy about, or am I (and this organization) being used so these people can get a sales lead? Should organizations offer prizes that are a discount off services?

On a related note, there's a company around town that goes to every charity auction and offers a free "portrait sitting" as a silent auction item. It's incredibly obvious that they're just scamming to get people in the door and then they'll try to sell them prints with no real prize, but some of the nonprofits either don't get it or they don't care. It's kind of sleazy in my opinion, but I'm just a guy in a t-shirt sipping a Dr. Pepper.

If you can get them to rake your yard do that but I would be clear that you don't want any service to exceed $100 bucks.

I'M OPPOSED TO SLAVERY AND I WANT IT STOPPED!

If you won the $1000. airline voucher would you have been able to fly anywhere first class in the states?

It is a prize because you can use it as payment in lieu of dollars, under no obligation to spend any more.

A shitty prize, but a prize it remains.

Absolutely. If it's $100 bucks towards something that costs $500, screw that. If you can find something for $100 or lower that interests you, go for it. Otherwise, it's a useless prize I guess.

Sales markups suck

If there's something for 100 or less, I'll vote for "It's a good prize - take it and run with it". If not, I'll vote for the other. And not Millard Fillmore.

Free chiefs tickets. Parking is $160

That would be like gift wrapping batteries for your sons birthday and tell him he needs to go to the store and buy what he wants with his own money he has to work for to get.

LMAO
Yep.

Presumably if it costs less than $1,000. If not, they would apply it as a disco-.

Oh, man. You've now destroyed my faith in humanity.

It's like getting a free hooker for the night...only to have a case of herpes thrown in too!

Did you actually pay anything to win this?

Send it to your niece or nephew you're so nice to throughout the year.