YOUR VERY OWN CONSUMER ADVOCATE

Since the weeks gone by, there has been extremely little offered by Home Depot from what I've seen with regard to answering the questions posed on this blog. Despite those shouting for answers, people are reporting that Home Depot has only sent impersonal form letters to those who question the decisions. I've been asking you to make a contribution by asking those responsible for answers, and I would like to thank everyone for their efforts. Keep it up!

But perhaps you are getting tired of what I would consider "non-answers", and wish someone else would do some of the heavy lifting. There is something you can try. Write to your state's Attorney General (bonus points if you're from Georgia). Tell them your concerns regarding the fairness of this contest. Your state's Attorney General is an advocate to the consumer, so ask them what they think. Tell them your concerns about the fairness of this contest and the conduct of Home Depot and Imre Communications. Ask them to investigate.

Don't know who yours is or how to contact them? I'll help you. Click on this link to take you to a list of all the Attorney Generals in the U.S., and find your state. Don't know what to write? Here's a sample letter. Feel free to modify this to suit your situation and/or complaints. The more people that write, the greater the impact. I think one stamp or five minutes writing an e-mail is worth it to get some answers, don't you?

Dear (Your State’s Attorney General),

I am writing with concern regarding a skills-based online contest conducted by Home Depot last December. The contest was hosted on www.youtube.com, and the winners were to receive awards in the amount of $200 and $25,000. Official Rules were posted on YouTube, and I entered in good faith, following those rules.

Upon completion of the contest on December 15th, 2007, Home Depot, in conjunction with Imre Communications, awarded the grand prize to a video that did not meet the contest rules, as it contained prohibited copyrighted material. Instead of disqualifying the entry, they allowed the winner to re-edit their video, after the contest was over. They accepted this newly edited submission (despite the fact that the rules state that any entry submitted after the contest deadline would be disqualified). To place this in further context, Home Depot and Imre Communications disqualified a different video (the Bork family from New York) for a rules violation, but then seemed to ignore their rules with regard to the winning video.

I do not believe Home Depot and Imre Communications acted in good faith in conducting this contest. Out of concern for the fairness and integrity of their online contest, I would ask that you investigate this situation.

Sincerely,

(Your Name Here)

RESOURCES:

Home Depot
2455 Paces Ferry Road
Atlanta, GA 30339
1-770-433-8211

Imre Communications (Baltimore)
909 Ridgebrook Road
Suite 300
Baltimore, MD 21152
P 410.821.8220
F 410.821.5619

Imre Communications (Washington)
528 F Street Terrace SE
Washington, DC 20003
P 202.547.0500
F 202.547.5900

YouTube Contest Home Page
http://youtube.com/group/thdgiftcards

An online duplicate of the contest rules is available here, since Imre Communications removed them shortly after the contest ended.
http://www.freesamplesite.com/ydf/showthread.php?s=d1456d884dc5e43739b7d9af84ecee9f&p=1525233#post1525233

Video proof of the copyright violations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5UdPfQEPTI

TAKE ONE? TAKE TWO!

(Be sure to scroll down to read about how Home Depot allowed the winners of their $25,000 YouTube contest to re-edit their video AFTER the contest was over, to avoid being disqualified... what I believe was a real "Meltdown")

IMPORTANT! After reading this post, scroll down and take action ("YOUR VERY OWN CONSUMER ADVOCATE")



Part of what this blog alleges is that the winning video was re-submitted after the contest deadline (which I think was completely against the rules), and as such it's vote count (which is 20% of the vote) should have been reset to zero. That would further impair the winner's tally. It seems to me like a no-brainer. However, some disbelievers of this blog have offered their take on how to discredit this claim. They say that it really is only one video, one entry, the "same" video, so I'm completely wrong...the winning video was submitted before the deadline. That kind of logic doesn't make much sense to me. But in any event, behold! Below is a screen capture from December 21st, right after the winners posted their re-edited version. You'll see that to the right of the new video, YouTube itself has suggested a "related" video, a DIFFERENT video on its site that it thinks you might want to check out. Wouldn't you know it, it's the original video!



In other words, it looks as though the Long family had TWO submissions going at the same time. Two different videos with two different vote counts. And, if we look at the contest rules:

"Limit one entry per person."

So, there you go. I'd like to thank the naysayers out there. You helped me discover ANOTHER potential violation for our growing list. Entrants are not allowed more than one entry. I think the conduct of Home Depot and Imre Communications is absolutely atrocious. Now, read the post below and contact your attorney general about this contest!