Won a contest! can't use UK prize In USA but does this look messed up to you?

I'd like this to be in RATS because it has some sensitive material but I'll just hide some stuff best I can.

I won a writing contest telling about how I like and use Linux. I came in 2nd place.

I have two issues.. First, I live in the USA. I won a 10 GBP e-voucher from Amazon.UK. I know it's worth 16.82 USD at present time however I have no idea how to use this and apply it to a warehouse in the United States.. the shipping would kill me making it not worth the purchase.

Anyone know how or if I can still use it?

Secondly, here is a copy of the text from the contest page. (I'm electric rider) See if you agree how wacky this prize line up is. I hid some personal information for the contestants and companies involved by highlighting the text as Hidden. I won't post the URL, I don't want to embarrass the fellow knowing I'm posting about this. Sure guys can look up some of this text in google and find out exactly who these companies are but please don't post about them openly in this post as i am trying to protect people.

[Hidden] Contest Results
And today is the day...

First of all, [Hidden], [Hidden] and [Hidden] would like to say THANK YOU to all the participants of the contest that we ran for last few weeks. It was a real pleasure to see such a response, and to read all your article.

Unfortunately, not all of them could get the prizes. It was a difficult task to select the winners. It is time to announce their names!

Drums, please!


The 1st prize, a disk with [Hidden] with all the attached support from [Hidden] team goes to [Hidden] and his article [Hidden].

The 2nd prize, 10 GBP e-voucher for Amazon.co.uk site from [Hidden] goes to Electric Rider and his article [Hidden].

The 3rd prize, CD with any Linux distribution of your choice from [Hidden] goes to [Hidden] and his article [Hidden].

The 4th prize, 25 USD voucher for amazon.com from [Hidden] goes to the person who submitted the article #10: [Hidden]

Winners will be contacted directly by the contest organizers. Of course, stay tuned to see the winning and some other articles.

Here is my beef with this line up..

The prizes themselves do not fit the prize status. Example, First prize should be the prize with the most value, 2nd prize should be a lesser value and so on. This Is how it is generally done isn't it folks.. or am I losing it?

1st place is a Linux DVD that has official support from the company ( That's the company of the Linux distro that put the contest on But the contest was not organized by these folks) If you purchased a downloadable Linux edition with the full support online from this company it would only cost you 9.99 GBP or about 16.82 USD

2nd place prize is 10 GBP for the Amazon.UK voucher I got and it's worth only 16.82 USD, same as above

3rd place - this is a CD of a Linux distro of the winners choice - sold from the one of the companies above that are hidden. The list price on the website for all of the Linux Distros is 5.50 USD.

4th place - a 25 US dollar voucher for Amazon.com - this guy's story content didn't even matter, he won it cus his was the 10th submission.

Doesn't it seem like to you they messed up a bit? Like the prizes for 2nd and 4th are switched around? Seems to me the 2nd place prize should be worth more than the 4th place prize. 4th place is the most expensive prize! I really feel bad for the 3rd place winner - his prize (5.50 USD worth) is only one quarter the value of the 4th prize (25.00 USD).

They wanted the Linux distro with company support to be the 1st prize because that's the point of the contest - showing off that distro. I can understand that but then dont go and make prizes for 2nd, 3rd, 4th that do not reflect properly on that prize status - they should have all been of lesser value in descending order or perhaps they should have made the 25 USD the 1st place prize.

The funny thing is, I cannot even use the $16.82 (10 GBP) voucher to Buy the linux distro with full support (which is what I wanted anyway) - even though it cost the same amount of money - because Amazon doesn't have it. LOL

This prize line up isn't normal is it? Your thoughts..

I can only find this:

LINK

and THIS

It does seem very odd. The voucher prizes do seem to be backwards. Seems strange to give distros as prizes too, seeing as most Linux distros are open licence and can usually be obtained for free. 1st prize is most puzzling for that reason, unless 'disk' refers to a pre-loaded hard drive perhaps?

You should still be able to use it. I live in the UK and I have a seperate account on Amazon.com to buy things from the States. Just create a new account on .co.uk and you should be good to go.

Like you say, postage will be the killer. But you could probably still buy mp3s and other digital content just fine.

don't worry about it the prize is crap anyway i know its principal but don't waste any more time on it lol

originally posted by: skyblueworld
I can only find this:

LINK

and THIS

Gee.. thanks for heeding my wishes.. I was hoping to avoid anyone posting the URL that give details. That's why I wish i could have put this in RATS.

I won't post the URL, I don't want to embarrass the fellow knowing I'm posting about this. Sure guys can look up some of this text in google and find out exactly who these companies are but please don't post about them openly in this post as i am trying to protect people.

originally posted by: SlowNail
It does seem very odd. The voucher prizes do seem to be backwards. Seems strange to give distros as prizes too, seeing as most Linux distros are open licence and can usually be obtained for free. 1st prize is most puzzling for that reason, unless 'disk' refers to a pre-loaded hard drive perhaps?

This distro does have a free to download and use version but that version uses community support where as this version comes with official company support. Thats the reason why it is a prize to be had. - and it's jam packed with tons more apps than the regular free version.

Painterz, Thanks so much for the info. I'll have to try that out.

Iamamog - ( Huge Spaceballs fan here) Ya know.. I am prepared to decline the prize if it comes to it.. I'm not trying to make trouble for the fellows or sound ungrateful. I know I was awarded a lesser in value prize than 4th place and it doesn't bother me that much - right now I'm more concerned about this guys lineup because it doesn't make any sense - it makes the fellow look bad and I feel sorry for him. I wish that he does not make the same mistakes in the future with other contests. If I can get that across to the fellow it will be worth it - it will be a better prize to see his mistakes fixed so he can save face in the future. (I, gently as I could emailed the contest organizer pointing out this error. If he looks at it honestly he will know it's messed up looking. First place a Toaster, 4th place a BMW LOL)

I honestly believe it was some kinda mistake because the contest organizer is Russian and he was trying to organise the contest for a UK born distro while throwing in some USD money prizes too - he tried to accommodate the English and the Americans and I think he just slipped up on the conversion somehow - not realising 10 GBP was no where near worth as much as $25.00 USD.

Besides, I know my writing took 2nd place which is a prize in itself. I'm very happy about that.

a reply to: JohnPhoenix

I imagine the reasoning for putting the 25 USD prize in 4th place is due to them (him) Using a currency calc online and becoming confused. you will see that 25 USD comes to 14.86 GDP. That would seem to be lower than 16.82 USD. Obviously, the individual was confused during conversions. The only other reasoning would be that you mentioned 4th place was for 10 th submission. They may have purposely made it an higher amount to ensure more submissions to their contest. If that were the case...there was no confusion.

a reply to: JohnPhoenix

space balls is awesome we need to clone john candy as soon as possible imo

congrats on 2nd place i see your motivation and it seems i missed the point of the thread ,i agree the prizes are a bit dyslexic lol

Yeah those prized seem wak; I cant see any logic and I would be pissed to get a disk of a free OS when someone got actual cash...

Really they should get fully behind open standards and offer prizes in BitCoin.