UPDATE: Centex Offers New Home To Second Contest Winner
A representative from Centex just contacted us with the following statement:
DENVER, Nov. 8, 2007 -- The Denver division of Centex Homes has offered to give a house to Veronica Baca, one of the original finalists in a disputed home give-away contest in Denver. In addition, the Company has offered to provide furnishings for the home and payment for all reasonable legal fees that Mrs. Baca has incurred.We do love a happy ending."We're working directly with Mrs. Baca and her family. We expect to sort out the details and wrap this up very quickly," says Bill Anner, division president for Centex Homes in Denver.
The Centex House Party, a home give-away promotion, generated more than 250,000 entries from the greater Denver area over the summer. Officials with the Company did not learn that the initial results of the finale were disputed until two days later. The established rules of the contest required a second random drawing to resolve the dispute and determine the ultimate winner of the contest home in Brighton, near Denver. Mrs. Baca did not win the second drawing.
"It was important to follow the letter of the rules for a fair contest. Now we're going to honor the spirit of the contest and do what's right for Mrs. Baca and her family," Mr. Anner says.
"We never intended for the contest to end this way. We understand the thrill and expectation the contest created for Mrs. Baca, and we understand the disappointment Mrs. Baca and her family have endured. We regret it's taken this long to work through the process, but now we're working directly with Mrs. Baca and her family to put them in a new home as quickly as possible," Mr. Anner says.
"No one expected this kind of result, but we would rather have two happy winners in this situation," says Doug Barnes, executive vice president of Centex Homes' northwest region, which includes Denver.
PREVIOUSLY: Congratulations, You Won A House! Oh, Wait, Never Mind.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam malesuada commodo erat et molestie. Duis pellentesque aliquam bibendum. Suspendisse venenatis lobortis eleifend. Mauris id est sed lectus convallis aliquam.
Post a comment
Comments:
DUUUUUUUUUUUUH. They realized it was going to cost more in bad pub, than the good pub they'd get by doing right. This is entirely about $. The cost of being a jerk became greater than doing the right thing.
Suprising
A little late as the Bad Press has already occurred, but as long as the free house is of the same value, I would be satisfied. Now, how to interpret "reasonable legal fees".
Seeing as how this is a Centex home, I'm not sure how much of a winner she really ends up being...
For some reason, I doubt this would have happened without all the exposure. Good job, Consumerist.
Off topic:
Let's get a "thumbs up / thumbs down" voting system for comments.
I wonder if Ms. Baca ever looked into seeing if the personal you actually won the first home exists. Somehow I doubt it.
Glad to see this ended well.
Having the thumbsup/thumbsdown system would be too slow and annoying.. however it would get rid of some dumb comments.. BUT.. digg has alot of stupid and ignorant comments, whereas... consumerist, gizmodo, etc. ... don't really seem to have that problem. The system would be overkill.
With earnings of home builders declining, they definitely would have been stupid to churn up negative publicity.
From the old thread:
BY DORIANH49 AT 11/07/07 07:40 PM
I will be buying a house next year. KB Home is already on my black list. I just added Centex.
Will they be off the list now?
Just curious, but what taxes might the winner have to pay for the free house? Gift tax? Any real estate taxes? Income tax?
one of the original finalists in a disputed home give-away contest
But it wasn't disputed. Centex promoted her in an ad campaign as the winner, not a finalist.
It was important to follow the letter of the rules for a fair contest.
But... they didn't.
Now we're going to honor the spirit of the contest
Honoring the "spirit of the contest" is what they did originally when they offered her $25K in furniture (or whatever) to shut up and go away. Giving her a few hundred thousand in the form of a fully furnished home and paid legal bills is a tacit admission of wrongdoing.
Don't misunderstand, I'm happy Veronica got the house, but Centex is spinning hard in that statement and it's pissing me off.
@TsarBomba: I think she'd have to pay the sales taxes and other taxes associated with the house as if she purchased it. Just like if you win a new car you still pay sales tax and registration.
@mopar_man: "The controversy started at an Oct. 21 Broncos game, where three finalists were each given a key to open up a door during a pregame ceremony. The door that opened would indicate the winner of the home, valued at more than $200,000.
Baca's door popped open and fireworks exploded, indicating that she had won. She was swarmed by company officials and Broncos cheerleaders, then swept off to a celebration.
Another contestant, Paula Hankins, of Lakewood, said that her door opened as well. But no fireworks went off over her door, and contest officials apparently didn't question the outcome until later. "
I she gets a good house after all that. So ridiculous. Glad the publicity forced their hand.
my key worked...give me a house too!!!1
Centex: "Here's your new home, Mrs. Baca!"
Winner: "But, this house has wheels!"
Centex: "Its your new home!!"
Winner: "Its not even a double-wide!!!"
Centex: "Congratulations!!"
@gorckat: I'll have to do more research. :) I try to avoid companies that are evil, like ExxonMobil, McDonalds, and Philip Morris (including their subsidiaries like Kraft), when I can. Centex is on my "gray list" for now.
@TsarBomba: I thought for things like this they count it as income? I know there is a long history of people winning really expensive non-cash prizes, then not being able to accept them, or they have to immediately sell them to cover the taxes.
Today's article: The established rules of the contest required a second random drawing to resolve the dispute and determine the ultimate winner of the contest home
Yesterday's: "We do not consent to a redrawing of the contest, as my client won the contest according to the rules," said attorney Jamey Jameson.
Was the tiebreaking raffle required or not? If the former above fact is true was in yesterday's article, it would have made a please difference. Can somebody please clear this up?
@NoNamesLeft: I wouldn't mind a "flagged xxx times" indicator, so that the general populous can figure out what it's doing wrong. Sometimes I wonder if any of mine get flagged, for example. There's no easy way to tell.
@dorianh49:
Big=evil?
It looks like you're just throwing mud at the biggest walls you can find and hoping it sticks.
Also, Philip Morris is no longer a conglomerate, but the name of the tobacco division of Altria Group. Furthermore, MO no longer owns Kraft (KFT) or any interest in that company.
Centex are still jerks. Does anyone doubt that the second place winner would have been screwed if not for sites like the Consumerist?
I think they did right. May have taken them too long, but good job. I will do business with them in they way of free things only. I'm not looking to buy a house. But I'd take one.
Glad it turned out well.
Streyeder: Kudos to them!
xredgambit: Glad it turned out well.
While I'm also glad this got resolved, I always think back to an article I saw on Consumerist a while back in cases like this. It said that people have a more favorable opinion of a company that screws up and then fixes the problem than they do of one that never screwed up to begin with.
BTW, I'm not picking on you guys, I just saw these comments and it made me think...
I bet her lawyers are really pissed at this not being a long-drawn-out legal battle with a big payout!
Interestingly enough, I live in door next to the homes they are giving away. So far I haven't had any bad experiences with Centex.
*;; Delilah
Toe jam/house company gets overruled by the internets. Yay!
ok, wait a minute.
So Ms. Baca opens her door first, gets all the fireworks and celebrations, actually wins the contest, does all the promo stuff. Meanwhile there's a girl on an empty field somewhere going "My door opened too"
Right.
Even if it did open, it opened second. AFTER Ms Baca opened hers and won the contest. If they want to adhere to the spirit of the contest, Ms Baca should get the original prize house and Miss My Door Opened Too should be the one getting the "other house"
How do you win a contest and then settle for a scrambled-for consolation prize, even if it IS as good as the original?
@Xkeeper:
I know you can't tell how many times a comment has been flagged, but I can -- all the flagged comment reports come to my inbox. I don't remember seeing you ever get flagged, though. :-)
It's good to see they righted the wrong w/o being dragged through months of legal wrangling. Kudos to them!