Last Friday I was phoned and informed that the VW competition I entered into last year has drawn my name as a winner. The lady, Ntombi, asked me if I remember entering the competition.

For the life of me I couldn’t remember if I’d entered into something like this or not, because occasionally while reading a magazine, listening to the radio or watching TV, an SMS-to-enter competition might catch my attention and I’ll send one through forgetting about it a minute later. So I replied to the voice on the other line, ‘You know, if you’ve got my details, I probably did!’

Ntombi then told me that I was guaranteed to win a prize, and the prize giving was happening on Tuesday.

Now, most people have been scammed by this ‘buy timeshare to win’ crap, it was huge a while ago, and seemed to slow down, until now, I thought.

So, the blogger in me, and the fact that Jo’blog has been lacking in posts of late, decided to go through with it, with one quest in mind:

I would arrive, be told I had to do something first before I could get a stupid little prize, then go postal on anything and everything around me because I was told I was ‘guaranteed to win a prize’. Take names, take numbers, and post it all in a big fat rant for the world to see.

This is what happened:

I drove to Midrand. Parked my car at the specified address. Walked in. Gave my reference number. Was shown to a room. Entered the room. Chose 6 random numbers. Watched a lady spin a box with numbered balls. Was handed a voucher for a weekend away, here. Walked to my car. Drove home.

That simple. I have no idea how these people make their money. There were at least 5 different rooms with people walking in and out, doing exactly the same as I did. Bizarre.

Yes, they have my name and phone number. Yes, I know I’m going to get spam SMS’s from time to time. But come on, a free weekend away? Well worth the 10 seconds it takes to delete an SMS, or tell a telemarketer to fuck off.

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