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HGTV review: 100,000 contest is a rip off! 36

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12:00 am EDT
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I am very concerned about the contest that you held recently for the home viewers of the hgtv dream home in winter park, co. As far as the $100,000 give away went,... When the announcer asked the audience to call in to give the answer to the mystery question, I along with everyone else in america was trying to get through. That is why, when I called and received a busy sign, I was not at all surprised.

But what really got my attention, is that one call that I made to your network did get through, as a matter of fact someone on the other end answered, I heard men talking in the background and then guess what?

They hung up on me!

Which sort of indicated to me that (maybe) the people answering the line were somehow manipulating the call, so even though I had the right answer, and even though my call probably got through before kenneth lowe's (I have my phone bill to prove when the call was made) I was not the right person that they wanted to win.

I sincerely hope that the contest was not rigged by some type of caller-id system. I did want everyone to know what I experienced.

36 comments
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flip flop
, US
Apr 06, 2017 2:22 pm EDT

heard its neal wilson a 53 year old man from Atco works at harris tea company for 35 years

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flip flop
, US
Apr 06, 2017 2:20 pm EDT

soon to announce the winner of the hgtv dream home giveaway from NJ an Atco man

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Neal Wilson
, US
Mar 10, 2017 6:59 pm EST

i do believe its not I'm waiting for them to come to my door neal wilson u gotta believe!

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S. Fisher
, US
Feb 14, 2017 11:31 am EST

The reason I found these comments is because I heard about the scandals with, "Flip or Flop, Love it or List It, and some of HGTV's other shows", I love all of these shows and was hoping that I would be convinced otherwise and that I would find nothing. I really hope that the background check would be legally related, you know, like repeat Felons, Pedophiles, etc. I hardly believe the "credit check " comments. Hardly no one would qualify! Don't forget many of the so called wealthy that many of you are saying are winners have filed bankruptcy at some point in there lives. How do you'll know that some of the past winners are in a Sect. 8 home, it is possible to have a well manicured sect. 8 or rental home. Truth of the matter is HGTV reps should post their comments officially on their site to answer all of these questions. My question would be: "you all have a live contest drawing showing when the winner is announced, if there is a background check how is this possible, because the name you draw may not qualify, but you have announced it to the world and a lot of red tape(legally) would follow if this were true"

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Patzzz
Philadelphia, US
Jan 26, 2022 1:11 pm EST
Replying to comment of S. Fisher

It is possible that they have already done background checks before any announcement is made. A company can do a background check in a few hours if necessary.

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magic2
, US
Nov 12, 2016 10:21 am EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I entered HGTV Dream Home Giveaway sweepstakes for 3 years. I never won anything. I asked them twice by email to send me the names of winners. I never received a reply.

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Patzzz
Philadelphia, US
Jan 26, 2022 1:21 pm EST
Replying to comment of magic2

Wow, the same thing happened to me. In fact, I had 3 friends do the same thing. None of us got a list. I'm gonna do it again for the current contest. If we don't receive a list, I will speak with an attorney. There is a federal law called the Deceptive Mail Act where a contest promoter cannot claim that someone was a winner unless they have actually won a prize. So, by not responding to us with a list, they avoid violating this law. I think this says it all.

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Terrence Abrams
, US
Oct 15, 2016 8:56 am EDT

I agree that the contests seem rigged. There is no live drawing, and the prize money would pay the taxes and upkeep on these homes for at least 4-5 years running, so no credit check or background check should even ethically be applied. They put up a giveaway drawing, that is what it is supposed to be. The video confirmations of winners are short and removed fast once posted, so no public verification of these contests really exists. 2 of their shows are under current lawsuits for fraud, and it appears the plaintiffs are telling the truth about the fictional approach of the shows (Love it or List it, and, Kitchen Crashers). There is a huge credibility problem right now. The background check, other than identity verification, and an ability to show up an take ownership of the winnings, not by credit rating, but by actual ability to show up, is not necessary and very unethical, should be illegal by TV standards and FCC communications rules. (But, these are NBC derivative affiliates, so who's surprised here at the lack of ethics.) They could make be a believer again, showing the process live, accredited by independent auditors (not the fake auditors of Publisher's Clearing House -- there's a real PROVEN scam! -- ) and removing the intangible background check they use to discriminate against those their own advertized prize benefits would protect in the first place. For you naysayers on this thread saying its on the up-n-up, and any detractors are just disgruntled, maybe you can explain away the obvious flaws in the HGTV/DIY Networks sweepstakes programs. And be specific, your sarcasm convinces nobody you know better than they do.

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breezy25k
, US
Sep 05, 2016 5:56 am EDT

I believe that the winners are notified prior to the crew showing up to notify them that they won. However, it seems rigged to me in that only people with money/or already own homes win. You won't see HGTV show up at a section 8 person's home top tell them that their lives are forever changed and they won the sweepstakes. My guess- HGTV discriminates against poor people because giving them an equal chance as anyone else in the world to win would just look bad for the network

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Patzzz
Philadelphia, US
Jan 26, 2022 1:44 pm EST
Replying to comment of breezy25k

And HGTV can easily eliminate most poorer people from winning by just checking credit. The vast majority of lower income people do not have good credit. What a country we live in. Everything for the already rich. Frankly, I fail to see how giving a prize to a low income family would reflect badly on HGTV. In fact, it would be the exact opposite if they were to smartly play it up. I imagine the problem comes in with HGTV's sponsors. All those pompous advertisers are not interested in low income people. But even if that is so, low income people are still watching HGTV shows and entering the contests.

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HGTV viewer
, US
Jul 14, 2016 8:47 am EDT

Hmm. If it appears that some of the winners are well off, perhaps HGTV has learned from past experience that the average person can't afford to keep or maintain such pricey properties. You could blow through that $100, 00 cash prize in no time. And, after taxes, what do you really have left? For me, the pleasure is in viewing the finished product. I know better than to try to compete for a one in a millions shot at the big prize. Talk about frustration. What I'd like to hear about is what those people who have won in years past have experienced as the result of their win. Say, two or three years later. Do they still have the property, were there strings attached, were they required to sign a non-disclosure agreement? Nothing is ever really free. Unable to find any comments at any site, positive or negative, from a winner of this contest.

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Patzzz
Philadelphia, US
Jan 26, 2022 1:25 pm EST

Articles about past winners are all over the internet. MOST winners either end up losing the homes, selling them, or taking the cash option and never taking ownership.

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Hot55
, US
Jun 13, 2016 7:52 pm EDT

I do believe this is a scam I've been entering for a chance to win the HGTV Dream home for 4 yrs now and nothing. I never even seen when they do the drawing...do they even do a live drawing? Most of the winners appear to be elderly and already well off. These people who win look like they can already afford to purchase the home without the help of HGTV...doesn't seem like much of a dream to me just another case of the rich getting richer. They say they do a back ground check more like a credit check and you have to have a 900 or above lol. Thats really sad that hgtv would do this to so many hopefull people who don't even stand a chance!

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Patzzz
Philadelphia, US
Jan 26, 2022 1:53 pm EST
Replying to comment of Hot55

I think the contests are a scam also. But there's no way they require a credit score of 900+. Can't imagine where you got that information. FICO scores range from 300 to 850. Americans with a perfect 850 FICO score amount to only 1.2%. So where are these people with a 900 score? Jeez. Be angry, but don't post bogus information.

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Alisandra
, US
Jun 04, 2016 12:23 pm EDT

I came here because I question the authentic nature of the dream home. It would be aweful to lure people in a scam, but I can see it. Some of you though claim you think it's a scam and have chosen winners but some of you seem to have a preference yourselves on who should win. If the contest is real, my message would be keep it legit. When you draw a name it's a miracle for that person and they should be the winner!

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Ellen Haveman
, US
Jul 17, 2017 7:16 am EDT
Replying to comment of Alisandra

The one thing I have noticed is that the winners are all relatively young, I have yet to see anyone over 60 win anything, I think they pick who they want to win. It's all BS.

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Patzzz
Philadelphia, US
Jan 26, 2022 1:54 pm EST

I have seen quite a few older people win.

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Soundscapes
, US
May 15, 2016 7:55 pm EDT

I have been entering for the past three years an won nothing, so yes it is a scam and I no longer enter there contests and also they get paid for everyone that enters there websites to enter a sweepstakes. This should be against the law and some one needs to take this site to there legislators do congress to put them behind behind bars because this is false advertiser and false hope to consumers.

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DoSomeResearch3
, US
Apr 21, 2017 7:34 am EDT

100 million people or more enter every year, and you think it's a scam because you haven't won after entering for three years? You really aren't aware of how odds work, are you?

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mary57
pocono summit, US
May 26, 2018 11:57 am EDT

The odds i have been entering for 19 years.I am not the perfect people they are looking for so that is why I don't win

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Patzzz
Philadelphia, US
Jan 26, 2022 1:57 pm EST

Just becasue YOU haven't won does not make it a scam. Clearly, you have no idea of the odds of winning. They get over 100, 000, 000 entries for these contests. So, of course we all are likely to lose. Let's at least be real and logical with our comments.

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tootootomthumbsup
, US
Mar 30, 2016 3:18 pm EDT

It always seems that the well to do people are the ones that are always chosen. I would like to see a larger, lower income family win the dream home and all that goes with it. You know, the American Dream. Make the contest look real and on the up and up even it is not. I'm sure that there are many who share these thoughts and wishes.

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DoSomeResearch3
, US
Apr 21, 2017 7:33 am EDT

Then you haven't been paying attention. One winner was a woman who had just lost her home in Hurricane Katrina. Several others have not been wealthy. It's the luck of the draw.

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Patzzz
Philadelphia, US
Jan 26, 2022 2:13 pm EST

I saw that video winner episode. But if you had done more homework, you would have found that she (a Black woman) was a widow who had been doing very well AND she had insurance for her lost home. When she opened the door, you could tell she was well off by the way she was dressed. HGTV gets no brownie points for this one.

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Kim kim
, US
Dec 29, 2015 11:15 am EST

Wow, I never saw a minority female winner. I've always seen older middle class or upper class Caucasian people. Either the husband or the wife is the winner. I believe it's a scam. However if it's not hopefully one year a single disabled female like myself would win.

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Patzzz
Philadelphia, US
Jan 26, 2022 2:14 pm EST
Replying to comment of Kim kim

The 2010 winner in New Orleans was Black, Myra Lewis.

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truthmongerdotinfo
Wells, US
Jan 26, 2014 9:08 am EST

The lady who started this thread, you verify what I've been thinking. I wrote HGTV because the previous winners had been minority females. After I complained about this, the last winner - miraculously - was a White American Gentile Man. And yes, it has crossed my mind that the winners are actors. My brother agreed, saying it was just another paying gig for them. They'd never bite the hand that feeds by spilling the beans on this fraud.

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Patzzz
Philadelphia, US
Jan 26, 2022 2:22 pm EST

Previous winners had been minority females? I can't find any of all these minority females in Google searches. There was one in 2010 from New Orleans. Stop posting lies. It is not even possible that with HGTV's viewership being largely white people, that minorities were winning the contests. What have you been smoking? And you can't possibly believe that because you complained, HGTV changed anything. HGTV could care less what we think.

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Patzzz
Philadelphia, US
Aug 24, 2013 10:45 am EDT

I saw an HGTV special a while back where they revealed the process of how a winner is chosen. But what they don't show is EXACTLY WHAT happens AFTER they open that envelope or read the name from the computer. Fact is, they claim they do a background check on the winner. And when they check out that person and find ANYTHING they don't like, they throw that name away & pick again. This is a step that we don't see. I think this is pathetic, and lofty and unfair.

The people entering the contest have no clue what this BACKGROUND criteria is. Perhaps if I knew they weren't going to let someone win who lived in a rowhome in Baltimore, I wouldn't waste my time entering. It costs at least 50 cents to mail a contest entry. Imagine all the people that HGTV doesn't want to win who enter the contest every year. It's so outrageously unfair and unnecessary.

It is suspicion of the highest level every time they arrive at the well-manicured single family home with lots of room for their staff & vehicles. I recall seeing just one show where the winner was a college student living in an apartment. Everyone else had a single family. I don't think the whole contest is a scam. However, the picking of the winner is on the level of the Nixon conspiracy.

But they will be caught one day. In our world, everything is uncovered eventually. An insider from HGTV will lose his/her job and write a tell-all book or somebody will learn something by accident. Their time will come.

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mary57
pocono summit, US
May 26, 2018 11:53 am EDT
Replying to comment of Patzzz

Yes, i am starting to believe this look at the recent winners of the 2018 dream home look at the winners home and how she seemed to already know that she won.and she is a producer who won. Something should be done about this.

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maremare75
Princeton, US
Apr 23, 2013 11:27 am EDT

Just because they are waiting by the door doesn't mean the contest is rigged. They have to notify them in advance. how they are chosen to win is legitimate.

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Pamela Genna
Rialto, US
Apr 20, 2013 8:49 pm EDT

HGTV contests are rigged. Every winner is ready and waiting for the door bell to ring and then come tho the door (of their already beautiful home and obvious wealthy position in life). They never go to area codes that don't match their desire of aesthetics. The people that answer the door and their family and company are actors. Scam is hardly the word. Staged it the word, paid actors are the participants. As far as that lady that called in to win something, it would be no effort on their end to put a message to the callers that someone else had already won instead of leading people to believe that they had won so they thousands of people didn't continue to call. Even if the people were called ahead it time to set up the "surprise" win, why are they already wealthy and already living in wonderland neighborhoods? HOAX HOAX HOAX

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Tom Thompson
Birmingham, US
Mar 18, 2013 10:43 am EDT

So much to consider. First, the mail in entries are sent to an address in Tennessee and more than one HGTV winner was a resident of Tennessee and another from Kentucky . On a map you can cover the distance with a quarter. Compute the odds of that happening. Independant judging huh, I suspect that also is a fix. Winners seem not to be surprised and almost waiting the arrival of HGTV crew. One winner was having a house party when they arrive and appeared to be intoxicated. I believe the folks from
Tennessee have an advantage and maybe win from the mail-in as opposed to internet submissions. I have attempted to see the independant judging results with no avail. What are they hiding. There should be an organized protest of the HGTV contest. More hype to sell the show.

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morekare
Downey, US
Nov 24, 2012 10:06 am EST

Of course the sweepstakes is a SCAM! AND YOU ARE A SUCKER! Do you really think that HGTV can afford to give away a home during this, the Greatest Depression since the 1930's? Wake up, sucker.

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complainer
Newark, US
Mar 08, 2009 10:08 pm EDT

I, too, question the integrity and legitimacy of the HGTV Dream Home Give away sweepstakes. I've been entering the sweepstakes for the last 3 homes. I also called to answer the trivia questions during the so-called live air show time. I, unfortunately didn't get through at all. I believe the entire thing is a scam. The people who win are actors. And all of this scamming is just to get more people to view HGTV programs and purchase their products.

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Scotty B.
,
Apr 10, 2007 10:01 am EDT

Yes the man screwed you over again. Or maybe with hundreds of people answering the phone the winner had already been picked and there was no reason to talk to you. But damn the entire world for not revolving around you. I know you should have won...