I work through the web portal Freelancer.com as an illustrator.
I won a "guaranteed" contest, but they don't give me the contest prize because the owner does not want to sign the IP transfer agreement despite having awarded me the winner. According to Freelancer.com technical support staff, the word "guaranteed" means:
Guaranteed contest guarantees that the contest holder will pick a winner and that the prize money will be awarded.
Freelancer.com does not clarify, that if the owner of the contest does not sign the IP transfer agreement, the prize will not be delivered, therefore the word "guaranteed" is misused in a misleading way as it is not a real guarantee.
I attached a screenshot of the ticket that I opened on Freelancer.com for this topic, the response of the support staff and my counter response.
Please help me, what can I do in this case?
This is the answer when I inquire about the "guaranteed" contest that I won and for which I have not received the award.
This was my answer:
That is why you are misusing the word "guaranteed" to attract people to contests, that is classified as misleading advertising and is punishable. The proof is in your own definition:
Byron C. wrote:
Hi Luis,
Please know that the Guaranteed contest only guarantees that the contest holder will pick a winner and that the prize money will be awarded. If they do not award a contest, then the prize will be automatically distributed to qualified entries.
This definition is not met, according to the words of the Freelancer.com staff if:
However, in your case, the contest was awarded to you and the handover has not been signed by the contest holder. If the contest handover is not signed by both parties and no files are uploaded in the handover, the prize cannot be released.
Therefore there is a contradiction that nullifies the use that you are giving to the word "guaranteed", and as this contradiction is known to Freelancer.com, you are typifying a punishable behavior known as misleading advertising, and, under the Australian Consumer Law, businesses cannot mislead consumers about their products' capabilities. Any attempt to do so will risk court action from the ACCC.
I won a "guaranteed" contest, but they don't give me the contest prize because the owner does not want to sign the IP transfer agreement despite having awarded me the winner. According to Freelancer.com technical support staff, the word "guaranteed" means:
Guaranteed contest guarantees that the contest holder will pick a winner and that the prize money will be awarded.
Freelancer.com does not clarify, that if the owner of the contest does not sign the IP transfer agreement, the prize will not be delivered, therefore the word "guaranteed" is misused in a misleading way as it is not a real guarantee.
I attached a screenshot of the ticket that I opened on Freelancer.com for this topic, the response of the support staff and my counter response.
Please help me, what can I do in this case?
This is the answer when I inquire about the "guaranteed" contest that I won and for which I have not received the award.
This was my answer:
That is why you are misusing the word "guaranteed" to attract people to contests, that is classified as misleading advertising and is punishable. The proof is in your own definition:
Byron C. wrote:
Hi Luis,
Please know that the Guaranteed contest only guarantees that the contest holder will pick a winner and that the prize money will be awarded. If they do not award a contest, then the prize will be automatically distributed to qualified entries.
This definition is not met, according to the words of the Freelancer.com staff if:
However, in your case, the contest was awarded to you and the handover has not been signed by the contest holder. If the contest handover is not signed by both parties and no files are uploaded in the handover, the prize cannot be released.
Therefore there is a contradiction that nullifies the use that you are giving to the word "guaranteed", and as this contradiction is known to Freelancer.com, you are typifying a punishable behavior known as misleading advertising, and, under the Australian Consumer Law, businesses cannot mislead consumers about their products' capabilities. Any attempt to do so will risk court action from the ACCC.
