Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Priceless Part II

A lottery scratchcard has been withdrawn from sale by Camelot - because players couldn't understand it.

The Cool Cash game - launched on Monday - was taken out of shops yesterday after some players failed to grasp whether or not they had won.

To qualify for a prize, users had to scratch away a window to reveal a temperature lower than the figure displayed on each card. As the game had a winter theme, the temperature was usually below freezing.

But the concept of comparing negative numbers proved too difficult for some Camelot received dozens of complaints on the first day from players who could not understand how, for example, -5 is higher than -6.

Tina Farrell, from Levenshulme, called Camelot after failing to win with several cards.

The 23-year-old, who said she had left school without a maths GCSE, said: "On one of my cards it said I had to find temperatures lower than -8. The numbers I uncovered were -6 and -7 so I thought I had won, and so did the woman in the shop. But when she scanned the card the machine said I hadn't.

"I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher - not lower - than -8 but I'm not having it.

"I think Camelot are giving people the wrong impression - the card doesn't say to look for a colder or warmer temperature, it says to look for a higher or lower number. Six is a lower number than 8. Imagine how many people have been misled."

A Camelot spokeswoman said the game was withdrawn after reports that some players had not understood the concept.

[Source.]

7 comments:

Bardiac said...

And these people vote... scary. And way too easy to believe.

Anonymous said...

hahahaha oh my goodness that's appauling!

Anonymous said...

Nothing is funnier than the truth!

Midwife with a Knife said...

I think this is a sign of the impending collapse of civilization.

Elaine said...

I tend to agree with Midwife with a Knife here.

Simple arithmetic with negative numbers belongs to primary school education ( before 11)

Cathy said...

"I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher - not lower - than -8 but I'm not having it."

Good God, she really does believe this. Just think how mortified she will be when she is finally given a math lesson.

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