[Resolved]  Hindustan Unilever / Surf Excel — Not giving money to contest winner

Dear Sir,

I had purchased Surf Excel 750 gm pack in December 2006. On the pack there was printed 10/10 contest mentioning.

1. How to participate
2. You can win
a) If your score is 10/10
Win!
Rs. 5 Lakh scholarship for Your child.


It was my good luck when I opened the packet found a piece of cloth. When the piece of cloth was washed with the surf excel blue 10/10 score was seen.
As per direction given on the packet I claim for the Rs. 5 Lakh scholarship for my child and sent the piece of cloth to

Surf Excel 10/10 contest
C/o Alpha Data Centre
P.O. Bag No. 3904
Girgaum H.P.O.
Mumbai 400004

It was a big surprise for me that the Sr. Brand Manager, Surf Excel, refused to accept the claim mentioning the code is absent in the cloth piece vide Ref. No. 34539, Dt. 19/01/2007 which shows

1. The company is using unfair trade practice to promote sell.
2. False declaration about the contest & chance to win.
3. The company is luring customers by false declaration.
4. The same thing can not happen to several consumers.
5. The company did not bother to confirm the genuineness of swatch by collecting bar coded packet.
6. The Swatch did not had any serial no. hence it is easily transferable.
7. The Swatch is not returned by the company.
8. The Company has hearted too many consumers & children by such an act.
9. If the Swatch is not genuine from Orissa, West Bengal, & Madhya Pradesh it means Duplicate Surf Excel is being Sold in the above three States. If the company like Hindustan Liver accepts this I have nothing to say more.

Others experience
http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Surf_Excel_'Daag_achche_hain'_commerci...⇄
The surf excel 10/10 ad mentions that if you get a 10/10 swatch inside the surf excel packet, then you get a Rs 5 lakh scholarship for your school going child.

In reality whenever someone gets
a 10/10 swatch and presents it to the surf excel HQ to claim the prize, the company gives the following standard excuse: "For the purpose of control, and to ensure genuine claims, all the swatches that carry the score of 10/10 and therefore, eligible for the prize of Rs 5 lakh scholarship have been pre-coded to enable us to validate the claims. This is done to ensure that the high value prizes go only to genuine and rightful winners. The swatch sent by you has been validated and it has been found that the code is absent. Hence we are unable to accept your claim for the prize. "

In November 2006, a man from Kolkata, Mr. Devraj Bhattarai got a 10/10 swatch from inside a surf excel packet. When he sent this swatch to the company, the company rejected his claim giving the above reason.

I also got a 10/10 swatch from a packet of surf excel. When it was sent to the company, I received the same reply as mentioned above.

Now, one cannot have fake swatch coming out of genuine surf packets, can one? And how can there be non genuine packets of surf excel, containing non genuine 10/10 swatch. It is just too far fetched.
And the fact that the surf excel packets are genuine can be vouched from the dealers and distributors who are there in every region, and they do not keep quite if there are counterfeit products in circulation.

The first case, where the claim was rejected was the case of Kolkata. In my case, it was Madhya Pradesh.In fact, the Mumbai HQ address of surf excel 10/10 contest for claiming the prize was given by the surf excel distributor himself.

It is clear that the company does not want to part with Rs 5 lakhs once some lucky customer manages to get a 10/10 swatch from a packet.

I have no problem if surf excel ( a product of Hindustan Lever Limited) does not want to honour the commitment made by them in their ads that have obviously cost much more than Rs 5 lakhs. The fact that the company can go to such petty mindedness just to avoid paying Rs 5 lakhs is shocking, to say the least. I hope they carried disclaimers too with their 10/10 ad, that the 10/10 swatch contained inside will be deemed fake when presented for claiming the prize.

So, folks, enjoy the ad. But keep it in mind that unlike the detergent, the intentions of the people selling the brand is not quite above board when it comes to honouring the claims.


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Bhattarai had written to us in November with a swatch, claiming the Rs 5-lakh
scholarship being offered in the Surf Excel 10/10 Contest. The swatch was
validated and the claim was found to be false. We promptly wrote to Bhattarai
explaining that he was not eligible as the claim was not genuine. For the
purpose of control and to ensure genuine claims, all the swatches that carry the
score of 10/10 and which are eligible for the scholarship have been pre-coded by
us to enable us to validate the claims.

R. Ram,
Corporate communications,
Hindustan Lever Limited

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