AMD pays French to enter Athlon64 "performance" competition

WE KNOW ABOUT THE weird rules Canadian residents have to obey to enter competitions, but a quick shufty at the AMD's "Breakout performance survey Contest" appears to reveal that the strapped-for-cash-outfit will pay the French to enter.*

This must be some French law that has so far escaped notice outside of that country.

In the rules of the competition, which you can find here, AMD has tried to cover all the angles.

For example, "the grand prize" of just one AMD Athlon64 PC worth approx $2,500 means that residents of Russia become entrants at the place where AMD receives your entry.

Whatever that means.

But if you are French you can recover your 40¢ from AMD, as the following paragraph in the terms and conditions makes clear.

"For residents of France only: Upon written request, AMD will reimburse you U.S.$0.40 per entry for the cost of your Internet connection time. Send your written request to AMD Breakout Performance Survey, Mail Stop 593, AMD, 5204 East Ben White Blvd., Austin, TX 78741, U.S.A."

Whether you get re-imbursed for the cost of postage as well as your Internet time is a matter between you French and them AMD folk... we'd say that it's worth a try. µ

* FRENCH READER Cyrille writes: Hello Mike,

Just a little word, like I reckon a zillion of my fellow citizens will also say. In France, these kind of contests are necessarily free, meaning that the contest organiser must reimburse any reasonable costs the contestant might have paid.

The best way to dodge unreasonable claims is to tell up front that the reimbursement will be limited to the price of a slow delivery 20g-letter stamp (0.41€). For Internet contests, the practice has been of promising the same price, (they probably rounded it down to .40$), which is probably fair since analogue Internet access is so dirt cheap you'd end up paying less than 41¢ of online charges anyway (including demanding the bribe-refund via e-mail).

Not that I know anyone who'd actually go out and ask the money for an online contest... (for snail mail contests, it's standard practice to ask for the stamp on the contest entry slip anyway).

Cyrille
enjoying the Reg, then the Inq, for a long time