Intel France contest snafu leads to frustration

A UBISOFT CONTEST seems to have created a bit of a stink for Intel France, after contestants who won Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition processors got sent either the wrong kit or none at all.

An irate reader (let's call him X-asperated) says he was one of thirty winners in the UbiSoft FarCry2 contest, which ended Dec 30th 2008 and was open to residents of the US, UK, France, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Australia, New-Zealand and Canada.

Apparently, a month went by and still no prize arrived, so X-asperated dug around and eventually found the email address of the Intel France rep in charge of the contest.

An email explaining X-asperated's frustrations was promptly sent, but it took Yinqui Wu of Intel France a week to respond. Eventually X-asperated was told his prize would be shipped "shortly".

When it did eventually arrive, X-asperated was shocked and dismayed to find Intel had actually sent him the much cheaper Core i7 920 processor, a processor costing almost a third of a Core i7 965 Extreme.

X-asperated immediately sent out another email advising Intel of its mistake, only to receive another email a week later apologising for the error and promising the proper processor would be popped in the post "shortly" (again).

Weeks passed and still nothing arrived so X-asperated sent yet another email. This time, however, he received a reply informing him that Intel was regrettably out of core i7 965 processors and would he like to keep the 920 and forget all about the incident if Intel sent along a motherboard and a few Ubisoft games?

Rather forgivingly considering Intel's cheek, X-asperated replied that if the firm could not send him the 965 he had rightfully won, he would accept two more 920 processors in order to make up the value of his original prize.

After three weeks of waiting for a response to his request, X-asperated finally got fed up and turned to the press to help highlight his plight and get his hands on his winnings.

X-asperated is also apparently not alone. He says he's learned that other winners around the world also claim not to have received their promised Core i7 965 Extremes. Most were apparently fobbed off with core i7 920's (did Intel think they wouldn't notice or complain?) but a couple apparently received nothing at all.

Before contacting us, X-asperated made a last -ditch attempt by contacting Intel USA who apparently told him that since Intel France was in charge, there was nothing they could do to help.

"This doesn't seem right to me since Intel USA is the world headquarters of the company," X-asperated wrote to us in his email. The INQ agreed and decided to contact Intel USA ourselves on X-asperated's behalf.

Agreeing that there had been a bit of a snafu, Intel spinner Nick Knupffer investigated, and told the INQ:"There was a shipping error, but that has since been corrected - the correct CPUs have shipped will be arriving in the winners hands this week and the next, we are certain that they are keen to start enjoying their uber-gaming experience!"

Hmmm... hopefully the experience will be worth the long wait! µ