Microsoft refuses to accept defeat from a Galaxy Nexus owner; wouldn't payout prize

[dgstorm]

Apparently, a Samsung Galaxy Nexus owner, named Sahas Katta, took the Microsoft "Get Smoked" Windows Phone challenge at a Microsoft store and claims that he won, but was refused the prize, which was a $1000 Special Edition laptop. The way the contest works is that you must complete an everyday task of Microsoft's choosing in a faster time than their Windows phone. The particular challenge that he was given was to cold boot his phone, and then show the weather from two different cities before the Windows phone could do it. He didn't have his lock screen enabled, and he happened to already have weather widgets for two cities (San Jose, CA and Berkeley, CA), already on the front page of his Galaxy Nexus. He was able to beat the Windows phone by a split second.

However, even though he said "Done!" before the woman handling the Microsoft phone, he was told that he lost. When he asked why, she explained that she had two live tiles on the home page that showed the weather. He explained that he too had two live widgets that showed the weather in two different cities. This wasn't good enough for some reason and the Microsoft employee responded that he didn't win, "just because". When pressing further, another Microsoft employee, or possibly a Manager got involved and basically changed the rules of the game. He indicated that our Galaxy Nexus user needed to display two different cities in different states and said to Mr. Katta that “your phone could not do that.” Mr. Katta tried to politely protest, saying that he was never told that that cities needed to be in two different states, but his argument was futile. He was asked to pose in front of a "My Android was Smoked by Windows Phone" sign and eventually left in disgust.

Hmmm... so, the skinny is that the amazing "Andy the Android" actually waffle-stomped a Windows Phone in their own rigged test, yet our humble Android hero, Sahas Katta gets denied his rightful prize. That's pretty shady no matter how you look at it. Here's a quote from Mr. Katta with his final words,

I was quite excited to take the challenge, but left the Microsoft Store in distaste. I sure hope the purpose of this marketing ploy is to attract new customers by demonstrating the highlights of Windows Phone, not frustrating them instead. If anyone from Microsoft would like to have a rematch, I would be happy to smoke a Windows Phone with Android, again.

Update: There has been an update to this story. Apparently, Microsoft has reached out to Mr. Katta in an attempt to make up for his poor experience. You can read a little more about it in the thread. Thanks for the tip jntdroid!

Source: Skattertech

 

[jntdroid]

Those stories have been updated to state that MS's head of that campaign apologized and are giving him a new phone and laptop now.

 

[dgstorm]

Those stories have been updated to state that MS's head of that campaign apologized and are giving him a new phone and laptop now.

That's good to know! Thanks for the update jntdroid! It's cool that Microsoft as a company back-tracked and dealt with the issue properly, but it doesn't let those employees off the hook, and it still makes you wonder how they were trained. Finally, the tests are chosen by Microsoft, so they are pretty much rigged to benefit them the most. In fact, I am sure several of our savvy forum members could dream up some tests that would create a "Smoked by Android" scenario.

 

[thisiswang]

i wonder if they would accept custom roms cuz if iturn my boot animation off the windows phone would be left in the dust

 

[czerdrill]

yeah these tests are pretty much rigged toward microsoft like dg said so its kinda funny that they got beat at their own game. a more valid test would be two techie users trying to do something, or two noob users trying to do something. not one microsoft expert and someone they perceive to be a noob. they didn't think this one out too well haha

 

[Bullitt6996]

Wow. That's really crummy that they just did all that lying in front of so many potential customers, I hope that story spreads like wildfire with the people who were there to see it...

 

[BlackHoleSlam]

they should have an alternate sign saying "my windows phone got smoked by an android phone" and be forced to stand next to it

 

[alboboy10]

And thats why windows sucks.

 

[swc2001]

Yes My Bionic Smoked a windows phone as well. By more than a second.

I was told to put it on lock and then unlock and find the nearest 5 star resteraunt.
I used my places app that I have on my home screen and won by a good Margin.
dancedroid
I received no Prize either. However this was an informal challenge by the employee in the Microsoft store.

 

[jntdroid]

It's a bit of a silly competition, but MS is, to their credit, doing what they can to get some pub for wp7.

 

[alboboy10]

Where can I find one of these places so I can go mess around with them a little one day when I'm bored?

"Quick put an HD video on YouTube on a 4.65 inch 720p screen"...oh wait you don't have that option. Or 4g. Give me one second let me turn on tethering on my unhacked device so you have a network that can play HD YouTube videos.