EZBUY CONFESSED TO LUCKY DRAW SCAM in CAPTURED SCREENSHOTS of my conversation with them.

Terrible Customer Service argued with me. Marketing department had continuously avoided responsibility and claimed “there is no specific Terms and Conditions for this promotion.” However, my investigation has proven EZBUY GUILTY. They had posted Public Apology in Facebook (29^th Dec 2018). Read until the end to find out how the Lucky Draw winners are chosen…

2 months ago, I had received an email from EZBUY mailing list, which stated, “You Have Been Shortlisted To Get $11”. 

HOW TO PARTICIPATE? In order to participate in the Lucky Draw, I have to leave ‘Product Reviews’ on my 11.11 purchases and then fill in a Lucky draw Form with my EZBUY User ID and all the URLs of my products reviews.

In the main Lucky draw page, EZBUY had also advertised “!!!TIP: Leave a detailed review and attach real pictures to stand a HIGHER CHANCE of winning! E.g. What did you like about your item? Did it meet your expectations? Why will you recommend it to others?”

Therefore, I had filled out the Form and submitted 10 reviews in that week. In all of my 10 product reviews, I had followed the TIPS/ Guidelines to attach REAL pictures and answered all the three questions in details.

When the Lucky Draw Winners were revealed on 3^rd December, TWO of the Winners did not attach REAL pictures and one of them only submitted 7-WORD REVIEW.

In fact, Jina.Lim’s review is not qualified to enter the draw. She had posted her review on 16^th November, and this is not within the dates Monday, 26^th November to Sunday, 2^nd December according to the Terms & Conditions of the Lucky draw.

*Crucial evidence to prove EZBUY is involved in telling lies to their customers: 

Terms & Conditions had clearly stated that the Lucky Draw is “Valid only for customers who have done product reviews on our website for their 11.11 purchase between Monday, 26th November to Sunday, 2nd December 2018.”

On the 5^th Dec, I had alerted EZBUY Customer Service regarding the DISORGANIZED AND UNFAIR LUCKY DRAW RESULTS PICKING QUESTIONABLE WINNERS. (You can read my email to EZBUY’s Customer service; I have summarized my enquiry in point form below.)

About the 3^rd Dec Lucky draw results

• Undeserving Winners Jina.Lim and Hejpam did not follow the advertised “TIPS” to attach REAL pictures in their reviews and did not follow the “Guidelines” to answer the three questions (1) What did you like about your item? (2) Did it meet your expectations? (3) Why will you recommend it to others?
• Jina.Lim’s 7-Word VAGUE review states, “bag is true to picture! good buy!” and has NO REAL PICTURES.
• Moreover, Jina.Lim’s out-of-date review is not a valid entry. She had posted her review on 16^th November, and this is not within the dates Monday, 26^th November to Sunday, 2^nd December according to the Terms & Conditions. 

IN SUMMARY

• EZBUY had picked a Winner whose review was not qualified to enter the Lucky Draw.
• Next, EZBUY did not choose winning reviews based on the TIPS/ Guidelines as advertised.
• EZBUY had picked VAGUE CRAPPY Reviewers with NO EFFORT to post REAL pictures.

NO REPLY from EZBUY Customer service.

7^th Dec, Friday

• 2 days later, I had sent another enquiry and asked them, “WHY were the UNDESERVING WINNERS allowed to win the $11 draw for their CRAPPY reviews?”
• “If EZBUY do not retract the undeserving winners in the 3^rd December draw, I will share this information with all the EZBUY customers on FACEBOOK and in the comments section.”

• Then, I told them that I did filled out the Form to participate in the 3^rd Dec Lucky Draw and submitted 10 product reviews for that week. I had sent her the 10 Product URLs to all of my 10 Product reviews.
• Furthermore, I informed her that same as last week, I had submitted another 18 detailed Product reviews with REAL pictures for the 10^th Dec Lucky Draw. Then, I had sent her the 18 product links to all of my 18 reviews.
• In total, I had submitted 28 Product reviews for Participation in the 2 Weeks of Lucky Draw.

On the same day (7^th Dec), I had received their first reply to my enquiries. The customer service replied that,

“Winner is randomly selected, which means that the winner is not dependent on the provided reviews, however according to the above email, we understand that the winner’s review is not equal to the terms and condition, currently, we are checking with the relevant department to see whether there is anything wrong during the process,”

• "Winner is randomly selected, which means that the winner is not dependent on the provided reviews"
• "...we understand that the winner's review is not equal to the terms and condition"

Meanwhile, the 2^nd Week of Winners were revealed on 10^th December. 

Once again, they had ignored my enquiries about the UNFAIRNESS of the Lucky draw results and they continued to pick CRAPPY REVIEWERS as Winners.

On the 10^th Dec, I had sent them my 3^rd email about the poor Lucky Draw results. (I have summarized my enquiry in point form below.)

• Another 8-WORD CRAP REVIEWER “Gan219” was picked as the $11 Undeserving winner. The VAGUE review stated, “Light and functional. Just what I’m looking for,” only has EIGHT WORDS AND DID NOT ATTACH ANY REAL PICTURES.
• Previously, their Customer service had said that the “Winner is randomly selected”. Therefore, it does not matter even if the Winners had submitted 7-word, 8-word CRAP reviews with NO REAL PICTURES.

I asked them 2 questions:

• (1) How do you calculate “Higher Chance” for all the reviewers who submitted reviews with real life pictures?
• (2) If EZBUY has no intention to follow the “TIP!!” and “guidelines” to pick their Lucky Draw Winners, WHY DID THEY ADVERTISE FAKE “TIPS/ GUIDELINES” in the Lucky Draw promotion?
• I mentioned to the Customer service officer that she is “clearly aware of my intention to expose EZBUY’s Lucky Draw SCAM to educate intelligent customers about EZBUY’s negligent attitude in conducting the Lucky Draw in a disorganized manner.”
• I told the officer that following her reply; “I will share this interesting information in the comments section of the shopping platform and in the official EZBUY Facebook page.”

11^th Dec, Tuesday

EZBUY Customer service replied

• “After checking with the relevant department, we regret to inform that the pictures in the tips are not the necessary factor in the review, according to the tips, the review with the pictures may enjoy the higher chance of winning. However, we understand your frustration as the tips may bring the confusion, we have fed back to the relevant department to see whether more ways can be sought to optimize so that the promotion can be processed in a more clear way.

• However, back to this promotion, according to the record, we appreciate your detailed review of received items, but we regret to inform that the winner is randomly selected by the system, which may not be changed. However, there will be different promotions in the future, you may keep an eye on the announcement on our website.”

Their reply did not address the unqualified Winner “Jina.Lim” whose review date was not qualified according to their T&Cs.

 11^th Dec, My 4th email to EZBUY: 

Due to their tendency to avoid directly replying to my enquiries, I had decided to ask them to answer five questions and clearly numbering the Answers (1), (2), (3), (4) and (5)(i), (5)(ii).

• I had alerted EZBUY that JINA.LIM’s review, which was posted on 16th November, was not valid according to the T&Cs. The participant had disregarded the T&Cs, filled out the Form to submit her Product URL. In the end, EZBUY even made the hasty error to pick her as the Winner. The Lucky Draw is clearly held in a DISORGANIZED manner.
• I explained to EZBUY that their “misconduct in picking out an unqualified winner has resulted in a serious breach of trust and confidence in the Lucky Draw” results.

I had asked them to answer the following questions,

• (Question 1) As you are basically ignoring the T&Cs that was set for the draw, are you going to cover up for THE CHEATER given that she had CHEATED IN ORDER TO PARTICIPATE in the draw?

• (Question 2) What is EZBUY’s decision regarding JINA.LIM, given that her submission was not qualified to participate in the draw?

• (Question 3) On the 3rd and 10th December, EZBUY had awarded 7-word, 8-word CRAP REVIEWERS with $11 prize money. What is the VALUE of detailed review submissions to EZBUY?

• (Question 4) Please explain how do reviews with pictures may stand a “Higher chance of winning?”

• (Question 5) After checking with the relevant department, please seek out the relevant statistics to answer this question using exact numbers and supported numerical data.

(i) What is the meaning of a “Higher chance of winning”?

(ii) State CLEARLY, how do your relevant department account for the group of reviews with pictures and calculate the “Higher chance of winning” for all the reviews with pictures?

I told the Customer service what I thought about their Lucky draw system,

• According to the deceiving advertisement, and as stated in the TIPS/Guidelines, the reviews with pictures will stand “Higher chance of winning”. However, EZBUY had informed me that the “pictures” are not a necessary factor in the review. These two are very contradictory and inconsistent statements given by the Marketing department.
• To tell the truth by looking at the Lucky Draw results, EZBUY did not care about the QUALITY of the submitted reviews as the Winners are randomly selected, and EZBUY even went ahead to select VAGUE CRAPPY reviewers as Lucky Draw winners.
• To tell the truth, EZBUY do not have a FAIR system to pick Lucky draw winners as they are not able to account for the Reviews with Pictures, which is falsely advertised to guarantee “Higher chance of winning”.
• The truth is EZBUY had haphazardly ran a SKETCHY Lucky Draw that was UNFAIR to all participating reviewers while FALSE ADVERTISING FAKE TIPS AND FAKE GUIDELINES that do not guarantee “Higher chance of winning” as the Reviews with Pictures are UNACCOUNTABLE by the system.
• All evidence points to a LUCKY DRAW SCAM, in which the winning reviews are chosen from the SPONSORED SHOPS decided by EZBUY. 

On 12^th Dec, I had received a reply from EZBUY Customer service,

“First, we appreciate your support, in addition, your effort for detailed review with pictures, however, after checking with the relevant department, as mentioned in the above email, we regret to inform that there is no specific terms and condition for this promotion, in addition, the review with pictures may have higher chance of getting the voucher.

However, we understand your feeling as your detailed reviews with pictures for many product were not selected, but we seek your kind understanding that this activity is the problem on probability, as the user ID and review are selected randomly, we regret to inform that we cannot make sure that the detailed reviews with the pictures can get the voucher.

But after specially escalation to the management, we would like to specially provide S$11 voucher for your detailed reviews and support, kindly advise whether it can be accepted.”

(The screenshot of her reply is below)

In response, I wrote a reply detailing my disappointment in the poor Lucky draw results. (5th email to EZBUY)

• Firstly, they disrespected all hardworking reviewers who have submitted detailed reviews by choosing to show off Crappy reviews as the “Winning reviews”.
• Secondly, they even picked a participant who did not fully meet the requirements of the T&Cs to participate in the Lucky draw. This is clear evidence that their Lucky draw winners were picked in a haphazard and disorganized manner.
• Thirdly, EZBUY had continuously avoided responsibility by lying about “there is no specific Terms and conditions” for the promotion.

(You can read my full email to them below)

“Hi,

As you said that you understand, I have followed the TIPS and Guidelines, written 28 detailed reviews in two weeks, attach real pictures, filled up the form to participate in the Lucky draw. In all of my 28 reviews, I did my best to write the reviews, including personal experience and genuine opinions of receiving the real actual products. Then, I attach many real life close-up photos of the actual product. I have even sent you the links to the 28 product reviews.

Originally, I do not like to participate in Lucky draws because of the widespread perception of Lucky draw scams drawing fake winners and the lack of transparency in the process and results. However, I was persuaded to join the Lucky draw after seeing the relatable “!!!TIPS” in the advertisement for the Lucky draw. I felt that the $11 Lucky draw was organized with good intention and supported by sensible TIPS and Guidelines, which is to encourage more users to come forward and submit detailed and helpful reviews that could help to vastly improve the quality of reviews and benefit the community.

Before deciding if I want to purchase a particular product, I will always go to check for reviews with PHOTOS to know what real consumers thought about the quality of the product. I appreciate the real reviewers who attach real pictures and leave detailed reviews. For e.g. “Are the sizes accurate? Do we have to get a larger size for shoes? Is the actual product true to the pictures and same as the advertisement in the listing?”

After reading their reviews, I will give a ‘Thumbs Up’ for detailed reviews, because their reviews give me clearer information about the quality of the actual product. If I feel reasonably sure that the product is actually suitable for me, I can order without worrying if I will receive a scrap product.

The value of clear reviews is building a well-informed community. If I am confident about my order and receive a good product, I will not have to return any unsatisfactory or low-quality scrap product. This is in view of the many vague reviewers prevalent in EZBUY, for e.g., they leave “star ratings” but do not have any comments or they write vague comments, such as “Good quality”, “True to picture”, “Recommended”.

In the end, the two weeks of Lucky draw had shown poor results by showing off 7-word, 8-word CRAPPY REVIEWS and awarded awful vague reviewers with $11.

After that, I write to your customer service to inform you about the poor results of the disorganized Lucky draw. In all of my enquiries to you, I had informed you that the unqualified reviewer, JINA.LIM was erroneously crowned as winner although her review was posted on 16th November, which means her review was not posted within the dates qualified for the draw. DO NOT ACT BLUR. Clearly, there are specific Terms and Conditions in the form, which states, “Valid only for customers who have done product reviews on our website for their 11.11 purchase between Monday, 26th November to Sunday, 2nd December 2018.”

I am truly disappointed and upset in your poor responses to my enquiries, which ignored all of my observations. Does it even make sense for you to say: “there is no specific terms and condition for this promotion”.

I had brought to your attention that JINA.LIM’s review was not qualified to participate in the draw. Are you still going to ignore the Terms and Conditions that was set for the draw in order to cover up for the cheating participant JINA.LIM?

AND THEN, THE TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE ARGUED WITH ME.

Although I had clearly told Customer service that the participant’s review is unqualified because the review date* was not within the Lucky draw dates, the TERRIBLE customer service officer had attempted to argue with me.

The entire time, she had pretended there is “no specific Terms and Conditions” and the Marketing department who was responsible for the fake Lucky draw promotion continuously avoided to recognize the Terms and Conditions that they had set for the Lucky Draw.

You can read the RUBBISH that she told me in the following reply,

“Dear customer,

Thank you for your reply and information.

Yes, we understand that the promotion is for 11.11 sales, however, review on 16/11/2018 doesn't mean that his item was not purchased on 11.11, actually, if the item is local or if express air has been selected, the item may be received at that time, so we regret to inform that the time of review may not be used to judge whether the item is during 11.11. In addition, all the winners are those who selected by the system, which have been checked during all the data.

But according to the provided information for time, we have fed back to the relevant department to see whether the winner is updated wrongly, please be assured that we will make the necessary adjustment if there is anything wrong.

However, we understand your frustration as the stated TIP may bring inconvenience, however, as mentioned in the above email, we seek your kind understanding that the winner is the problem on probability, but we understand that you have spared time and effort to update the review with the pictures, considering the inconvenience and confusion has been brought to you, after specially escalation to the management, we would like to provide S$11 voucher for you, kindly advise whether it can be accepted.

Sorry for the inconvenience caused and appreciate your kind understanding.

Best regards,
Pan Qiuqiu
Customer service center”

(The screenshot of her reply is below.)

After more than 5 emails to them, it is UNACCEPTABLE that the customer service officer still does not understand why the REVIEW DATE is not qualified for the Lucky Draw. Worst of all, she had argued with me about the “purchase date”. In her reply, she reemphasized that the Winners are selected by the system. (Read until the end as the Marketing department manager had described a different method in picking the Winners.)

On the same day, I wrote a straightforward and direct reply to the customer service officer to ask her to STOP ACTING BLUR. I had decided to address the email using the name of Customer Service Officer who had ignored all of my emails to argue with me.

My 6th email to them:

“Hi Qiu Qiu

First, I want to inform you that I am a respectable human just as you are. I will appreciate if you can STOP ACTING BLUR and STOP TELLING LIES. I am an educated customer and I can understand the Terms and Conditions, which states, “Valid only for customers who have done product reviews on our website for their 11.11 purchase between Monday, 26th November to Sunday, 2nd December 2018.”

In English, it means that customers can participate in the Lucky Draw for their 11.11 purchases by posting product reviews from 26th November to 2nd December. If you do not understand English, 中文的意思是说，顾客可以在11月26日至12月2日期间，通过发布11.11购买的产品评论参加12月3日的幸运抽奖。只限于11.11购买的产品。11月26日至12月2日是发布产品评论的期间。(I explained the T&Cs in Mandarin)

We all know there is only one purchase date, which is 11th November. Jina.Lim’s review is unqualified, because her review posted on 16th November is not within the dates 26th November to 2nd December. Second, the failure of the promotion is not your fault and not your responsibility. I want you to make sure that your reply is vetted by your higher management because you will not be able to take responsibility as I will send my investigation regarding the EZBUY 11.11 Lucky Draw Scam to the Top local news outlet in Singapore, The Straits Times, The New paper, TODAY. Next, I will publish the story about EZBUY 11.11 Lucky Draw Scam on Facebook, STOMP, Hardwarezone, Mothership.sg and the popular internet forums in Singapore.”

.

.

.

THE WORST IS YET TO COME.

In her next reply, Qiu Qiu told me to “make the screenshot of mentioned terms and condition” for the Marketing department who sets this promotion. 

ARE YOU EVEN MAKING SENSE? They are asking a customer to remind the Marketing department of the T&Cs that they had set for themselves.

“Dear customer,

Sorry for keeping you waiting.

First, sorry for the inconvenience brought to you due to the above email, actually, the above reply is based on the response from the relevant department who sets this promotion, however, according to your reply, we understand that there is stated terms and condition while there is no on their side, to avoid any further inconvenience, could you spare some of your time to make the screenshot of mentioned terms and condition or provide the relevant link, in addition, we are checking with the relevant department to see whether there is anything wrong during the previous confirmation, and any further information will be sent to you via this email within another 1-3 working days once received confirming reply.

Sorry again for the inconvenience caused and appreciate your kind understanding.

Best regards,
Pan Qiuqiu
Customer service center”

(Screenshot of her reply)

On the same day, I wrote the 7th email to them:

“Are you saying the relevant department in charge of the promotion do not know the Terms and Conditions themselves? I have mentioned to you that the T&Cs for the Lucky Draw is stated clearly in the Form.

You have been telling me that you will check with them for many days, I will not wait longer for you to tell me more excuses and more lies from the department.

I expect the relevant department to admit their mistake immediately for picking undeserving winners and acknowledge the T&Cs set for this promotion by Wednesday, 19th December 2018. If they refuse to tell the truth, I will post a public announcement on EZBUY Facebook to expose the Lucky Draw Scam by the end of this week.”

After my serious warning to EZBUY that I would REVEAL THE TRUTH on their Facebook, they have MAGICALLY REMEMBERED THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET FOR THIS PROMOTION. (Read until the end to find out EZBUY HAS BEEN TELLING LIES TO THEIR CUSTOMERS.)

“Dear customer,

Sorry for keeping you waiting.

After round check with the relevant department, admittedly, we would like to say sorry to you because the winner “Jina.lim” is not within the terms and condition, they will pay more attention to this aspect, in addition, the future promotion will be processed more carefully. Also, we have escalated to the relevant management so that the future campaign will be more correctly.

Currently, back to your review as well as the inconvenience during the process, as mentioned in the above email, we will issue S$11 voucher, kindly advise whether it can be accepted.

Sorry for the inconvenience caused and appreciate your kind understanding.

Best regards,
Pan Qiuqiu
Customer service center”

AFTER SEVEN EMAILS

For my 8th email, I said that,

“It’s very awful for EZBUY to run fake unethical promotion and then show-off CRAPPY REVIEWERS in the Lucky Draw results. I expect a public announcement on EZBUY Facebook, apologizing to ALL the participating reviewers.

In the official announcement, state clearly, EZBUY’s decision regarding the cheating participant JINA.LIM and what measures EZBUY will take to ensure they will run a fair and organized Lucky Draw promotion in the future.

I will not accept the $11 Voucher as it should have been issued earlier to the hardworking reviewers who had submitted detailed reviews and attached real pictures.”

(Screenshot of EZBUY's reply)

• "if the reviews with more details as well as positive pictures, the chance may be higher"
• "Winner is randomly selected, during which the possibility is included."
• "there is no terms and condition for this promotion"
• "the seen date is set wrongly"
• "bought many items during 11.11, in addition, he made many positive reviews during the promotion"

“Dear customer,

Sorry for keeping you waiting.

After round check with the marketing department, let me explain the matter in detail here again.

1. First, we seek your kind understanding that the tips are not the terms and condition, actually, if the reviews with more details as well as positive pictures, the chance may be higher, however, kindly noted that the winner is randomly selected, during which the possibility is included.

2. Admittedly, it is the marketing department that made the mistake, however, here, we would like to inform the process in detail. Actually, there is no terms and condition for this promotion, however, the seen date is set wrongly, so that the winner Jim is selected.

However, according to the record, this customers bought many items during 11.11, in addition, he made many positive reviews during the promotion, but we are sorry to inform that the review which has been selected for voucher is not correct, and that is the reason why the above confusion has been generated.

3. We appreciate your kind feedback, actually, we have contacted the management of relevant department to pay more attention to this aspect, please be assured that they will be careful for future promotion.

4. Considering the inconvenience during the process, we would like to issue S$20 voucher without mins spending, kindly advise whether it can be accepted. In addition, due to this mistake, the relevant department decides to admit and extend the promotion, in addition, another 10 customers have been selected, here are the link for your reference: https://ezbuy.sg/promotion1/share-and-get-11.html

Sorry for the inconvenience caused and appreciate your kind understanding.

Best regards,
Pan Qiuqiu
Customer service center”

After admitting to knowing about the Terms & Conditions in the previous reply, she changed her mind and said, “Actually, there is no terms and condition for this promotion”.

She mentioned that EZBUY had picked the out-of-date review posted on 16/11/2018 “because the seen date is set wrongly”. In addition, she stated, “the review which has been selected for voucher is not correct.”

In summary, she said that EZBUY had selected the wrong review from “Jina.Lim” because the seen date is set wrongly in the system. However, they are willing to give him the winning voucher because he had bought many items and made many positive reviews. (Read until the end as the Marketing department manager had described a different method in choosing the Winners. In fact, there is NO SYSTEM TO INPUT “SEEN DATE” as described in the above reply.)

Next, they had decided to post an apology in the Lucky draw promotion page.

So far, what have we learnt about the LUCKY DRAW SYSTEM?

• EZBUY had insisted the “Winners are selected by the system”
• EZBUY said they have a system to include “Higher chance and higher possibility” for Reviews with pictures.
• However, because the “seen date is set wrongly” in the system, they have picked an out-of-date review which was unqualified to enter the draw.

THEY ARE TELLING LIES.

Actually, EZBUY do not have system to pick the Winners. They also do not have technology to assign “Higher possibility of winning” to product reviews with real pictures.

I WILL EXPLAIN WHY.

As the promotion requires Users to leave Product reviews about their 11.11 purchases, the participants have to submit Product URLs in a Google form. However, Users can only submit SHOP URLs, as there is no way to extract individual Product Review URLs.

This means that the system could only randomly select the “User IDs” from all of the submitted SHOP URLs. However, the organizer will have to manually search for the corresponding “Product review” of the “User” in the Product Reviews section. 

Next, they have to manually check the review date is within the range (according to the T&Cs) to ensure the selected review is qualified for the Lucky draw. This might explain why they had picked an erroneous Winner, which review date is out-of-date.

Furthermore, it is IMPOSSIBLE for EZBUY to include “Higher chance of winning” for the individual reviews if they only have PRODUCT/ SHOP URLs.

This is my 9th email to them:

1. The Crappy reviewer JINA.LIM submitted an out-of-date review, in which the review date is not within the T&Cs. Then, the 7-Word CRAPPY review was erroneously selected in the system because the seen date is set wrongly due to the DISORGANIZED Lucky Draw.

2. As you stated, the Lucky Draw is based on PROBABILITY, so why does it matter whether JINA.LIM had made many positive reviews or not? The system had picked an unqualified review posted on the wrong date; do you check the background of the Winner? Do you select the Winners randomly and then check the number of reviews they had submitted and how many items they had bought during the promotion? If the range of dates has been set correctly to 26th November to 2nd December (as stated within the T&Cs), there is NO WAY THE SYSTEM can draw out JINA.LIM’s OUT-OF-DATE review.

This is concrete evidence that there is NO SYSTEM behind the Lucky Draw promotion as EZBUY had planned to only pick Winners from pre-selected Sponsored shops and sellers in a LUCKY DRAW SCAM.

3. Ultimately, the failure of the promotion is the POOR LUCKY DRAW RESULTS in which the Marketing department had chose to SHOW OFF CRAPPY REVIEWERS. The malpractice of FALSE ADVERTISING a fake unethical promotion is not something you can sweep under the carpet.

4. Your Apology and Announcement needs to appear on the Official Facebook of EZBUY to apologize to all the participating reviewers. I will not accept an apology in an OUTDATED PROMOTION LINK with a group of unidentifiable users. Who are these unidentifiable Users? (FAKE ACCOUNTS?) Where are their reviews? Did they submit detailed reviews and attach real pictures?

5. The Apology and Announcement in the Official Facebook of EZBUY needs to address the THREE following issues or I will not accept your apology.

• EZBUY needs to APOLOGIZE for SHOWING-OFF CRAPPY REVIEWS in the Lucky Draw and ignoring the hardworking reviewers in the platform.
• Do not use EMPTY WORDS to ask for your customers’ understanding to TRUST THE BLIND AND POOR RESULTS after picking CRAPPY REVIEWERS as your winners. State clearly in the Announcement, what type of Reviewers can win Lucky Draw in the future? If the winning Reviewers did not submit detailed reviews with REAL PRODUCT PICTURES of their purchase, where is the evidence that the WINNERS are REAL USERS or FAKE ACCOUNTS? The Lucky Draw results showing off Crappy Reviews is not credible and not fair to REAL USERS. 
• Given the poor Lucky Draw results on 3rd & 10th December, do you think EZBUY should continue to organize Lucky Draw based on PROBABILITY and award the CRAPPY VAGUE REVIEWERS? Is it really EZBUY’s intention to breed a community of CRAPPY VAGUE REVIEWERS?? I will not participate in your future promotions as the poor Lucky Draw results is not fair to HARDWORKING PARTICIPATING REVIEWERS.”

After I had exposed their lack of technology to calculate “Higher possibility” via SHOP URLs, EZBUY Management had wanted to speak to me via phone call. However, due to their lack of honesty in answering my enquiries, I decided not to communicate with them privately.

EZBUY did not intend to post Public Apology. If EZBUY had made a mistake, they should have admitted to their error and apologized immediately to ALL OF THE PARTICIPATING REVIEWERS. 

Moreover, they had indeed planned out the promotion without a proper or fair method of choosing Lucky draw Winners.

Therefore, I had asked for their Public Apology to appear in their Facebook so that all of their customers will be warned of their SUSPICIOUS DEALINGS. In the end, EZBUY FINALLY POSTED A PUBLIC APOLOGY on their Facebook on 29^th of December.

(You can read their email below.)

“Dear customer,

Sincerely sorry for keeping you waiting.

Actually, our management has called several times during the previous days, however, there is no result, but after several attempts, your brother received the call, to avoid any further delay or inconvenience, could you spare some of your time to inform us of the convenient period, we can communicate with you via phone.

Sorry for the inconvenience caused and appreciate your kind understanding.

Best regards,
Pan Qiuqiu
Customer service center”

My reply,

“Hi, I do not wish to communicate with your management. For the failure of this promotion, I will accept Apology in the Official Facebook of Ezbuy. If the Announcement lacks sincerity to apologize to all the participating reviewers, I will publish my story regarding your Lucky draw Scam on the popular Internet forums in Singapore.”

Their reply,
“Dear customer,

This is customer service manager Queena and please do accept my sincere apologies. I have deeply investigate this case and figured out the whole issue.
I would like to thank you for your kind advise and we would seek for further internal improvement to provide you and all other valued ezbuy customers better services to prevent this from happening again, sincerely sorry one more time for all the inconvenience caused.

We've made an announcement on Facebook and hope that you may kindly accept our sincere apologies on this matter.”

My reply,
“Hi Do you have the facebook link? I do not see the Announcement on facebook.”

Their reply,

“Dear customer,

Thank you for your kind reply.

The following is the Facebook link for ezbuy Share & Win. Please kindly check that the announcement posted on Dec.29, 2018 at 8:00 pm.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ezbuysharewin/?fref=nf&__xts__[0]=68.ARB1wEe9OA7HTtFtnCswD9XUDWDYDM4u7Pgs-mzVeWPjKk6zvViXy6MZlGipUy_5rhtoij7Q6OzWCYJ8c90Ogv65JDoxPCBdGmuqIA3k3N7Jtgy-4klEOP1OF-3qRj8EiTZA7kT-7YrCilAh9Ys1OKT4OtFY_54ckhbZSVUqehKLltVDjFLYATSRIMU64KZqer7A1YT8En4_e3no-dzqbFCCa4HpdwnQRS5_sY3DomHP8qbpYCWPJL6CQtoLcAaPuMaFNvyGIJ6fOTWZ5j3XwlXQ-q6eJ_8zs1t6VzzyZjDsAqtD7aaQcn8Wn-Ao1dON2Cs&__tn__=kC-R

This our sincere apology to our valued customers for the deficiency in Share & Win. We also hope to express our sincere thankfulness to you for taking time and efforts to give us kind advise. We will take careful consideration on every one of our activities in the future. Thank you again for your always support to ezbuy.

Best regards,
Queena Dong -Customer service manager
Customer Service Center (Shanghai)”

To round up my investigation, I had asked Queena (Customer service manager) for her opinion to account for the LUCKY DRAW SCAM.

I sent my email to her,

1.    Do you know that the Lucky Draw promotion is FALSE ADVERTISING FAKE TIPS AND GUIDELINES?

2.    As mentioned by the Marketing department, the Lucky Draw is based on Probability and the Winners are selected randomly. EZBUY do not have the technology to calculate “Higher possibility” for reviews with Details and Pictures. The poor results of the first two weeks of the draw showing off Crappy reviewers are the evidence of a disorganized Lucky draw. The Lucky Draw promotion is a SCAM.

How do you explain?

29 Days ago

Although Queena did not reply me, I received a reply from Grace from Customer Service Center. She mentioned that she had made further contact with the Marketing Department manager, who would explain the situation in detail via phone call.

29 Days ago

Once again, I told her that I do not wish to communicate via phone call because the explanation needs to be clearly written for the public. I asked her to explain the process in which the Lucky Draw winners are chosen.

24 Days ago

Grace said the Marketing manager “has not been available these days and would you kindly leave her a few more days to reply for your inquiries when she came back to her office next week? Her reply will be sent to you via this email.”

19 Days ago

Customer service sent their reply

“As per your request, I've checked with our Marketing Manager and was informed that they will check through all the participants' submission links.

For the purpose of clarity and transparency, our Marketing Manager has listed out the steps which our team takes to select our winners:

1. Customer submits product reviews’ links via the Google form 
2. Our marketing team downloads the details and sorts them accordingly
3. All entries are looked through manually one-by-one, then picked at random. Some with details and pictures are then manually picked upon discretion, again on a random basis. 

We currently do not have a technology to pick or assign a higher probability to product reviews with both details and pictures, though I can see how it will be useful. This is a manual selection, hence we understand that it is less fair than that of a system selection method. We will definitely look into the copy-writing and selection process, such that it is a more organised and better activity for all customers in the future.

For the erroneous winner previously, we have rectified it upon you bringing it to our attention. It was an overlook, and we sincerely apologize for the unpleasant experience caused.

We do appreciate each and every participants including yourself whom have taken time to write reviews and participate in our activity. Our intention of these giveaways and this community group is to award and encourage customers to leave valuable reviews for other shoppers and share of their EZBUY haul. 

I hope that this has answered your concerns, and will proceed to close this case. 
Thank you.

Best regards,
Grace
Customer Service Center (Shanghai)”

IN SUMMARY: 

HOW ARE LUCKY DRAW WINNERS CHOSEN

• "MANUAL SELECTION method"
• "All entries are looked through manually one-by-one, then picked at random. Some with details and pictures are then manually picked upon discretion, again on a random basis." 
• "do not have a technology to pick or assign a higher probability to product reviews with both details and pictures"

• This means that EZBUY was lying when they said that the “Winners are selected randomly by the system.” 
• Instead, they had MANUALLY picked CRAPPY reviews with the intent to FAKE THE IMPRESSION OF A “PROBABILITY SYSTEM”.

I sent them a reply to conclude my investigation.

1. Finally, your department had admitted that they do not have the “technology to pick or assign a higher probability”. As you mentioned, “all entries are looked through manually one-by-one”. Hence, this promotion is not based on probability and the selection is NOT RANDOM. The process in picking the winners is UNFAIR.

2. Given that the Lucky draw Winners are manually selected after inspection, how can the marketing manager purposely choose 7-WORD, 8-WORD CRAPPY REVIEWERS (who did not attach any real pictures) to win the Lucky draw? Your original intention is to cheat customers that the Lucky draw is based on a probability system. However, the truth is that such a technology is not available in your department.

3. This is OPPOSITE of what you have said to “encourage customers to leave valuable reviews”. Since all the reviews have been looked through manually, is it even REASONABLE for you to ignore the REVIEWERS who have submitted REAL PICTURES and positive reviews with more than 100 words? How can you pick CRAPPY REVIEWERS as your WINNERS?

4. Unfortunately, the promotion is based on advertising FAKE PROBABILITY OF WINNING. In fact, the manual-selection method do not favour reviews with details and real pictures. If you appreciate your customers, you should not have advertised fake promotion to cheat customers. 

“Dear customer,

Thank you for all the feedbacks you have given, our marketing team will definitely work better to carry out better activities to our customers in the future.

P.S. We are into CNY and emails will be surly followed up after the Chinese New Year from Feb. 12. Thank you.

Best regards,
Grace
Customer Service Center (Shanghai)”

Conclusion

The Lucky draw organized by EZBUY is not an event based on Probability. Since there is no fair system to organize the Lucky draw, EZBUY employees can "manually choose" their family members or friends to win. The Chance of winning is also not based on Reviews. If EZBUY only wants to choose Higher-priced product review from Sponsored shops and sellers, the manual-selection method will not favor customers who buy large quantities of Lower-priced items.

At the end, I wanted to share the collage of the 28 product reviews that I had posted for the Lucky draw. Hopefully, there are some of you who can relate to my disappointment and anger. EZBUY did not right away admit to their mistakes and shady methods. This is the reason I have decided to share my encounter with EZBUY LUCKY DRAW SCAM on the Internet.