When Verizon revealed the “shatterproof” Droid Turbo 2 last week, Big Red also announced a giveaway as a way to promote the handset. Unfortunately, the only thing the giveaway seemingly promoted was the carrier’s inability to hold a contest without serious issues, reports PhoneArena.
Using the #WhyNotWednesday hashtag, Verizon kicked off Droid Seeker, a contest disguised as an online game that gave 200 lucky winners a free Droid Turbo 2. After heading to the Droid Seeker website and entering your phone number and Twitter sign-in credentials, you were then teleported to a city at night. Your objective was to find the Droid Turbo 2 hidden in the city within 30 seconds.
If you found the smartphone, you were a winner, with a PhoneArena reader allegedly one of the winners. Unfortunately, even though he was reportedly number 40 with 198 Droid Turbo 2 smartphones still available, he ran into technical difficulties while playing the game. More specifically, the game seemingly froze for hours, pushing the reader out of the running for a free handset.
He then contacted Verizon on Twitter, with the company offering him a $50 gift card as an apology for the technical errors. A quick search of the #WhyNotWednesday hashtag on Twitter, however, revealed that the reader was not the only person to have had technical issues with Droid Seeker:
@verizon Droidseeker won’t update position in line. Tried different browsers/devices/account lines. Nothing works. #WhyNotWednesday
— Bryan (@Jcartertha2) October 28, 2015
@verizon #droidseeker just knocked me out of my place in line. Was #180….now 700+!! — Brandon Combs (@theboa69) October 28, 2015
@verizon lots of issues with Droid Seeker – what’s going on VZW? #WhyNotWednesday #WhyNotWednesdayFail
— Adam C (@timeowner) October 28, 2015
Five hours and 45 minutes and counting of endless waiting for an opportunity that never comes. @verizon #droidturbo2 #WhyNotWednesday — Lord Xenu (@TheDarkLordXenu) October 28, 2015
Damn you @verizon I played your #WhyNotWednesday game, found the phone with 8seconds left and still got the boot! I call shenanigans
— Barstool Prophet (@CannonKCCO) October 28, 2015
Of course, there were also many winners, and it’s unrealistic to expect any contest to run 100 percent smoothly. Regardless, based on the aforementioned Twitter interactions and others, this contest’s losers seemingly have valid complaints to throw Verizon’s way.
