Glitch in Pepsi Christmas instant win results in multiple £1000 winners
Britvic look to be in hot water today after a glitch in the system resulted in dozens of people winning £1000 cash in their Pepsi Max Christmas Refreshed promotion.
The instant win promotion – at https://xmas.britvic.promo and listed on the SuperLucky Instant Wins page – has 105 prizes, and is running until 31 December 2021. There should only be five £1000 winners, plus a hundred £50 winners, with prizes awarded to the first entrant after each of the 105 winning moments.
However, on the evening of Sunday 28 November between around 9pm and 10pm, multiple entrants reported winning the £1000 top prize (at least 35 so far).
Winners were able to submit their details, and should expect an email confirming the win and asking them to supply ID in order to claim the prize.
It was only when several members of my Facebook group Lucky Learners reported wins at the same time, they realised something had gone wrong with the instant win mechanic.
This isn’t the first time there’s been a glitch in an instant win promotion, but usually if there’s a problem you don’t get to input your contact details – the only evidence you have of your win is the congratulations screenshot, and the promoter won’t usually accept this as evidence of a win. In this case the promoter will have the contact details of all the £1000 winners from last night – but none have yet been contacted.
BP & Bodyform honour winners after technical glitch with competitions
In January this year there was a similar problem with a BP promotion where receipts at petrol stations incorrectly informed hundreds of people they had won the daily prize of £2,000 of rewards points! The error was fixed on the same day, but BP did honour the prizes of those affected.
Back in 2014, a similar issue happened in a Bodyform instant win promotion. They had ten £10,000 VIP trips to New York on offer, yet over a hundred people won these at the start of the promotion! Bodyform honoured the prizes, but gave each winner a New York trip without the VIP elements!
Asda too had trouble with a recent ‘spin the wheel’ instant win promotion, where multiple people won £100. Again, they honoured the prizes.
I’m sure a big company like Britvic will have risk insurance to cover something like this happening, and I’m interested to see how Britvic, Pepsi and Ignis (the company running the instant win) will deal with the situation. I’ll update this post when I have news.
Were you one of the £1000 winners? Let me know in the comments. You can also keep up to date with the chat thread in Lucky Learners.
Good news! (update on 30 November)
On the afternoon of 30 November, all winners received emails from Pepsi to confirm their £1000 wins! Well done to Ignis and Britvic for honouring these prizes, and congratulations to all those lucky winners – what a great prize just in time for the Christmas shopping!
Have received as well. The link to create the £1000 credit card was emailed today.
I have just successfully received mine! woohoo what a weekend this is gonna be!! x thank you Di!!
Got mine too!, all set up and working. A huge thanks Di for your mentioning it, because it was here that I entered from.
I was advised by phone yesterday that these will all be completely processed by Tuesday 14th December at the latest. Hopefully this means that we will all have them in plenty of time to blitz the shops too!
Just got mine! Woohoo xxx
My brother has just received his card! Still awaiting mine but looks like they’re processing! X
My husband won £50 on 20/11/21, and received notification of this on 30/11/21 and the link to claim the gift card the very next day, and its now already spent!
I am just wondering out loud, (and hope that the above dates may be of help to some of you) what sort of time scales we are talking about, and if, like myself, you are all waiting for some cash injection to start relaxing about Christmas? I am guessing as we were notified on 30/11/21, we could expect to hear 10 days later of our £1000 link for the credit card – what do you think?!
Can anyone let me know if they have received any communication confirming their email confirmation or acknowledging this, at all, since 30th November? I think I am just really really impatient as its such a heightened emotion sort of time of year!!!
Thank you for this information. I am eagerly awaiting my prize!
Yes, me too! I think I can only feel that Christmas can properly start and I can start getting excited when I get this!! x
I accepted instantly on 30th and am holding my breath that this is real . It will be so good to hear that winners are receiving the link to the lucky mastercards.
We didn’t contact Ignis or Britvic. My daughter received an email today from Britvic asking her to confirm acceptance of the prize. No ID was requested (at this stage).
Hi there
Yes me too. I only re-started comping last week after a few years break when my Dad passed away and I lost my mojo. I was soapyjoe on MSE for many years and remember you Di. I was so excited last night and thought Christmas was sorted. Many thanks for your update.
Oh this must be such a blow for you having just got back into comping too. I can assure you it’s very rare that problems like this happen, and most brands really do their best to keep everyone happy. Do come and join us in Lucky Learners as the chat there will help you to keep on top of any news & updates!
Thanks Di. I also saw your reply to Marie and have just email Ingis.
Best wishes
Shirley
I’m a winner too! Fingers crossed for good Christmas news for us! If I wasn’t in Lucky Learners I would be none the wiser!
My daughter won £1000 last night. We were so excited! She took screenshots of the win and also the confirmation to expect the prize in 28 days. Right away we started looking at holiday cottages to book a £1000 Christmas break. We are now devastated to hear it was a glitch :(.
I was a winner and completed my contact details and screen shotted both the winning screen and the confirmation saying thank you and your prize will be with you in 28 days. I was so incredibly excited as this would pay for my whole Christmas. Please advise how I can contact them
You can contact Ignis Lisette – they’re running this promotion on behalf of Pepsi. Phone and email details are at http://ignis.co.uk/#contact
Hi Di, seconds after my phone call an email came in saying congratulations and asking me to confirm my acceptance. They didn’t ask for any ID or anything, however, its a result. I am hoping that this is not an electronically generated email that went out to everyone and the lady Jackie Burns that I spoke to said she would ask a colleague to call me back.
I was a winner too. Have only got a screenshot of the Thanks screen so no proof of amount, just that I won something.
Can someone let me know who to contact please.
You can contact Ignis Marie – they’re running this promotion on behalf of Pepsi. Phone and email details are at http://ignis.co.uk/#contact
Thanks for this Di, but I haven’t had to chase them as I received the confirmation email earlier and have formally accepted the prize as requested.
Well done to Pepsi and Ignis for honouring the prizes and giving us all a fantastic Christmas present.
I’m a winner too, thanks for the info Di, fingers crossed for us all will be so disappointing if they don’t honour it x
I was a winner too! Filled in my details and hoping this will be honoured.
I won last night too. I was so excited to see the congratulations message, I gave my details and had been looking out for the email – really hope they honour it
i won 1,000 last night too rang Inglis they said someone would ring me back
I won also
Yes I won too
I was a winner, so was my husband. No e mail from them yet but we both completed our contact details
I was also one of those winners, no email received as yet.
I won last night and my husband did too. I took a photo of my Winning comment and final one stating acceptance of the online form, no emails yet though.
I was one of the £1000 winners too. I do hope they honour our prize but I remain doubtful.
I was one of the winners and so was my partner. Really hope it’s honoured