Snowball Hunt ends early
Fanatec Team
Administrator
We regret to announce that our Snowball Hunt has come to an early end.
The Snowball Hunt was intended to be a fun way to offer a few extra special discounts for some lucky customers and spread some Christmas cheer. To those who discovered codes fairly and played within the spirit of the event—congratulations and well done!
However, not everyone participated fairly. Over the past few days, we noticed a significant rise in the use of automated tools, or “crawlers”, enabling users to instantly locate hidden codes without putting in any effort or actively participating in the hunt, making it nearly impossible for others to compete fairly. The use of these tools was also causing a significant strain on the website. We ultimately decided that the best course of action was to end the contest early to maintain a stable experience on the website for everyone.
We will reflect and improve how we introduce contests like the Snowball Hunt in the future, with better ways to prevent unfair practices. Thank you for playing, and we hope you enjoy a safe and happy holiday season.
Team Fanatec
Comments
It was an interesting and exciting idea, and I think a lot of people were excited by the possibility of getting a big ticket item they had previously written off. Unfortunately, it didn't work out as intended and resulted in abuse of both the system and well-meaning customers. I'm sure this was a tough message to deliver, but it's definitely the right one in this case.
It was a well-intended effort but it was doomed from the start. This made existing loyal customers like myself frustrate after the not super exciting Black Friday sale.
First of all you need the limited edition release spot on. Last year I got one and regretted not getting two f1 wheels. This year’s wheel looks low effort compared to the previous ones. It’s the halo product to get the holydays shoppers excited, do something more exciting. (low key I was expecting the Porsche Vision GT wheel to be on sale. That would have made up for all of this). Then there was the black Friday product list which also was not well thought out.
You could have given people who do the end of year shopping with you small benefit rather than large benefits for a few people. The free QR2 and the other discounts already in the website are already pretty good, advertise that more and have the products available.
And please put an availability date rather than saying it’s sold out. I don’t know if I have to wait for the sparco wheel a month or 2 years, that kind of stuff make us look at Moza site be like, Hmmm… did I make a mistake.
The snow ball hunt made me frustrated because I was working all day and missed all of it in the beginning. I think a lot of people were in the same situation and feels left out and then we find out that we had no chance anyway to begin with.
Get the basics fixed and existing customers happy before going after new ones. Last year was not great and people where hoping for you guys to come out swinging. But it slowly became a letdown. Get it right next year I guess…
i searched in webpage the snowballs. then i give up. and then someone typed its some hidden text instead. for me fun end very fast
I loved this idea, and I thought it was really cool. I have been drooling over Fanatec gear since buying my PlayStation a few months ago since I have been bed ridden from a nerve issue, which I had spinal surgery for, but now I am in worse pain than before and nobody knows why, so that's fun. I lost my job over this as well, so I won't be able to buy it for Christmas. that being said, I was hoping that I could potentially get lucky and get a few things on my wish list as I think I am probably due for a bit of "good luck" any day now, but some buttholes had to ruin it. I had my cart ready to go and I've been watching the website.
This is a great idea, Fanatec. I really hope you will try this again next year with a different delivery method. It gave me a bit of hope that I could pull something off, although it was an unlikely chance.
I am looking forward to getting a cool setup later, as I am drawn in by sim racing!
Happy Holidays everyone!
Great idea, but poorly executed.
once I realised I wasn’t going to get a snowball, I decided to just use the free shipping to get a QR2 (and maybe the McLaren wheel as well)
But I have been unable to login to my account on the AU store for 4 days, so I have missed the free shipping offer.
Thank you, Jason. We appreciate your feedback.
Best, your Fanatec Team
Yea, this is why we cannot have nice things. Maybe first codes were taken by usual customers but the rest probably by bots.
I was looking every every 2-3 hours on PS compatible drive bases ( DD Extreme, DD+ and F1) on both EU and DE with the hope that I could get a discount on one of those ( only way I could afford a 1300$ base 😂), but reading this announcement probably I would had 0.00000000000001% chances to get one anyway.
Nevertheless It was a cool idea, I was taking into account also the pictures on the product page, maybe something was hiding somewhere 😂
Happy Holidays everyone!
Seems like the people who don't read this blog are still looking for the codes. since people found out about this mostly on instagram maybe they should be informed there too?
😓I look forward to seeing the CSDD extension pole discounted, it's really too expensive at the moment
ClubSport DD was cheaper in launch day or to you mean the DD Shaft Extension that one i not remember if that was cheaper or not
but by default that Free Shipping already makes them cheaper self if you not notice
Hii,
very disappointed, I actively participated in the research.
I am a loyal fanatec customer. and I was looking for a DD+ or the Monte Carlo wheel.. both being quite expensive it was a possible way to get them :( thank you anyway for trying, and congratulations to the winners!
ha, DD+ should be atm 15% discount plus free shipping -.-
"congratulations to the winners!" ....... ?! To the scalpers you mean?! There is nothing to congratulate to such people which ruined the experience for everyone else with their sh*t scrawler tools etc!
I suspect they banned your account. I know some people who searched the web site manually looking for the elusive "snowball", and now cannot login either, yet others who didn't participate can still login.
doupt that. more like people may still get that web loading error message but not actually sure as snow ended
I was talking about those who have not used a bot...
Apparently there were not many other "real" winners, otherwise the hunt would not have ended early though..
Moin moin allerseits,
Und es ist absolut unglaublich, dass wieder Leute versucht haben, das System auszutricksen. Zum Kotzen, die Welt ist so scheiße
Den kostenlosen Versand habe ich bisher auch nicht in Anspruch nehmen können, aber immerhin gibt es aktuell den QR2 mit den Lenkrädern. Daraufhin habe ich mir das GT- und WRC-Lenkrad noch ;) geschnappt.
Ich freue mich schon auf das kommende Jahr, wenn dies mit Xbox-Unterstützung verbessert wird und die Lenkräder endlich anfangen zu blinken;)
Frohe Feiertage an alle