September sweepstakes

[jg4150]

What happened to the September sweepstakes?  In September, my wife and I both earned and invested 185,500 points worth of entries in 12 different sweepstakes, all of which were to end on Sept 30, according to the rules printed on the entry page.  Now we see that those same sweepstakes have been extended until Oct 31.  By extending the sweepstakes another month, the value of our September entries is diluted, since the pool of entries will now be so much larger.  Had we known that this extension was going to happen, we would have planned our points investments differently.  Talk about changing the rules in the middle of the game!  Isn't there an obligation to conduct these sweepstakes according to the printed rules?  Should AARP be able to simply say, "Sorry, no winners drawn this month, let's wait a while"?

[AARPConsumerCare]

We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused, @jg4150. Since the sweepstakes were not initially launched when the site resumed from maintenance we have extended the September sweepstakes through October 31st to give all AARP Rewards users more time to enter. We appreciate you being part of the AARP Rewards program. - Brandon C.

[jg4150]

I appreciate the apology, and I understand that the lengthy hiatus due to unplanned maintenance created a difficult situation.  But one of the fundamentals about sweepstakes is that you can't change the rules once the game has started.  Use any search engine to find laws governing sweepstakes, and that's one of the first things you'll see.  I think that AARP (or whoever administers the Rewards program) made the wrong call in this instance - with good intentions, but the wrong call.

[RichardB815971]

You are so right.  I entered because it was a short month only to find out later that it had been extended.  I am thinking this is a violation of the laws regarding sweepstakes but don't know that for sure.   Kind of a bait and switch,.

[MariaK113398]

We still don't know who (if anyone) won the August sweepstakes. It still has not been posted. 

Also I had 80 entries for the CVS September sweepstakes, but now that it's a new month when I played today it says I have zero entries, not only for CVS but for the others I played last month as well. Do my September entries for sweepstakes still count?  A lot of unanswered questions.

[AARPConsumerCare]

Hi, @MariaK113398. The announcement of August sweepstakes winners has been delayed, and you can expect to see a list of winners in the near future. Also, the sweepstakes entry counter resets on a daily basis. If you enter 3 times that they, the counter will show you have 3 entries. However, when you come back the next day, the counter will always say "You currently have 0 entries in this sweepstakes." Let me know if there's anything else I can help with! - Christy C. 

[RenateW69623]

I just played the sweeps I had also played in September and the total entries include my entries from September. You should contact customer support about your account tomorrow if you still don't see your entries from September.

[RenateW69623]

I think they did this because of the site being down for half of the month. I thought they would just extend the September sweeps and not have new ones for October, but I see they have done both. I am also annoyed that they did this, because now I have to decide if I want to keep entering the September sweeps or start any new October sweeps, and figure out how many entries I can get with my earned points.