The current Smoked by Windows Phone marketing campaign at the various Microsoft Store retail locations in the US has been hit with cries of fraud by some participants. A few have complained that Microsoft Store managers have denied them the grand prize of a $1,000 HP Folio Ultrabook.
We have already reported that Microsoft has attempted to solve these issues with at least some of these winners. Now it looks like Microsoft will continue to run the Smoked by Windows Phone campaign for a few more days. Originally scheduled to stop on March 29th, the contest rules on the Microsoft Store site now show it will be extended until April 5th.
The contest rules also go into detail about what the challenges have been made for the Smoked by Windows Phone campaign and the conditions that the contestants must abide by if they want to win. If a person does not win the challenge, Microsoft will give a new Windows Phone device to the user in exchange for their old smartphone. Each Microsoft Store location will have 100 such smartphones to give out per day. When the supply is exhausted, all remaining losers will then receive a $25 Microsoft Store gift card.
We just hope that Microsoft Store employees and managers will give contestants the benefit of the doubt this time when one of their patrons happens to win a challenge, instead of denying them prizes and causing a rather embarrassing PR incident in the process.