Nothing is Mahala

So hubby and I went for a nice walk. We were having a nice time, the weather was cool and fresh, we were laughing and all was good. Then some young guy stops to tell us of a new company and how they’re running this promotion and giving away free prizes and then handed us a scratch ticket. We won a R50 meal gift card. And he said cuz we look like such a nice couple (and it was clearly a slow day) we get another scratch ticket. It was 3 palm trees in a row and he was all shocked cuz that’s the grand prize and there are only 5 of those being given away. Hubby was excited, I stood there recalling all the times I’ve “won” a grand prize trip and was wondering what the catch was (what did we have to buy, endure, or pay to claim this grand prize trip). He said to claim our prize we just need to hear about their new business in an hour presentation. I immediately asked if it was a timeshare presentation. He said, not quite but more on timeshare points plan or something like that. We walked over to their swanky little office amongst the pricey restaurants so I was calmed that it couldn’t be a “give us your bank details” scam (that's more likely to be via text), but more of a forced selling of timeshare type presentation. I endured one of those in Florida for $100. So due to that former experience, I thought we’ll at least get that meal gift voucher out of it. I knew the grand prize trip wasn’t going to turn into anything more than a let down so I wasn’t even pumped about that “win” to begin with.

Once inside, they offered us something to drink and I said I’d take the orange juice and hit the loo cuz preggy belly wasn’t gonna make it thru an hour yapping without emptying the shrinking bladder. Came back and hubby was filling out a form, you know the kind-name, phone, email to harass you with, what do you do for work and your income bracket. I thought I was being clever by circling the lowest bracket to avoid a heavy sales pitch. Not that I would cave to a heavy sales pitch, but that I wasn’t interested in spending my morning as such. The lady was hovering as we filled out the form and as soon as she saw me circle the lowest bracket she said we needn’t bother to complete the rest of the form and she’ll take it from there. Obviously, she saw that a sale won’t be made with us today based on a judgement of our perceived income level. I forgot a tidbit of info. On my way to the loo, I saw one sales consultant chatting with a nicely dressed couple doing his sales pitch bit. Anyways, she came back and said all the sales consultants were busy (funny as I only saw one guy pitching while the others were milling about) but she’ll give us our “prize” before we go. She handed us our “grand prize trip” voucher which she explained was just hotel accommodation in either Mauritius, Spain or the Canary Islands (we’d still need to cough up the change for the flight and the meal option whether we wanted it or not said the fine print on the back). She also said we have 30 days to register our voucher and the registration is drum roll please R89 per person. So typical of the winning grand prize trips I’ve experienced in the past. She also said we have a year to redeem the voucher and if we don’t then the R89 will be refunded. She also pointed out that we have to reference the voucher number on top which was number 12 thousand something. Clearly, not only 5 of these were being given away. But honestly, my hopes not dashed there cuz I expected much less plus I've been around long enough to know what is and what isn't too good to be true. Side note-did you know that even when you win on a true game show (Price is Right, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, etc), you still have to reach into your pockets for Mr taxman who is standing right there beside your prize? There's ALWAYS T&C's in any prize giveaway. Anyways. Then I asked the whereabouts of our meal gift voucher. She said they gave away the last one yesterday. O how convenient. So either, they weren’t giving any away or she deemed us not good enough to have that R50 gift voucher to dine at one of these fine restaurants. I hate that. I hate being judged like that. Really pisses me off. Even in Florida when we didn’t buy a dang thing from their presentation, they still gave us our $100. Nothing is mahala. Mahala means free.

Ps, I didn’t even get that free glass of orange juice they offered me.