A mix-up from Canada's most popular coffee chain has left a woman without a boat. A story from CBC describes the sorrow of Carol Evans, a licensed practical nurse who received an email from the company during their annual Roll Up The Rim campaign saying she'd won a boat.
Sadly, Tim Hortons replied shortly thereafter to explain that the email she'd received had been an error and that Evans had not won the prize.
Evans said she received the first email from Tim Hortons on Wednesday afternoon, which she read while on a break at work.
The email explained she'd won prizes in the annual Roll Up the Rim to Win contest, including one additional prize — a new boat and trailer valued at about $55,000. The winning boat was supposed to be a 2024 Tracker Targa 18 WT with a trailer.
By the time she ended her shift that evening, she had another email from the company explaining the error.
Unfortunately, Evans spent her afternoon celebrating with coworkers.
"I was just so excited, really excited. I thought I really won a boat and a trailer, $55,000 worth, and to find out at five to six, I had an email from them come in telling me it was a technical error," Evans told CBC.
"I don't get my boat and I don't get my trailer," she added.
Evans said her coworkers were equally excited as her and spent the afternoon discussing her big win.
"I work with about a hundred people in the run of a day, and more than that outside the OR, and everybody was so happy for me. They couldn't believe it, I finally won something in my life," she told CBC.
"But to find out a few hours later I didn't, it was disappointing, very disappointing.… I cried, it was so sad."
Tim Hortons didn't disclose how many people received the email, but CBC News identified people in Newfoundland and in Edmonton who received the same email. Several others across Ontario also got the message according to Global News, including people in Hamilton, Brampton, Trenton, and Peterborough.
According to CTV News Kitchener, as many as 500,00 people may have received the email across the country.
Tim Hortons sent an email to CBC News on Thursday, saying the email was meant to show what each customer won over the course of the contest, but the boat was included by mistake.
"We developed a Roll Up To Win recap email message with the best intentions of giving our guests a fun overview of their 2024 play history. Unfortunately there was a human error that resulted in some guests receiving some incorrect information in their recap message," the statement said.
Tim Hortons sent the affected customers a letter, telling them to disregard the previous email and said it was sent as a result of "technical errors."Â
"Unfortunately, some prizes that you did not win may have been included in the recap email you received. If this was the case, today's email does not mean that you won those prizes," the letter said.
"We apologize for the frustration this has caused and for not living up to our high standards."
A similar drama played out last year when the Tim Hortons mobile app mistakenly informed some users they'd won $10,000.
A mix-up two years in a row has some devoted coffee drinkers longing for the days when Roll Up The Rim was played by looking underneath the rim of an actual cup, rather than by using a smartphone app.
Evans is among those who'd like to see a change.
"It's not fair to the public who spend their hard-earned money to go into Tim's and buy their coffee every day, buy their lunch, and then think they won a prize and all of a sudden you learn, three hours later, you didn't win a prize, and it's not fair," Evans told CBC. Despite the recent turmoil, Tim Hortons has been expanding their reach into the boating community with some innovative ideas. They rolled out their inaugural 'boat-thru' on an Ontario lake last summer which had boaters lining up to grab coffee and treats on the water. #news #culture
