Taxi-booking service FreeNow has apologised after a 'technical issue' resulted in many users incorrectly receiving up to €200 worth of vouchers earlier today.

On Friday morning, FreeNow customers were offered the chance to win a voucher worth up to €200 if they could solve a puzzle which read: “I’m made of snow but never feel the cold. The answer to this riddle is a promo code worth €200 towards your next 10 trips".

The first 100 customers to correctly answer the riddle would be be given 10 x €20 vouchers that were valid until January 31.

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Customers quickly figured out the answer was “snowman”. However, there was soon confusion and delight among FreeNow users as it quickly emerged that the deal was not limited to just the first 100, with countless users benefiting from the vouchers after word spread across social media.

However, the fun was short-lived as FreeNow quickly cancelled the vouchers, with many people taking social media to express their outrage and also poke fun at the company.

Free Now have since issued an apology over the confusion and explained that a 'technical issue' meant that anyone who submitted a correct answer incorrectly received a voucher.

“Earlier today, FreeNow launched a passenger raffle offering FreeNow vouchers to the first 100 users who solved an in-app Christmas riddle,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, there was a technical issue with the raffle on the app this morning and vouchers were issued beyond the first 100 winners.

“We express our sincere apologies for any confusion or inconvenience caused to passengers as a result of this technical issue which has since been resolved."

FreeNow said that those who solved the riddle but were outside the first 100 users have since had their vouchers revoked. However, the first 100 winners of the raffle will still receive their prizes.

Any customers who were incorrectly allocated vouchers will instead be entered into an "exclusive new raffle" with a prize fund of €20,000 worth of vouchers, ranging from €5 to €1,000, Free Now added.

“In line with the terms and conditions of our raffle, the first 100 raffle winners will all receive their prize vouchers. Vouchers allocated to anyone outside this group due to the technical issue were retracted," the FreeNow spokesperson explained.

"Any passengers who submitted the correct answer to our raffle today and were incorrectly allocated vouchers, will now be automatically entered into an exclusive new raffle which we are launching this afternoon with a prize fund of 20,000 euro worth of FreeNow vouchers, ranging from 5 euro to 1000 euro.”

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