ice-driving holiday in sweden

crescend0 · 6 May 2007 at 12:03AM

on 26th april i recieved this email

"Hello Luke

CONGRATULATIONS!

You've been selected as the winner of the trip to go ice driving in Sweden from the Volkswagen trip on the link below:

https://www.cntraveller.co.uk/promotions/vwtouareg

Please can you confirm receipt of this email as soon as possible and let me know your contact telephone number so that I can pass it onto Volkwagen and get them to start organising your trip.

Many thanks
Carly"

on the 28th april i sent an email back to let them know i'd recieved the above message

on the 1st may i got a reply

"Dear Luke

Many thanks for your entry for the VW Touareg competition on CNTraveller.com.

I am sorry but according to our Terms and Conditions winners must respond within 24 hours of notification or entries will not be valid. Unfortunately we did not hear back from you within this period however we are pleased to offer you a year long subscription to a Condé Nast title of your choice:

Condé Nast Traveller
Vogue
GQ
Glamour
EasyLiving Magazine
Tatler
Vanity Fair
House & Garden
World of Interiors

Please can you let me know which magazine you would like and send me your address so I can organise the subscription for you.

Kind regards

Charlotte"

i was one day late. i'm fuming. how can they expect everyone who enters to check their email everyday? ice driving in sweden one minute, £12 subscription to a magazine i'll never read the next. brilliant.

i won't be bothering entering any more

Strepsy · 6 May 2007 at 12:09AM

I think Black_Saturn's mentioned having trouble with these people before. Hopefully she may have some advice but I don't know that there's anything you can do if it was in the T&Cs. Presumably they give it 24 hrs then contact the next person. Really feel for you

josie301 · 6 May 2007 at 12:16AM

What a shame, but as Strepsy says if it's in the t&c's then I don't know that there is much you can do.

It is very unfair to have such a short reply time though. Although being as anal as I am I check my email at least half a dozen times a day!! lol :rolleyes:

hope someone has some more helpful advice for you.

BIG EDIT: you may want to check here for the competition Terms and conditions. (being anal I clicked on the link on your OP)

lizzielie · 6 May 2007 at 12:21AM

Not much of substitute. With replying within 24 hours, you can understand it if it was something happening within a few days, but does not seem to be the case for this prize...I could not see anything in the T & C's about the prize winner had to reply within 24 hours. Did I miss something?

PS! don't let that put you off entering comps.

perc · 6 May 2007 at 6:47AM

lizzielie wrote: »

Not much of substitute. With replying within 24 hours, you can understand it if it was something happening within a few days, but does not seem to be the case for this prize...I could not see anything in the T & C's about the prize winner had to reply within 24 hours. Did I miss something?

PS! don't let that put you off entering comps.

12. Winners are required to accept their prize within 5 days of notification. In the event of non-acceptance, the Promoter will re-draw and select a new winner (the same acceptance period will apply for the new winner).

Thrupneybit · 6 May 2007 at 6:53AM

12, Winners are required to accept their prize within 5 days of notification. In the event of non-acceptance, the Promoter will re-draw and select a new winner (the same acceptance period will apply for the new winner).
No purchase necessary.

As it states 5days in their t&c's surely you were with-in their silly time restraints, You ought to quote their rule to them.
Your next step is to mention ASA,The Advertising Standards Authority, just those very words is often enough to scare promotors. Lots of compers have achieved results with their help>>> ASA
Good Luck

fluffynit · 6 May 2007 at 8:40AM

i thought the t&c's said...Winners will be notified by telephone no later than Sunday 29th April 2007.

personally, i would phone for a rant about notification method and the five day response thing. I wonder if they can no longer provide the prize and are now trying to change the entry rules.

let us know how you get on

fluffynit

azp74 · 6 May 2007 at 8:54AM

That's appalling. The first email didn't say anything about having to respond within 24 hours (not to mention the fact that just because an email is sent it doesn't mean it always arrives 30 seconds later at its destination - I'd be tempted to point that fact out too). It's also pretty iffy that the first email was from Carly & the second from Charlotte.

I'd be having a proper whinge!!

Best of luck with this!

ferrarigirlie · 6 May 2007 at 11:20AM

hope you get it all sorted...let us know how you get on

lizzielie · 6 May 2007 at 1:20PM

Q) If I am unhappy with the way a competition has been run, or have problems obtaining my prize, who can I contact?

A) The Institute of Sales Promotions are the regulatory body that offer advice to promoters on the best practice of running a competition/promotion. They will investigate all competitions to ensure that they are being run fairly. Send your enquiries clearly expressed to: [EMAIL="enquiries@isp.org.uk"]enquiries@isp.org.uk[/EMAIL]

Maybe they can help you? Found here, they also have loads of other good advice.

It also offer this advise:

Q) How long does the promoter keep trying to contact the winner to offer them their prize?

The Institute of Sales Promotion’s ‘best practice’ code recommends that promoters try to contact the winner for four weeks, by telephone email and post (one letter at least being sent Recorded Delivery). After this, if there is no contact then they can award the prize to the second name drawn. However if the prize is for an event in the near future (often competitions running in the Metro newspaper are for events the next day) then of course the second name has to be contacted immediately.

crescend0 · 6 May 2007 at 1:22PM

Haha, thanks for all the replies. I was expecting at least a few snidey comments telling me i should be grateful for the GQ subscription. I've sent them an email quoting the 5 day thing. Don't why I didnt think to check the terms and conditions myself. Suppose I assumed a massive publisher like Conde Nast would be a little more honest.

If the email doesn't work i'll send another threatening them with the ASA like Thrupneybit suggested.

Cheers, will let you know what happens.

ice-driving holiday in sweden

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