Tv comps liable

continualdiamond

Can tv channel competitions be liable for wrong information?

Today i easily spent £20 on a competition, except im quiet annoyed at what i think is wrong information.

The channel was down to taking 1 more caller, with this clue.

Alice *******?

The presenter clearly then said, Alice with 7 letters remaining.

I knew the answer right away, Alice Springs.

I watched in disbelief, when the last caller got through, said Alice Springs and was wrong, the presenter revealed the 6 missing answers, with the Alice one being:

Alice Springs Camel Cup

Is this allowed?

AnnieH

I think you should take it as you spent £20 on a valuable lesson never ever to get sucked in by these tv programmes again. If £20 is all you lose, then thank God it wasn't £1,000's before you realise that you won't win big playing these stupid phone-in comps. They are a rip-off.

continualdiamond

Yes i have realised that, im annoyed i didnt win, but i respect its my choice whether i phoned in or not, but im more annoyed for how they treated the clue, the amount of money they would of made from people ringing up convinced they had the right answer.

Only to find out, 7 letters were certainly not remaining in the answer

AnnieH

I personally don't think these programmes and channles should be allowed on TV. They suck people in and the callers don't even get through half the time yet they still get charged a fortune just for dialling the number.

I jusy hope that others who read this thread will think twice before getting robbed in this way:)

Hizz

I have called such programmes in the past. At first I didn’t spot the message that scrolls across the bottom of the screen stating that you get charged whether your call I selected or not.

I assume that this message conforms into the gaming law covering chance i.e.: similar to buying a raffle ticket.

I recall reading some articles in the press a while ago where experts had tried to solve some of the more ‘complex’ TV puzzles as most bizarrely, they do not have to disclose how the answer has been worked out
Needless to say that the experts couldn’t arrive at the answer(s) that were on TV.

Doesn’t the condescending style of presentation drive you mad though? It virtually drives you to call, so it works?

In the paper last week there was a piece saying that ITV’s ‘The Mint’ had achieved its annual profit within the first quarter. Must be raking in the money.

black-saturn

I dont think the OP is disputing the cost of the phonecall. I think the OP is disputing the fact that the answer had more letters in it than it broadcast so no one had any hope of getting it right. Am I right in thinking that?

AnnieH

That's why these things are such a rip-off. The caller has no chance of winning, no matter how many times they ring or how sure they are that they have the right answer.

I saw a programme on one of the quiz channels where you had to count how many of a certain letter appears in a piece of text shown in screen. The answer they gave absolutley baffled me as to how they could have possibly reached that figure.. There's no way anyone could have known that number. No-one won - surprise:rolleyes:

dinglydanglydan

This may be of interest - it was in yesterday's Sunday Times

TV quiz sets callers a costly question
Steven Swinford
Channel accused of blocking contestants for up to 40 minutes on premium lines


ONE of Britain’s biggest premium rate television quiz channels has been accused of “naked profiteering” after admitting manipulating games by blocking callers from taking part for periods of up to 40 minutes.
Quiz Call, owned by Channel 4, said that on these occasions, it charged thousands of callers a standard 75p premium line fee — knowing that it would give them no chance to answer the prize question.



Its disclosure follows a surge of complaints about sharp practice by interactive quiz channels, as Ofcom, the media watchdog, prepares for tougher regulation.

Another channel, Big Game TV, is being investigated by police for alleged fraud, while Gordon Brown, the chancellor, is examining whether the stations are actually lotteries masquerading as games of skill. This would make them liable for a 20% charitable levy.

Brown is said to be concerned that the shows are exploitative. Ben Appleby, a 24-year-old chef from Kibworth, Leicestershire, racked up a £125 bill one night in June. “The question was easy and people kept getting it wrong, so I thought I stood a good chance and kept calling. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the bill,” he said.

The Sunday Times has been approached by a number of executives and staff working in the sector, worried by the shortcuts that have helped 13 channels generate annual revenues estimated at about £160m.

Three sources close to Quiz Call alleged producers manipulated the callers to maximise the number of people being charged the 75p connection fee.

According to one source, producers watch graphs monitoring the number of calls coming in. So long as the incoming calls are high, they are not put through to the quizmaster, to prolong the game, boosting phone revenues.

“If there are thousands and thousands of [callers] over 10, 20, 30 minutes, then you’re not going to take a call,” the source explained. “As soon as it dips then you do [take a call].”

The show uses a variety of ploys to entice viewers to call in. One source who recently worked on Quiz Call said: “They will change the music, focus on close-ups of money, close-ups of the phone; they will go for 30-40 seconds without anything being said, with sound effects like a heartbeat or submarine sonar to build up tension.

“It’s a very sophisticated operation, and the graphs show that these techniques work. The calls shoot up. But those people who call in the first hour or so stand no chance of winning the money, even though the presenter and graphics have told them that they do.”

Most callers hear an automated message telling them they have failed to get through to the studio, and are disconnected. A small number are put on hold and told they could be put through — before, in turn, being cut off.

Channel 4 confirmed that in some cases, involving shows with large prizes — it once offered a £100,000 jackpot — calls might take a “maximum” of 40 minutes to be put through. It said the show’s producer was responsible for deciding how long to wait, but insisted this was “not based on call volumes but on his or her assessment of how best to engage viewers with the game”.

However, it admitted this weekend Quiz Call had been caught out cutting corners. It apologised for using its own staff to pose as prize winners, clutching 3ft cheques in an on-air promotion.

A complainant, who recognised some of them as workers at the channel’s offices at Teddington Studios, in west London, approached Ofcom. “I noticed someone from accounts and someone from the call centre posing with the cheques. I couldn’t believe it,” he said

Go to http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2372445,00.html if you wish to read the remainder of the article

Hizz

There was a competition on Quiz Call last night that I watched. All you had to do was call through and identify films beginning with the letter S. Now I ain't no film buff but have reasonable knowledge, and of the 5 unidentified answers that were disclosed before the presenter moved onto nother 'game', I had never heard of any of the films - must have been B if not C rated movies.

fluffynit

I was ill in bed all day yesterday and while channel hopping, watched 10 mins of quiz call..it was a wedding word association, the same people phoned up several times, 1 of the answers was revealed and i thought it was so obscure. Fortunately the mindless banter which the girl was drivelling on and on and on...persuaded me to turn over to Rikki Lake, which was marginally better.

fluffynit

AnnieH

Hope you feel better today fluffynit (hug)