Help!!! prize can't be fulfilled.......

kirstym01

Please help, I'm not sure what to do now......

I won the Heart Radio competition for a party with Diva Fever back in January, we had a great time! Part of the prize was an album worth £1100 as per the t&c's from here:

http://www.heart.co.uk/bristol/win/sponsored-shimmy-terms-conditions/

Basically I haven't received the album! I've been emailing the lady that hosted the party who informed me that the photographer had been ill hence the delay and informed me in early April that it would be with me 'soon'. After still not hearing anything more about it I decided to email the host again and she asked me to contact the photographer directly which I did and got this reply.....

Thank you for your email, and I’m sure you must be getting impatient. Part of this is my fault – due to my pneumonia taking me out of commission for 6 weeks.

My original part of this arrangement was to take the photographs. It just so happens that I found a sponsor, that in exchange for advertising, was willing to supply a rather expensive album and pay for the printing of the images. Unfortunately for reasons I am not aware of, the advertising exposure was never delivered.

This has left me at the stage of having the images but no album for them to live. Of course I will be very happy to supply a disk of full resolution images to you, but I am not in a position to supply an album, as I kept my promise and gave the photography free of charge and also a day’s labour to process the images.

Once again, my apologies for this situation and please let me know where to send the disk of images.

Now I dont know what to do, am I still entitled to the prize equivalent as it was stated in the terms and conditions? I've been waiting 4 months to see the pictures displayed and now we're not going to get it, I'm not sure a disc substitues the £1100 value of the album! Help!!!

Matryoshka

At first I thought it was just a photo album and was going to suggest that when you get the disc, you should print the photos and buy a cheap album but having read the t&c's

8. The winner can invite up to eleven guests and they get a buffet and soft drinks, plus a glass of champagne each. Diva Fever will join the party for about half an hour and the photographer, Mick Kirton, will take photos which will then be made into a state of the art A3 coffee table type album (the album is worth £1,100).

A coffee table type album is a fabulous prize and can't be substituted with a disc.

Apart from contacting Mr Mutton, don't know what you can do. He'll sort it out for you. Good luck

cte1111

You need to go back to the company who ran the competition. I think it is their responsibility to ensure that you get all the parts of the prize.

Morty_007

I agree with going back to the people who ran the competition but really a disk of images for you to use as you want to, to my mind, far outweighs the value of an A3 printed album...it's not a coffee table...it's an album that goes on a coffee table....

freefan01

Oh what an awful position, I'd definately go back to Heart and try and speak to someone there about it as they ran the competition. Really hope they come through for you

toadyfrog

if you get a disc of the pictures can't you use the special offers some of the photo printers have a get a couple of albums printed that you can share with your friends that were with you. I know its not the same but the disc might work out better in the end.

ChelseaGirl

I really hope you get this sorted out. A while ago I won £500 for my children's school which was to be spent on a sporting activity for the children. The radio station I entered the competition through ceased to exist, and the person who was going to supply the prize decided not to in the end....
I contacted Heart, and they said that they couldn't have the children disappointed and so they presented the school with a cheque for £500 and also arranged for the breakfast show presenters at our local Heart station to visit the school and hand out goodies.
They were great with me, and I hope they are with you too. Good luck. x

lizd31

I'd definitely go back to Heart as they should offer you the same prize or an equivalent I would say. I won a uk break comp with Times & I couldn't take them up on it as the resort wasn't disabled friendly so they let me choose where I wanted to go instead & even changed the voucher part of the prize from Black's outdoor wear to M&S vouchers as the Black's ones were suited to the original prize but not to the alternative one. heart are part of the Global group, here's a link to their various contacts & the general email address http://www.thisisglobal.com/contact-us/ I've found when contacting Heart or any of the other Global stations that they aren't very helpful but, when I've contacted Global, they are quick to assist with any problems. I really hope you get this sorted & get the prize you deserve

SEGGA1986

Oh how awful this experience has been for you like everyone else i would suggest contacting HEART to see what they can do for you,Plus if you get the disk has it got a lock that you dont own the copyright to? This means companys wont print the pics as its illegal
Hope you get it sorted x

lucinad

aww i know how it feels to not have a prize turn out to be what you expect (not to that value tho) i hope you get it sorted i would have though the radio station would be good at offering a substitute prize, maybe not what was originally expected but anything is better than a disc with some photos on

good luck, hope you sort it

kirstym01

Thanks everyone for your helpful and kind words, I emailed the lady that hosted the party last night and she replied to say she was on the case, I also emailed Heart just to inform them of the situation.
By 10am this morning I had an email from the photographer to say the album would be ready by the 6th June but with no explanation as to his email last night! Shortly after that email from him I had a telephone call from the party hostess who said she had spoken to the company that was supplying the album and they had infact supplied the photographer with everything he needed to make the album for us BEFORE the Diva Fever party which therefore meant we should have had the album months ago (this was the same company that the photographer only last night said the advertising exposure hadn't been delivered!).
Looks like its been a case of the photographer telling a big fat lie to everyone over the last 4 months and probably couldn't be bothered to produce the album for us, but anyway, a few strings have been pulled now and the photographer will have no easy escape from it now.
I'm glad I pursued it, I nearly could have ended up with just a disc and he probably would have kept the album and lined his own pockets!!
Thankyou everyone for your help x