I won! oh no wait..I didn't!

Ladychelington

Just a bit of advice needed if anyone can help.

I received an email earlier to say I have won some supermarket vouchers and another small prize in one of the mag dailies.
A few minutes later I received another email stating to ignore the email as it shouldn't have been sent as the competition was withdrawn.
I checked my thanks on the thread so this comp was obviously running until quite near the end date and I don't remember it ever finishing early as (like a lot of us) I do these comps every day.
My beef is really not just the annoyance of having the excitment of winning to be then be let down with no explanation at all, but the complete waste of time and energy myself and many of you will have used up entering this comp day after day. :mad:

Anyway to stop ranting I wondering if anyone had any ideas of what I can do about it. I realise the smaller prize would be issued by the promoter in these mag comps, but assume the supermarket vouchers are perhaps issued by the mag itself? Surely they can't just run a comp and then draw a winner to not reward them!

anyway any feedback will be greatly appreciated!

lilias

From Velvet Glove's comping guide

The Institute of Promotional Marketing [EMAIL="complaints@theipm.org.uk"]complaints@theipm.org.uk[/EMAIL] lay down the guidelines which comp organisors must follow. MSE Compers have reported that they are very good at investigating dodgy comps & missing prizes with one chap in particular [EMAIL="edwinm@theipm.org.uk"]Edwin Mutton[/EMAIL], being an absolute star. Please note, the IPM was formerly known as the Institute of Sales Promotion (name change in May 2010) however, the contact info does not appear to have changed.

duchy

I would write to the editor of the magazine (after checking there isn't a winners list and they didn't send 2 emails by accident and backed out of one later) asking for an explanation of what happened. A nice letter mentioning how excited you were to win and then how deflated and confused afterwards. If it's one of the well known magazines there is a body who deals with competition complaints -can't remember what they are called but the name Edwin Mutton in google may find you what you want.

EDIT Lilias beat me to it He is a very nice man indeed and will probably get something sorted for you.

Ladychelington

Thanks guys. I'll drop this Edwin an email and see what he says!