Has anyone ever won something they wish they hadn't?

surfboard2

nikanika0 wrote: »

Hello,
I've got a Q about holidays for 2, has anybody of you gone for holidays on your own? is it allowed?

See this thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4393639

purple.sarah

I once entered a competition for new blinds and got the runners up prize of a money off voucher for blinds instead. I don't mean to seem ungrateful but I entered the competition to get something for free, I couldn't really afford to pay for new blinds even with a money off voucher, I just felt like they were trying to sell me something, albeit at a reduced price. Also they contacted me by phone and wouldn't put anything in writing so I felt put on the spot without a chance to look at the details. The company kept phoning me to see when I would take up the offer and I wasn't in a position to so I had to pass it up. I hope they offered it to someone else as it would have been good for someone who had already budgeted for new blinds.

Leana

I won a whole load of Rice Dream drinks in chocolate flavour about 3 months ago. I just hated the taste of it and no one in my family liked them either so it took forever trying to get rid of it. I think I still have a few cartons in the shed.

slbhill

nothing that I wish I hadn't... but several that ended up costing me or that really weren't of interest to me (I generally only enter comps where I actually want the prize but runner-up prizes can be very random!)

I won a "holiday to Australia" which was amazing & a really great win... but it was flights from London, 3 nights accommodation & a couple of oddments while we were there. So we ended up spending significantly more on that than we had planned on spending on our annual holiday... but we did get to go to Australia instead of the Lake District so I won't complain We had to get new passports (recently married & both changed name... hadn't expected to travel abroad so hadn't worried about passports), get a passport for the baby (can we say shotgun wedding? ), pay for the baby's flights (the prize was for 2 adults so we had to pay taxes for the baby - about £150), travel from Scotland to Heathrow where the flights were from, and that's before the cost of our fortnight in Australia. But without the prize I doubt we would ever have gone at all, and we had a great time :T

Runner-up prizes.... Pussay Patrol t-shirt, as someone else posted, and a Jeremiah Weed one. A bunch of CDs which took 4 months to come ... I need some new music, but they're all of a genre I would never listen to (prize info just said "new music")... still, amazon to the rescue & I've made about £150 off them. Oh, and a Cliff Richard DVD

tesuhoha

I won a stone birdbath and the pigeons crapped all over it and turned it a red purple colour. The garden is a building site and its now lying in three sections near the shed having not been used for a couple of years.

tesuhoha

Lousiana lounger:eek:

I just remembered I also won a really lush prize. A stay in a top hotel in London, dinner and breakfast and tickets to see Anna Friel in Breakfast at Tiffanys.

Would have been lovely if we could have gone but that weekend was the worst snow blizzard for years and we were snowed in and couldn't even get out of our road. Very disappointing.

Austineer_2

A year or so ago, before I'd ever considered Comping as a leisure activity, one of the big lager companies was holding a promotion in which you needed to enter a FB competition to be able to download a coupon. I wanted the coupon to put towards buying some cans of lager for my father, so entered and never thought any more of it.

Lo and behold, I won the competition - "a pint of lager for you and 100 friends" at a pub of my choosing (provided of course that it was one that sells that brand).

Now, I don't have ten friends, let alone 100 - and I don't drink lager and my other half doesn't drink at all. All I'd wanted was the coupon!

I emailed the promoter back to explain and asked them to redraw it - I think they though I was a nutter. I felt so guilty for winning something that I couldn't accept - but they were really nice and understanding about the whole coupon thing and agreed to give the prize to someone else (I hope it was someone who could really appreciate it!).

EverDecreasingCircles

Austineer wrote: »

A year or so ago, before I'd ever considered Comping as a leisure activity, one of the big lager companies was holding a promotion in which you needed to enter a FB competition to be able to download a coupon. I wanted the coupon to put towards buying some cans of lager for my father, so entered and never thought any more of it.

Lo and behold, I won the competition - "a pint of lager for you and 100 friends" at a pub of my choosing (provided of course that it was one that sells that brand).

Now, I don't have ten friends, let alone 100 - and I don't drink lager and my other half doesn't drink at all. All I'd wanted was the coupon!

I emailed the promoter back to explain and asked them to redraw it - I think they though I was a nutter. I felt so guilty for winning something that I couldn't accept - but they were really nice and understanding about the whole coupon thing and agreed to give the prize to someone else (I hope it was someone who could really appreciate it!).

I must admit, I've entered comps before thinking 'hope I don't win the main prize' lol

MaineBlue

MaineBlue wrote: »

I won XFactor Concert tickets this week for a gig in London on Weds. Only trouble is I'm in Manchester and getting to London would have to be by train and would have cost the four of us a small fortune at such short notice.

Bit of a follow up on this one.....
They phoned me again today and the lovely lady said that she felt bad as I'd won and couldn't go so she'd been ringing around kinda thing and she's arranged it that I have now actually won tickets for this weekend in Manchester. I now have one incredibly excited niece and an equally excited little sister. Really nice of them/her to do that :T

gizmobenny

EverDecreasingCircles wrote: »

I entered a comp once that had about 80 prizes - various items including perfume, t-shirts, and the like. I recieved an email to say I'd won and was really excited.

About a week later they emailed me again to say my prize, a Louisianna Lounger, was being shipped from Germany.

GOOGLE Images it!!! (Warning: don't do it while children are around or if you are faint hearted!)

Couldn't give it to the school for their raffle *(although someone did suggest setting it up in the Head's office and charging 50p a go but we decided no-one would get a look in once the Head saw it ), couldn't give it to the charity shop, tried Ebay but it was taken off. Eventually hubby took it to a certain shop in town and they bought it from us.

It did give everyone a good laugh and is still talked about in the staff room at work every so often some 5 or 6 years later

That made me giggle, and there I was innocently thinking it was something to relax on in the garden