Winnings received, but............

brightonman123

https://twitter.com/shortlist

ask on twitter.. bad publicitry works wonders!

I_know_my_ABC_and_my_CMYK

compsalex wrote: »

Don't give up. I had problems with Unilever over XFactor tickets not arriving and despite emailing them several times I received no reply. I then contacted The Institute of Promotional Marketing who, in turn, put me in touch with the ASA. They contacted Unilever who then offered me compensation, which I accepted.

Try to sort it out with them first then if no satisfaction tell them you intend to take it up with the IPM.

IPM - [EMAIL="edwinm@theipm.org.uk"]edwinm@theipm.org.uk[/EMAIL]
ASA - [EMAIL="AdrianS@ASA.Org.UK"]AdrianS@ASA.Org.UK[/EMAIL]

Could anyone tell me which of these two organizations would be the bast to complain to?

After doing some research on line it appears there was another competition running at the same time which was similar but with different prizes. I have been sent the prizes from the wrong competition, but instead of trying to sort it out the PR company CITIZEN RELATIONS who are in London are now ignoring my emails to sort this out.

I really loosing patience with this now and am contacting my solicitor in the morning for advice on this.

So, CITIZEN RELATIONS your PR is absolutely dismal !

mjm3346

IPM are a "trade body" the ASA are an independent regulator. If companies ignore them then that is usually the end of it as far as they are concerned.

This is one where the company simply told the ASA to get stuffed (well they refused to respond to the complaint that had been made).


http://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2012/12/!!!!!bikes/SHP_ADJ_211387.aspx

I_know_my_ABC_and_my_CMYK

mjm3346 wrote: »

IPM are a "trade body" the ASA are an independent regulator. If companies ignore them then that is usually the end of it as far as they are concerned.

This is one where the company simply told the ASA to get stuffed (well they refused to respond to the complaint that had been made).


http://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2012/12/!!!!!bikes/SHP_ADJ_211387.aspx

Could you re post the link please as its coming up as page not found.

Many thanks

I_know_my_ABC_and_my_CMYK

brightonman123 wrote: »

https://twitter.com/shortlist

ask on twitter.. bad publicitry works wonders!

We sent a tweet to ShortList Magazine who did not post the tweet and have basically ignored it.

Good idea though

kisto

Whilst I agree they should send the prizes as described (or at least an equivalent alternative) - many comps have exaggerated prize values because it is based on the RRP rather than the actual retail price.
I've won numerous prizes that claim to be of a certain value, yet when I check online the current retail price is significantly less than the value suggested.

mjm3346

I see the problem with the link for some reason they don't allow m.a.f.i.a as a word on the forum and it takes it out of the link as well.

A complaint was made about the fairness of a competition, the meaty bits are quoted below

Response

!!!!!bikes said they would not respond to the complaint.

Assessment

Upheld
The ASA was concerned by !!!!!bikes' decision not to respond to the complaint and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code clause 1.7 (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their obligation to respond to our enquiries and told them to do so in future......

We asked !!!!!bikes to comment on those points, to explain the planning and execution of the competition in full, including the judging process, and to clarify whether the prize had now been awarded. However, !!!!!bikes did not respond to our enquiries in a way that either answered our concerns or showed that the competition had been conducted fairly. Because of that, we concluded that the competition breached the Code


Action

The competition must not appear again in its current form. We told !!!!!bikes to ensure that their competitions were conducted fairly and to seek guidance from CAP's Copy Advice team before running similar promotions in future

You can browse rulings here

http://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications.aspx

They cover advertising in general and competitions are only a part of it, you can search for keywords (if you put in as one word the name they don't allow and bikes you will find the full ruling on this one), searches with words like prize, competition, win etc can bring up some interesting reading (in many cases it is don't do it again)

They also have a list of Non-compliant online advertisers who basically just ignore them!

We expect all advertising online to be legal, decent, honest and truthful. Here we list traders who continue to make claims on their online sites that do not comply with the UK Advertising Code despite repeated requests for changes from our Compliance teams.
Details of each non-conforming trader will remain in place until they have appropriately amended their marketing in line with the Advertising Code

http://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Non-compliant-online-advertisers.aspx

I_know_my_ABC_and_my_CMYK

Just a quick update,

We sent an email to consumer direct yesterday giving all the relevant facts including the company's involved and they have mailed back this morning asking permission to pass it onto Trading Standards as they have said this is criminal. Must admit I expected them to say there is nothing you can do, quite surprised.

so how far this will go, if anywhere, we have no idea but I will update this thread in case anyone else comes up against a similar problem.