Misleading competitions....what would you do?

Robinette

Over the course of the past year myself and my daughter have won three competitions in our local paper; however, none of them have been what they seem. :-(

The first was £500-worth of shoes from a well-known chain, but the actual prize was ten vouchers for a pair of shoes worth up to £50 each. The average price is around the £20 mark, so the value of the prize was considerably lower than stated.

The second was Sunday lunch for four, including drinks, at a national hotel chain. This time the drinks weren't included, so we ended up paying just under £20 (for four drinks, two of which were soft!).

The third was £500-worth of laser lipo sessions (ten at £50 each); however, this turned out to be just one session, as there were ten winners. Even the company providing the prize said that it was unhappy with the way the paper worded it.

My question is: would you complain? We are truly grateful for what we have won but can't help feeling disappointed. Has anyone else complained in a similar situation?

Thanks in advance. :-)

starrybee

I wouldn't complain about the first one as I would still be perfectly happy with the prize.

I might email the newspaper for the third one but I wouldn't pursue the complaint. A lot of comps are worded stupidly like that.

I would complain about the Lunch though, if it said in the T+Cs that the prize included drinks, then you shouldn't have had to pay.

mjm3346

Robinette wrote: »

Over the course of the past year myself and my daughter have won three competitions in our local paper; however, none of them have been what they seem. :-(

The first was £500-worth of shoes from a well-known chain, but the actual prize was ten vouchers for a pair of shoes worth up to £50 each. The average price is around the £20 mark, so the value of the prize was considerably lower than stated.

The second was Sunday lunch for four, including drinks, at a national hotel chain. This time the drinks weren't included, so we ended up paying just under £20 (for four drinks, two of which were soft!).

The third was £500-worth of laser lipo sessions (ten at £50 each); however, this turned out to be just one session, as there were ten winners. Even the company providing the prize said that it was unhappy with the way the paper worded it.

My question is: would you complain? We are truly grateful for what we have won but can't help feeling disappointed. Has anyone else complained in a similar situation?

Thanks in advance. :-)

Doesn't matter what the average price is, as long as at least sometime some are £50.

If it said drinks included then they should be and I would complain about that.

Don't know about the £500/£50, if it stated somewhere that it was 10 winners of £50 then it is no different to many others with multiple winners which state the total value to be won (recently a paper ran a competition to win £5,000 worth of vouchers, I think it turned out to be a £25 voucher for 200 winners but that was stated in the smaller print)

hamsterfan1

comps are often headlined with the total prize value - win £1000 could be one prize of £1000 or 1000 £1 or anything in between - that's why we should always read the T&Cs

Blulu

If I felt it was deliberately misleading, I might complain. However, if that wasn't the case or I wasn't sure if deliberate, I might go for an in-between option. Between saying nothing and complaining, there is always the option to offer feedback, and asking them to pass it on to the competition organisers. I think doing that, while thanking them for the prize, would not at all come across as being ungrateful. In fact it would be doing them a favour, assuming their reputation matters to them.

Interesting thread.

Blu X

Robinette

Blulu wrote: »

If I felt it was deliberately misleading, I might complain. However, if that wasn't the case or I wasn't sure if deliberate, I might go for an in-between option. Between saying nothing and complaining, there is always the option to offer feedback, and asking them to pass it on to the competition organisers. I think doing that, while thanking them for the prize, would not at all come across as being ungrateful. In fact it would be doing them a favour, assuming their reputation matters to them.

Interesting thread.

Blu X

'Complain' was the wrong word for me to use; I think 'comment' would have been better, as in providing feedback. Obviously I have let little niggles go twice and this third time has really annoyed me! I have been comping for about 25 years and I always read the terms and conditions, so I know I have not misinterpreted the prizes being offered.

Thanks for all your feedback so far; we obviously all have an individal opinion as to what is and isn't acceptable.

Zanzib

It's often only when you look at the t&c's as starrybee mentioned, that you find the big amount is actually shared between a number of winners, so it is always worth checking the details.