Dissapointing prize - Family Grapevine

davross

Hi everyone,

My wife got a call to say she had won the main prize in a competition on Family Grapevine. The competition was advertised as "WIN an hour long family photoshoot, plus a framed product worth £259 and 5 runner up prizes!" but when she eventually got hold of the photography company, Venture (this was no easy task in itself), it turns out that the prize is available for £35 on their website and from reading reviews it looks like this "package" is a way to get you in and and try to hard sell you very expensive products.

My wife is very dissapointed as she was led to belive she had won a good prize, especially as this was the main prize in the competition. I dread to think what the runner up prizes were :cool:. She told Family Grapevine how disspointing the prize was but I dont think they are going to do anything about it.

Do you think it is worth trying to take this further with a complaint letter?

lisalouauger

If the prize says £259 for a framed product then surely that should be honoured?

davross

lisalouauger wrote: »

If the prize says £259 for a framed product then surely that should be honoured?

Apparently the £35 package includes a small photo "Value £259". I feel the way the competition was advertised was misleading as the pacjkage can be bought for £35 so there is no way its "worth £259".

toniq

Venture are pretty much a con, they make out the sitting is the expensive part.

Loads of threads on mse about them.

Sorry x

toniq

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4431745

davross

toniq wrote: »

Venture are pretty much a con, they make out the sitting is the expensive part.

Loads of threads on mse about them.

Sorry x

Thanks for confirming. I thought as much as I have been caught out with a similar company before. Just glad we didnt go for the photo shoot.

I'm more disspointed with Family Grapevine really as they are usually very good with the competitions they run. I won tickets to a disney show with them a long time ago and they were great.

toniq

loads on cag about them too http://www.google.co.uk/cse?cx=partner-pub-0964707606882478:652l7hswbgv&ie=UTF-8&q=venture+photography&sa=Search+CAG&as_qdr=all#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=venture%20photography&gsc.page=1

Sorry again, it must feel crappy x

Autumnella

I never enter photography ones. Hundreds of people "win" these then when you get there they try and pressure you into buying £300-£500 worth of photos. I know a lot of people who've been duped.

Zanzib

Perhaps let Family Grapevine know so they can avoid them in future- do they really want to be associated with the bad reputation of this company.

jmilli2

You've won an hours photo shoot and a framed product... I'm not sure what else you expected from this. Yes you'll get a hard sell to buy more from them but you don't have to. The RRP is a load of rubbish but it often is. If you didn't want a photoshoot and free framed photo why did you enter?

davross

jmilli2 wrote: »

You've won an hours photo shoot and a framed product... I'm not sure what else you expected from this. Yes you'll get a hard sell to buy more from them but you don't have to. The RRP is a load of rubbish but it often is. If you didn't want a photoshoot and free framed photo why did you enter?

The competition prize was being advertised as "worth £259" so there was a reasonable assumption that £259 is the price that you would usually have to pay for this package which is not the case as it can be bought for £35 or often given away free. If she had known that this was a £35 package she would probably have realised it was just a scam and not entered the competition.