No prize until Royal Mail investigate

fzz33

I won a prize back at the end of January, and still haven't received it. I've gently prompted a couple of times and have just been told by the promoters that it was sent, but just hasn't arrived yet. I now have to wait 28 days from yesterday for Royal Mail to investigate, and when the promoters are 'compensated' they will then send out another prize.

The value is around £100, and from my job experience in ecommerce, this wouldn't be normal practice; you would just send out another and wait to be compensated by the courier/post office later. However I'm well aware I'm not a paying customer! :rotfl:

So I guess the question is, would you moan (and most likely not get anywhere anyway), or just wait it out and enjoy said prize when it finally turns up... in November 2025?

Mirerrawiel_Voltiac

Straight to the ASA; the lost prize is their problem not yours.

ikkle87

surely if you were sending something so high value you would send it tracked i say go to asa too

fzz33

So I went to the ASA, who contacted me and said that I should wait until Royal Mail investigated too! I'm still waiting... contacted the promoter a few times and I'm now getting ignored completely, and two weeks ago I contacted the ASA again who gave me a new reference number and said they would get back to me but nothing yet Do I write it off? It's been six months now!

megamitts

fzz33 wrote: »

Do I write it off? It's been six months now!

Yeah. You write it off as "Never been sent in the first place."

fzz33

Haha I just meant I'm disappointed in the ASA's (lack of) response so far, takes the shine off a prize when you have to do this much chasing!

tgroom57

ikkle87 wrote: »

surely if you were sending something so high value you would send it tracked i say go to asa too

Agreed. Ask the promoter for the tracking number & confirm which courier. If the promoter can't provide the tracking number then either it wasn't sent, or it was sent without tracking. (or they misplaced the tracking number) but without this -

• Royal Mail will not compensate because items worth more than £50 have to go Special Delivery tracked
• report to ASA with this new information.

btw, Royal Mail tracking isn't what it used to be.

Farmers-wife_2

Have you told the promoter you are unhappy and going to take this further? I find the threat of the ASA works much better than the actual ASA does.

Paris-Belle

Farmers-wife wrote: »

Have you told the promoter you are unhappy and going to take this further? I find the threat of the ASA works much better than the actual ASA does.

Very true lol.

mjm3346

fzz33 wrote: »

So I went to the ASA, who contacted me and said that I should wait until Royal Mail investigated too! I'm still waiting... contacted the promoter a few times and I'm now getting ignored completely, and two weeks ago I contacted the ASA again who gave me a new reference number and said they would get back to me but nothing yet Do I write it off? It's been six months now!

If its only been two weeks they may have nothing to get back to you about if the company are just ignoring them as well - I cannot remember how long they give it before ruling in the complaints favour and telling the company not do it again.

eg

****** did not respond to the ASA’s enquiries.

Assessment
Upheld

The ASA was concerned by *****'s lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.

Action
The promotion must not appear again in its current form. We told ***** to conduct their promotions equitably and fairly and to publish the names of competition winners in future. We referred the matter to the CAP Compliance team

fzz33

Farmers-wife wrote: »

Have you told the promoter you are unhappy and going to take this further? I find the threat of the ASA works much better than the actual ASA does.

Yeah I tried that initially, I got a curt (and what I thought was a rather smug!) reply saying, 'If you wish to contact the ASA then that is your right...' blah blah and we're gonna do what we want anyway essentially!