Terms completely changed mid way through a competition!

DavidHolland3103

So I posted the below competition yesterday, after entering my wife into it:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5287249


However the terms have completely changed to the below for the final 10 days of voting (highlighted changes):

The 1st place prize is a Janome 525S, details of which can be viewed above. For more information on Janome's sewing machines, please visit Janome UK.

You may only enter 1 submission (image) per person. Competition closes 5pm July 31st 2015, when the votes will be counted and the top 10 contestants will go into a final 10 days of voting. At this point, the final 10 votes will be reset (and publicised through our mailing list) and on Monday 10th August 2015, the winner will be announced.

Your image must be of your own work, photographed by yourself and must be royalty-free. Please ensure that the image is under 1mb in size, otherwise we may reduce it for you. There may be instances where your title is too long, in which case we may shorten it in order to ensure that the formatting on the page stays consistent.

There is no entry fee and no purchase necessary to enter this competition. No responsibility can be accepted for entries not received for whatever reason.

Employees of William Gee or their family members, or anyone else connected in any way with the competition or helping to set up the competition shall not be permitted to enter the competition.

William Gee reserves the right to withdraw any application or amend any contestant at any time during the course of the competition. You may advertise or share the competition to your friends and family, however we ask you do not share it in social media groups where the userbase is higher than 5,000 users.

The promoter reserves the right to cancel or amend the competition and these terms and conditions without notice in the event of a catastrophe, war, civil or military disturbance, act of God or any actual or anticipated breach of any applicable law or regulation or any other event outside of the promoter’s control. Any changes to the competition will be notified to entrants as soon as possible by William Gee.

William Gee is not responsible for inaccurate prize details supplied to any entrant by any third party connected with this competition.

No cash alternative to the prizes will be offered. The prizes are not transferable. Prizes are subject to availability and we reserve the right to substitute any prize with another of equivalent value without giving notice.

The promoter will notify the winner when and where the prize can be collected, unless the winner would like it shipped. A small shipping charge may occur, but we will try and limit this as much as possible.

This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook, Twitter or any other Social Network. You are providing your information to Janome (UK) Limited and not to any other party. The information provided will be used in conjunction with the following Privacy Policy found here.

The email provided will be shared with the prize provider, and you will automatically subscribe to our email list - though you will be given the option to opt out of any further emails.

Entry into the competition will be deemed as acceptance of these terms and conditions.

---

Can they do this?! They are not the terms that I signed up to when I entered the competition.

I got a message this morning after entering my wife, that was very snotty and rude that said the below:


Dear David,

It is near enough impossible to get 900 votes in under 24 hours and we believe that you have actually found a loophole in the system. Unlike many other genuine submissions, we have been advised that Tara did not enter - and actually, you entered for her, and then advertised it in "Made with Mummy Love", which is blatantly (according to our source) a group with 35,000 users, most of whom were 'paid for' likes, accompanied with a generator which is sharing your page constantly. I therefore don't believe that you did actually get 900 of your friends/acquaintances to vote (in 21 hours that seems very unlikely), and actually found a way to repetitively vote in our competition.

We feel you have compromised the integrity of the competition and for that I have withdrawn your application, effective immediately.

Please feel free to get in touch with me on adam@williamgee.co.uk if you'd like to discuss this further. Please also note that in our competition terms we also state that we have the right to withdraw any competition application at any time.

Kind regards,
Adam Graham
williamgee.co.uk


I managed to get our entry reinstated, however surely changing the terms as much as they have AND changing how the competition will work in the final 10 days, is not at all on!

Please I need some advice as this has really upset myself and my wife

DavidHolland3103

I am more disgusted by the message received by the competition provider.

None of what he has said is true....

We work darn hard for our likes, we do not use a "generator" to generate likes.

I am disgusted the way this company would treat us, as a genuine competition entrant.

IDeamOfFairies

I would never ever enter any "vote for me" type competitions as they are open to abuse and cheats..... As you have found out

Can they do this?

Yes they can

The promoter reserves the right to cancel or amend the competition and these terms and conditions without notice

DavidHolland3103

IDeamOfFairies

I was initially reticent to enter it, however with the small number of entrants, the terms and conditions, and the power of Social Media, I saw no reason to not enter it, as I knew I could easily win it (kind of stacking a competition in your favour, but when the wife has a sewing business with over 35,000 genuine likes it was an easy way to get a good quality machine).

Just not clued up on the rules of changing T & C's half way through a competition and thought the clever people in here would know

mjm3346

You could complain to the ASA and if the complaint is upheld the company is usually told not to do it again.

DavidHolland3103

mjm3346

Thank you for letting me know - it seems like there isn't really anything that can be done, its just disappointing with the way it was handled.

I will await to hear back from them and see what happens.

Might just be a case of the power of social media letting everyone know about what has happened and to avoid.

Cheers for taking the time to respond.

WeAreGhosts

"the power of social media ..." yeah, it brings out the worst in people ....

... they also have way too much time on their hands, judging by that linked blog.

WeAreGhosts

You run the risk of getting a warning or being PPR'd for posting that again.

oh, it got removed. what a surprise.

anyway, think both those women need to wash their mouths out with soap and water.

toniq

I think your wife needs to remove her post on the blog about the company, and saying all the things about threats, social services wont look good on her business, It would be better to keep those type of things to yourselves rather than airing your troubles in such a way.

Good luck


I haven't done a vote comp in 6 years? Only have 140 odd on fb so have no chance and wouldn't put myself through the begging or desperateness that comes with it.