Is there a competitions ombudsman or similar?

stressedofdevon

I won a Merrell/Timex prize from FHM. It was a June comp and I was notified at the beginning of July. However, no prize yet, and noone answers my emails despite trying several different addresses.

The PR company which handled it were friendly but said there was nothing they could do as it is up to FHM to send me the prizes, and FHM don't reply. I am so disappointed and wonder whether any of you guys know whether there is any regulatory body as there is with lotteries and gaming which I could contact for help? If anyone has any ideas I would be so grateful - this has really put me off comping. :mad: :mad: :mad:

hjb123

Id be interested on this one, am still waiting for my years supply of persil and 2 cuddly toys that I won through Real People Magazine!

Am also waiting for a few other things but they are all from the last month so not bothered about chasing them yet!

kipper_2-2

Can I just ask how you are dealing with FHM, is it by email or phone?


Some contact details for them are ( but you might already know this)


FHMand Emap East Editor-In-Chief: Anthony Noguera
Magazine general enquiries: [EMAIL="general@fhm.com"]General@fhm.com [/EMAIL]
Chief Executive: Paul Keenan
FHM: Mappin House, 4 Winsley Street, London, W1W 8HF
Telephone: +44 20 7436 1515
Fax: +44 20 7182 8021

Company Name: Emap London Lifestyle Ltd
Company Number: 842309 (England)
Registered Office: 40 Bernard Street, London, WC1N 1LW
VAT Number: 486 4004 42


I'd try and talk to someone in person

Cheeky_Chicken

stressedofdevon wrote: »

I won a Merrell/Timex prize from FHM. It was a June comp and I was notified at the beginning of July. However, no prize yet, and noone answers my emails despite trying several different addresses.

The PR company which handled it were friendly but said there was nothing they could do as it is up to FHM to send me the prizes, and FHM don't reply. I am so disappointed and wonder whether any of you guys know whether there is any regulatory body as there is with lotteries and gaming which I could contact for help? If anyone has any ideas I would be so grateful - this has really put me off comping. :mad: :mad: :mad:

I'd look for a number and ring them instead of emailing - it's much harder to ignore a phone call!

**Edit** beaten by kipper (but great minds think alike as my old mum used to say )

claire738

You could try ringing the customer services of the product you've won, they should be seriously worried if other companies are not giving out prizes they have provided because it makes them look so bad. Hope you work it out

stressedofdevon

Thank you for your useful comments. You have certainly given me some good ideas to follow up on.

If anyone else does know of an agency which oversees this type of thing please post it just in case I get nowhere with phoning and contacting Merrell and Timex.

Thanks again everyone and keep your fingers crossed for me!:beer:

catz747

I'm chasing Amazon for some Artwork since beginning of July.

stressedofdevon

Perhaps we should have a name and shame them thread for all those who aren't forthcoming with prizes?

It seems a lot of us have the same problems, and I haven't entered any comps for a few weeks as this has really taken the fun out of the win. It has just given me another thing to worry about on top of all the rest, and I started comping to get away from my problems. Because of postal strikes I wondered if it was lost in the system or something, but am now just disillusioned by the whole affair.

At least a thread where we could sound off about comps which just want to spam you, don't pay out their prizes or other problems would allow people like me to let off steam without bothering all the happy compers out there!

WOW, am I upset?!

Cheeky_Chicken

I realise you're very upset about it, but I think 99% of firms/comps are genuine. I'm still waiting for a PS2 I won from Nuts magazine in June, but I've spoken to a nice man there who's sorting it out for me. He keeps chasing it up with the PR company, and I think he's as annoyed about it as I am. He said they're always keen to get free space in the magazine to run their competition, which is cheap advertising for them, and then sometimes slow to send out the prizes

I don't think name and shame is really the way to go, as a lot of the time prizes are sent out by a PR company so you'd be 'shaming' the wrong people anyway. Just my two cents

VelvetGlove

I hope this gets resolved soon for you stressedofdevon Please let us know how you get on?

josie301

Try these people here - www.isp.org.uk
The Institute of Sales Promotion, they make sure comps are run legally, which if you aren't getting your prize then I guess that's not legal??



I obviously didn't make this big enough - email these people, [EMAIL="complaints@isp.org.uk"]complaints@isp.org.uk[/EMAIL] explain what has happened and the companies involved - several people have done so before and had their prizes within days.