ITV breached Ofcom competition rules over postal votes

mjm3346

It's a free entry method with no gain to ITV so it's only right that ITV refund every penny they made from the entries so 0 p for everyone.
Approx 41,000 entries "lost" over 4 years and ITV get over 1,000,000 entries a week makes them a really small fraction of total entries - No chance instead of very very close to no chance.
Wouldn't surprise me if over 4 years more entries had failed to arrive on time than those "lost" by ITV 

hwg3141

I can just imaging Po Box 7557 and 7558 have shredders on the inside now...

Boom_Boom

Is this why there is often no limit on the amount of postal entries you can make, because it doesn't matter anyway..
ITV should be made to bring back their free online route.  They simply cannot be trusted with postal entries and the online entries offered a confirmation that you had entered.  

mjm3346

Boom_Boom said:

Is this why there is often no limit on the amount of postal entries you can make, because it doesn't matter anyway..
ITV should be made to bring back their free online route.  They simply cannot be trusted with postal entries and the online entries offered a confirmation that you had entered.  

41,000 entries over 4 years is the equivalent of around 200 entries a week which is less then 0.02% of all the entries they get - I liked and won with web entry but would never bother with a postal one even if it was 100% at their end there is the possibility of it not getting there or not getting there in time  - You usually get 3 entries for 2 then buy one get one free which makes them around a £1 each for the £2 competitions and I'd rather pay that and have pretty much a guaranteed entry rather than messing around with a postal one - although because the odds vs the prizes are so poor I wouldn't enter anyway.

One thing they could do (if they have the info) is put the 41,000 entries in a pool with 41,000,000,000 "house" tokens and see if one of the 41,000 is drawn as a winner (to represent the approx 1,000,000 to 1 odds against any entry)

mjm3346

already a thread in the chat corner

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6222528/itv-breached-ofcom-competition-rules-over-postal-votes#latest

"Hopefully this means they'll take care to make sure postal votes are counted properly in the future to stop this kind of bad press again?"
People who pay to enter probably don't mind postal entries not being counted as long as the paid ones are counted their chances are very slightly better.

Scorpioangel

The simple reality here is that you will never be able to tell if your entry was counted or not. There would be no reason to keep the postcards after the competition is ended so no way of checking.
Also, it would depend on how the postcards are assigned an entry; as the PO box numbers are for a mailing house which deals with multiple different organisations it wouldn't be likely that they input every name and number into a database, it is more likely that it is done in the way that PrizeJar  operates - each postal entry is assigned a number and the number is transmitted to the organisers to go into the draw. If that number is picked out the organiser contacts the mailing house and gets the name and number to contact the winner.

mjm3346

Several years ago the postal entries were scanned/input into a computer system and combined with all the other entries prior to a winner being chosen but they then opted for a (presumably) cheaper solution to make even more money.

Bridger12

Terrible, I just started comping this year and sending postcards for the itv competitions. I stopped a few months ago and started online usually £2 an entry. ITV should refund, they forget postage stamps are expensive these days. 

Bridger12

Terrible. I only started comping early this year and was sending in postcards for the itv comps. A few months ago I have started online entries which cost £2 with itv. Postage stamps are expensive these days, itv needs to refund for the postal entries 

mjm3346

Bridger12 said:

Terrible, I just started comping this year and sending postcards for the itv competitions. I stopped a few months ago and started online usually £2 an entry. ITV should refund, they forget postage stamps are expensive these days. 

If you started this year then it shouldn't matter as the period involved is 2016 to 2019. (very poor return for the likely odds if you are paying to enter and not good even for the value of a stamp


From another post
ITV competitions are a major money maker for them and get over 1,000,000 entries a week, most competitions seem to run for 2 weeks or longer and many of them are combined  - the one with fewest entries is probably "D real deal" but that also has the smallest prizes  -  wouldn't surprise me if the main morning one which seems to be on 2 or 3 shows and often runs for several  weeks has somewhere over 2 million entries and possibly more than that