Paying postage for prize

BobbleWobble

Hello All,

hope everyone has had a chance to enjoy the sun this weekend!

Been searching through the forum to see if someone has posted this before (as I'm sure they must have but I can't see anything) so here goes:

I've won a small prize from a small business and they are asking me to pay postage.

I can do that of course but as there are quite a lot of scams going around at the moment I thought I'd ask what people thought about this?

Thanks in advance!

StokieBecks

Do you remember the competition  and whether you entered it. If so try and find the terms and conditions. If it doesn't say anywhere in the terms that the winner will have to pay postage I would give it a miss (was it maybe a collect only prize and they are asking you to cover postage as you aren't local to collect?)
 
Never paid for postage for a prize. Seems to defeat the point - even more so if it is, as you say, a small prize

Ms_Dee

Check the message came directly from the official prize provider. (a lot of people are creating accounts on social media that look very much like the original)

Check the terms and conditions of the competition and see if you actually entered it.

Think about how they are asking for posting, you shouldn't need to provide much information and you shouldn't need to click links.

I don't tend to enter competitions that require me to pay postage, the only time I've had to pay postage for a prize, I think was when Sunny D gave away socks, as they only paid a normal second class stamp on all of their winners packaging. So most of us had to go to the post office and pay the extra postage and the handling fee. But I just contacted them and they refunded me and even sent me out a free hi-vis jacket for the trouble. They must have had to fork out a lot more than they anticipated. 

BobbleWobble

Thanks for the replies. Having looked in to it a bit more I'm confident it's legit, I think the prize giver is just a bit inexperienced :-)

NoVaccinePassportsAnywhere

Personally if it was me I would ask them to pick another. winner. I have a rule of not parting with money for a prize.

sensibleshoes

Does seem cheeky of prize giver.  If the prize is higher value than postage by some distance & postage isn't too much then I'd pay.  I won a prize with groupon, a gift voucher to use on their site.  Except I had to pay for P&P so prize voucher reduced by £4.  Value of prize was £50 so still decent prize but was a little annoyed the prize wasn't a total £50 rather £46 

Blulu

Hmm, interesting one. I think I'd feel a bit cheated, even if it was just the cost of a stamp,  unless, as Ms-Dee says, it was in their T+C. Your choice, of course, but if it was me, I think I would contact them saying thanks and am thrilled to win, but that asking me to pay for postage feels a bit mean and takes the shine off of winning.

Blu XXX