Charity Prize draw cancelled after thousands of entries

Sapindus

This is a bit sad... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-58413707 especially as MSE is partially implicated in why they had to cancel it.  I can't find the thread where it was "advertised as a free draw" (if it was indeed in the forum) but wonder if this is an unintended side-effect of having a rule of never posting a pay-to-enter of more than a certain amount.  Should an exception be made for charities?  

thingamaBob

The thread is here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/78447864#Comment_78447864

One-Eye

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6280228

There is nothing wrong with the comp post. It was posted as a £5 charity comp with a free postal option, as are several other competitions.

mjm3346

Sapindus said:

This is a bit sad... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-58413707 especially as MSE is partially implicated in why they had to cancel it.  I can't find the thread where it was "advertised as a free draw" (if it was indeed in the forum) but wonder if this is an unintended side-effect of having a rule of never posting a pay-to-enter of more than a certain amount.  Should an exception be made for charities?  

Better not to have them posted on here at all so they remain local (if appropriate) attracting mostly paying charitable customers and are not exposed to an audience that are more likely to make free entries.

(They could have framed the rules to avoid the box of entries)

Comping_Rich

Oh no! Now I feel bad for posting the details of the giveaway.

Sapindus

Comping_Rich said:

Oh no! Now I feel bad for posting the details of the giveaway.

Now I've seen the original post I don't think you need to feel bad.  You did say "how can we help them reach their target?"  Also I agree they should have said "only one free entry per person".

pate-ci0

I see no problem with any competition with a free entry being posted on MSE, as long as any relevant information is clear (restricted to a region, or for charity etc). This comp was UK wide, presumably to maximise the target audience. The fault is with the rules not stating "Only one free entry per person" as mentioned above and should also have included "postal with first/second class stamp". 

However, from the news article it looks like the draw was in trouble anyway:

"But despite more than 450 people pledging donations it said it had lost money in the campaign.

.......

The club said it received about 100 postcard entries in the first two weeks and "another flurry of postcards" after it was advertised as a free competition on the MoneySavingExpert website"

£5 donation from 450 people is £2250. 100 postcard entries means the loss of £500 to the charity potentially and if we assume a "flurry" is another 100 postcard entries, the maximum donations if postcard entrants had donated £5 each would have been £3250. That's a pretty cheap car and doesn't even mention administrative costs.

Of course, some of the 450 donations could have been in the order of tens or hundreds of pounds but I think they were a bit over-optimistic. The person who dumped (not even posted!) 2001 postcard entries may be morally bankrupt, but seem to have adhered to the letter if not the spirit of the rules.