Raffle prizes, is this ok or not?

swingaloo

 Need clarification on this scenario please.

A shop is running a raffle and there are about 18 prizes. All the prizes are of a similar value, there is no 'big' 1st prize. When the draw is made the numbers will be displayed and the first person to produce a winning number gets first choice of prize and so on until all prizes are claimed.

When the raffle was announced  and tickets started to be sold there were only 11 prizes but more have been added as people have donated things to the shop and they have been added to the raffle prize shelf.

Now, one particular prize was added to raffle but it was later discovered that this prize was possibly worth a few pounds more than the other prizes and so it was taken out of the raffle the following day and sold in the shop.  

This was done after some of the tickets had been sold i.e

Raffle announced Monday and ticket sales commenced
Tues and Wed additional prizes were added to the raffle
Thursday one particular  prize was added to the raffle
Friday that prize was removed and sold separately.
Raffle to be drawn 2 weeks later

Is there any issue with one of the prizes being removed after the tickets started selling?

user1977

I can't really see it mattering much, can you?

swingaloo

Me personally, no. However one of the ladies who work in the shop is up in arms about the item being sold and is banding the word 'Fraud' around saying that some people will only have ought tickets because they hoped to win that particular prize.

Aylesbury_Duck

Ignore her.  She sounds like she's looking for trouble where there's none.

user1977

swingaloo said:

Me personally, no. However one of the ladies who work in the shop is up in arms about the item being sold and is banding the word 'Fraud' around saying that some people will only have ought tickets because they hoped to win that particular prize.

So what is she planning to do about it? Fraud is a criminal offence, so clearly the fraud squad need to get involved...

(how much are the prizes worth?)

swingaloo

user1977 said:

swingaloo said:

Me personally, no. However one of the ladies who work in the shop is up in arms about the item being sold and is banding the word 'Fraud' around saying that some people will only have ought tickets because they hoped to win that particular prize.

So what is she planning to do about it? Fraud is a criminal offence, so clearly the fraud squad need to get involved...

(how much are the prizes worth?)

Probably between a tenner and twenty pounds each.

ArbitraryRandom

Is the issue SHE bought a ticket and wanted to win the prize? 

If so, I'd suggest the easiest option would be to say she could have a refund of her ticket as long as it's before the draw. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Hello OP

I assume this is fundraising for charity? If so presumably everything goes to a good cause and someone complaining about something like this isn’t going to gain much support. 

Grumpy_chap

Is this a charity shop and charity raffle?
They need to try to generate the best income they can for each item - whether via the raffle or sold in the shop.  
I would not be that fussed about it - then again I'd be buying the ticket and quite probably with the hope of not winning something that I probably don't want.

pinkshoes

If its for charity then they're acting in the best interest of the charity.

If it's not a charity raffle then refund the tickets for this woman as she clearly bought then in hope of winning this specific prize.

I'd probably refund her anyway and remove her tickets!

HampshireH

Had you advertised the prize before withdrawing it to generate more tickets being sold? Or was it only staff who knew it was earmarked as a prize.

Did the donator donate specifically for the raffle.

Morarally for me if you had advertised it and it was donated for it really it should remain as a prize. Especially if donated for that reason.

If it wasn't either then as above if the cause has made more money then brilliant nobody should begrudge that