Paid entry prize draw cancelled but no refunds offered

amandaleeds

• Long story, but just a word of warning...myself and many others bought tickets for a prize draw for a campervan worth about 30k. I received an email stating '24 hours left till the draw closes, van will be won, no extensions' etc. Then they later announced that due to low ticket sales (initially blamed a facebook paid for ads problem, then sadly the owner developed a serious health problem) they were extending the closing date, and subsequently did so multiple times over 8 months. They then said that it was definitely ending, and if they didn't sell enough, they would give away a cash prize (ticket sales amounted to over £5k). 

This all seemed against their own stated Ts and Cs though.

The draw closed a few weeks ago and there's no announcements of the winner, no response, no mention of refunds. No response from the facebook page from any of the employees. 

It appears the company owner sadly passed away a few months ago (found out through a bit of research). I've seen on companies house that it's showing as 'active proposal to strike off'. The website for the prize draw entry has shut down as the web host company said they haven't been paid or heard from the company for a few months. It's also become apparent that some people have lost significant amounts of money (15-30k) paying the business for other services they offer which have not been delivered, and they've been told by the family (who resigned from the company) that assets are being stripped. It sounds like their money might have been used to fund the prize for the draw, so a case of a cash flow issue, borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.

This company had a good reputation, and had appeared to successfully run a similar prize draw the year before.

Entries were via PayPal, so hopefully we can all try and recoup our money from the prize draw, but there's no news on what happened to the van we were supposed to win (it did seem to exist as they posted videos of it!). 

chocoholic123

I understand that ASA (advertising Standards Agency) covers competitions for complaints, but as this was a paid for draw there might be something else. The problem is if the person running it has died that does make the whole thing a lot more complex in terms who you are complaining to. I'd agree reporting it to PayPal might be the easiest option to get your money back.

amandaleeds

Yes ASA said they can't do anything, but it's false advertising 

chocoholic123

amandaleeds said:

Yes ASA said they can't do anything, but it's false advertising 

Sorry to hear that - can I ask how much you spent? i.e. was it a small amount or a large amount? PayPal are usually really good if you can prove you didn't get the goods on offer, and you can prove the website has gone so the draw didn't take place. 

amandaleeds

Thankfully only £20, but others have spent £100+ and some have spent £15-30k on other services offered by the company. 😔 I can't prove the draw didn't take place but have enough evidence to show that it'd pretty clear it didn't.