We were going to mention this on our recent update but forgot to include it, however it’s probably an issue that deserves it’s own short blog article. Earlier this year Virgin Radio ran a prize draw in conjunction with Visit Qatar offering the winner the chance to win a luxury holiday for 2. The prize includes travel and 5* accommodation and would give the winner “the ultimate VIP experience in Qatar”. To enter all you needed to do was enter your details between the 26th February and 16th March 2024. The terms and conditions for the prize draw are still online and can be found here. In April the winner of this prize draw was notified. Six months on from then and instead of planning for the “ultimate VIP experience” the winner is instead chasing Virgin Radio and Visit Qatar to get the trip booked. According to a post on Loquax Forums the winner is “being fobbed off by both parties saying it is going to be booked and it is being fulfilled. I have emailed them constantly sent them a letter and still nothing seems to be done”. “It is now three months since I actually heard from Visit Qatar. We have told them the dates we would like to go and the airport we would like to fly from and they said they would get it sorted but still nothing”!
Chasing The Promoters
Obviously this situation isn’t great but usually it comes down to miscommunication somewhere along the line. Occasionally a prompt by a third party can get the wheels turning again so we offered to see if we could get any response from Virgin Radio on X/Twitter. So we posted and nothing! Visit Qatar also failed to respond. We decided to try good old fashioned email too, but again drew blanks from Visit Qatar, Virgin Radio and Wireless Group Media GB Ltd (operator of participating radio stations in the News UK network) who are the promoter of the draw. Again nothing! And nothing on Linkedin either. Dig deeper and it’s actually quite difficult to get any direct communication with either company. We even tried their advertising email and that bounced back as not working! Now we have to caveat that there’s perhaps no reason for a promoter to take us seriously. After all we’re not Advertising Standards (ASA) or A.N.Other official body but you’d have thought that some kind of acknowledgement email or “thank you we’re liasing with the winner on this matter” email would have be the least they could have managed. No wonder the winner is frustrated.
Virgin Radio Do Respond
Whilst we’ve had zero communication from Virgin Radio or Visit Qatar, the winner has acknowledged that they do reply: “I have work emails for both companies and Virgin Radio do respond quite quickly but they keep saying Visit Qatar are working out the logistics of it all, but if you look in the t&cs it’s only hotel, flight and transfers that need booking which doesn’t take 6 months to sort. They had a meeting a month ago with Visit Qatar and said it would be fulfilled and they would get it sorted but nothing since then”. To qualify things here, the winner is trying to book to go away in 3 to 4 months time. They’d like things books so that they can book time off work, get their pets booked in to kennels etc. Therefore it’s not unreasonable for them to want things sorted. They’re naturally worried they’re being impatient or unreasonable but remember it’s six months since the original win notification. That’s more than ample time for all parties to get organised. If there’s a logistic problem then that needs to be sorted out by the promoters and if there’s a prize issue then an alternative should be offered.
What To Do If You Don’t Get A Prize
Not receiving a prize and/or being fobbed off by a promoter is a frustrating aspect of comping and sadly it’s something that crops up regularly. The first thing to do if you find yourself in this position is try and maintain a line of polite communication between yourself and the promoter. There may be delays due to delivery, logistics, holidays, health etc. If however the line goes cold then look at trying to find contacts higher up the company food chain, via social media. No one likes being outed on social media or having their business conducted in public and sometimes a little persuasion can get the ball rolling. Remember to be polite at all times and stick to facts. After that though you may need a little extra help. We’re happy to try and reach out via our social media channels and contacts – maybe even add a blog post – but we sadly can’t guarantee success as much as we’d love too. The big step to take is reporting the brand to Advertising Standards. This may seem strange but by not fulfilling a prize they’ve breached various codes on competitions/prize draws. ASA aren’t keen on folks doing that and will investigate.
Will ASA Sort It Out?
According to articles about competitions and prize draws on ASA:
- Prizes must be awarded as described, or a reasonable equivalent (8.15.1).
- If the prize originally offered cannot be awarded, then a reasonable equivalent must be awarded.
- Promoters must not cause unnecessary disappointment or give consumers justifiable grounds for complaint
We’re pretty confident that the winner of this prize draw will have a good case for ASA to investigate based on all the above. To make a complaint you simply need to go to ASA and complete the form. It’s quite easy and they’re usually pretty good and replying and liasing with you during the process. But does complaining work? It may result in a resolution (hooray) and everyone walks away happy. But if ASA have to do a bigger investigation then the promoter may end up featured in a published ruling. This is a public slap but it still doesn’t guarantee you the prize. For the winner of the Virgin Radio/Visit Qatar prize draw we think ASA is possibly the next step in the process because it’s evident that no one at either company is looking to take responsbility for sorting things out and resolving the issue.