To think - this isn't really a prize is it?

[SuzysZoo]

Just won a prize at my DS school's Christmas Fair. Second prize. Lucky me. Says it's worth £200. However it is a voucher for a session at Venture Photography (worth £50, it says) and then £150 off anything I buy. Except that the other threads on here seem to say that the photos cost 100s. So this isn't really a prize is it? It looks like I have to spend 100s to "get" my £200. AIBU to be annoyed? I wish I'd swapped it for a £10 voucher much further down the list of prizes......... I don't think it's really a "prize" is it, if you have to spend money on getting it?

and don't forget the hard sell as they try to force you to spend hundreds and hundreds on their 'arty' snaps. They don't just ask you if you'd be interested. They all but say that you're a failure as a parent if you don't want to have their pictures of your children!

My sister has an £800 picture on her wall. EIGHT HUNDRED QUID! It's nice, don't get me wrong, but it's not £800 nice! And they practically barred the bloody door until she caved in!

how do they get away with such hard sell tactics?

My DM won a family photo shoot in a raffle. We've just spent £1400 on the resulting pictures (my DM, DBro, SIL, DNephew, Me, DH and DS). To be fair we were planning on doing it anyway, but most photographers credit the "cost" of the shoot against any resluting purchases so it's just a marketing trick really.

YANBU. Do not touch with a barge pole.

Oh no. I can't afford it at all. Seems I might get a small 7x 5 inch photo for my £150 but it might not be the shot I want. I understand that they put the best shots in the most expensive frames and won't swap. Pants prize. I am annoyed and want to tell the Raffle organisers just so that they don't disappoint someone again next year. Should I or does it sound like sour grapes?

I thought everyone knew that Venture offers/competitions were hard sell marketing?
Would be very annoyed with our PTA if this made it into our raffle.

Definitely tell them - I don't blame you for feeling a little cheated. It is a bit of a swizz.

Donate it back - then you just look incredibly generous

The person organising the raffle obviously didn't realise how it works.

YANBU - that's not a "prize".

Not a prize at all.
At our school the PTA organise for the school photographer to come one weekend day a year and do family photos, resultant photos are priced the same as school photos so extremely reasonable. There is no way I would go along to a Venture shoot and be made to feel cheap for not spending hundreds for more or less the same thing.

I'd let the PTA know for next year.

I would just bin it and pretend you didn't win or try and eBay it

It will most probably include a free 7 by 5 framed picture and you can choose any photo you want. We did it last year bought a voucher for £10 and went to the viewing with no wallets walked out with a gorgeous framed pic of dd for a tenner

Its not really a prize at all ... you get these vouchers just walking down the high street!!

so it is the price of the photographer to take the pictures but you need to buy the photies ? nah that isn't a prize bloody con

I feel I should tell them because it's such a rubbish prize but I am worried it will come over as really ungrateful or, even worse, it would get round what an ungrateful whiner I am. So maybe best to just keep quiet and seeth on my own!

How many of this "prize" were there ?

It is a crap prize, don't blame the organisers, they won't have realised but do let them know and suggest they approach an independent photographer next time. (we spent £200 on DDs prize... they are lovely but the hardsell is not)

There were two of these prizes and they were billed as second and third prize above some much much much better prizes that actually were worth something!

FIL got us similar for Christmas last year. We haven't been yet. He always chooses presents that cost us money, grr.

Go without your purse (or leave it in the glove box or something) so that you can't spend more than your voucher. If you take anything home it will have been a jolly day out and a new picture on the wall, for nothing.

I am not sure i can be bothered to travel 20 miles twice (once for photos, once for the "viewing" just for a 7 x 5 print and a pissed off feeling that I couldn't get anything else TBH so it will just go in the bin (anyone want?)!

suzy it's 3 trips. They refused to post out our photo. So 20 miles each way x 3 = 120 miles.

Blimey no wonder they hand out "£200" quid vouchers then. I'm surprised that they didn't send one for everyone at the school! That way they might get someone daft enough to do it!

I've had a photoshoot with them. They usually start around the five hundred mark. Not a prize at all.

We've had vouchers for several photographers and we're their worst nightmare because we doggedly stick to the photo included. Venture sound awful though-we've always had the choice of any shot we liked. Only once, when I was being gooey about what I thought was my last newborn did we part with cash for an extra shot. It is lovely and their 7 x 5 inch ones were only £80.

I actually think we should report them to someone. But who? I'm thinking watchdog.