To be slightly annoyed by misdescribed raffle prize?

[TheMadGardener]

So last weekend was our local church bazaar and there was a big raffle with some great prizes. One of the top prizes was advertised as (and printed on the tickets) as "Dinner for two at (local very posh country house 5 star hotel and restaurant)". Nice prize. Anyway, I bought some raffle tickets.

We didn't stay for the raffle draw but later I got a phone call to say that I had won the "dinner for two at posh hotel" prize. I was really pleased and so was my husband. I went and collected my prize today, and in the envelope is a brochure from the hotel and a little slip which says "Voucher for two-course set menu lunch for two (drinks not included)."

I know I am BU to be a bit disappointed because we'll still get a free meal, but I think it''s a bit off to advertise it as dinner on the raffle tickets and then it turns out to be lunch instead. I don't think I'll tell the church though; wouldn't want to upset the vicar!

pollymere that's a lovely story

Did you win another prize full of crack by any chance Op?

I am actually

Surely the hotel would have agreed that to contribute with the organiser/s. When did lunch become dinner in hotels? Someone has messed up but. Don't think it is worth mentioning unless you paid £50 for a ticket.

It's not misdescribed. You assumed it was more than what was detailed.

All freebies come with conditions. I would expect any 'dinner for two' prize to be the cheapest option as is with this case - during a weekday lunch not dinner or weekend service.

Then it should have been called lunch, Dancing. Why should op have just known it was something else entirely?

The level of denial on this thread is incredible. It's not misdescribed. Except it blatantly is.

I have worked in hotels my whole life and dinner is dinner... an evening meal and I would have expected a bottle of house wine with that too maybe a 2 course...

I would quite often support events and I always checked the vouchers we supplied met that if the clients expectations it’s representation of the establishment at the last...

If you're that disappointed, OP send it this way

Unless you bought the tickets purely for the chance of winning this particular prize I think YABU. It's a church fete organised by volunteers. You might have got the tin of biscuits that's been doing the rounds since 2012. You might equally well have got nothing but you're getting a meal out in a nice restaurant for a couple of quid. Count those blessings

If it was a "Grand Draw" type raffle with printed tickets (which is how the OP reads), then it will (or should) have been registered with the local council to be legal and the church will have had to follow the council's regulations. The church and hotel have had publicity about their generosity as the tickets can be sold before the event and away from the event location. You could therefore take up the issue of the not-as-described prize with the council, if you were so inclined. For the sake of a meal and the bad feeling it would create, is it actually worth the hassle though?

If it was a raffle with those coloured, numbered tickets from a book, bought on the day then it's more informal. In which case, chalk it up as "one of those things", maybe mention it in passing to the organiser and enjoy your lunch.

I call my lunch my dinner at home, but if we’re going out for dinner it’s in the evening. I’m not totally uncouth.

On reflection, I would ask to speak to the management before the meal and let them know how it was advertised. We can safely say that they won't have described it as a dinner, so by misrepresenting the prize the church has tarnished the restaurant's reputation (albeit in a minor way).

Not including at the least a glass of wine per person was also a bit cheap on the part of the restaurant, so they are also at fault. Also worth mentioning to the manager (obviously in a non-confrontational way). They may even end up adding something to the meal.

It's not misdescribed. You assumed it was more than what was detailed.

It was advertised as "Dinner for two" and what was received was "Lunch for two". In hospitality lunch is never referred to as dinner as dinner is always understood to be an evening meal.

The issue was not the OP assuming the prize was something it is not, it was explicitly oversold as a different prize.

That is misdiscription and the OP is not the one in the wrong

If you were to win a gourmet lunch and were presented with a Greggs sausage roll and had to buy your own drink, DancingHouse, would you think that was misdescribed?

I would expect any 'dinner for two' prize to be the cheapest option as is with this case - during a weekday lunch not dinner or weekend service.

Bollocks would you Dancing. You might expect it to be from a set menu rather than an a la carte, or you might expect it only to apply mid week and not weekends, but like had would you think it would be lunch

I Won top prize in a raffle once. Theme park. After all the restrictions and top ups required to use the damn ticket, turns out 2nd 3rd and 4th prizes were waaaay better by miles. YANBU to be slightly annoyed by the misleading info. Justified. re gift to the vicar for Christmas. I Dislike CF advertising! Who cares if it's just a raffle.

Misleading advertising. Some posters seem to presume the OP would have donated the money to the church, anyway, however, many folk,,,, myself included, look at the prizes first before deciding to buy a ticket.
The normal rules of contract law are not automatically waived just because a charity is involved

I won a unpolished precious stone in a phone in competition (bored at work, in the days before they monitored phone calls), and was pleasantly surprised that it was an emerald.
I was even more surprised when it arrived; a little envelope with a pebble in it!

Unpolished gems do look just like pebbles.
Did you get it polished?

The normal rules of contract law are not automatically waived just because a charity is involved

It's a church not a charity. Big difference.

Iamagreyhound
Please tell me you didn't throw it away!

Oh, just seen your post, endoftheline. I bloody well did. They included the cost of polishing, which (iirc, it was about ten years ago) was around £300. I remember feeling pissed off at being asked to part with that for a "free" gift and binned it. It was around the size of a baby's fingernail.
Don't tell me it was worth thousand, I'm not listening! (Was it? Really?)

The cost of polishing was a rip off but you probably could have sold the stone.
Never mind. You didnt pay for it really.

It sounds as if it would have been microscopic once polished.

i recently bid for quite a few items in a charity auction - and ended up winning a number of them (despite only bidding to get the price higher!!)

I was a bit disappointed that the criteria of all of the prizes, once received, was much more limited than I would have expected: two were Mon - Thur only, one was weekday lunchtimes only; one not to be used any night in December! This limited when we could benefit from them dramatically. If I'd been able to read the small print I might not have ben quite so keen to bid!

Update! I haven't been for the lunch yet, but in the last few weeks DH and I have been to a few other Christmas events and bought more raffle tickets...DH has now won, in separate raffles, a bottle of whisky, a bottle of gin and two bottles of wine! This run of success has made us quite forget the earlier slight disappointment!

Shall I get DH to buy a lottery ticket this week while he's on this lucky streak??