to want the prize I won??

[Dogue]

In the grand scheme of things I’m probably being petty, but this has really annoyed me -

our village had a Christmas fair last Saturday. On Monday I had a missed call from a mobile number which turned out to be the organisers of the event. I rang back and she said was ringing to tell me I’d won a prize, but that she was out at the moment so didn’t have details but would ring me back in half an hour to let me know.

I didn’t hear back from her on Monday so I called again on Wednesday (didn’t get a chance on Tuesday) and she said the same again - someone would call me back later with details of what I’d won and how to collect.

by Thursday I still hadn’t heard from them so I texted the number about it. I got the reply: “sorry, all prizes had to be collected by Wednesday. We can give you a bottle of Prosecco as a consolation”

I’m so annoyed that I wasn’t given any opportunity to collect my prize on time. From memory the only thing I think I put my phone number down for was when my 6 year old entered the ‘guess how many sweets in the jar’ so I was really excited to tell him he had won. I’m not really bothered about having a massive jar of jellies in my house, but if that’s what we’ve won then it’s what I want! When I told her this she said she would make sure there’s a consolation prize for him too, but that’s no use really as it means I don’t get the loveliness of telling him his guess was the winner.

obviously there are much bigger things to worry about in the world right now, but it’s a bit shit and terrible organisation right??

This made me laugh so much 😂

Sounds like you live in Grinchville. I would send a message to the number you have saying thank you so much and how your son is now going to be so happy to appease them as they sound like dicks and small villages can be horrible places. I also wouldn't touch the sweets if someone's greasy hands have been all over them.

Thank you, @Pupinski - same to you!

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Sounds like you are the grinch! 😂

Cancel the cheque OP!

I wonder if they've called the wrong number by accident then thought they'd better honour it after you complained. ESP since there's nowhere near the amount you had thought of.

Bloody disgusting.

I wonder if they've called the wrong number by accident then thought they'd better honour it after you complained. ESP since there's nowhere near the amount you had thought of.

But that would be easily rectifiable, albeit with a slight bit of embarrassment, as it would if, say, the jar had later fallen off the table and smashed, ruining the sweets inside. These would indeed be fair mistakes that could be conveyed with a friendly apology and probably accepted with good grace.

Every step of how the organisers have acted, though - at least the one of them OP has been in touch with - has been odd and shifty and very suspicious - not reminiscent of a genuine mistake or mishap at all.

They could've done this to other prize winners, you made the calls and claimed prize, not your fault. Think I'd contact event organiser and discuss it.

@DailyMaui teddy can move out when the winner does as an adult 😂

I know I’m a bit late here, but pleased that the OP achieved justice - like others I can till remember the resentment from over 50 years ago when I won the top prize at our local Aero club, a return ticket to Beirut. My parents refused to let me accept it and made them redraw it. Why ever they thought their 16 yr old blonde blue eyed daughter wouldn’t be safe I can’t imagine…😂

My only story is the time we won the photo competition at our local kids farm. We’d been members for years so winning a year’s membership was amazing, it was all over their social media and they used the photo a lot.
However the bad grace getting the prize was unbelievable.
I replied on Facebook to a few posts we were winners asking how to collect- no reply
I phoned, the right person was never there. Emails no reply
Finally on the 4th face to face visit (we are very local and still had a few weeks of membership) the manager sent the message which was repeated to me ‘fine, give it to her, make sure they don’t take a cuddly toy as they’ve had enough already!’ (You’d get a free tiny toy when you took out membership, I hadn’t asked for it and I’d remained very pleasant).
It was the most miserable prize experience, like I was a grabby cow

This happened to me once. I won a prize in a Christmas raffle while I was temping for a very posh shop. It was a big box of goodies from the shop. When I claimed it after xmas I was told it must have somehow got lost in the internal post, so here's a cheap bottle of wine instead! This was 20+ years ago and I still feel annoyed, so, no OP, you won't ever get over it unfortunately...

I think main irritation is when organisers at these sort of things are flakey. But why on earth can’t you just get your child to guess anyway? I would feel more annoyed by the casual inefficiency than the actual prize. Was this a fundraiser?

I know you have acknowledged yourself that it's not a huge deal in the scheme of things, but I hope the experience of being rumbled and having to scramble to keep face has been salutary in one respect.
The organisers were trying to raise funds in a good cause; very commendable. But if this happened to you, who's to say that this hasn't happened before, with more valuable prizes?
In a village community, there may be a limited "clientele" for this and other events - and word gets around, "Don't bother with the raffle; the good prizes always go to The In Crowd"
It may be true, and fair comment; it may be untrue and a one-off genuine foul-up, but the result is the same - ticket sales fall off, and the good cause loses funds.

I won the top prize at our local Aero club, a return ticket to Beirut.

Of all the places they could have chosen?!?!

Unreasonable?

I'll bet it's illegal, never mind unreasonable!

I think the OP can do without friends like that (and as a matter of fact most people would probably feel the same way)

This post had me in stitches though, thank you so much!!

To everyone who is more worried about the Ukraine war and thinks the OP is petty and unappreciative: this is a about more than a jar of sweets

Especially in small communities it's important to be able to trust each other and your neighbours. Making a mistake is one thing but not owning up to it and messing you about makes you look extremely untrustworthy and dishonest.

It's the way they dealt with it that was the problem.

I always find that people who tell you not to make a fuss are either very economical with the truth themselves or are doormats who would rather have a bunch of fake friends than put their food down when something dodgy is going on. Who is to say they didn't do the same thing to other people at that event?

greenjudy

Exactly that 👏🏼

I am neither a doormat nor a keen deceiver but I have worked a lot in the 3rd sector and volunteered at community organisations and I think it’s important to remember that a large proportion of people who volunteer their time for free are people who aren’t quite at a point where they are able to work in paid jobs ie have additional support needs/are neurodivergent/haven’t worked outside the home for a long time/are recovering from mental or physical illness/live variously chaotic lives…etc etc the list goes on. So if someone in the volunteer ranks told someone that someone has won something and someone else accidentally gave that something to someone else and someone forgot who the original winner was and… As I say, chaos reigns. I say give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it wasn’t malicious and in this particular instance park the fuss.

Without derailing the entire thread…Lebanon in the early 1970s was known as the Paris of the Middle East and by all accounts was a fabulous place to visit.

I have also worked in the charity sector and usually there is a NT person overlooking the event and a professional point of contact who explains mishaps like that rather than avoiding contact and brushing things over - in fact a lot of charity events run like that work much better. This sounded more like a village community event. The whole situation doesn't sound at all like what you described. Benefit of the doubt is important but if you read the follow up posts there is little room for that left.

I don't think your feelings of annoyance and unfairness are wrong or 'petty'.

However, I'm not sure you're going to get your prize. You may have to end up just letting this one go.

All those 'laws' people keep quoting... do you even have the money to take the organisers of a jellybean guessing game at a local event to court over a jar of jellybeans?

If you even can - I honestly don't believe that local games run through a neighbourhood event are subject to the same rules as organisers of a nationwide highly publicised event.

But no, your feelings are not at all unreasonable. I hope that our assurance about that helps you out. :(

So if someone in the volunteer ranks told someone that someone has won something and someone else accidentally gave that something to someone else and someone forgot who the original winner was and… As I say, chaos reigns.

But that would have been one of the genuine mistakes that people have excused this scenario as. It could have been explained apologetically and a friendly resolution found.

Telling somebody that they just lose their prize if they don't get it in a very short space of time - and then apparently still having the prize later, except it isn't: it's a very inferior version of it; and then shoving it grumpily to them without a word - none of these are mistakes or the marks of somebody who is ND and getting confused - they are the marks of somebody who is dishonest and deliberately trying to hide something.