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??

I'm not aware of there being specific legislation covering the 'guess the number of sweets' style competitions. Pretty sure they aren't covered in the lotteries and amusements act (1976)

Hoping to be proven wrong and enlightened.

Are you a legal expert in this area? Just because it's at a local fayre and has a twee name, it's still taking money from people and the law tends to cover that kind of thing.

www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/public-and-players/guide/page/how-to-run-a-fundraiser-with-lotteries-or-raffles-at-events

"I can only apologise" is the sort of thing you say after you've just run over someone's cat - it strikes me as quite a silly thing to say when actually in a position to do something to fix the problem.

Update! I’ve had a text to say ‘your prize is available to collect from (address). Please collect before 2:30pm’

Its a different address from where I was told to collect the Prosecco so I’m guessing it’s my real prize?? We shall see.

(trying my hardest not to complain about how inconvenient it is to be given an hours notice to collect, but I don’t want the prize evaporating again so I’ll make it work!)

Don’t guess-the-weight competitions usually have a list of all weights on a clipboard and you write your name and phone number next to the weight you guess, to avoid duplication of winners? That’s how I’ve always seen it done.

I am thinking way too hard about this competition, the organisers, what compo the OP will get: I want to see her and her son doing sadfaces in the local paper next to a bottle of unwanted Prosecco, together with a stock image of a sweetie jar to illustrate the injustice.

Ooh, I was typing as the update came in! An hour?? They really don’t want you getting this prize, OP!

if it's just volunteers and no profits, then it seems they did their best.

I disagree; in fact, if you're volunteering to run a raffle and you can't get the prizes to the winners who are contacting you to ask for them - aided by some ridiculous arbitrary rules as to how quickly you need to get them - then I really don't see how they could have done much worse.

What was she suggesting would happen to the prizes after this very short deadline had expired? Also, had she already set a deadline or would it always have been just before whatever time the claimant came forward?

Everybody is trying to #bekind to the volunteers, but it's looking very like the only thing she volunteered to do was to grab herself a nice prize (maybe others too?) under false pretences. Shall I be an amazing, big-hearted, salt of the earth-type volunteer and volunteer to help Tesco to get rid of some of their stock off the shelf without being any bother to their hard-working employees by taking up their precious time and actually paying for it?

As PP said, with volunteers who scam/defraud people (whether deliberately or not), that is NOT a sustainable benefit to any charity or good cause, who strongly rely on the ongoing goodwill of donors and supporters.

Is this the organiser?

😂

I really want to know what the prize is!

Have they still not divulged what the actual prize you won is?????

Wonderful news, OP!

Is anybody else wondering if the organiser is on MN?

What if you weren't free?! What short notice

I am way more invested in this than I should be

I did once go to a fete where a little girl won a big glass jar of sweets. She went up to the platform to collect it, tripped on the stairs going down and.... smashed it. Cue hysterical sobbing.

What if the new address is a trap? The fair committee are going to shut you down!

I wonder if when you collect your prize it is a bottle of Prosecco.

@ABBAsnumberonefan

You can get cheaper but it depends on whether they got a proper glass jar decent assortment of sweets or cheap rubbish sweets.
Id be a bit annoyed if it was the former, not so bothered if the latter.

I once won a raffle prize and it turned out to be a selection of packs of high end sweets in a little hamper.

I picked it up a few days after the raffle.

Only one of the packs had been opened and half the contents scoffed!!!!!

Yes, please keep us updated OP! 😁

Rooting for you OP.
We need photos of the prize. Run there before it disappears.

I want to know what the prize is! DS will love that he was clever enough to win a big jar of sweets, so hope it is that.
Not given you much time to collect either, so hope you make it!

1 hour notice - someone doesn’t want to give up the sweets!

love this…placemarking :)

I bet they had to run out and buy replacements for all the sweets they ate so far. 😂