Cash Alternative For Prize Draw Win Too Low

[koster]

Hello,

I won a website prize draw in which the prize was a computer. The operator paid me a cash alternative, as they are entitled to do under their terms and conditions. I'm very happy to receive a cash alternative, but I didn't request it, this was the operator's choice.

However, the cash alternative paid (£600) is less than the price of the computer (manufacturer's website says from £800 and i am unable to find it online, new, for less). I asked the operator about this and they say that the amount is based on the cost of the item on Amazon at the time of prize draw launch.

Any advice?

Thanks.

[EDDIE51]

There is nothing you can do, somewhere in the small print there will be a clause that says ' we reserve the right to substitute a cash alternative ' or similar words. The computer may have been cheaper or on special offer when the draw was launched.

[sandyRoe]

Congratulations on your win. Should you be looking gift horses in the mouth?

[koster]

Thanks for your answers. I course I don't want to be greedy or ungrateful. But this site isn't run so that they can give away prizes out of generosity or kindness. It is a profit-making site: you answer survey questions in order to enter the prize draws. The website is therefore paid by companies to collect data. You know the kind of thing, they ask you which energy company you're with and whether you'd like a call from Scottish Power. Or they ask you if you wear glasses and then you can email about laser eye surgery.

So if they substituted your prize with a cash amount less than the value of the prize ... well that's fraud, isn't it?

In order to stand a good chance of winning a prize on websites like this, you invest some of your time in filling in forms, entering every prize draw that comes your way. So the website operators do have a responsibility both to their visitors, and to the clients on whose behalf they collect data. If they didn't, they could run fake prize draws and never give anyone a prize.

If the computer was cheaper when the competition was launched, then fair enough, but I don't think the competition operator should be allowed to give any cash alterative amount of their choosing.

[sir.prize]

koster. I also enter competitions - lots and lots of them - as a hobby. A must is always read the terms and conditions. In your instance the company have given you a cash alternative; apparently you feel aggrieved because you think it is less than you deserve. Perhaps the computer would have been less than £800 if bought 'through the trade' .Although your last sentence above answers your doubts. I am astonished that you feel obliged to make an issue out of receiving an admirable cash alternative.

Be appreciative for a very nice win.

[Twenty20]

What did the terms and conditions state?

I assume you read them?

[THECORBYLOON]

If they say it was based on the price being charged on Amazon then why not either contact Amazon for confirmation or ask the competition promoter to provide proof since someone at their end must have authorised the payment and had something on which to base the amount to be paid.

[sara3]

I know someone who won an £18k car on a national lottery scratch card. they took the cash alternative, which was £16k.

I'm pretty sure the lottery people know what's allowed.

[factor-fiction]

Antheman1- you may want to read the rules on the Law section which say:

"Please refrain from being rude, abusive or judgemental - members come here for advice, not judgement! Members who offer only moral judgement will be suspended."

[sara3]

I suspect Antheman may just be passing through...

[factor-fiction]

I see where you're coming from here, sara

[joko]

its all very well saying that koster should just be grateful when the alternative amount was still a nice sum of money - but what if it was drastically lower? say £200...?
£200 is still a nice sum for free - but its not what you won.

i don't know the rules here but id say they were obliged to offer the cash amount of the actual item, as advertised at the start of the comp - just because something has depreciates in value in the meantime does not alter the prize total offered.

[koster]

Thanks for all the answers.

Some of you think I'm greedy. Sara mentioned the National Lottery, but this isn't the National Lottery, it's a less well-known website. If it were the national lottery, I'd trust them, they'd be open to public scrutiny. I'm not going to put the name of the website here because I don't want to accuse them of anything without knowing my facts. I didn't get a choice between the prize and the cash alternative, they told me I would get the cash (even though the prize is readily available to buy).

So just supposing that there's a website which always paid £200 less than the value of the prize. It's a profit-making website: they are paid by their clients to collect data from prize draw entrants, they're not giving away prizes because they're really generous. So if they're paying out less than they should, that's fraud, they are defrauding their paying clients and they are defrauding those who enter the prize draws. People who enter online prize draws invest lots of time in entering lots of draws, in order to increase the odds from minuscule to meaningful. For all we know, the person at the other end could be transferring £600 to the winner and £200 into their own bank account.

So call me greedy if you like. The terms and conditions are vague, they don't say anything about the amount of the cash alternative or how that amount is arrived at. But if you award someone a prize, tell them they'll get money instead, but the money isn't enough to buy the prize, that doesn't seem right to me.

[bednobs]

could you ask them for proof of the price they say the computer was sold at?

[joko]

its like entering a comp to win a rolls royce - and winning - then being sent a micra ... and being expected to just think that's fine ...because you should be grateful to get something for free... you wouldn't be happy at all

you enter a comp because of the prize they have offered, because you want to win that thing... I would not enter a comp to win, say, tickets to a sporting match, so it would be unacceptable for them to give me some instead of the tickets to the great gig that i had actually won.

just because its actual cash doesn't mean they can just change the prize to whatever suits them

[factor-fiction]

I expect they will argue that the cash value they are offering is broadly the same as the cost price to them of the item. The retail price of a computer may be £800 but maybe they have a way of sourcing these at a cheaper rate. I can see that a manufacturer may let them have a prize as a discounted rate in return for their product being featured in the magazine- it's cheap advertising. The manufacturer may even have given it free. Hence the reason the competition organisers prefer to give the stated prize than cash

[sir.prize]

They often state - ''. . . the prize will be stated or a cash alternative will be awarded''.

[factor-fiction]

I realise, koster, that in your case you didn't choose the cash alternative, but the rules may say at the organiser's discretion or something like that. Unless the difference is huge I doubt anyone will take the matter further but it's worth writing to them and saying you were disappointed- or you could just boycott that competition as there are plenty of others who may be more generous