Prize never received from The Sun

[stoatchild]

Last November, The Sun newspaper invited its readers to send in poems to help 'cheer our boys on to glory' in The Ashes series against Australia.

The lure was to be £100 cash and a DVD of The Ashes 2005 series for each one printed.

 

Naturally, I was delighted when I saw my effort in print and waited patiently for my prize to arrive.

A couple of weeks passed and I sent an e-mail to the enquiries team in charge of competitions etc to ask if I needed to do anything to claim my prize. I was actually hoping to have the prize by last Xmas! I got a message back saying my e-mail had been passed to the relevant dept.

 

Guess what? 10 months on and still nothing!! I have checked my mails and have sent them seven so far! Each reply I have received comes straight from customer service who appear pleasant enough and seems to promise a bit more - the last one promised my query would be forwarded to the author of the article itself which requested the poems. That was mid-summer though and still nothing back.

I am very disappointed in them - especially as they are always championing themselves about consumer rights! I told them this in my last mailing.

 

What should I do next? Some people have advised me taking my story to another paper! Some have said to contact the editor - but I can't see her being too interested. I haven't phoned yet as I'm sure my query would just be logged with a customer service team in the same way that my e-mails are.

 

I have kept the edition which my poem was printed as evidence and although I can't find the original paper with the prize mentioned, I was able to download the original material from their online archives so I do have sufficient ammo as the prize is there in print.

 

Any ideas greatly received.

[Bookworm]

Contact the editor, and advise him/her that unless they fulfill their side of the bargain within 14 days, you will issue a court claim for the monetary value of £100 + the value of the DVD + court fee + Statutory Interest @ 8%, and make their competitors aware of said court claim once filed.

 

Let us know how you get on.

[gyzmo]

You could also follow up on your suggestion of taking the story to other newspapers (make sure they are not in the same group such as the News of the World or The times (and others).

 

Giving Private Eye a call may be worth a go. they love lampooning newspapers (especially on subjects such as this) and if there have been other complaints, (and the paper has been hypocritical on the subject of playing fair), PE may just take it up.

[stoatchild]

Some sound advice - thank you very much. Shall keep you posted!