The Unclaimed Prize Register Says I’ve Won a Prize! Whoopee! Yeah, Right!!!

Anyone else in Hedge End received a letter from the Unclaimed Prize Register?

One arrived for me in the post yesterday morning, informing me that I’m ‘eligible to receive a prize or award’.

The letter starts off by asking me if I recall filling in and posting an entry coupon for a competition, prize promotion or special offer?

Well, no...

(And, hang on, if they’re telling me I’ve won a prize, shouldn’t they know whether it was from a competition, a promotion, or a special offer?)

And actually I don’t do competitions...

But I read on and the letter then goes on to tell me that I’ve been allocated ‘one of the following’ – from a list starting with a one-off £25,000 cash prize or a £10,000 car, down to 100 £100 cash prizes – oh and neatly tucked away in the middle  of the list is ‘a Digital Camera’ of which there are 10,000 to be awarded.

(But hang on again, if they’re writing to me, shouldn’t they know which prize I’ve been awarded?)

And apparently my prize promoter has notified the Unclaimed Prize Register that I’ve won, so wouldn’t it be simpler if they just forwarded on that prize, without any of this preamble?

But it seems I’ve been given an allocation code and must use that to telephone to get ANOTHER allocation code in order to claim my prize.

And hidden away in the very small print at the bottom of the letter I discover that it will cost me £1.50 a minute to make that call. The very small print reassuringly sets the maximum time of such a call at six minutes... Call me Mrs Cynical, but I wonder how long that call will last...

Reading on to the reverse of the letter, though, I see that I could claim my prize by sending in a Claim Form along with two first class – two first class, mark you – unattached stamps.  Although it seems that even so I would still have to telephone, to get a Claim Number...

Which seemed when reading it a bit odd...

So I did a little research on the Internet.

It seems that I would most likely (if I took up the Unclaimed Prize Register’s invitation to ring and claim my prize) end up with a camera worth about £6.00 – one of the 10,000 digital cameras on offer.

Oh, and so tiny was the small print that I almost missed it – but if I’ve been so fortunate as to win one of the electrical items (e.g. a camera) then I would have to send Unclaimed Prize Register £6.50 to cover insurance and delivery!

So, had I been in line for a camera, and that camera did turn out to be worth all of £6.00 – that’s £9.50 (£9.00 phone call plus £6.50 insurance and delivery minus £6.00 camera value) Unclaimed Prize Register would have made out of me.

And because this morning I received another notification of yet another award I thought I would share this with others in Hedge End!

This one is from the Response Award Service and they don’t muck about with telling me I’ve won something, just that they’ve allocated me a prize!

The Response Award Service is in Ross-on-Wye, just like the Unclaimed Prize Register, in fact a 9WU stone’s throw from the HR9 9YP post code.

And it’s the same old car, large cash prizes, a LCD TV on offer – but 10,000 MP3 players rather than cameras.

And it’s the same old routine of being awarded a code and having to phone to get a new code – and hidden away again at the bottom of the page is the bit about calls costing at £1.50 a minute (maximum 6 minutes) only in even smaller type than on the Unclaimed Prize Register letter –and this time the cost of insurance and postage for the electrical items is £9.95!!

I wonder which of the prizes I’ve been allocated...