record Keep the notification and the claim in writing. The promotion's obligation runs to the winner it notified, and the evidence that the winner acted inside the window is the claim itself. Screenshots and a dated copy of the notification are the whole file.
Prize Form / The chain
Clause 04
Four parties, and one of them is holding your prize
The company that announced the prize is frequently not the company that owns it, packs it, or knocks on the door. A non-cash award passes through a chain of parties with different contracts, and the terms usually say that risk passes to the winner at some unspecified point along it.
Claim stub
- Claim
- PF-54-05
- Subject
- The delivery chain
- Parties
- promoter / supplier / fulfilment / courier
- Risk in transit
- usually the winner’s
Money2 forms: a credit to a balance, a payment to an account in your name
A buyer3 forms: a voucher, a thing with a market, a personalised thing with none
Attendance1 form: an experience that can only be attended, on a date
A condition2 forms: credit behind a condition, points locked to a product
Direct answerA non-cash prize is normally delivered through four parties: the promoter that ran the promotion, a prize supplier that provides the item, a fulfilment house that stores and ships it, and a courier that carries it. The promoter's terms commonly transfer risk of loss or damage in transit to the winner, and a delivery that fails because of an address or a missed collection is usually counted against the winner rather than re-run indefinitely.
Promoter: runs the promotionSupplier: provides the itemFulfilment: packs and shipsCourier: carries and delivers
The chain, station by station
- The promoter. Owns the promotion and the terms, decides the winner, verifies the claim and instructs the delivery. Where the prize came from a partner - a brand, a broadcaster, a supplier - the promoter may be under an obligation to that partner about how the prize is presented and delivered.
- The prize supplier. Provides the item, sometimes at a reduced rate or in exchange for exposure. The supplier's own availability terms are what makes the substitution clause in the alternative page necessary: if the item cannot be supplied, the promotion needs a way to give something else.
- The fulfilment house. Holds stock, packs the item and books the carrier. This is where a reader's delivery address, contact number and preferred window enter the process, and where most failed deliveries begin.
- The courier. Carries the item and records the delivery. A tracking number, a signature and a photograph at the door are the only record the reader will ever see, and they are produced by the carrier rather than by the promotion.
Where risk sits in each direction
to the winner Loss, damage and collection
Terms commonly state that risk passes to the winner on dispatch, that a missed collection or refused delivery counts as delivery, and that the promotion is not liable for a carrier's failure. Where that wording is present, an item lost in transit is the winner's problem to pursue with a carrier the winner has no contract with.
to the promotion Supply and substitution
The promotion carries the risk that the advertised item cannot be supplied, and that is what the substitution right exists to manage. Where the terms promise a specific item and do not allow substitution, the promotion carries a stronger obligation - which is why the substitution clause is so common.
What a failed delivery costs
A delivery that goes wrong does not simply restart. Three things happen at once, and only one of them is visible.
- Time passes. A returned item, a re-dispatch and a second attempt is measured in weeks. Nothing about the promotion's clock pauses while it happens, and the claim window has usually closed by then.
- Value falls. An item that sits in a warehouse or a depot is ageing. Where the item has a product cycle - phones, consoles, seasonal goods - a month of delay is a month of depreciation against a list value fixed at the announced figure.
- The record moves to the carrier. Once a tracking number exists, every subsequent question is answered by the carrier's record rather than the promotion's. That record is thin, and it is produced by the party with the least interest in the reader's outcome.
Worked example - a delayed delivery, priced (illustrative)
Announced prize: a console, list value 480.00
Dispatch attempted, delivery refused at the address, item returned to the fulfilment house: day 8
Second dispatch, delivered and signed for: day 62 (54 days after the first attempt)
Second-hand value of the same model, at dispatch and at delivery:
day 8: 480.00 x 0.80 = 384.00
day 62: 480.00 x 0.78 = 374.40
Value lost to the delay alone: 384.00 - 374.40 = 9.60
Value lost against the announced list figure: 480.00 - 374.40 = 105.60 (22.0% of list)
The promotion's record shows a successful delivery at full value. The reader's position is an item 54 days older, worth about a fifth less than the number in the announcement, with the delivery risk already spent.
What to do when the chain breaks
step 1
step 2
name the party Ask which party holds the item. A question put as "which supplier is fulfilling this" gets a more useful answer than a general complaint, because it identifies who can actually resend it.
step 3
escalate Escalate to the promotion, not the carrier. The reader has no contract with the carrier, and the promotion's terms are what decide whether risk was the winner's at dispatch. The escalation desk covers complaint routes in general terms.