More Questions of Comping 2.
Time this month, I think, to tackle the ever-growing backlog of questions that readers have sent in. Please be patient if you still can’t see your own question here. I’ll try my best to get around to everyone eventually. Do please keep the questions coming via the usual Compers News address; Chatterbox users can also send me their questions online.
Should I always put my phone number on all comps, regardless of prize value?
I prefer to put a phone number whenever it’s asked for, but really it depends on the ‘feel’ of the comp. A reputable promoter or handling house isn’t usually going to bombard you with unwanted calls, so I don’t have a problem letting them have my number. On other occasions, the particular circumstances of a comp – size or timing of the prize, for example – may make the need for a phone number almost mandatory. But on the other side of the coin, a phone number requested for a kitchen, magazine subscription or timeshare comp might inevitably lead to obvious problems. Beware especially of promotions that tell you your phone number is your own personal “lucky number”, and that therefore you must provide it. This will invariably lead to trouble!
Another debate on this subject revolves around whether promoters will leave a message on your answerphone if you’re not available to take a winning call. Again, we can never know for sure – although I’d guess that a reputable promoter would always try to do so. This might not be the case if they need to contact winners quickly though – tickets for an event the following day maybe – so this is yet another area where you must make up your own mind.
At the end of the day, you can terminate an unsolicited sales call with a firm ‘no’ (or something less polite!), and a few such calls might be seen as a reasonable price to pay in return for the occasional genuine prize notification.
Money permitting, perhaps think about getting a cheap ‘pay as you go’ mobile phone for use solely as your ‘comp phone’. This will mean that you can keep your main number secret, and even the most basic phones these days have an automatic answerphone and caller identification. You’ll even be able to start entering all of those new fangled text comps!
It should be apparent – even if you have to use your comper’s “sixth sense” – why a phone number is being requested on an entry form. For genuine prize notification maybe, or for sales purposes, for adding to a general database, or simply for no particular reason save for it appearing in “The Promoter’s Bumper Book of Entry Form Design”. So it’s up to you what you choose to include and when. Never just leave the space blank though – always write ‘none’ or ‘n/a’, otherwise you could be disqualified for submitting an incomplete entry form! Bear in mind too, that if a promoter is looking for a particular kind of customer (dare I say winner?), then someone seemingly without a phone is viewed as inhabiting some kind of financial underclass these days. And that someone who puts the same contact number in the ‘day’ and ‘evening’ boxes probably doesn’t go out to work. None of which should make any difference when it comes to judging a competition of course, but you never know – especially if the comp is promoting an expensive or luxury item.
I loved your original ‘smidding’ article. Any current ‘secrets’ on the shelves?
The halcyon days of giveaway batch codes and misperforated packs seem well and truly behind us, I’m afraid. But you never know when something new will turn up. There have been a few minor ‘finds’ since my earlier article, but because this type of promotion tends to have a shorter than average shelf life, and time is very much of the essence once a ‘code’ has been cracked, it’s not usually practical to list them in Compers News. Deadlines simply don’t allow it. But I’ll always post my finds on Chatterbox (and other members often do the same) so try to look at the site for the latest hints and tips.
There are a couple of fairly mundane ones out there now for you to try if you want to get some basic practice. Both of these should still be on the shelves when this issue of CN hits the streets.
Cif are running a promotion on cardboard collarettes around their trigger-pack range. The same promotion is also on sealed stickers affixed to some of their other products, and I guess that this is where the major prizes will turn up since the stickers are much more secure than the collarettes! But if you want to try your luck with the collarette version – and wins have been reported, so they do exist! – then just give the card a gentle squeeze and you’ll clearly see the win or lose message written around the very top of the inside of the collar.
Felix also have a new promotion on packs and tins of cat food. To easily spot a winning can, have a look at the cat that’s pictured on the “Tasty” side of the label (the other side is the normal “Felix” side, but they’ve changed the name to “Tasty” on one side). Winning labels have the barcode of the free product coupon printed directly underneath the white stripe on the cat’s nose, and this stands out quite easily once you get your eye in! This, of course, probably won’t help you to spot the few big winners that are out there, but you’d need to beat odds of tens of millions to one to find one of these cans anyway – and my guess is that they’ll distribute the bigger prizes sealed inside multipacks for extra security. But a free product is better than nothing!
Till receipts are obviously specific to particular stores, but what about barcodes?
As a rule of thumb, a barcode on a product will be the same regardless of where you buy it. So when, for example, the current Giant Fingers comp asks for a “barcode from a pack purchased at Asda” as proof of purchase, you can safely buy a pack from anywhere and the handling house will be none the wiser! Care is sometimes needed though. Every single variant of a product – pack size, type or flavour for example – must have a different barcode. So don’t get caught out by sending in a code from a size or variety of a product that the supermarket running the competition doesn’t stock. Special offer packs, marked with a special price or containing extra free for example, will also have a different code, and while this code will be the same across every stockist, make sure that the special offer isn’t in fact exclusive to a particular store. And it goes without saying (I hope!) that the barcode on a tin of Asda brand beans will be different to Sainsbury’s, will be different to Tesco, etc. etc. even if the product inside the tin seems identical!
If a product starts to feature an on-pack promotion, this by itself won’t mean that the barcode has to alter – provided that there have been absolutely no changes to price or size, or indeed any aspect of the product itself. But I have known this to happen. Sometimes it helps the manufacturer to control and monitor stocks during the promotion. On other occasions it might be because special packs are produced at a different location, and a barcode must carry information to denote the place of manufacture of a product. So you may need to be wary – but again, once you have determined what the ‘valid’ barcode is, this should remain the same at every shop that sells the identical product.
One final word on this subject. When you’re asked to send in a barcode panel, ALWAYS include the numbers underneath! This might seem an obvious thing to say, but a surprisingly high number of friends (non compers admittedly) who have saved qualifiers for me in the past have just cut out the stripes! Now, although I have vivid memories of a gentleman once appearing on “You Bet!” and being able to identify not only a barcode number but also the exact product just from looking at said stripes, it’s fair to assume that most handling house employees will not possess such a skill! And without those telltale numbers, your entry could well end up in the bin.
What are your feelings / thoughts on claim fees?
Unprintable! No genuine, bona fide promoter will EVER ask you to pay money up front in order to receive an unspecified prize. So, never, ever pay a claim fee to ANY promoter, especially one based abroad, because your “prize” will invariably not be what it seems – if indeed it exists at all.
Alarm bells should always start ringing if a “prize” letter carries a foreign postmark, or a ‘Mailsort’ (“m”) symbol if posted in the UK. (‘Mailsort’ is the Royal Mail’s bulk postage discount scheme, and many thousands of identical letters have to be sent by a company before they qualify. A fair bet then, that you are not alone in your “good fortune”!). Beware too of verbose letters that make fantastic, over the top claims, or which contain small print hidden away on the inside of the envelope or on separate leaflets. And especially avoid letters or phone calls that refer to you “winning” an unspecified prize draw or contest, or one that you have no recollection of ever having entered. A bona fide, genuine LWE will always be a concise, understated affair that makes it perfectly clear what you’ve won and in which competition you won it.
I should make clear here, before people start turning down cars and holidays across the land, that if the rules of a particular competition say, for example, that the winner of a holiday must pay for their own insurance, or a car winner road tax or a tank of petrol, then this is obviously a different matter! But in these cases, your genuine LWE will always set out clearly what your options and obligations are. And in all my years of comping, I’ve never known such ‘extras’ to be payable before a prize is in your hands.
And at the risk of going off at a tangent, it seems a good place here to remind you to always read the small print when you enter any competition. That dream cruise may seem nice, especially since you’re unemployed so could never afford it otherwise, but the costs soon start adding up if transfers, tips, insurance and spending money aren’t included. So, it may sound contrary, but always make sure that you only enter competitions for prizes that you can afford to win!
Thanks for the special book offer last month. Do you sell postcards?
Unfortunately not, and the two firms that I was going to check out for you – both of them used to do great deals for compers in the distant past – are no longer trading.
Most compers these days wouldn’t dream of ever buying a postcard though, which probably goes some way to explaining why my old favourite firms have disappeared! Lots of bars and pubs (especially the trendier ones), cinemas and leisure centres now have racks of free postcards, and a monthly visit can keep you in a constant supply. But be careful, as some of the cards are better than others. You’d be best not using some of the raunchier designs for your People’s Friend comps, for example, and a promoter might not take too kindly to receiving a postcard complete with an ad for a rival brand. So, make an effort to ensure that your card is apt and appropriate – but there are usually plenty of eye-catching designs to choose from. I appreciate that not everyone has access to these kinds of outlet though, so perhaps someone reading this could help with details of a good value, paid-for (gasp!!) supplier. Any recommendations?
I’ll be answering more questions next month. So please keep them coming!
Smid x
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