GMTV have taken to steps to regain public confidence in their company and competitions by announcing a series of measures to compensate entrants to their competitions (full statement). The company suspended their phone in and online competitions in April 2007 following revelations that thousands of people who entered their phone competitions had no chance of winning.
GMTV have taken a number of steps to remedy the situation, including parting company with Opera Telecom and continuing to suspend all competitions. Further to this they are offering entrants who participated in their competitions the chance to claim back charges plus they are offering 250 people the chance to win £10000 in a special prize draw. On top of this, they intend to make a “substantial donation to Childline”.
If you have previously entered a GMTV or GMTV2 either via telephone, text or web then you can make a claim for a refund. For full details and to find out if you’re eligible then it’s best to visit the GMTV Claim Site. There’s also a full FAQ that covers all aspects of the competitions issues.
Don’t forget to claim as you could end up winning £10000! According to GMTV “All competition entries which were unfairly excluded from GMTV main competitions between January 2003 and April 2007 will be eligible for inclusion, free of charge, to enter their 250 x £10000, prize draw”. We fully expect that that competition will be run without any problems!
This is a bold move by GMTV and comes ahead of any OFCOM or ICSTIS judgement on the situation. Competitions have been a big part of their TV programme and also online presence, so it’s vital that they make all efforts to try and repair the damage. However, with the recent BBC competitions suspension we think it’s going to take some time before compers feel happy about spending their money on what were essentially lucrative money making schemes for the broadcasters and telecom companies.
this action would seem to be a step in the right directionto rectify somewhat, an unfair situation and restore faith for competiton entrants.
the ‘proof’ is exhaustiveey require before paying out. Sadly, I changed landline provider and mobile provider and cannot produce this. I have enterd daily since comps began apart from grief holidays. I am disgusted. I cannot get my money back.
Also you have very limited time to claim. You couldn’t get hold of all that info in the time if you have modern paperless statements, or do not include in your itemised bills of 0.01 second or more. They just don’t show up if less than 5 minutes. It’s yet another scam. Nonsense. Invalid spin.
What surprises me is how many people are willing to ring in to TV shows with absolutely no return….i.e voting on pointless topics, having their name read out on’t telly………..for stupid call charges it’s no wonder that tv/telecoms companies cottoned on to adding an incentive while pushing the call price up.
I also think there are too many people ready to ‘spend’ that kind of money on a call because it isn’t in their hand and doesn’t feel like real spending.
As for GMTV trying to restore faith in the running of competitions how would you know that it is all above board after this publicity stunt? The TV quiz shows have returned with new guidelines yet are still bending the rules at the expense of viewers (of course).
I’ve never entered a GMTV competition but that might be because I like my lie ins
[...] in excess of £20 million”. GMTV are taking steps to try and pay money back and are running a special competition, but it wouldn’t surprise us if GMTV still end up in profit from all this… at least in [...]