jonathan Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I assume not as all the ticket numbers were allocated to prizes and given out going by what previous post say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonathan Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 And they certainly didn't have any real content in them. Very true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jumpyghostface Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Yes it wasn't particularly well run, but hey, you spent a fiver and got a pretty decent program out of it. Nothing to get too het up about right? I didn't want a programme. I bought a raffle ticket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptAmerica Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 This was a badly run raffle that even the most simple school fete can get right. How was this so badly arranged? From what has been posted on here the numbers were not drawn out. The people behind the desk were just thinking up numbers and writing them down. Numbers were written down for programmes that has not been sold. I have no idea is Showmasters actually set this up properly or if it was just a con to make money. But after a quick google I have spotted this: "Lotteries (also known as raffles) cannot be run for private or commercial gain. Lotteries are defined by the Gambling Act 2005 as either ‘simple’ or ‘complex’. A simple lottery is where: people are required to pay to take part prizes are allocated to participants prizes are allocated wholly by chance. A complex lottery is where: people are required to pay to take part prizes are allocated to participants prizes are allocated by a series of processes the first of which relies wholly on chance." It looks like if showmasters have not bothered to do their homework they could be in a heap of trouble. From the other things that happened at this LFCC I get the feeling that it was not properly research or carried out. BTW this will probably get the topic locked and deleted but I feel people on here should know what was happening was not right and they have the right to complain. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natedammit Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Yes it wasn't particularly well run, but hey, you spent a fiver and got a pretty decent program out of it. Nothing to get too het up about right? I didn't want a programme. I bought a raffle ticket. Well if you want to look at it that way, that's fine. I choose to look at it like I bought a program, that contained free entry to a raffle, which I didn't win. Or maybe I did, who knows! But I'm not that fussed. There were people saying they were going to buy 2 or 3 copies to increase their chances. If I had done that then I probably would be more in agreement with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldenGreen Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I was happy to pay a £5 for the programme on Friday, something to read in the queue and a nice souvenir. Agree with some of the comments elsewhere that a show guide in their with venue layout and times for talks etc would have been really helpful, particularly for newcomers to these events. I'd already brought these from those posted on here, but would have been invaluable for those newbies attending. I forgot to look on Friday for the draw, my fault was queuing late for some guests that were still signing so I may have missed out. On Sunday looked a couple of times at the table and was within about 3 of one of the winning numbers, so only just missed out. Think it was a good idea generally and just a bit of fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GamerGraph Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Come back later to see more numbers... NO THANKS Having the numbers in one hall in one location, with no computerization and no availability of using the forums/facebook/twitter is unacceptable. I didn't like the lack of use of social media to convay new information, I feel they need to hire a dedicated person to manage the social on event days. Photos, times, news, competitions and more. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henchman Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 It looks like if showmasters have not bothered to do their homework they could be in a heap of trouble. From the other things that happened at this LFCC I get the feeling that it was not properly research or carried out. BTW this will probably get the topic locked and deleted but I feel people on here should know what was happening was not right and they have the right to complain. Well, a previous one that I posted this same information on got locked so it seems likely. The main defence that people are having for this raffle is that it was a free prize draw that came with the programme. The problem is though, this was not legally the case as this would only be true if there was no price difference between a programme with or without the raffle ticket, and if it was possible to enter without actually buying a programme (if you have ever read the terms and conditions of a free prize give away you will quite often see them say something like "no purchase necessary" and this is what this is referring to as you can also enter the competition by phoning a number or sending away a letter). It would also help SM if they hadn't actively been describing this as a "raffle", which is a legally defined term for something that cannot be run for private profit and must be licensed and regulated. A simpler more legally airtight system would be (if SM ever wanted to do it in the future) to turn it into a competition whereby there was a quiz or something in the programme which was completed and turned in, which then in turn the correct answers were drawn from a hat. These are entirely unregulated, with the difference being that a raffle like was included in the programme is rather transparently a form of gambling with no skill or knowledge involved whatsoever. On a more general point about the raffle, what sort of range were peoples numbers and when did they buy their programme? Mine was from late on Friday night and was in the early 4000s, and the only reason I ask about this is that the vast majority of the numbers listed on sheets were below the 4000 mark, and some of the programmes for sale on the desk were well below this number as well. It seemed to me that for whatever reason I had been given a programme out of a later batch, and as the SM volunteers on the desk were just making up the numbers based on what they though was appropriate rather than what had actually been handed out, this meant that I had a much diminished chance of getting anything. In fact, I am probably wrong but I think the highest number I saw was something like 4227, which was lower than my number and I know that there must have been a hell of a lot of programmes sold on the Saturday/Sunday that should logically have had a higher number than mine. I assume not as all the ticket numbers were allocated to prizes and given out going by what previous post say. I believe that most of the prizes were given out, but certainly not to the correct ticket holders. There were supposedly 1000s of prizes and there were probably only a few hundred numbers on the sheets. Of these, probably only a few dozen (if that) had actually been crossed out so these are the only people that legitimately "won" anything from the raffle. The rest of the prizes were just given out randomly at that disastrous event in the evening. The big ticket prizes of the gold passes for LFCCW and the Stan Lee photo shoots were given out based on random questions to the audience, coupled with you being near the from and the person in charge liking the look of you and picking you of course. Was anyone else at this event? If so can you remember if the Gold Passes were actually given away, as from what I remember they tried to draw for them out of a hat, gave up, tried to draw photo shoots out of the hat, and then gave up on those and did them based on questions. I do not remember them ever going back to the Gold Passes, so were they never actually given out, or did I miss it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WraithWarrior Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I didn't go past the desk at the end of Saturday, but every time I went past they had sheets of A4 paper with the raffle numbers on and was told where it was when I asked a crew member. It wasn't there Sunday at 5:30 they closed it early. And I see people saying they won a goody bag, did anyone win anything other than a bag as there were meant to be stan lee tickets, hold passes etc. ...... and I agree most staff didn't know/care about it. At one point I was told I could check the numbers on the sheet and pick a programme that had that number on it to get a goody bag. He also said it's not that great, you just get this bag, and this was about 2 on Saturday. So he didn't seem to know about bigger prizes either. I won a photo op with Stan lee 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urinalfresh Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 My son still wants he's £5 back....................Run ! before i'm deleted 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v.pearson Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 (edited) None of the crew I asked had a clue unfortunately...bad management from whoever briefed them :-( When I DID manage to find someone, they told me that all the numbers would be available on Sunday after the 'prize draw talk' which you didn't have to attend to win and to check the table for all the weekends numbers. The girl at the table on the Sunday then told me they had all been claimed. Can Showmasters please give us a breakdown of how it was organised to prove that it was run properly or refund the £5's? Edited July 17, 2014 by v.pearson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henchman Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 When I DID manage to find someone, they told me that all the numbers would be available on Sunday after the 'prize draw talk' which you didn't have to attend to win and to check the table for all the weekends numbers. I hadn't heard this part before but if that is true (not implying that you are wrong, but what you were told may have been wrong), then that is particularly galling, as immediately after the prize draw was the Stan Lee talk which I (along with a pretty sizeable proportion of the rest of the attendees as well I would guess) attended, and then immediately after this finished i headed back to EC2 to find that the numbers were not there any more. Not sure exactly what time this was, but according to my phone I got a final autograph (Stephanie Leonidas, very lovely) at 17:11, and this would have been shortly after I had passed the table to find the numbers had been taken away. Also, as it seemed that they were giving away all of the prizes in the prize draw talk, I don't know what you could have gotten anyway if you arrived there from 15:30 onwards (or whenever the draw was). The thing that probably annoyed me most about the draw was the fact that the hat they were trying to draw the winners for the big prizes from only had a couple of dozen pieces of paper in (which I think most if not all that were drawn were actually under 100, or at least under 1000) so it kind of gave the impression that it was rigged, or at best totally botched. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayJay Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Showmasters would have to had a gambling Licence to be able to run this "raffle". I know because im looking in to getting one for a group i work with. I didnt look well organised at all, when i spoke with one lady she said she had no idea how they were going to do it. Major lack of organisation when i walked past a few times when they were writing down the "winning" numbers the people writing the numbers didnt seem to be taking from a list. Also its very annoying that i got given another programme when i was leaving on sunday. So i paid £5 for nothing? Since i dont want the original one now can i have a refund? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trinneerfan Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Like a LOT of people on here, I asked so many crew members about it and they knew nothing about the raffle, where the numbers where, or when anything will be drawn. I was directed to multiple tables and never got any news. I did hear that people were allowed to just go and pick a program that was left that matched a winning number, don't know how true that is. I'm just hoping a list of unclaimed numbers will be announced somewhere because you are the first I have seen that has said they won something. My husband won a goody bag with some Ironman stuff, some Spider man stuff, and loads of other bits. He was really pleased with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurenafenete Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I was just a tad annoyed that they started to give out the programs for free at the end of sunday as I bought a program on that day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henchman Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I was just a tad annoyed that they started to give out the programs for free at the end of sunday as I bought a program on that day. I can understand that some people may be annoyed by this on an initial emotional level as they had to pay for it and somebody else has gotten it for free, but in reality what do you expect them to do? They obviously had a surplus of programs, so would you rather they just threw them in a skip? It costs SM time/effort/money to dispose of them, if they just hand them out for free then they are getting rid of them in such a way that at least some people are benefiting from it. There are things that I am annoyed about in the program (mainly the raffle but could also have done with some more relevant info like maps, schedules, price lists and the like but I can see the POV for wanting to keep it vague), but they fact that they were giving them away for free at the end of the Sunday when I had previously paid for one is not one of them. If somebody had already bought a programme it did them absolutely no harm (as for better or worse the raffle was apparently over at this point) for spare programmes to be given out to others, so I do not really understand why people seemed to have such a big problem with this. I think this is quite a standard thing anyway, I have been to previous event of all types where they have done exactly the same thing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeardedWonder91 Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 I for one AM still angered by the fact that hey were given out. Even if i had no intention of entering the raffle, why the hell would i then be ok for someone else to get what i paid a fiver for, for nothing!? That's like (something i did see this weekend) buying a Deadpool figure from one stall for £40. Then an hour later seeing it on another stall for £25. What would you do? Would you try and get your money back and buy the cheaper one? Yes! Yes, you would! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators DavidB Posted July 18, 2014 Moderators Share Posted July 18, 2014 It's not really the same. There was a surplus and they weren't going to do anything with them after the event, so why not? Everyone who wanted to buy one did. I don't see why people would rather have them wasted. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jumpyghostface Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 I agree - I bought mine, and still would rather see the surplus given out free, rather than wasted. What I suppose I paid for then was the certainly of getting one, rather than it being a random occurrence at the end of the show. That said, my issue still is with the raffle. Are SM going to make a statement on this at all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeardedWonder91 Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Because, quite simply (as is with a lot of things i've seen complained about over the past few days) - It's just not right.I spent a fiver, the next guy didn't. I feel ripped off, as it CERTAINLY isn't worth that in any way, shape or form. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wall_E Posted July 18, 2014 Author Share Posted July 18, 2014 I'm not bothered by the free ones given out, its the fact that the raffle wasn't really a raffle, I know people say they won a few things but during the time I was there, I saw nothing and no one gave me any info when asked. If the free ones ended up winning sum of the a raffle prizes then I would have an issue with them. They just need to tell us what happened with it. Almost a week later and no announcement yet. If there were that many prizes, you'd think there will be some left for unclaimed numbers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zahariel Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Because, quite simply (as is with a lot of things i've seen complained about over the past few days) - It's just not right. I spent a fiver, the next guy didn't. I feel ripped off, as it CERTAINLY isn't worth that in any way, shape or form. But you were happy to spend £5 on it - it's the same as going back into a shop a week later to find an item on sale and demanding a partial refund. I picked up an extra copy on my way out on the Sunday for a friend to read, but didn't at any point think the programme I bought wasn't worth what I had originally paid. That's not to say I don't think there were flaws in the way it was handled, but to hand out surplus stock at the end of an event is standard procedure. They dumped a few boxes of water, crisps and fruit bars in the Gold room late on Sunday. I assume they were left over from the guests room and staff bits, I doubt they'd be peeved that we were getting extras meant for them... They were simply doing it so they don't have to take it home. More environmentally friendly in a way... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptAmerica Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 (edited) My issue is 100% with how the raffle was run. The only part that was properly done was the printing of the programs. Everything else seemed like either an after thought or they did not even bother. Once the raffle was over I have no issue with them giving them away for free. Its just the numbers were not picked at random, the raffle was not properly run and arranged, the numbers picked out where just written on a few sheets of paper, apparently some numbers were picked out during the Sunday giveaway and because that poor person was not there the prize was just given away to someone else. Edited July 18, 2014 by CaptAmerica Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riversidejon Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 A copy of a program is on Eba* for sale, maybe it has a winner number.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurenafenete Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 I was just a tad annoyed that they started to give out the programs for free at the end of sunday as I bought a program on that day. I can understand that some people may be annoyed by this on an initial emotional level as they had to pay for it and somebody else has gotten it for free, but in reality what do you expect them to do? They obviously had a surplus of programs, so would you rather they just threw them in a skip? It costs SM time/effort/money to dispose of them, if they just hand them out for free then they are getting rid of them in such a way that at least some people are benefiting from it. There are things that I am annoyed about in the program (mainly the raffle but could also have done with some more relevant info like maps, schedules, price lists and the like but I can see the POV for wanting to keep it vague), but they fact that they were giving them away for free at the end of the Sunday when I had previously paid for one is not one of them. If somebody had already bought a programme it did them absolutely no harm (as for better or worse the raffle was apparently over at this point) for spare programmes to be given out to others, so I do not really understand why people seemed to have such a big problem with this. I think this is quite a standard thing anyway, I have been to previous event of all types where they have done exactly the same thing. True true. Its better for them to be used and read instead of being thrown away. Oh well I'm not really bothered, I bought it because it was a program and not for the ticket. I ended up with two anyways (one I paid for and the other given to me). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now