Purely Creative or just pure scam!

[Honeymonster666]

I won a MP3 from a scratch card, that comes with the Daily Mirror . The company are called Purely Creative, and if you won something, you send them a text and you automatically get knocked off £10 pounds from the service. I wasn't too pleased about that, as you can imagine. So, I send off the scratch card to claim my prize, and three weeks later, they send me a voucher for my MP3, which is to be filled out with postal order of ten pounds. Thats £20 pounds spend 'if' I send the voucher away.

The MP3 itself, holds a memory of 512MB, blue silver colour and without any manufacturer name to it. Its a digital stick basically. After all that, my question would be: 'Is it worth going through all that expense?'

Has any one preferences to this company? or just general thoughts, please let me know! Thanx

[garethpaul]

you can certainly pick up a 512mb mp3 player for less than £20 (I think asda do one for under a tenner), so I wouldn't bother tbh.

Anyone who charges you £10 to claim a prize is a scammer IMO. I would contact the Daily Mirror and complain. They should treat their customers better than to include this rubbish with their paper.

[Aragorn]

Did you try googling 'Purely Creative'?
It suggests they are the largest 'premium rate' gamecard provider in the UK.
They have just been 'working with' the OFT to clean up their act, according to this.
Did you keep a copy of the scratch card? If so, and it doesn't explain the cost of claiming clearly, you could write to them (address on their website), politely refering them to the OFT article. If you don't have a copy of the scratch card, I would write off the £10 text and not bother entering any such prize draws again - don't forget they are in business to make money!

[danielf]

Originally Posted by ahardie

Anyone who charges you £10 to claim a prize is a scammer IMO. I would contact the Daily Mirror and complain. They should treat their customers better than to include this rubbish with their paper.

In fairness, the paper is rubbish as well

Originally Posted by danielf

In fairness, the paper is rubbish as well

True but is there a newspaper that isn't rubbish.

[Mr Angry]

Originally Posted by ahardie

True but is there a newspaper that isn't rubbish.

Yes. The Framley Examiner.

[AntiSilence]

Originally Posted by Honeymonster666

I won a MP3 from a scratch card, that comes with the Daily Mirror . The company are called Purely Creative, and if you won something, you send them a text and you automatically get knocked off £10 pounds from the service. I wasn't too pleased about that, as you can imagine. So, I send off the scratch card to claim my prize, and three weeks later, they send me a voucher for my MP3, which is to be filled out with postal order of ten pounds. Thats £20 pounds spend 'if' I send the voucher away.

The MP3 itself, holds a memory of 512MB, blue silver colour and without any manufacturer name to it. Its a digital stick basically. After all that, my question would be: 'Is it worth going through all that expense?'

Has any one preferences to this company? or just general thoughts, please let me know! Thanx

My Alba 1Gb MP3 player was £19.99 from Argos.

[Halcyon]

I got a philips 512mb MP3 player last week for £14.99 from Argos.

You've been smammed and I would be fuming ! I'd complain if I was you.

[MovedGoalPosts]

And what has this got to do with Virgin Media

Moved.

[Honeymonster666]

Originally Posted by garethpaul

you can certainly pick up a 512mb mp3 player for less than £20 (I think asda do one for under a tenner), so I wouldn't bother tbh.

---------- Post added at 19:10 ---------- Previous post was at 19:03 ----------

Lo all! Just to say: thank you, for your replies. I'll take the advice and contact The mirror about the situation. I looked up the MP3 digital prices and can now see the scam, they have got going. I just hope at my expense, that I have added awareness to the situation !

Thank you again!

[Delta Whiskey]

The Mirror won't care, they get paid for putting that junk into the paper. They don't give a toss about the customer. As the saying goes 'if it's too good to be true, then it's a lie'.

[Honeymonster666]

Thats very true mate! This maybe ,is the only way of hitting back. Do I make a difference? maybe not. Let this forum be a testament to anybody who thinks they can win! Like you said: If its to good to be true, then it probably is! Thanx mate!

---------- Post added at 19:48 ---------- Previous post was at 19:45 ----------

How far does one complaint go? Bet they don't give a monkeys, just stop buying the paper!

[Delta Whiskey]

Did you read the small, small print on the scratch card (which isn't really a scratch card in the gambling sense as all the cards are winners). It should have told you about the £10.00 text charge and the £10.00 'postage & packing'.

[Honeymonster666]

Originally Posted by Delta Whiskey

Did you read the small, small print on the scratch card (which isn't really a scratch card in the gambling sense as all the cards are winners). It should have told you about the £10.00 text charge and the £10.00 'postage & packing'.

---------- Post added at 20:06 ---------- Previous post was at 20:03 ----------

It just says, that calls cost no more than ten pound, nout about texts!(thats what I got screwed on) I'm sure they'll have some excuse about that. Regarding the post and packaging, it's stated on the text messages, after I was charged.