Jonathon Wardman

Purely Creative and WeWanna: Some Clarifcation

About a year ago I wrote a blog post summing up the results of my experiment to claim a couple of prizes from a Purely Creative scratchcard — the type given away in newspapers and magazines — which I had found discarded on a train. The prizes I won were both ‘experiences’ to be provided through a company called WeWanna.

Over the last year this blog post has had quite a number of comments from other people who had gone through the claim process (either through the post or via the telephone or text route), and had also received experience prizes. Quite a number of these comments said how happy people were with the experiences; from the river cruise and hair makeover experience which I won, to the afternoon tea and balloon rides. However in the last month or so the comments have taken a turn for the worse.

There have been a number of people who have commented recently on an apparent dispute between Purely Creative and WeWanna which has lead to them being told their experiences have been cancelled. Some say that they have been told by both companies that the other is at fault, which has left them feeling they have nowhere to turn. [read more]

My Winnings: Not Quite a Million

Update: following a string of comments relating to the relationship between Purely Creative and WeWanna, I’ve asked both parties for a comment. You can read about that in this blog post.

Way back in February I wrote about my attempt to win £1 million from a scratchcard I found on the train without going through the expensive claim lines the try to get you to call. I also wrote about the possible prizes and contemplated what I might do if I won any of them. On the 30th February, only 9 days after I sent off my final claim, I got a letter in the post giving me that all-important information: what I had won.

There were a couple of bumps along the road, such as never getting a postal response to my request for a claim number, and it was a big long-winded, but all in all the process of claiming my prizes by post was remarkably simple. It had also only cost me £1.64 — two first class stamps and two second class stamps — for each prize. (As I said a moment ago I probably didn’t even need to do the first stage, I actually ended up getting my claim number from Purely Creative via email support.) There was one other curiosity about stamps in the final round of the postal back and forth: then never actually used the stamps I sent to them. [read more]

The Possible Prizes

With the excitement building to find out what prizes I have won on the Purely Creative “Win A Million” scratch cards, I thought I’d do some research into what the prizes actually are.

I have two winning scratch cards; one with two matching symbols, and one with three. The scratch cards list all the possible prizes, so I should be guaranteed to win one prize from both of the following lists.

Two matching symbols:

• £8,000 – cash prizes are pretty straight forward. The T&Cs on the back of the cards say cash prizes are awarded as a cheques. 1 of these available.
• £5,000 – again a cheque, would cover the Canon 5D MkIII I want nicely. 2 available.
• Family break in Orlando – the back of the card says this prize “includes return flights from UK mainland + 14 nights hotel accomm. for 2 adults and 2 childen.” There is no information about what hotel it would be. [read more]

Million Pound Claim Number

If you read my post back in the middle of February about my attempt to win with one of the free scratch cards you get in magazines and newspapers, you might be interested to know that I received my claim number(s) today. I didn’t get them through the post but had to contact the company to ask about it, however.

The information on the cards said that I should allow 28 days to “receive claim number & info.” So I waited. Day 28 was the 16th March (allowing for delays in the post), and not having received a reply from Purely Creative’s Twitter account when I asked them if the 28 days was full days or working days I decided today to contact them via the form on the website. I was pleasantly surprised when I received a reply from Rubina at Purely Creative with a claim number. [read more]

Trying to “Win A Million”

I was on a train the other day on my way back from picking some things up in Guildford when I spotted on of those scratchcard you get in magazines and newspapers on the seat just opposite me. I’m aware of how these things work, what with their premium rate numbers and suchlike, but I also know they all have to offer a non-purchase route to winning. I’ve often wondered what would happen if someone actually tried the claim by post route, so I decided to give it a go.

The competition is run by Purely Create, a company with a registered address just down the road from where I went to University in Lancaster, and the company behind most of these scratchcard competitions. A brief search also turns up some quite negative reports in the papers, especially the Mirror. Despite that I figured, as long as I was careful, there was nothing to worry about. Their website, incidentally, is run on WordPress. [read more]