Is this fair?

[duffer_devon]

I have been hosting The Golf Show on AM900 CHML for the past 3.5 years. I do not get paid, but am able to promote my Tour on the show. I had a guest on this past January from Myrtle Beach Direct Air.com to help him promote his airline. During the interview he offered to give away a trip for two to Myrtle Beach as a trivia prize.
We did the contest leading up to The Hamilton Golf & Travel Show for the next three weeks and we drew a winner. I gave Myrtle Beach Direct Air the name and phone number of the winner as well as the giving the winner, the name and number of the contact at Myrtle Beach Direct Air.
Apparently, Myrtle Beach Direct Air never provided the prize and the winner has called the station numerous times for them to fix it. I have sent e-mails to this guy, phone calls, always being told he would get it looked after.
Finally, this week, the radio station informs me that they have now had to pay for a flight to Myrtle Beach for the the contest winner and I no longer have a radio show. I am disappointed in the way Myrtle Beach Direct Air has handled this, obvioiusly, but cannot understand why the station felt the need to cancel the show over one incident that was out of my control.

[simar]

its not fair, but you have to ask a couple of simple questions:

- did the station have the proper indemnification as a part of the contest?
- did the winner(unlucky guy) threaten the station with legal action?

and some supplementary questions may arise:

- was the station looking for an opportunity to remove the programming?
- was the station financially burdened by the contest?

and ofcourse there are some complementary questions to the supplementary questions:

- what were the ratings like?
- did the station end up paying for the winner's trip out of pocket to remedy the situation?

somewhere in the answers to the questions maybe there is a clue to what happened...

[Bellyhungry]

Duffer,

Forget about Myrtle Air Direct Air and AM900, small time operations...Call Fan590 and AM640 see they can fit you in...

Good luck....

I have been hosting The Golf Show on AM900 CHML for the past 3.5 years. I do not get paid, but am able to promote my Tour on the show. I had a guest on this past January from Myrtle Beach Direct Air.com to help him promote his airline. During the interview he offered to give away a trip for two to Myrtle Beach as a trivia prize.
We did the contest leading up to The Hamilton Golf & Travel Show for the next three weeks and we drew a winner. I gave Myrtle Beach Direct Air the name and phone number of the winner as well as the giving the winner, the name and number of the contact at Myrtle Beach Direct Air.
Apparently, Myrtle Beach Direct Air never provided the prize and the winner has called the station numerous times for them to fix it. I have sent e-mails to this guy, phone calls, always being told he would get it looked after.
Finally, this week, the radio station informs me that they have now had to pay for a flight to Myrtle Beach for the the contest winner and I no longer have a radio show. I am disappointed in the way Myrtle Beach Direct Air has handled this, obvioiusly, but cannot understand why the station felt the need to cancel the show over one incident that was out of my control.

[ForeontheFloor]

Two words
NET CAST

[Frankrul]

I have been hosting The Golf Show on AM900 CHML for the past 3.5 years. I do not get paid, but am able to promote my Tour on the show. I had a guest on this past January from Myrtle Beach Direct Air.com to help him promote his airline. During the interview he offered to give away a trip for two to Myrtle Beach as a trivia prize.
We did the contest leading up to The Hamilton Golf & Travel Show for the next three weeks and we drew a winner. I gave Myrtle Beach Direct Air the name and phone number of the winner as well as the giving the winner, the name and number of the contact at Myrtle Beach Direct Air.
Apparently, Myrtle Beach Direct Air never provided the prize and the winner has called the station numerous times for them to fix it. I have sent e-mails to this guy, phone calls, always being told he would get it looked after.
Finally, this week, the radio station informs me that they have now had to pay for a flight to Myrtle Beach for the the contest winner and I no longer have a radio show. I am disappointed in the way Myrtle Beach Direct Air has handled this, obvioiusly, but cannot understand why the station felt the need to cancel the show over one incident that was out of my control.

I woudl have to call absolute BS here.. I would spend the rest of my life ensuring that everyone knew what a piece of $%(*#$ the owner of Myrtle Beach Direct Air.com .... Honestly, I would confront him in person and tell him you lost your job/hobby/passion over his cheapness.. actually.. wait a second.. he got free advertising on the radio that he essentially paid for by offernig a prize, if he has failed to live up to the prize then i would sue him. Take him to small claims court.. but maybe give him a chance to make things right.. ask him to pay the radio station back for the money they spent and ask him to send them an apology... if that doesnt work.. slash his tires :P

[Golfbum]

Sorry to hear about your show being cut.
However, not to rain on you but you should have had this trip etc written down and signed by the owner of the company. Before running the contest you should have made sure you had the prize.
If I had won, I would be after the station for the prize since they were the hosts of the show.
You are lucky the station did not hold you financially responsible. Good Luck in the future.

[laxgolf]

Sorry to hear about your show being cut.
However, not to rain on you but you should have had this trip etc written down and signed by the owner of the company. Before running the contest you should have made sure you had the prize.
If I had won, I would be after the station for the prize since they were the hosts of the show.
You are lucky the station did not hold you financially responsible. Good Luck in the future.

Myrtle Beach Direct Air should have held up their end of the bargain, but I have to agree with Golfbum here. I'd have gone after the station to honour the prize.

[Desi2007]

Its totally unfair to you. But the real villain here is the myrtle beach direct air. I think, by letting everyone know what kind of crap company they are, they will lose their reputation and enough customers. They would have been better off to give contest winner free trip. By the way, do you have a copy/recording of the show where the owner promised to give free trip?

[BowmanvilleJim]

1 they never paid you for hosting a show
2 I assume your show had a folllowing and attracted listeners
3 I assume the show attracted advertisers that paid the radio station money

If those 3 things are true then I think it's unfair.

If on the other hand you didn't attract listeners and advertisors then the incident provided them the final reason to dump the show.

At least you got to do it and you also learned a valuable lesson.

[TourIQ]

If you did the show for 3.5 years I would assume it was profitable for the station, otherwise they would of dumped you earlier. Next time get the free-b offer in writting and have it approved by the show director.
Due Diligence!

[Big Shooter]

Not fair for you ("Big Guy screws the Little Guy" again), but thanks for the link to MB Air, never knew about them before! ;) :eek:

[duffer_devon]

By the way, do you have a copy/recording of the show where the owner promised to give free trip?
I certainly do have the copy. Fortunately, I kept recordings (CDs) of all my shows.

If you did the show for 3.5 years I would assume it was profitable for the station, otherwise they would of dumped you earlier. Next time get the free-b offer in writting and have it approved by the show director.
Due Diligence!
The only thing I will say is that he offered the freebie during the interview. I had no notice that he was going to do it. Otherwise it would have gone through the promotions department.

[TourIQ]

The only thing I will say is that he offered the freebie during the interview. I had no notice that he was going to do it. Otherwise it would have gone through the promotions department. This SUCKS :eek:

[Big Shooter]

so, I'm thinking your TGN signature will be changing, eh!? :$

[Grass Roots Tour]

Life isn't fair. You're old enough to know that well before this happened.

The good news is everyone whos heard of that radio station already knows about your tour so its not like you didnt reach their audience. This will force you to reach a new audience which might bring you more business.

Sometimes life forces you to do something you don't want to do but will benefit you long term.

Best of luck.

Will

[Big Shooter]

Life isn't fair. You're old enough to know that well before this happened.

The good news is everyone whos heard of that radio station already knows about your tour so its not like you didnt reach their audience. This will force you to reach a new audience which might bring you more business.

Sometimes life forces you to do something you don't want to do but will benefit you long term.

Best of luck.

Will

Fair comments, from a guy who's been down that path...

[Titleist75]

That's crappy....I remember calling in to 900CHML to try and win that trip...Sorry to hear about that. You had very enjoyable broadcasts.:D

[shawnullerup]

Hello all,

I'm posting this on behalf of my company, Myrtle Beach Direct Air. One of our customers was kind enough to email us the link to this blog on Friday, whereupon we learned of something wrong with the Hamilton Golf Show promo that we had provided a set of comp tickets for. After checking with CHML-900, it seems that we do in fact have a contest winner, whose contact info we had not been provided until now (contrary to the assertion made by "duffer_devon"). Since we had not been given this winner's name and other info, there was no way for us to book him and provide him with his reservation information. We are working with the CHML AM-900 Promotions Director at this time to make sure that the contest winner will receive a complimentary round-trip ticket for himself and one travel companion as soon as possible.

Although neither myself nor any other member of management here at Myrtle Beach Direct Air knows exactly how this error occurred, it's a safe bet that it was a simple error in communication that prevented Myrtle Beach Direct Air from obtaining this person's information until now, since this has not occurred with any other promotional winners that we have had in the U. S. or Canada. Nonetheless, if it was an error on our part that caused this, we regret it and apologise for it.

As a new company, with a product that we would like everyone interested in travel to Myrtle Beach to try, it really doesn't make any sense why we would intentionally renege on a comp ticket once it had been offered for promotional purposes. One of Myrtle Beach Direct Air's core values as a company is that we make every effort to treat people in a way that we ourselves would wish to be treated. I would also like to let everyone know that our lines of communication are always open to any customer or interested party who has a matter of business such as this to discuss with us, and have always been open to either "duffer_devon", the actual contest winner, or anybody else who would have wanted to talk to us directly about this matter. We can be reached seven days a week at (XXX) XXX-XXXX (XXX-XXX-XXXX) (edited by simar: please contact TGN for advertising). Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions.

Sincerely,
Shawn Ullerup
Myrtle Beach Direct Air

[iyell4]

Hello all,

I'm posting this on behalf of my company, Myrtle Beach Direct Air. One of our customers was kind enough to email us the link to this blog on Friday, whereupon we learned of something wrong with the Hamilton Golf Show promo that we had provided a set of comp tickets for. After checking with CHML-900, it seems that we do in fact have a contest winner, whose contact info we had not been provided until now (contrary to the assertion made by "duffer_devon"). Since we had not been given this winner's name and other info, there was no way for us to book him and provide him with his reservation information. We are working with the CHML AM-900 Promotions Director at this time to make sure that the contest winner will receive a complimentary round-trip ticket for himself and one travel companion as soon as possible.

Although neither myself nor any other member of management here at Myrtle Beach Direct Air knows exactly how this error occurred, it's a safe bet that it was a simple error in communication that prevented Myrtle Beach Direct Air from obtaining this person's information until now, since this has not occurred with any other promotional winners that we have had in the U. S. or Canada. Nonetheless, if it was an error on our part that caused this, we regret it and apologise for it.

As a new company, with a product that we would like everyone interested in travel to Myrtle Beach to try, it really doesn't make any sense why we would intentionally renege on a comp ticket once it had been offered for promotional purposes. One of Myrtle Beach Direct Air's core values as a company is that we make every effort to treat people in a way that we ourselves would wish to be treated. I would also like to let everyone know that our lines of communication are always open to any customer or interested party who has a matter of business such as this to discuss with us, and have always been open to either "duffer_devon", the actual contest winner, or anybody else who would have wanted to talk to us directly about this matter. We can be reached seven days a week at (XXX) XXX-XXXX (XXX-XXX-XXXX). Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions.

Sincerely,
Shawn Ullerup
Myrtle Beach Direct Air

wow! way to man-up!
ok. so get the winner's info, pony up the prize and let's get that golf show back on-air. followed by a group-hug, of course.

[Golfbum]

Hello all,

I'm posting this on behalf of my company, Myrtle Beach Direct Air. One of our customers was kind enough to email us the link to this blog on Friday, whereupon we learned of something wrong with the Hamilton Golf Show promo that we had provided a set of comp tickets for. After checking with CHML-900, it seems that we do in fact have a contest winner, whose contact info we had not been provided until now (contrary to the assertion made by "duffer_devon"). Since we had not been given this winner's name and other info, there was no way for us to book him and provide him with his reservation information. We are working with the CHML AM-900 Promotions Director at this time to make sure that the contest winner will receive a complimentary round-trip ticket for himself and one travel companion as soon as possible.

Although neither myself nor any other member of management here at Myrtle Beach Direct Air knows exactly how this error occurred, it's a safe bet that it was a simple error in communication that prevented Myrtle Beach Direct Air from obtaining this person's information until now, since this has not occurred with any other promotional winners that we have had in the U. S. or Canada. Nonetheless, if it was an error on our part that caused this, we regret it and apologise for it.

As a new company, with a product that we would like everyone interested in travel to Myrtle Beach to try, it really doesn't make any sense why we would intentionally renege on a comp ticket once it had been offered for promotional purposes. One of Myrtle Beach Direct Air's core values as a company is that we make every effort to treat people in a way that we ourselves would wish to be treated. I would also like to let everyone know that our lines of communication are always open to any customer or interested party who has a matter of business such as this to discuss with us, and have always been open to either "duffer_devon", the actual contest winner, or anybody else who would have wanted to talk to us directly about this matter. We can be reached seven days a week at (XXX) XXX-XXXX (XXX-XXX-XXXX). Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions.

Sincerely,
Shawn Ullerup
Myrtle Beach Direct Air

Now this is exactly why I did not bad mouth this company in my other post. Now the other side of the story comes out and the truth is now known.
Someone owes this company an apology.

[duffer_devon]

In an effort to provide, "both sides of the story" here is the e-mail I sent most recently to Myrtle Beach Direct on May 10.

Hi Ed,

Here is the contest winner from AM900 CHML in Hamilton. He has called the station several times now and now I have been told that if he doesn't get his prize or at least arrangements made by Thursday, they are going to cancel my show.

Please call him as soon as possible. The prize is airfare for two, flying out of Buffalo. You had said on the air during the show you would donate it to one of the listeners. We were going to present it at the Hamilton Golf & Travel Show but the winner was unable to attend.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this.

Devon Bestard
AM900 CHML - The Golf Show
(XXX) XXX-XXXX

-----Original Message-----
From: Andy D. Zimmerman [mailto:andy.zimmerman@corusent.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 5:05 PM
To: duffersdream@sympatico.ca
Subject: CHML Winner Info


Devon,

The winner is FRANK NOBES, phone number XXX-XXX-XXXX, that is his cell phone.

Thanks.

Andy Zimmerman
Promotions Coordinator

[Big Shooter]

Well, ALMOST a Happy Ending (our guy Devon, still needs to either be re-instated or broadcast on another media outlet!!) :cool:

[hogannut]

Sorry to hear this Devon. It is even more of a slap in the face when you VOLUNTEERED your time to begin with. You are a good guy and it is the stations loss. Perhaps some of the listeners will or should complain to the station about what they did.

Just like a double bogey....shake it off and move on. See you next Saturday!

[guitarman]

A week or 2 ago I had contacted Myrtle direct air after reading this thread. I expressed to them that if this is true I would not use their services. I then directed them to this thread, This was their response in an email to me. I hope that I didn't make things worse for duffer_devon.

Hi Terry
]I just wanted to drop you a line thanking you for bringing this to our attention. Below, you'll find my response to Toronto Golf Nuts blog.

I'm posting this on behalf of my company, Myrtle Beach Direct Air. One of our customers was kind enough to email us the link to this blog on Friday, whereupon we learned of something wrong with the Hamilton Golf Show promo that we had provided a set of comp tickets for. After checking with CHML-900, it seems that we do in fact have a contest winner, whose contact info we had not been provided until now (contrary to the assertion made by "duffer_devon"). Since we had not been given this winner's name and other info, there was no way for us to book him and provide him with his reservation information. We are working with the CHML AM-900 Promotions Director at this time to make sure that the contest winner will receive a complimentary round-trip ticket for himself and one travel companion as soon as possible Although neither myself nor any other member of management here at Myrtle Beach Direct Air knows exactly how this error occurred, it's a safe bet that it was a simple error in communication that prevented Myrtle Beach Direct Air from obtaining this person's information until now, since this has not occurred with any other promotional winners that we have had in the U. S. or Canada. Nonetheless, if it was an error on our part that caused this, we regret it and apologise for it As a new company, with a product that we would like everyone interested in travel to Myrtle Beach to try, it really doesn't make any sense why we would intentionally renege on a comp ticket once it had been offered for promotional purposes. One of Myrtle Beach Direct Air's core values as a company is that we make every effort to treat people in a way that we ourselves would wish to be treated. I would also like to let everyone know that our lines of communication are always open to any customer or interested party who has a matter of business such as this to discuss with us, and have always been open to either "duffer_devon", the actual contest winner, or anybody else who would have wanted to talk to us directly about this matter. We can be reached seven days a week at (XXX) XXX-XXXX (XXX-XXX-XXXX) (edited by simar: please contact TGN for advertising). Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions Direct Air

[JEBS]

I work for a company that does many promotional offers for it's products, I have had similar problems with the actual consumers.

1 Me (Manufacturer) I sell to a big box store with a value add

2 My customer (Big Box) sells product to consumer with value add (Mail in)

3 Consumer does not mail in or contact me (Manufacturer) or messes up process

4 Consumer complains to (big box) that they did not get their value add.

5 (Big Box) complains to me ... I tell (big box) that consumer has not contacted us

6 big box and I argue until we realize that consumer just wants free stuff from Both big box and me with out following proper process.

7 no one wins value add ends up being value (less)

If the winner took more control and contacted Myrtle Direct.. may be some of this would not have happend and Duffer Devon would still have a show.

Also Duffer Devon when doing this kind of promotion the name of the game is follow up.. follow up.. follow up!!!! and CYA!!!

[leftintherough]

Now this is exactly why I did not bad mouth this company in my other post. Now the other side of the story comes out and the truth is now known.
Someone owes this company an apology.

You buying this? I don't for a minute.

Myrtle should man up and make it right with the radio station. When thats completed, then all is well.

[hogannut]

I agree with you LIR, until the company honours their comitment NOTHING has been resolved. It would appear Myrtle wants to honour the arrangement, but until this happens nothing has been done. THe road to hell is paved with good intentions!

I still think the radio station should give a formal explanation why they canned a VOLUNTEER. Very unprofessional of the radio station to X-out Devon for doing nothing.