Emap-owned Kiss are having to apologise to radio listeners and refund some of them the cost of entering their £10k "Mash for Cash" competition after a mix up by a producer at the station.
An external company dealing with text messages for the contest was sent the wrong "correct answers" by someone at Kiss, meaning that correct entrants were sent an automated response telling them that they had been unsuccessful.
Rajini Bhagotra from North London won the £10,000 after correctly identifying that the 3 songs in the "Mash" were Christina Aguilera's 'Aint no other man', 'Luxurious' by Gwen Stefani, and Nelly's 'Hot In Here'.
Entrants texting those three artists were sent a message back to say that they were incorrect; whilst listeners guessing at Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani and Pharrell Williams were told that they were correct.
In a statement, Kiss Network Managing Director Steve Parkinson told angry listeners that the member of staff responsible for the mistake had been "severely bollocked". He continued, "We were aware of the mistake late Thursday and have been working out the fairest solution to the problem since."
The solution is that Kiss accepted either Nelly or Pharrell Williams as the third artist and entered all competitors with either plus the correct first and second artists into the draw for the £10,000, which was made late last week. In addition all of those entrants are being offered a refund of their £1-per call competition entry charges.
Kiss also say that all profit made from the competition will be donated to charity – suggestions for which cause should receive the money can be made by emailing the station.
In his statement, Mr Parkinson told listeners: "I hope you agree that I have tried to deal with this problem openly and honestly. We have already contacted Ofcom to make them aware of the situation. I will do my best to have the cheques/repayments issued as quickly as possible to those affected, and can only apologise again for the mistake. We have already changed our competition practices to ensure a second "check" in the system, to avoid this embarrassment in the future."
For full information about the refunds and to see the full statement from Kiss, click [link=http://www.totalkiss.com/Channels/music/article.aspx?ArticleId=168]here[/link].
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