A few tough questions about the raffle venture ...
George Scott was interviewed recently on Mallorca Radio regarding the Scott Properties raffle and voucher project, and we thought you might be interested in what was said. Here's a transcript.
Rafael Pons (the host of the show) "Dr Scott, could I begin by asking ..."
George Scott (interrupting) "Could we make that 'George' please?"
RP "'George' is fine with me. But now, since our time is limited I'd like to skip the usual pleasantries and ask you about a few of the claims you are making for your property raffle. Your website calls it the 'world's only "can't lose" raffle'. How can you justify that?"
GS "Thank you for asking. The truth is, there may be another property raffle in China or Timbuktu that offers the same guarantees, but if there is we don't know about it and so we're making that 'world's only' claim, which is based simply on the fact that we are giving away a ticket to the raffle free with every purchase of one of our hotel vouchers for 150 euros."
RP "Wait a minute. I thought we were being tempted to buy a raffle ticket and get a hotel voucher free."
GS "Legal technicality. Because the USA now has a law against Internet gambling, our lawyers had to make sure that what our raffle club members were investing in wasn't a gamble. Well, it's not a gamble if you get full value for whatever you pay for, so if you acquire one of our hotel vouchers you participate in the property drawings free. It's a sales promotion for the vouchers. That's the way the law works."
RP "And this 'guarantee'?"
GS "Same thing. It just means you get something of value no matter what happens. The vouchers can be used or given away or sold. They will always be worth something."
RP "What I also wanted to ask is about all your foreign ticket buyers. If they live far away, why would they want a holiday home here?"
GS "Well, if I offered you the chance to own a lovely home in Japan for only 150 euros, especially if you could get your 150 euros back, you'd take it wouldn't you? You could sell it, of course, or you could rent it out and get good income from it. And you do also need to know that many of our ticket and voucherholders live less than a two hour flight away. But if people live too far way to use the hotel voucher they can always sell it -- eBay is a good place to do so."
RP "Do people ever doubt your credibility, wonder whether this is a scam or not?"
GS "Not many people, at least once they take on board how public we are. After all, we've been around for 18 years now, standing in the sunlight, open to public inspection. The hotels are all over the Internet and in every decent guidebook, and we personally are as available as possible. We're not celebrities by any means, but we're out in the open. You want to talk to me? Come to the restaurant, walk upstairs to where I live and knock on the door. I may not guarantee to be pleased to see you if it's late at night, but I'll be there."
RP "Fine. I promise not to come at midnight. What about noon?"
GS "Noon's OK, but by then I'm usually in one or other of the hotels. But you're welcome to visit."
RP "Let me get back to the subject. Isn't it going to take you a long time to sell 33,000 tickets for the raffle?"
GS "It could, but on the other hand that's really just down to publicity and advertising. We had more than 5,000 people respond to a quarter page -- really not even that big -- article in The Sunday Express. I've actually been ducking publicity for the last few months because it became clear to me that our administrative system wasn't set up to handle a high volume of enquiries and sales. That's much improved now, but it took a long time to set up the data bases and all the security functions, which are now in place. Unbelievably complicated, all that stuff, and we had to hire in several outside experts. But now we're setting up sales offices in the USA and Germany, so things will go faster. It's still going to take awhile, but I'd rather do it right gradually than wrong in a hurry."
RP "I'd like to go on with this interview, but I see we're out of time. May I ask you back again soon?"
GS "Of course. My pleasure. Thank you for inviting me."
INTERVIEW ENDS, BUT MAY CONTINUE NEXT WEEK.
Rafael Pons (the host of the show) "Dr Scott, could I begin by asking ..."
George Scott (interrupting) "Could we make that 'George' please?"
RP "'George' is fine with me. But now, since our time is limited I'd like to skip the usual pleasantries and ask you about a few of the claims you are making for your property raffle. Your website calls it the 'world's only "can't lose" raffle'. How can you justify that?"
GS "Thank you for asking. The truth is, there may be another property raffle in China or Timbuktu that offers the same guarantees, but if there is we don't know about it and so we're making that 'world's only' claim, which is based simply on the fact that we are giving away a ticket to the raffle free with every purchase of one of our hotel vouchers for 150 euros."
RP "Wait a minute. I thought we were being tempted to buy a raffle ticket and get a hotel voucher free."
GS "Legal technicality. Because the USA now has a law against Internet gambling, our lawyers had to make sure that what our raffle club members were investing in wasn't a gamble. Well, it's not a gamble if you get full value for whatever you pay for, so if you acquire one of our hotel vouchers you participate in the property drawings free. It's a sales promotion for the vouchers. That's the way the law works."
RP "And this 'guarantee'?"
GS "Same thing. It just means you get something of value no matter what happens. The vouchers can be used or given away or sold. They will always be worth something."
RP "What I also wanted to ask is about all your foreign ticket buyers. If they live far away, why would they want a holiday home here?"
GS "Well, if I offered you the chance to own a lovely home in Japan for only 150 euros, especially if you could get your 150 euros back, you'd take it wouldn't you? You could sell it, of course, or you could rent it out and get good income from it. And you do also need to know that many of our ticket and voucherholders live less than a two hour flight away. But if people live too far way to use the hotel voucher they can always sell it -- eBay is a good place to do so."
RP "Do people ever doubt your credibility, wonder whether this is a scam or not?"
GS "Not many people, at least once they take on board how public we are. After all, we've been around for 18 years now, standing in the sunlight, open to public inspection. The hotels are all over the Internet and in every decent guidebook, and we personally are as available as possible. We're not celebrities by any means, but we're out in the open. You want to talk to me? Come to the restaurant, walk upstairs to where I live and knock on the door. I may not guarantee to be pleased to see you if it's late at night, but I'll be there."
RP "Fine. I promise not to come at midnight. What about noon?"
GS "Noon's OK, but by then I'm usually in one or other of the hotels. But you're welcome to visit."
RP "Let me get back to the subject. Isn't it going to take you a long time to sell 33,000 tickets for the raffle?"
GS "It could, but on the other hand that's really just down to publicity and advertising. We had more than 5,000 people respond to a quarter page -- really not even that big -- article in The Sunday Express. I've actually been ducking publicity for the last few months because it became clear to me that our administrative system wasn't set up to handle a high volume of enquiries and sales. That's much improved now, but it took a long time to set up the data bases and all the security functions, which are now in place. Unbelievably complicated, all that stuff, and we had to hire in several outside experts. But now we're setting up sales offices in the USA and Germany, so things will go faster. It's still going to take awhile, but I'd rather do it right gradually than wrong in a hurry."
RP "I'd like to go on with this interview, but I see we're out of time. May I ask you back again soon?"
GS "Of course. My pleasure. Thank you for inviting me."
INTERVIEW ENDS, BUT MAY CONTINUE NEXT WEEK.
posted by Will Stock | 8:18 AM
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