I asked a mail order company to stop sending letters to my late wife – now I think she’s won a £7,000 prize from them. SALLY SORTS IT

Dear Sally

My wife used to buy clothes from the mail order chain Afibel. She passed away in April last year, but sales brochures and letters for her still came in the mail. I sent them all back and wrote ‘customer deceased’ on them, but they didn’t stop.

The November brochure contained an announcement that Afibel was still looking for the winner of a cash prize of £7,000. At this point I wrote another letter to inform them of my wife’s passing and to ask them to stop sending sales brochures and to remove her name from their mailing list.

The mailings continued and this month my wife was reminded that she still had a chance to win the prize.

BP, Torquay, Devon

Sally Hamilton responds: You were, of course, angry that you were still receiving mail for your late wife, even though you were certain you had cancelled it. Your sadness was compounded when you thought she had been selected as the winner of the company’s £7,000 prize draw.

Your reading of a mailshot suggested that the price could possibly be secured by ordering more goods. Most of the products that Afibel sells are women’s clothing, but you searched the pages and found everyday items such as black garbage bags and kitchen appliances that you could use. You placed an order.

You received the goods, but no other response from Afibel. And yet the monthly mailings came for your wife, including reminders that she was eligible to win.

You have asked me to intervene and put an end to your misery and to clear up the matter of the £7,000 prize. You are 90 years old and can do without all that fuss.

Contacting Afibel, a French company with operations in the UK, was not easy. I eventually found out that another French company, Damart (which used to own Afibel but no longer does), runs the client operations, although the two teams operate independently.

Upon investigation, it was discovered that your wife’s Afibel account was not marked as ‘opted out’ from receiving further correspondence. However, this was quickly resolved after I contacted you.

At the same time, it turned out that your wife also had an account with Damart, to which you had also returned mailings. This account had been successfully marked as ‘opted out’.

It is possible that your returned brochures and letters regarding Afibel also accidentally ended up at Damart and were not passed on.

As for the elusive £7,000 prize, I fear that this is just a marketing ploy and your wife was not the winner. The eye-catching sum was the top prize in one of the company’s regular draws. Such draws are designed to encourage customers to make purchases, as only those who do so have a chance of winning. According to the Gambling Commission, it is perfectly legal for companies to run such draws, as long as the prices of items on sale are not increased before, during or after the promotion, or inferior products are offered during the period.

Everyone who places an order with Afibel will be entered into a prize draw when there is a promotion. And with the purchase of your bin liner you will be eligible for the ‘grand prize draw’ with a top prize of £7,000, which will be drawn at the end of May.

Unfortunately, your name was not drawn, Afibel confirmed.

Afibel apologised for the disruption caused by the mailings and sent you £50 as a goodwill gesture.

As for the confusion about the prize draw, I can understand your frustration. You thought your late wife’s name had been drawn and that you had to buy something to claim the prize. However, the mailing – which I saw – simply said ‘the search for the winner of the £7,000 first prize is on’, with further instructions on how to enter the draw.

I would urge anyone tempted to enter a draw like this not to be tempted to buy items in the hope of winning the top prize. Only buy something if you would do so even if there was no draw – then you have lost nothing if you don’t win.

I am having problems purchasing an annuity from Legal & General (L&G).

I received a quote from L&G in February via my financial advisor. My completed application forms were sent to L&G later that month. I was told that it would take five to ten days to process the application and that the annuity would go live six to eight weeks later.

It has been over 14 weeks and I still don’t have a final agreement. Can you help me?

EO, Southampton

Sally Hamilton responds: Normally it takes about a month to arrange an annuity, but clearly something went wrong with your application.

You wanted to transfer money from two small Scottish Widows pensions and a much larger Aegon pension plan to L&G to buy an annuity with the combined funds. L&G offered you an annuity rate of over 8.5%.

Admittedly, the application is more complex if multiple pension funds have to be merged, but at least it will take less time.

Insurers put an expiry date on quotes, which is 45 days for L&G, but can be shorter for other providers. You were of course afraid that you would miss out on this attractive deal. In May, the rate even dropped to below 8.5%.

The money from your Scottish Widows plans went through the process smoothly and arrived safely in mid-March, but the Aegon money appeared to be stuck.

After waiting for another few weeks, you investigated and discovered that the Aegon funds had arrived at L&G in mid-April, but that nothing had been done with them.

Another problem arose when the quote for the percentage you could receive from your annuity did not take into account one of your Scottish widow’s plans.

You became concerned when annuity rates continued to decline. However, while all this was going on, you were diagnosed with high blood pressure and high cholesterol. These conditions can be considered by annuity providers to offer an increased rate. You asked for your conditions to be considered.

When you made further inquiries in June, it turned out that your application had not yet been processed and that your annuity rate had still not been determined.

I contacted L&G and asked if they could reach out and arrange your annuity so you could move forward with your retirement plans.

I am pleased to report that a few days later the job was finally completed. L&G blamed the delays on ‘technical issues’ on their end and some back and forth with your advisor.

But it came out on top in the end with a final rate of 8.62%, taking into account your recently diagnosed medical problems. The increase means an extra £112 a month in pension for you and the payment has been backdated to April.

A spokesperson for Legal & General said: ‘We are sorry that there has been a delay in setting up EO’s annuity. We understand that this has caused additional stress and have paid £750 to apologise for this. Her annuity is now active and we have covered the £1,371.24 in lost income plus 8% interest.’