Big Brother Update: Refund Offered

Update: From yesterday's post about Alex being thrown off Big Brother, there is an update. Channel 4 announced that 10p of every 35p from the calls made will go to charity, and reminded us that Channel 4 is making no money from Big Brother's phone vote this season. Very admirable. Channel 4 also offer a refund if you go to their website and request it. Now there's the right way to behave in a television premium campaign!

Big Brother throws Alex Off - But Do We Get Refunds?

Last night Big Brother in the UK took the dramatic step of ejecting a housemate for threatening behavior. Alex had been receiving a lot of press as the most unpopular housemate in a long time, with aggressive bullying style interactions with the others and not joining in the games and challenges. Yesterday the Big Brother powers that be decided that enough was enough and removed her without warning.

This dramatic decision has made the housemates happier, especially Mario - who was up for vote this Friday along with Alex. Alex was definitely the favourite to be evicted, however Mario has his haters so you never know. Big Brother has cancelled the eviction vote this Friday and closed the phone lines. This raises the question of what happens to all the people who have already paid to cast their vote by calling the phone lines? They paid money to make something happen, either one way or another, and now that isn't happening - so should they get a refund? Is it even possible for Endemol, the production company behind Big Brother or whoever is running the phone lines to carry out a refund?

One can be sure that the wording of the small print when you vote gives all related parties some protection against refunds. Plus on the positive side this has happened late Wednesday, with the final vote day being Friday, so the number of votes cast is probably not so high as people tend to watch and see what the housemates do leading up to the vote. However in the last few years text and phone voting has come under intense scrutiny in the UK, with most television votes being suspended indefinately and when they are run the presenters are constantly giving warnings such as 'Please do not call yet, the lines are not open and you will be charged' in the lead up to voting windows that only last 15 minutes or less. All of this is designed to prevent people spending ridiculous amounts of money on votes, and then complaining later when they look at their phone bill because they ‘didn't realise you had to pay&rsqo;. Big Brother's voting is somewhat different, as the voting lines are opened as soon as they announce the housemates up for eviction - so we'll have to see what happens as a response to this 'act of god' by the BB producers.