I have been blogging for around 11 months now. I have done reviews and giveaways on my blog for around 7 months now. And
all most of the the PR reps and business owners have followed through on their commitments (at least I think so) with reviews and/or giveaways. All but one. I hosted a giveaway only for a certain company back in March, and I am not going to say the companies name because I am going to be the bigger person for once, but I will say it was around the middle of March. Anyway, I hosted a giveaway for them and I emailed them the winners information. Then I waited, and nothing. A week later I emailed them again just looking for a "I will send this right over to the winner" and again I got nothing. A few weeks go by and so does another email and I still haven't heard anything from the winner or the company. I figure maybe the company has already sent the prize to the winner and all is taken care of. A month goes by and then another and then another. I check my email one day and the winner has patiently waited this long for her prize and she hasn't heard anything from me or the company. I apologize to her and once again I send an email to the company, and nothing. Another
not so nice email, and nothing!!!
So basically I promoted this company through a giveaway post, entered it into numerous links and contest sites, and got a winners hopes up, all for nothing. Now I am left with trying to find something to compensate the winner with. Because I take pride in my blog unlike someone else who can't even hold up their end of the deal!
I apologize to all, except for one, of the companies who make reviews and giveaways a pleasurable experience. And I apologize to all of my loyal readers who enter them and keep coming back. To all of you disregard this
rant post, I am just a little irritated at all the work I did for a company, for nothing.
Signazon.com
18 comments:
I fear I am facing the same thing right now.
I imagine that would be annoying for you. As a winner who hasn't recieved a couple of prizes (and not necessarily from your blog), would you want me to send you an e-mail to ask about it or just forget it?
I have had to deal with this also. It's very irritating. Sorry you have had to go through it also and Pam yep I would definitely want to know if you didn't receive a prize you won. We put a lot of work in this and if they PR reps don't hold up on our end we need to know. Us mommys stick together and we need to know about the bad reps
I am sorry you are having to deal with this! Yes Pam, definitely let whoever know so that they can get to the bottom of it asap. We put too much time in writing out the review for the company/s and promoting the contests to have the winner not ever receive their prize! I hope that you get this resolved! I hope it never happens to me. Do you mind emailing me the company that did this to you, so that I can steer clear? Thanks hon.
I have the same sort of situation happening at this time as well. I am not sure what we are to do.
I don't blame you for being irritated. Sounds like the company just "uses" people
aunteegem@yahoo.com
Thats ridiculous! It really makes me mad too because we take time away from our families to promote these companies! I say you should put the name out there so people stay away! (and in the mean time would you email me their name so that I dont do any pr with them please! thanks kcfrugal@gmail.com)
the1sttimearound.blogspot.com
OH how annoying. I could possibly be having this happen right now too. If you would be so kind to send me their name too, I would appreciate it. What a huge, huge waste of time for you, and for your winner too. You sound like me, and I want to make things right too. Is there possibly another contact for the company you can talk to, or call them? How frustrating and I'm so sorry this happened.
How rude is that?
You really should post their name. Why should they get away with this? I won a giveaway somewhere and then the sponsor (not the blogger) wanted to charge me a dollar more for shipping than the cost of the gift certificate. So, in essence, I won cheap shipping from them. I told them what I thought was wrong with this and they got sort of indignant. They said they were being very generous by offering a gift certificate in the first place. Great way to build good will, isn't it?
I've gone through this once too, i was the winner on another blog and i NEVER ever got my prize, though, i did contact the person who hosted the giveaway on her blog, and after waiting now for two months, there has been absolutely no response from her at all, and i still didn't receive my prize, i have to say that it is rather disappointing, it is in the end a giveaway, but we get excited to receive all the prizes too, and it's disappointing to see that some people just hide and ignore you because something this simple, they could at least tell you that they tried to contact the company to see if they have sent out your prize, at least to be polite. I have no hope that the prize will be sent out at all anymore since this person is just ignoring my emails, so i won't try anymore, but i totally understand how you feel! And now because of this experience i don't think i trust to enter anymore of this persons giveaways either, so it affects both the company and the blogger somehow sometimes i think. 99% of the time i have had really good luck though, if a prize hasn't been sent to me for a while, the person that hosted the giveaway always has contacted me to make sure i got it! :)
I agree with others totally that you should post the name of the company, this isn't fair to the reviewer and the people that enter the giveaways either, don't feel bad though, at least it's not on you, you did try to contact the company and the winner as well! :)
This is an interesting situation I have seen a few times and am going through now as a prize winner. I won a book at either the end of April or beginning of May and the company never sent it. I don't know what you're supposed to do when this happens!
I admire you for taking the higher road and trying to compensate your winner. I do hope the company in question does finally come through in the end.
I am, and will continue to be a faithful follower of your blog - and giveaway entrant!! :-)
I too feature reviews/giveaways on my parenting blog, and you just described my worst fear. In these times, I'm actually more afraid of a company going out of business!
In your case, my last and final effort would be a letter in writing, mailed to the company, maybe even certified.
And now I'll have to go through your March list so I can make sure not to use them!
Continued success to you.
I've not received several items I've won...and so often the bloggers just start ignoring your emails when you contact them with the problem. I'm devastated that I never received jewelry I was so excited for.
I had the same problem with a company as well. My winner still hasn't received the prize, and I've heard absolutely nothing from the company since I did that giveaway. Ugh.
This is so awful. Taking advantage of people who are providing a service to them at little or no charge.
I am going through something similar as a prize winner. I won something fair and square several weeks ago and the host won't return my emails or DMs on Twitter. I would just appreciate some form of communication. If for some reason, I can't get the prize. Fine. I'm disappointed but it's insulting that someone can't even be real with me.
Well, nice to know I'm not the only one! (I'm an enter-er not a host.)
I was feeling badly about unreceived prizes and unanswered emails - going through so many of the things described by other commenters. One blogger even told me that I was rude for bothering her about my un-received prize.
Bottom line for me, giveaways are 99% a wonderful way to try new products. I'm going to try not to be bothered by the other 1%.
Thanks for doing so much to help your readers!
Post a Comment