I am throwing this out there to anyone who has won a blog giveaway and has had trouble or has never seen their product? I know that I have sponsored a couple giveaways and one time my shipping company did not ship it and as soon as I found out I reshipped. I get that happens sometimes. But what I want to collect is information on anyone that has not received or had to beg to receiver their prize. Here is why
I am getting ready to post about a sponsor that has made my life a living he&% for the last 3 days and has actually charged me for shipping and then recharged my card for merchandise I won in a blog giveaway. I want to know if there are others out there? Please post, share with a friend who has had this issue and let’s see how many there are out there.
I know as a blogger who often hosts giveaways I want to avoid the companies that do not follow through. I know it’s not the bloggers fault, unless they are the sponsor. This sucks because we as bloggers depend on companies to sponsor and follow through and then it makes us look bad when the sponsors fail. That is why I am not posting the blog that I won from because I know for a fact that this blogger runs successful giveaways all the time.
I’ve won from more than one blog and never got what I won. I emailed all of the blogs and heard back from most of them but I still never received what I won. At one blog we emailed back and forth for a while but it didn’t do any good. I finally just let it go because there’s not much else you can do and I didn’t want to be a big pain.
If I win, I usually receive the prize within 2 months. If sfter 2 months, I contact the blogger and ask if they can check it out. Most of the time they email me back saying they will contact the sponsor and it comes in. If the sponsor takes more than 2 months I question if I would get the same service If I purchased their product so at least I know there is poor customer service. So it is not always about trying the product, but also knowing if the company cannot process the order in a timely manner or make mistakes in the process.
Sometimes it takes a while, but most of them have been pretty good about it. I’d always say follow up. I keep a folder where I put emails saying “you’ve won!” … and then once I’ve received the item, I move them to a “received” folder. That way I can go back through and follow up on things I didn’t get.
The ONE company that has not fulfilled their prize to me, and actually has been very dismissive when I tried to contact them was Zero Water. I won the pitcher and the water tester from Jabbering Jessi.
I wasn’t getting anywhere with contacting her, so I went straight to them. Their response was this:
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Leslie,
Sometimes we get requests from bloggers who would like to test our product and write a review, but we don’t know anything about blogger giveaway contests. You will need to contact the blogger directly for redemption.
Thanks,
Customer Service
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This just seems odd to me, as SO many bloggers were giving away this pitcher all around the same time. I’ll just stick with my Pur & Brita I guess. 🙂
I still haven’t gotten a coupon for free Purex from one blogger (don’t know if it was her responsibility or Purex’s!) and I won Wholly Guacamole 3 weeks ago and haven’t gotten it.Don’t know if I haven’t waited long enough or what.
I too have had that happen to me 3 times. I won blog giveaways but never received the prize. It is really discouraging and the sponsors should know it makes them look bad. I think the worst one for me was when my daughter with Epilepsy won a pin to wear on her sweater but despite contacting them, they never sent it. She cried about it. Us fans have to do a lot of things to enter these giveaways and we promote their products for them for free, the least they can do is follow through. I know it makes bloggers look bad too. I have really slowed down on entering giveaways because I don’t want the disappointment of not receiving my prize.
I enter tons and have about 20 so far I have not gotten. I need to contact the bloggers and let them know. I usually go through and do missing ones every 3 months or so.
It took me 8 months to get my Sumo Lounge. Many emails between the blogger, me and the company. Eventually I got it, although not in the color I wanted.
I don’t really stress when I don’t get an item. I am just very thankful for the ones I do get.
Actually that happened to me about 10 months ago. I was so excited as I won a lotus cleaning machine. The type with no chemicals and apparently turns water into ozone or something like that and can be used to clean any surface and even fruits and vegetables etc. The price I believe was around $250 or so and I was thrilled as I had heard about them and really wanted one.
I don’t in any way blame the blogger, she is awesome and I have won other things from her site and she of course was upset about it too, perhaps even more so. The sponsor began avoiding her and never returning calls and emails etc. Why on earth would a sponsor do such a thing if they want a positive spin on their products? I certainly don’t have the attitude that anyone owes me something but…don’t sponsor and offer a prize if you have no intention of sending it. Pretty simple right?
I would have had more respect for that sponsor had they been honest and stated their reasons for not sending the product…you simply don’t offer it and then make yourself scarce like it never happened! I am still a bit bummed out about it because I did really want it but, nothing I can do about it now…
On june I won a giveaway at The Adventures of J-Man and Miller bug and I am still waiting for this prize, she didn’t have to send it directly, but she gave my address to the company…
I wrote her an e-mail and a contact form on her blog but I still didn’t receive any answer from her 🙁
I don’t know if I can directly contact the company that provided the prize…
I would definitely contact the company and I would be very upset that the blogger has not responded. She may not be able to fullfill their prize but itleast the blogger could answer you back and say I am sorry!
I e-mailed the company and they told me it was the first time they received my mailing address and that they would be very happy to send me my prize! °__°
I put the link to the giveaway to prove I was telling the truth, I hope this prize won’t cost a thing (shipping) I’ll tell you how it goes…
Good luck!!!
right after three days I mailed the company… I received my prize with NO shipping costs or other.
I am very happy because I really loved my prize, but right now I deleted my subscription to the blog where I won it, it doesn’t seem to me professional the way she ignored my mails.
I have been entering blog giveaways for about a year and have won quite a few with great results but I have had a handful that I never received. Luckily they were the smaller wins. I do completely understand when a sponsor falls through and would never hold that against the blogger. On the other hand there are 2 that didn’t even try to communicate with me or help with contacting ths sponsor. One win was a $20 Wal-Mart GC which was sponsored by the blogger and they up and disappeared. No posts to their FB page or anything so I hope everything was ok with them! Another one was for a towel set and the sponsor disappeared! Another was a mascara and for some reason the blogger said she had no way to communicate with the sponsor. Yet another I didn’t receive was a toy but the blogger was nice and helpful and I understood the sponsor was at fault. No big deal! All in all I have won some wonderful things and I love entering and reading the posts on the blogs I follow. There was a post on a blog not too long ago about a sponsor who flaked and I thought it was great!! I think (I could be mistaken) that it was on Living the Life of Riley’s blog. I loved that they had the guts to post it right there for everyone to see rather than sweeping the flaky business sponsor under the rug!
Thanks for sharing. I think it is important to expose them as well as give credit for those that do follow through. Thanks!
won some stuff, got it in 2 or 3 days. others 6 or 7 weeks. others, ,,, well i had one blogger basically say i not part of that group any more sorry. another was a “set” of 2 items from 2 different sponsors. didn’t get either contacted blogger she was like, oh that is so weird. been a few weeks. nada. i should say for some strange reason i won several in late may early june was weird 5 in one day. about 3 weeks ago i sent out emails asking about stuff i hadn’t received, there is one blog where i won about 2 weeks apart didn’t get stuff can’t contact even posted on their blog. the only company i will mention by name was not a blog giveaway. i won one of the cases of wonka candy given away a while back. was notified in may said would arrive in 6 to 8 weeks. it did arrive after 8 weeks. 2 weeks after the expiration date. i mean really, a big company like wonka sending out expired candy. i have had very good experiences but i’m about done . the disappointment’s not worth it.
After all that…expired candy. How rude is that. Jerks!
I have not won many giveaways but I have had no trouble receiving them. I consider this to be great since I am in Canada and prizes have been shipped here from the US and overseas with no problem.
In every aspect of life it seems that some people just don’t know how to play fair.
Glad you have not had problems:) I have sent af ew prizes to Canada myself…I am a fellow Canadian BTW! Just in the states now but born and rais for 13 years there. Southern AB but born in Prince George
I’ve won tons of giveaways and know that with so many bloggers, sponsors, & shipping companies involved, mishaps are bound to happen. For the most part though, I’ve always received my prizes. There have been a handful of instances that I never received the prize, and again, it’s usually rectified. However, there have been a few times that no matter how many emails I’ve sent to the blogger or sponsor, it just doesn’t happen. There are now a few bloggers I don’t get involved with, and a few companies that I refuse to purchase from.
Ya and the companies seem to not care but our blogging community is growing and growing. It only takes one negative post for somone to lose tons of customers. you think that those few times those companies would care. I am glad you have received most of them!
The only prize I didn’t receive was a self-sponsored giveaway from a book blogger. After the first month, I emailed her & she said she hadn’t had the money to send it. Ok, I understand that. Another month went by, and I emailed again. No response. I wrote a reply on the giveaway post on her blog (which are moderated), and needless to say, she never published my comment. A couple more weeks went by and I emailed again. No response. I sent one final email. And, again, no response.
I completely understand when self sponsored giveaways don’t get shipped right away-things happen. I had 2 bloggers that I waited about 2 months to get my prizes from them. The difference? They kept in contact with me. They answered every email I sent them. They emailed me updates, on their own, without me asking for one. Their attention to the situation meant more than the time frame or the prize did.
Wow I am surprised that she never sent it…how awful. I never self sponsor a giveaway if AI can’t afford to send it. I always plan them to end right before or right no Payday LOL
I would say for the most part, I have been lucky with my winnings and have received the majority of what I have won. There were a couple of prizes that I know it was the blogger’s responsibilty to send out the prize, and when I wrote weeks later, was told that they never got it in the mail and that the coupon was expired now or something similar. When I find blogs like that I simply discontinue foloowing them. We put so much time into doing all of the entries correctly and often we share these giveaways on our social network pages. When they don’t follow through, it reflects badly on us for referring their giveaways.
When it is the sponsor’s issue, I will ask the blogger for the contact information to the sponsor and try to handle it myself, since I am sure my prize is not his/her only concern that day and the blogger has already put in a ton of time just hosting the giveaway. I’ve found being persistent pays off and sometimes it will get kicked up the chain of command and the company will do more to make it right. Luckily, that is very rarely something I have to do. Good luck getting your issue resolved!
I have several prizes in the past that I never received, sucks!!
Lori that does suck!
I won numerous prizes that were not fulfilled! I have been lied to by some bloggers who said that the prize was sent when it was not! If someone is having a giveaway, and the person wins-why is the prize not fulfilled! Why have a giveaway and when the winner asks where is my prize and the person that had the giveaway acts like you are asking them something that they do not like! I have names of some bloggers that have treated me unkind! I should not have to keep asking for my prize! I have been told that it must have been lost in the mail, when this is not true!!
A couple of times I’ve won a prize on two different blogs and the sponsor will only ship the prize once because you can only win their prize once in so many months, but they don’t tell the blogger that when they are posting the giveaway.
I have won a few giveaways and never recieved the prize. I even wrote to the blog who was hosting the giveaways and they never got back to me. There are some from December, March, April and May and never heard a word. I don’t get to excited anymore if I win something because there is a 75% chance I am not going to get it.
I have won alot of blog giveaways and most of the time I get my prize. There are several that I have never received though. It is frustrating because sometimes I get no response at all when I inquire about it.
I’ve won before and not received the prize until I kept emailing the company who sponsored the giveaway (I waited a month without any word). Then when they sent me the “invoice” it was the wrong item. When I received the item it looked like it had been tossed into the box without any form of cushioning.
That is just plain horrible customer service. You already paid your dues entering the giveaway with your time and now you have to spend even more time begging for the prize…rude!
Have won a lot of giveaways and received the prizes quickly but…I have won prizes in January and February and still have not received the prize and some will not even reply to my emails
I don’t understand why they don’t reply. They sponsor to get people to be customers…but they are losing them faster by not sending the prize.
Oh… I ment to mention. Good for you for wanting to post about this company. Let me know when you tweet the post so I can retweet it too.
Going to this weekend!!!
Remember the Bac Sac? They did not ship to the winner. I had to bug the heck out of them, then they said I didn’t send in the winners name. She ended up getting it but it does suck when you have to fight to get a prize.
You know, I never heard if my winner got hers. I am thinking she did since I never heard otherwise. I guess I should be better about checking with my winners. Lately I have been sponsoring my own and I know I send it:)
I’ve won a couple giveaways and the experience was very pleasant! Some bloggers go above and beyond and that is very much appreciated — they don’t have to do it in the first place and the fact that they want to make sure everything is taken care of is nice! However, I have had two problem wins. One, I had to follow up for *months* to get the prize.. The other one, never received my prize (from Harmony Aromatherapy)…
Jen:
I hear ya. I have not had a sponsor yet let me down and if they did I probably would offer my winner something from my store or a gift card to try to make things right. I have won giveaways too with great results. It is just such a bummer when you come across a crappy sponsor. Doesn’t happen a lot but it only takes one time to put a sour taste in someones mouth for sure. Sorry you had one bummer too but it seems that there are definitley more positive giveaways then duds so that is good.
I had a few times I won on a blog and had the sponsor never ship! I felt weird contacting the blog owner, because I know its not their fault. Most blogs were great and helped me out and I eventually received some of the prizes.
Other blog owners just gave me an auto reply that its not their responsibility to ship that it is the sponsors.
As a new blogger I have not had this promblem yet with my sponsors and I hope I never do :(!!!