Blessings Abound Blog win problems...

L

leah9114

New member
I'm wondering if anyone else here on SA has ever won from Blessings Abound blog sweeps and if so, what was your experience? I have won twice from this blog. My first win in November I had some issues with. The sponsor of the prize through the blog took a very long time to issue the prize to me. Alas, I did receive it in January and the blog owner was very cooperative and kind, although it did take her about a week to answer my first email regarding the status of the prize.

Fast forward to today. I won another prize from this blog on Jan 7. It's almost 2 months later and for weeks now I have written numerous emails to the blog owner requesting any info on the prize. She has ignored all of my emails. I have even went as far as to message her on Facebook.... again, ignored. I haven't yet resorted to DM'ing her via Twitter or flat posting on her Facebook wall... but I want to because I know she's online all the time updating on FB and chatting away (public profile, so I can tell). I can't for the life of me figure out why she'd keep ignoring my emails? :( I'm so disappointed. I had really started to like her blog and read it a few times a week, now I am so frustrated and I feel shunned.

Anyone else have any experience with wins from this blog? I know blog wins can sometimes take a while to receive since most of the time the sponsor has to get the winner's info from the blog owner and well, it takes time for companies to ship wins. But what, if anything, can I or should I do as far as the bad treatment I'm getting from this blog owner? She struck me as such a sweet person until now. This was a really nice win worth quite a bit of money too. I had wanted this for Christmas and didn't get it, so I was thrilled when I won the blog sweep. Ideas? Advice? I'm kind of new to sweeping but this just doesn't seem right.
 
Leah, I didn't see any sweeps that ended Jan 7th - which one was it for? :scratch:

Also, while looking through her blog, I see the rules for live sweeps say:

"One winner will be chosen via Random Drawing. Winners who I am unable to contact and who doesn’t claim their prize within 48 hours of being sent their winning email notification and me posting the winner of the prize in the winner’s section will forfeit their prize and prize will be held in a live contest following failure to claim."

I assume that's what the one you won on last year and this one said too? If yes, and you responded within 48 hours, you should be fine. As you noted, she hosts the sweeps, the sponsor fulfills the prize - she can only do so much.

If you are concerned because you didn't get a confirmation that you responded in time? I'd imagine she limits contact to minimize confusion since she hosts so many different sweeps.

It's good to have your ducks in a row {ensure all of the small details or elements are accounted for and in their proper positions before embarking on a new project} but it's not necessary to go beyond that, and could even be misconstrued as questioning them/their ability/authority/etc. :)
 
I won the "In-Dulj" prize from her and never got it either. I never got replies to my email but did find she was contacting the sponsor after each of my email inquiries. I did, however, get a response from her when I posted a comment under the win announcement on her site. She replied almost immediately (maybe comment responses go to a separate place/alert that she sees right away). I know she lives in Alaska and is a homeschooling mother. So, I assume she's got a very busy life.

She's contacting the guy at In-Dulj again that's supposed to supply the prize, but I'm not holding my breath.

Through the years, there are a number of prizes I never received. I also didn't receive a cereal cookbook I won from another blog and a $100 Shell card from Ryan Seacrest (a couple I can just remember off the top of my head at the moment".

When it comes down to it, it's the fault of these small businesses trying to promote themselves or the judging agencies for the big sponsors.

I have occasionally bought products that I discovered from blog sweepstakes, but In-Dulj won't be one of them. :nono:
 
Oh no, she emailed me to inform me of the win, and I replied within a couple of hours. This is part of the email she sent to me after she received my confirmation of accepting the prize in a timely fashion...

Jan 10th, 2011, 2:23 PM CST
"I have forwarded your information to the sponsor and please allow up to 3-4 weeks for delivery. Thank you for participating on Blessings Abound Mommy and I appreciate the time and effort you took in entering the contest. Please enjoy your prize and God bless! :)


Warmest regards,
Jacqueline Renner
Blessings Abound Mommy"

This is the last I've ever heard from her. I've emailed a handful of times since then with no replies at all and going on 8 weeks now. I'm going to contact the sponsor today. I'm so frustrated that she can find time to update her blog several times a day, update her FB pages, etc but can't take the 5 mins to reply to one of my many emails? So far, the problems have been with her... not the sponsor.


lidarkside - I hear you. This is the 2nd problem I've had with her blog. Granted, I do think the first win I had with her had problems at the sponsor's end though. This has made up my mind... I'm no longer going to enter her contests...never, ever again. There is nothing worse than getting a winning email, getting you all excited and then, well... never receiving the prize. I know she's a busy mom but like I said, if she has all this time to run and maintain a blog, why can't she return emails? I did finally post on her blog. I'll try twitter today and then, I'm just going right to the sponsor as a last resort. :(
 
leah9114 said:
lidarkside - I hear you. This is the 2nd problem I've had with her blog. Granted, I do think the first win I had with her had problems at the sponsor's end though. This has made up my mind... I'm no longer going to enter her contests...never, ever again. There is nothing worse than getting a winning email, getting you all excited and then, well... never receiving the prize. I know she's a busy mom but like I said, if she has all this time to run and maintain a blog, why can't she return emails? I did finally post on her blog. I'll try twitter today and then, I'm just going right to the sponsor as a last resort. :(
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I continue to enter her giveaways and have gotten all other prizes I have won from her blog. I don't hold this against her at all. It is definitely the fault of the sponsor.

As for her answering emails. Yes, it would be nice to get emails answered; but she did act on each one even though she didn't answer me. I'm sure she was too embarrassed not to have a prize supplied for a giveaway she promoted and probably thought the prize would get shipped out without further problem and without having to address the problem directly with me.

I'm a homeschooling mother and am trying to set up a new household and still try to post freebies and coupons and such. I know all to well how difficult it can get at times whereas I many times forego posting coupons, freebies, and deals I find. It just sometimes gets too much and too overwhelming. I also am sure that the blues are tremendous during those Alaskan winter months and don't have the greatest effect on a person's mindset.

I by no means hold anything against her and will continue to enter her giveaways. :)
 
TY for clarifying LDS - I haven't entered any blog sweeps, so of course I've never won from any :crazytongue: - I was going by what I've seen people post about blogs. :sunny:

Leah, me choosing not to enter has more to do with offered prizes, not the medium through which they are offered - I enter Twitter and Facebook sweeps all the time. Hmm, haven't won from them yet either! :laughing:

Anyway, as LDS notes, she does her part, it's the sponsor who didn't follow through, so it's up to you if you choose to stop entering sweeps she hosts. :)
 
Thanks guys for your replies. :)

I agree with some of what was said, then again I know how I myself would act and I wouldn't leave someone hanging like this, regardless of if it was due to embarassment or not. It's just plain rude to ignore emails like that, and it's not like I have been pestering her with an email every few days... I've sent only 4 emails requesting replies.

I know, as far as the sweep she has probably done her part and moved on. It would be fair though to reply with a short, simple email at least letting me know that she has contacted the sponsor and to just wait and see. It sure doesn't make me a happy blog follower anymore thinking that what I think, say or feel doesn't matter. :scratch:

I guess you learn from your efforts and move on. I'll try to get in touch with the sponsor and that's the best I can do. As for this blog goes though, I'll be taking this out of my favorites tab.
 
leah9114 said:
I agree with some of what was said, then again I know how I myself would act and I wouldn't leave someone hanging like this, regardless of if it was due to embarassment or not. It's just plain rude to ignore emails like that, and it's not like I have been pestering her with an email every few days... I've sent only 4 emails requesting replies.
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I like to give the person the benefit of the doubt. I have had problems occasionally receiving emails or problems with parts of emails not showing up, and so on and so on. Right now, we are having major problems receiving mail through UPS, most of which we're not receiving. What I do know is that she has contacted the sponsor for my nonreceipt of the prize, and she did respond immediately to my inquiry when I posted it on her webpage announcing the winners of that particular giveaway. You might want to give that a try.

In all honesty, if I were to stop entering sweepstakes because I never get a response from a sponsor after email inquiries, I wouldn't be entering very many sweepstakes; because, more times than not, I never ever receive a response from my email inquiries from the major sponsors. "Ryan Seacrest" is just one of many instances of not getting a response.

After 13 years of online sweeping, I've learned to let it go, move on, and continue entering; and I've continued winning and getting prizes from the very same sponsors that I may not have received my prize from before and never responded to my inquiries.

Welcome to the world of sweeping with all its ups and downs! :)
 
Amy Shulkusky said:
TY for clarifying LDS - I haven't entered any blog sweeps, so of course I've never won from any :crazytongue: - I was going by what I've seen people post about blogs. :sunny:
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You should give it a try. I win A LOT from the blogs! :headbang:

...and I mean [size=16pt]A LOT[/size]!!!!
 
I like to give the person the benefit of the doubt. I have had problems occasionally receiving emails or problems with parts of emails not showing up, and so on and so on. Right now, we are having major problems receiving mail through UPS, most of which we're not receiving. What I do know is that she has contacted the sponsor for my nonreceipt of the prize, and she did respond immediately to my inquiry when I posted it on her webpage announcing the winners of that particular giveaway. You might want to give that a try.
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Yuck! I'm sorry to hear about the UPS issue. That's aweful! I had some delivery issues a few weeks ago with UPS and had to have my shippers put traces on some packages. With regards to the blog though, I'm happy she replied to you. I've tried, but hey, if she chooses to ignore my emails, posts and messages...there's nothing I can do to force her. I think I've given her the benefit of the doubt one too many times. She's online updating her FB, posting to her blog, etc so it's not a matter of 'does she have time to reply'... it's plain and simple to me that she is choosing to not reply.

I'm by no means done sweeping all together. :) I have a newfound love for the hobby and I'm grateful finding SA among other sweeping sites. I'm just done with this particular sweeps. Since the start of this topic, I've ran across a few other sites/forums regarding non receipt of prizes from this blog, so I'm done. I wish you the best of luck though with your sweeping endeavors with Blessings Abound. Thanks for your insight too. It's always nice getting advice from the pro sweepers... I know as a newbie I don't quite "know all the ropes" yet. :love:

PS to those who haven't entered blog sweeps...I totally recommend them. While they take more effort to enter, the chances are much greater that you will win. I have won numerous blog sweeps with no issues until this blog. GLTA!
 
Please give it a try and post an inquiry right on her webpage where you are announced as the winner.

I emailed her three times with no response, but leaving a comment got me an immediate response. :)
 
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