Good morning everyone! Our topic today is going to be a “hot button” issue but it is one that needs to be spotlighted and discussed. While it is okay to disagree with my opinion, I respectfully request that you do so in an adult-like and professional manner.
Today’s Topic: Just like all of you…I enjoy entering giveaways. Matter of fact, I was entering giveaways online for 4 years before Chris and I started this blog almost 5 years ago. Am I a professional “sweeper”…no! I enter only a few a day and my husband enters a few every day. For us, it is just a relaxing hobby that we enjoy doing during our downtime. With that said, I have some things I want to vent about today.
1. Winning Multiples of the Same Item in One Week – This has happened to us numerous times and we did the ethical and moral thing by only accepting one and asking the blogger to select a new winner for the duplicates. Companies want one person to win one item and they want those exact other items to go into different people’s hands so that they can try the products too. They don’t do blogger outreach programs so that one winner can win 15 of their bed sheets in one given week. That is just plain wrong and I implore you to do the right thing by giving up the multiple wins. It is the RIGHT THING TO DO PEOPLE!
2. Stop The Cheating! – There is way too much cheating going on! We deal with that on a daily basis on this blog! I am sorry but in plain English our Mandatory Entry requests you to visit the sponsor’s site & to come back & tell us another product (specific name) that you like or something you learned. Every day we deal with people who put bullshit entries in like “I want to win”, “I need new socks” or “My son likes hoagies”….whatever! That sponsor is generously offering up a prize and it only takes a few minutes to visit their site. The cheating is out of control and its mostly b/c many bloggers are allowing cheaters to get away with this nonsense. It has to stop. I implore bloggers to double check & triple check entries and to stop allowing cheaters to win!
3. Emailing Bloggers Rude Things – Oh yeah, this is a hot button with us now! Don’t email us to complain & whine that you don’t win on our blog. You have a fair shot just like everyone else who completes the entries correctly. Most of these “rude” emails come from people who ONLY enter the giveaways the last few hours that it is open. Obviously, those who regularly read your blog & enter them every day accumulate more entries into that giveaway than you, so they have a higher chance of winning. Get it together people!
4. Rude Responses to Winner Email Notifications – We put a lot of time and effort into running a tight ship here and we run our blog like a business, not like a hobby. We work hard to bring you unique items from new sponsors not seen elsewhere. We get tired of emailing winners and only to have them respond with just their name & address. That’s right, they can’t even say THANK YOU for hosting it, or THANK YOU for your hard work. They just hit reply, type in their address and hit send. How about a few Thank You’s coming our way? That would be nice!
5. Don’t Threaten Us – It is not our fault when a sponsor doesn’t follow through or doesn’t mail out your prize in a timely manner. We do EVERYTHING we can to help you get your prize. That includes emailing sponsors a hundred times, calling them via phone when appropriate, etc. However, if a sponsor “stiffs” on a prize, it is NOT our fault. Don’t email us or call us and threaten us with your garbage. We do what we can and that is it. Threatening us in any way will not be tolerated.
6. Abusive & Foul Language – If we email you about an entry problem we are doing so out of common & professional courtesy. Do not respond to that email calling us “Unclassy bitches” and telling us to “Kiss your ass” and that we have a “crappy blog”. Well, if you really felt that way…why were you over here entering the giveaways and trying to cheat on them? Really? Whatever. Yes folks, this just happened to us a few days ago where someone fired off an email to us and calling us all kinds of foul & abusive names. Whatever, they can go elsewhere with their nonsense.
As you can see, we have had a lot of garbage recently dished our way and we will not tolerate it. We appreciate each & every one of you who come to this blog to read it and/or enter the giveaways. All we ask is that you do so fairly (with no cheating) and to be respectful to us and your fellow blog readers!!!
Okay, I am done venting for today. Let’s get to the winners and there are a lot of them!
Wow, I never imagined people were so rude and ungrateful. I appreciate all the hard work you put in to the blog and the giveaways, and I sincerely thank you for that. I also appreciate that neither bloggers not companies need to do giveaways and abusing their goodwill and the system can only lead to less, and eventually perhaps the end of all, giveaways. Unfortunately I’ve learned that there are always people who will try to cheat and I am not sure there is any way we, the people who try to play by the rules, can help with that. I wish there were, but …. Again, thank you for all the hard work and have a great Thanksgiving.
Sad that people resort to cheating and not having the common courtesy to say Thank you. I appreciate seeing the giveaways, but I do not enter or comment on all of them. I usually save entering for the ones I honestly would like to win and could honestly use. So you can imagine how many I have won since it is an odds game. Yep, you guessed it, not a one. LOL But I am fine with not winning, because I know in the long run…. I did win. How did I win? By knowing I helped support someone else ( the host of the giveaway) by entering the giveaway. Every person that enters the giveaway lets the host know they are doing something right and reaching people doing what they enjoy doing. Sometimes just the pat on the back you give them is prize enough.
thank you, personally, for dedicating your time and efforts here and keep on doing what you are doing.
Kenneth Johnson
The first thing I think of when I win a giveaway is “THANK YOU.” I guess some people don’t remember the manners their parents and teachers taught them. If I don’t complete an entry, I don’t claim it, pretty simple. I remember one giveaway last year here on your blog that I won, and you even offered to pay for the postage that I ended up paying for because the sponsor forgot to add postage to the prize lol I would say that was very “classy” 🙂 Yes, you do go above and beyond when offering giveaways and helping make sure the winners receive the items 🙂 I have always enjoyed entering the ones here on your blog 🙂 THANK YOU for having the giveaways and please don’t let the ungrateful people run you down!!
A belated congratulations to the 6 winners.
I do not understand why some people think it is okay to cheat and then are angry or rude when caught. I appreciate all your hard work and I know that most of your readers feel the same way. Please do not be disheartened by the few dishonest entrants.
I just do not understand how people can be so rude. Some people just are not very appreciative of anything. I am so sorry that you have to deal with this type of people. I think you have a great blog. I enjoy reading your reviews and participating in your giveaways. I have in the past won a duplicate item and immediately notified the other blogger that i was declining the item and telling them that I had already won on another blog. I didn’t have to be told to do this, as I just did it out of common courtesy. I hope things get better and you can get rid of the cheaters. Keep up the good work on the blog.
Thank you ladies for all of your kind words of support. Chris and I really appreciate them and I was just venting about the garbage some people were slinging our way which was very frustrating to deal with.
I’m a little appalled (and sad) that you had to write this post! There is nothing to gain from being rude or dishonest, and it can certainly make the lives of others miserable. I like to enter giveaways sometimes, and it’s a bummer to hear that people cheat to win.
On another note, as a blog-reader and giveaway-enterer, I appreciate the thoughtfulness you put into each review and post. I hope you know what a fantastic job you do! I also want to thank you for YOUR response to your giveaway winners. I have won a giveaway from your site and was pleased to receive a reply to my email. That is not always the case! Keep up the great work. 🙂
thanks for always being so ethical and doing right thing and the cheaters and whiners need to be gone!
Thanks for keeping your blog on the up and up. I had no idea people were doing things like that…and to send rude emails is just unacceptable. I know you could block their emails, but is there a way to block them from even entering your blog? There is just no reason you should have to tolerate that kind of behavior. Those people should have consequences for their actions, maybe that would make them think twice before doing things like that. Maybe you could ask rafflecopter to give you a way to block certain emails and put a sign over the box saying something like SOME PEOPLE HAVE BEEN BLOCKED FROM ENTERING DUE TO PRIOR INFRACTIONS… I understand your anger and frustration, I would feel the same way and I’m so sorry you have to put up with it.
I hope you keep doing what you’re doing and know that there are people who really appreciate all you do to bring them a great blog and great honest giveaways…..count me as one.
Thank you for all the time you put into your blog and for offering great reviews and giveaways. There really is a lot that goes into offering a giveaway. I appreciate the time you put in to them.
I can’t believe people can be so ungrateful and rude. Well yes I can I work in health care and see it all the time I know there have been times when I have noticed I made an error on a giveaway but I always alert the person running the contest or try to correct it myself. I do know that there have been times that I like a person on facebook only to find latter when I check it the like is gone??? who knows with facebook. Anyway what I really want you and your hubby to know is that I appreciate all you do for us. Have a great day 🙂
Wow, I’m another that had no idea that went on. I’ve learned so much about products (and social media and how to do it) that I think they’re missing out when they don’t look at the products. I’ve had some marketing so I get the whole concept and get so excited when I win. I would think if you don’t have the time to enter properly, why take the time to cheat? Anyway, much appreciate your tireless efforts and glad you posted this although the cheaters probably won’t read it, lol.
The cheaters rarely read anything on blogs…sigh! It has been our policy that if they are repeat offenders to send them a professional courtesy email explaining to them how the entry process works & if they want their entries to count they need to come back and do them correctly. We have been doing this almost 5 years and were floored when someone sent us an email with foul language and being totally rude with us. Whatever, she can go cheat on another blog as it won’t be tolerated here.
Wow! I had no idea people would get like that. I am so sorry. I always try to be polite and grateful. I only started entering sweepstakes a few months ago and I am always really excited and happy when I win something. I really, really enjoy this blog. Thank you for everything you do 🙂
I’ve been in the lucky situation to have won the same prize on multiple blogs, and I’ve always contacted the bloggers to respectfully refuse the “extras” in favor of other entrants. It is indeed the right thing to do, and I figure it keeps my giveaway karma on the plus side. Winning is great fun, and using something I’ve won gives me a good feeling. (In fact, today I baked a cake in a pan I won right here at TCC, and believe me, I was sending happy thoughts your way.) But I feel there’s a responsibility that comes with entering giveaways, and I try to live up to that.
That said, this seems like a good time to thank you for all your hard work and for maintaining TCC at such a high level. I’m sorry for the bad experiences you’ve had lately, and I hope it doesn’t get you down. You deserve better.
I appreciate bloggers that take the time to validate entries and not let cheaters win. How irritating that people cheat, the requirements are simple.
I agree with all of these rules. It shocks me that some of these happen.
Yeah… what Shelly Said.. HAHA. But seriously, we do appreciate every one of you that enters here. If we didn’t love our business, we would have stopped doing this long ago. It is just sad that some people have to be jerks or make it more difficult to do this business for the rest of you. We have the best sponsors and we are just trying to keep them happy. That is what this is all about!
Congratulations to the winners!
I am sorry for the way people act. I appreciate your comments. I believe that most people are good and trying to do the right thing but those “bad apples” really do spoil it. I hope this doesn’t dampen your spirits or get you down. It must be hard having all these wonderful giveaways and running a great blog. Please know that your followers really do appreciate you and enjoy your blog. We appreciate you sticking to the rules, saying it like it is, and standing up for what you believe in.
Have a wonderful Wednesday in spite of it all….besides, it’s National Peanut Butter Fudge Day, if that helps! 🙂
Congratulations to the 7 winners;
Pork Chomps Dog Chews: Holly C. and Susana
Thomas & Friends DVD: Michele H.
Beautiful Player Book: Stephen A, Zhe and bn100
Best Brownies & Squares Cookbook: Stephen A.
Thank you TwoClassyChics.com for running a Fabulous Blog.
Wow…..People are out of control. You run a lovely, informative Blog, where you give out some fabulous prizes. Thank you for all your time and effort. Rude behavior and bad language is unacceptable in my book. I am so sorry that kind of stuff is happening to you. The delete button comes in handy.
I know that the cheating is out of control and needs to be stopped. Thank you not allowing it.