Like so many of you, we work with LOTS and LOTS of sponsors and PR reps. We love *most* of them and have continuing, long term relationships with them. We cant take every single giveaway offered to us, because some wont even interest our users and we do have rules about listing a contest with us…for example, don’t offer us a $20 gift card if everything on your site costs $50. That’s a coupon, not a giveaway.
Lucky me, I don’t have to deal with any sponsors because Alicia does all the hard work and I get to sit back and…just kidding. But she does do 90% of the sponsorships around here. Which is good, cause I would lose it eventually.
So a site offers us $25 to give out to a winner here in exchange for us to review their site (not a product, just the site). In her proposal, she tells us that shipping is the responsibility of the winner. Why would we take a giveaway where we ask y’all to pay for the shipping? Heck, even Dyson covered their own shipping and that thing has to weighs 20 pounds.
Alicia writes back:
Then sponsor writes:
So nice to hear back from you. We sponsor 400+ contests, have over 40,000 customers and have been in business for 10 years. I know we would work well together. Since toy products can weigh up to 25 Lbs, naturally we wouldn’t be able to pay for the shipping if that’s the product the customer choose. I don’t think anyone would expect us to ship a trampoline, for example and pay for the shipping.
then Alicia writes:
We really just don’t want our winners to have to pay for any type of shipping from a product they receive. Typically when we’ve done giveaways we’ve had sponsors donate a GC and then cover shipping of whatever the winner has chosen. Does that make sense? We don’t want our winner to have to pay out of pocket on a prize that they won.
then sponsor writes
Doesn’t make sense to me at all – sounds completely one sided and unfair. I’ve blocked the site and email so I don’t bother you again.
I mean, does anyone else think major overkill on the “blocked the site and email” fiasco. And she did, cause I emailed her back personally to tell her we would have assisted her in another way, but Ill tell you what, I am SO glad we didn’t put her up here if this is the customer service we would have been giving yall. Maybe a “Sorry we cant work together, can you recommend a blog that would be interested” instead of “you’ve been blocked”. (nananana boo boo, so THERE)
Do y’all see what we go through for you?
~Trisha
What a skimper!
Wow! Very unfair to the winner, I do agree as well. Who cares if ‘this sponsor’ blocked you? Sounds like they aren’t worth your time anyway. Poopie on them! LOL
LOL there are SOOOO many CRAZIES out there!! I have some sponsors that are awesome…I need to get with Alicia!
I had a similar situation with a blog designer…she went a little nutty on me & then blocked me…I still have no idea what I said that set her off.
As my best friend says “Other people’s kids, man!”
Now as I would say…Crazy wench!! Go get some Midol for that PMS!!!
I emailed her a follow up and got an email back that said in the title:
Sorry. This account has been blocked.
Are you kidding me? Seriously, blocked the site. I at first thought she meant put it down on some list he/she compiled that isn’t interested. But if you tried to contact and couldn’t, and you are indeed blocked, that is WAY OVERKILL!
Tracye LMAO
Thank you Trisha and Alicia for putting up with people like that for us!!! Wow she should be on the naughty list this year!!!!
Craziness. I have come across several giveaways (a couple I won) where the gift card they gave wouldn’t cover even the cheapest item on the site. Needless to say I haven’t used the card. Now if it was say a gift card to a site I would’ve bought something off of anyway then I might use the discount but I wouldn’t consider it a free item, just discounted.
That is crazy!!! People can be so rude…for no reason!! I offered to promote a company one time for free…and she asked me to remove her from my email list….your loss sucka!!!! tee-hee-hee
cute new header by the way.
Oh my goodness, I sure hope this is no one we ever have or will work with at Does Mommy Love It? Crazy Crazy. Unprofessional.
You have GOT to be freaking kidding me!!!
That’s ridiculous. I think SHE’s being one-sided and unfair.
BLOCKING PEOPLE???
I’m taking my bat and ball and going home!
How can she possibly think its unfair?? I think it would be unfair to say “hey you WON this prize, but you have to pay for shipping” which could possibly cost more than the actual prize. What a cheap b**tch!!
Their loss. I doubt they’ll find many blogs to sponsor their “giveaway” with those terms and that attitude. I wouldn’t. Giveaway to me doesn’t say “Oh btw, you need to pay the shipping on what you order.” My phrase for the day: WTF?
She blocked you? Crazy wench.
man, someone had thier panties in a tight wad! Why not just write back saying ” Thank you for your time”.
They have no say on how you run YOUR blog!
They were way over the top on this, and it is their loss because MomDot does a lot for thier sponsers
Thanks for sharing this situation. I guess some people just don’t get it. I know I wouldn’t want to have to pay shipping for a prize that I won and I don’t think my readers on my blog would like to pay for shipping on a prize they won from one of my giveaways. I would have done the same thing as you. Luckily I have never had to deal with a sponsor like this…yet atleast. *knock on wood* Why endorse a company that has poor customer service like they’ve demonstrated? Thank you MomDot for not allowing sponsors like this to participate in your events!
Way over the top! To me, giveaway means free. Completely free. If you want to get your name out there sometimes you have to lose a little money for the publicity of it.
CHEAPOS! I’ve had only one sponsor saying they wouldn’t pay shipping and I rejected them without a second thought. A giveaway is something FREE!
Hopefully that don’t happen too often because PR reps like that give good PR reps a bad name;)
That sounds terrible. I agree that a simple “we are unable to work with you thank you for your time” would have sufficed. The blocking seems over the top. Oh well.