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
Wow… my stroller ( my VERY VERY awesome stroller) came in 3 HUGE boxes, I have no idea what they weighed, but they were HEAVY..My husband commented on how nice it was that we didn’t even have to pay shipping, it would have been alot! ( although, for that stroller, I would have done it in a heartbeat!!) but it was so nice not to have to, a true “win” We SOOO appreciate you ladies!!
For Petes Sake….cant just agree to disagree? Ohhh, you got blocked….oohhh, be afraid, ber very afraid. Man-o-man…thanks for sharing by the way. I sometimes think I am the only one who gets to deal with whackos in my job.
You are so much better than I am because I would totally spill all the details! I will never enter a contest where I have to pay the shipping. To ask a winner to do so is petty.
Oiy, how ridiculous. Why would anyone want to pay shipping on something they won.
Is this person alright, or has she lost her marbles? We have done giveaways (with actual products) and we ship to the customer and this is coming all the way from Australia, yes it costs us quite a bit on shipping but hey when the customer likes our product and refers friends and they buy from us, it’s worth every cent!
I am dying of curiosity, trying to figure out who it is…
I don’t have a problem with their policy, if that’s their deal, but I can’t believe they would chastise you for simply saying it wasn’t a good fit. You weren’t rude or condescending, so I don’t see why they would take such a negative tone. Why couldn’t they just suggest a specific cheap-to-ship prize? It’s called compromise, people!