Winning graciously – do you?

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I have been contemplating writing this for some time now. I do not want to offend anyone and I hope you all know how much I appreciate you stopping by and entering my giveaways. I have a few thoughts of my own on how to be a graceful winner, but recently I’ve been hearing from other bloggers {who also host giveaways} some issues that really need to be addressed. If you recognize yourself in here, please know that it isn’t directed at you – these are just common things that have been bugging me, and other bloggers as well.

SAY THANK YOU:
I get super excited when I email my winners and I am always thrilled when I can make someone’s day by announcing that they won. It is especially rewarding when it is a prize I just know they will be excited about. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have notified someone that they were the winner of one of my giveaways {and sometimes it is a really nice prize}, and I get a reply with just an address. Yeah. An address and nothing more. Hello? Can you please say thanks? Maybe you could even try to sound a little bit excited? It is so time consuming to compose a giveaway post, and many times we {the blogger} get absolutely nothing for posting it. We host the giveaways for our readers. When we have put a lot of effort into posting these, and we simply get an address in the reply, it is a letdown.

SEND YOUR ADDRESS LIKE YOU WOULD ON AN ENVELOPE:
I imagine I speak for most bloggers, that they copy and paste your address into an email to sponsor, for the fulfillment of your prize. When your address is typed correctly and in the proper format, it makes life so much simpler.

I get so many winners responding like this:
jane doe 1234 s winters rd no 3 anytown pa 55555

Nice huh? That means that before I can send your address to sponsor, I need to capitalize your name, street name, city, state, add punctuation and put the whole thing in address format. If nothing else, at least type in all caps, and name on one line, address on next, etc.  Just type it as if you were writing on an envelope – like this:

Jane Doe
1234 S. Winters Rd. No. 3
Anytown, PA 55555

This simple thing can save us so much time, and it is greatly appreciated when we receive replies in the format above.

ALLOW SUFFICIENT TIME FOR YOUR PRIZE TO ARRIVE:
I will typically send your address to the sponsor just as soon as I receive your shipping information. In the rare instance that there is a family emergency, sickness, etc. it could take two days or so before your address is sent to sponsor. A general rule of thumb is to allow 6-8 weeks for your prize to arrive. Many times it can take up to 10 weeks. After the sponsor receives your address, it has to go through the proper channels for them to ship prize. They may have to send info to the warehouse, or they may ship prizes in groups, or with other orders, or who knows. Just because I send your address to them right away, does not mean that they are shipping it out that very same day! By all means, if you don’t receive your prize in 6 weeks or so, let me know and I will look into it. Please don’t panic if it has been a week since you won and you still do not have your prize in hand.

It is frustrating to the blogger as well when prizes take longer than anticipated to arrive. It is out of our hands sometimes, but the majority of us will go out of our way to make sure you receive your prize.

DON’T FREAK OUT IF THE BLOGGER DOESN’T REPLY TO YOUR EMAIL THE SAME DAY:
Most bloggers are very efficient and will make every effort to ensure that you get your prize in a timely manner, but we also have lives. Contrary to popular belief, we are not always glued to the computer, and we are not constantly refreshing our email to see if we have received new emails. Some of us check hourly, some once a day, and many bloggers also work full or part-time and may only be able to check their email once every two days. If you don’t hear from the blogger after about four days, take a look at their site to see if maybe something is going on in their lives that is preventing them from getting online {checking email, etc.}. If all else fails, and you cannot get an answer, you might try sending a direct message to the blogger on Twitter {please not publicly}, or send a note on Facebook, letting them know that you emailed them. Please do not bash a blogger on Twitter, Facebook, in forums, etc. We are people just like you – so have a heart okay? I realize there are some instances where you feel you have to take drastic measures – but please don’t rush to do this. Everyone deserves a fair chance at making things right.

DO NOT CONTACT SPONSOR DIRECTLY:
If  it’s been two months or more since you won and the blogger will not return any of your emails, respond on Twitter or Facebook – well that is one thing. But generally speaking, just don’t do it. It creates more problems than you may know, as for most of our giveaways we are dealing with a PR rep for the company. Please, please, please give us a fair chance to get your prize to you, by contacting us! If you contact sponsor directly, chances are they will have no clue what you are talking about. They may even tell you they have no record of winners, giveaways, etc., which in turn will upset you even more. This happened to me recently when a winner contacted the sponsor directly, only four days after winning. This winner was really excited about her prize {which made me extremely happy!}, but she completely confused the sponsor, and I wish she had just been a little more patient. It all worked out fine, and I have to say that her initial email {with her address} just made my day. She was beyond excited and was extremely grateful. When I receive responses like that, I know it’s all worthwhile.

SPREAD THE WORD:
Okay this really has nothing to do with being a “gracious” winner, but one way you can thank a blogger if you so desire, is to let your friends know about us, or if you belong to a forum where you list what you win, mention us! If you have a blog and do posts about what you’ve won, link to us or mention us. These gestures are not expected, but are always appreciated, as is a simple “thank you”.

One last thing {then I’ll shut up – promise!}. We always hear about it when you don’t receive a prize, or a prize takes awhile to arrive, but we would really love to hear when your prize has arrived {at least I do}. Nothing warms my heart more when someone lets me know that they received their prize and how much they love it!

Whew – I feel much better now. I just want to say that most of my winners are fabulous, and you make my day.

I realize that bloggers aren’t perfect either, and I’m sure you have complaints about us as well. My hope is that we can all work together to make giveaways enjoyable and rewarding for all of us.

If you enter blog giveaways, you might want to learn more about how to link to a website when blogging about a giveaway.

Stefany from To Be Thode has written a post about tips for blogs that host giveaways – it’s only fair to see both sides of the giveaway process!