Feb 14, 2012

@ShowUsYourShoes...the real story!

How many of my lovely readers love shoes?  I'm quite certain that most of you are saying "I do, I do", needless to say you are not alone.  I am a shoe lover myself which was why I was stoked when I saw this @ reply to me on Twitter.

Photobucket

Yay, I won a $25 Aldo gift card to go shoe shopping with...or so I thought. After a few weeks, I contacted @ShowUsYourShoes on Twitter to let them know that I had not received the gift card and see if it had been shipped. I received a DM (direct message) from @ShowUsYourShoes saying that it had and to wait until the end of the week and see if it arrived.

On January 17th I received another DM:

Photobucket

I politely let them know that I had not yet received the gift card. And on January 24th I received another DM:

Photobucket

Once again, I politely let them know that I still had not received the gift card. I received a response via DM the next day:

Photobucket

Photobucket

So at this point I assumed the first was lost in the mail and the sponsor of the giveaway was replacing and reshipping. I was excited and began looking at Aldo's website trying to decide which shoes I was going to purchase!

After waiting another week I contacted @ShowUsYourShoes on February 3rd via public reply instead of DM and I received a public reply as well as a "fishy" DM from them:

Photobucket

Photobucket

Why fishy? Most honest companies or sponsors have no problem being asked questions in public because they know that they are going to redeem the prize.

One February 10th I contacted @ShowUsYourShoes and asked where my gift card was. I informed them that I contacted my local post office and they told me that nothing was sent to me via certified mail. I asked them to please scan the receipt from the certified mail or give me the tracking number so I can contact the post office to try and locate it. @ShowUsYourShoes did not reply or DM...they blocked me and posted the following tweets:

Photobucket

Photobucket

I did not harass them...I politely asked for tracking information so that I could verify what was going on with the package.

Photobucket

So why write this post? To educate my readers that although 99% of sponsors are good, occasionally you have that one bad one. This is a clear example of that. Me? I'm bummed, I just got a job (I was unemployed for two years) so I was looking forward to getting some closed toe pumps for my new position. In all honesty, I am hoping that @ShowUsYourShows honors their giveaways and does not do the same thing that they did to me to the next winner.

To @ShowUsYourShoes, I entered your giveaway fairly. I helped you reach your goal on 350 followers and you chose me as your winner. I was really looking forward to this prize as I am a shoe lover myself. I followed your blog and Twitter account before I even knew that you had a giveaway. You know that you did not send me the gift card that I won. Please have the decency and integrity to make right what you have made wrong.

To all of my readers, be aware of this company and do not follow them on Twitter, Facebook or their blog. Yes, they host giveaways, but they do not honor them. There are plenty of other shoe lovers to follow on Twitter who are honest.

Kathleen Signature