I teach my children that nothing in life is fair, seriously. If life were always fair and things were always the right way and unexpected situations didn’t arise then life would be completely boring and not worth my time in all honesty! I love the ups and downs of life, it is what keeps me moving forward and staying positive.
The point of me bringing up the fact that life isn’t fair and that sometimes unexpected things occur is because recently I hosted a local giveaway and yet a person who didn’t even enter the giveaway, nor has visited my site in the past by the sounds of his letter, had to complain and actually take time of out his day to research the situation.
The situation; a local giveaway for NH people or those who were able to drive to NH on a particular day. Low, low entries on this giveaway so the last day of the giveaway I put a notice up on Facebook to try to draw attention of the locals I have on there. Granted many of my Facebook friends are blog buddies and business people or clients for my virtual assistant business, but a handful are people from New Hampshire. So a person I went to high school with entered the giveaway, making it 12 entries and only two people who had entered. The odds were the one person who entered for so many days in a row would win, I seriously was tweeting with her one day saying she probably would end up winning because really odds were in her favor even after this other person I know entered.
The person who ended up winning was the last person who entered, the person who only completed a few entries on the last day of the giveaway. I can see how this may cause concern to maybe the other person who entered the giveaway … maybe .. I mean giveaway winners are all chosen using Random.org so who the heck knows what number it is going to generate. I have had that program generate number 1 of 158 comments or number 157, you just never know. Sometimes even the entry number Random.org chooses is a person who only entered the giveaway one time rather than someone who entered multiple times. It’s a number game and it’s a simple matter of me clicking a generate button to generate a number.
This person who wanted to complain directly to the people I worked with actually went so far as to see my tweet go out on the winner, visit my blog and see who the winner was. Apparently due to the fact that it seemed “odd” in their opinion they took some time to find out that the winner is someone I went to high school with and used to live in the same town I grew up in. Well duh dude, this was a local giveaway, it happens, friends, family members and acquaintances may enter my giveaways. Giveaways on my site are only closed to my immediate family living in my household, not my extended family and friends. Besides not many friends and family members actually enter my giveaways, they usually read my articles believe it or not.
This particular person who won was a great friend of mine in high school but I haven’t seen her in a long, long time. I don’t even think I have met her daughter who is now 4 years old so seriously if we were such good friends and in some big scheme then why in the world would I not know her daughter?! Anyways, I felt the need to explain myself to the contact I worked with when all they wanted was to know how I choose a winner, because after all I have hosted a ton of giveaways and never been questioned before. Most people who are avid readers of my site, my social media shout outs and know me in person know that lying, cheating and stealing are not my thing, never have been.
Lying and being deceitful gets under my skin so badly that I have left relationships because of it, I have walked out on people I love and never trusted them again. Breaking my trust means you get the cold shoulder from me, I would never in a million years rig a giveaway in any way, shape nor form. I get it, being a blogger who hosts giveaways are held on a high trust level because it’s all virtual, but man I run a virtual assistant business and have some current and past clients who know I am a sweet, caring person who usually goes out of the way for anyone.My clients also know they can trust me with their confidential information, so if a random client from a virtual setting can trust me with their important information, then why does some random person off the Internet “streets” feel the need to “check up” on me?!
What I don’t get is if this person has this much time on their hands why they are not using their time for something good?! I mean if I had the time to go ‘investigate’ a blog giveaway to the point that this person did I would seriously be using that time to help children who are running the streets getting into drugs and alcohol or maybe taking my kids out to play. Come on with the time this person took to research a freaking giveaway winner they could have done something a bit more useful.
The moral of this vent is that … you can’t please ’em all and I won’t ever try to! I may be sweet, I may be caring, I may smile often but when someone wants to act like “life isn’t fair” and it’s some big surprise to them at an adult age level I must say to them that they find something more useful to do with their time. I let this situation bother me for about 30 minutes, which was way too much of my precious time so I end this here; the only reason I shared this with you all is because I am not the only blogger to have someone complain like this and feel it is unnecessary drama, us bloggers already get a bunch of drama on the back end so please don’t make it worse. If you have a a problem why not approach me directly via the contact form on my site and we can have an adult conversation based on respect and compassion?! I have always been one to respect other peoples feelings and opinions, that is ME and will never change.
New Blog Post Can’t Please ‘em All http://bit.ly/9TVFMH
Great post girl! Brandy is an amazing person and friend.
.-= Sheila´s last blog ..Lil Bitz Clothing Review =-.
RT @brandyellen: New Blog Post Can’t Please ‘em All http://bit.ly/9TVFMH
I know, lets hope I dont win another one of ur giveaways!!! That would really make some people “wonder”- HAHA Ive entered a handful of em- this is the first Ive won!
LMAO Nicole! Right!
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Brandy, Sheila R. Sheila R said: RT @brandyellen: New Blog Post Can’t Please ‘em All http://bit.ly/9TVFMH […]
It is very odd that the guy decided he was the blog police.
.-= Stacie @ The Divine Miss Mommy´s last blog ..Barber Foods Grillables grillables & My Favorite Summer Side Dishes – Win a Bodum Fyrcat Grill =-.
That is exactly what I was thinking Stacie! Like who is “he” to be some “police” of blogs. If he had such a problem I feel it was fine that he wanted to share his concern but am I just a “nobody” and he didn’t feel the need to contact me as well with his concern?! Oh well, like I said you can’t please ’em all can you?! 🙂
He is just ridiculous, causing un-needed Drama!! The DVD I won, was actually the first giveaway I entered of yours and to win that was really cool! The odds of me winning again any time soon, are more than likely slim to none! ;o) I do love your giveaways though ;o)!
It is all in the luck of the draw! I have heard of people you have entered hundreds entries and not win a thing when one person only enterd six times and won.