Sorry for a vent....

Sometimes, when trying to help out other people, those other people are not so honest and are happy to take advantage of people who are honest.

Earlier this Fall, you may remember I did a series of Fall Etsy giveaways. Each of the shops featured were contacted by me. Those shop owners agreed to send a winner a prize. I bought the review item from them. Nothing was given to me for free. I bought the items because I wanted to support the store. I love Fall and I love Etsy, so I was glad to highlight shops, give them traffic, maybe a sale, and provide links to their shops. I gained nothing from doing the features. Actually, some of the shops even sent me their giveaway item and I paid for it to be sent to the winner.

One seller, who doesn't even have her Etsy shops anymore, failed to mail me the review piece I bought. I waited in good faith, and unfortunately, waiting has caused me to go over the 45 day paypal dispute claim cut off date. I don't work, I make very little money off my blog, and this is a $45 loss for me. She doesn't return emails and has completely disappeared with my money.

I totally believe in karma....Courtney Herz!! You took my money and didn't supply the goods, that to me is a thief.

Moral of the story...Buyer Beware!

Furthermore, I recently held a giveaway for a retail store and they too have failed to answer emails and supply the agreed upon giveaway prize. Luckily, this time, I am not out any money. Just a winner who doesn't have a prize. They had strict stipulations that they needed to know the winners info to confirm winning with one week of the giveaway wrap up. So, I guess their way of not having to fulfill their end of the bargain is to not answer emails. Interesting method!

This one is blogger beware of working with them and I would guess buyer beware as well. If this is the way the do business.

Sorry for the vent. But, I put a tonne of my time into this blog. I am obviously not blogging for fame or fortune here, just something I enjoy doing. Situations like this really leave me bitter.

I am sorry if this seems unprofessional, I don't like doing things like this. But, I feel these are unscrupulous people.