A long vent, sorry

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This is slightly off my normally blogging path but I feel the need to vent my frustration for a minute.

As some of my readers might remember, I won a big giveaway on Mom Bloggers Club from Clorox Green Works. I’m going to preface this by saying there is no issue at all with Mom Bloggers Club and Clorox Green Works. It was after receiving my prize that I became frustrated because of the choices my hubby and I made.

The prize was $2000 towards a new washer and dryer and a full line of Clorox Green Works products. I did not know how to expect the $2000 to arrive. Would it be a check? Would it be a gift card? If it was a gift card, where would it be to?

I finally received my pacakage in what seemed like forever because of my excitement but really was an on time delivery. It came in the form of Lowe’s gift card. Now I don’t need a new washer and dryer When hubby and I moved into our house a couple years ago my MIL bought us a brand new Amana digital HE washer and dryer which I like very much. We have no issues with them so no sense in getting new ones.I thought we could use the gift card towards so many of the home upgrades that were going on in our house. I talked to hubby and his issue is that everything is getting done little by little and even if we bought all the materials it still may be a long time before everything was finished. We still considered just keeping it but remembered Plastic Jungle I had done a review for.  I had used Plastic Jungle for a purchase, a sale, and a win and had a good experience each time.  After talking it over we thought the gift card would be put to better use if we sold it and used the money to pay off some bills.

Unfortunately Plastic Jungle wouldn’t buy a gift card over $1000 value.  I talked to Lowe’s to see if they would tranfer the balance onto a couple smaller gift cards but they said they couldn’t do that.  So I looked into Giftcardrescue.com.  I had seen a few reviews on them. They accept larger gift cards.  I researched the company a bit including reading their BBB page.  I sent my gift card overnight with insurance hoping it would expedite things.  The site says most payments are processed in 2 days. After a few days I got an email asking me to fill out forms and fill out a questionaire as to where I received the gift card and a few other things.  They said given the value of the card they needed to verify everything.  Totally fine with me, I understand.  After scanning and emailing all necessary paperwork I sent an email requesting them to let me know that they received everything.  No response for a couple days.  I sent another email.  After a day, again no response.  So I called the 800 number on the site.  Got a hold of someone.  They apologized and said they had overlooked the email somehow and said they couldn’t verify the card because they couldn’t find the site where I won the card.  I email them a direct link to the contest page, the blog contact I had who contacted me, and they requested a copy of the email saying I won.  So I provided all that.  Again several days no response.  I wanted the check for our vacation and at this point I didn’t think it would happen.  They sent me another email requesting a link to the contest. This was the 3rd time I had sent the link to the contest as I had also written the direct address to the contest on the form I filled out.

I finally received an email saying that my check would be processed by the end of the day but when I went to giftcardrescue.com’s site it said it was still on hold.  So again I contacted them.  2 days later I received a response saying they apologized that there was an error with the processing but that they would send my check out that day.  9 days later I received my check (even though it was coming from Maryland and I live in PA).

The next step, I went directly to my bank to deposit it in my account.  I was not able to use the money on our vacation so I decided I would use a small portion to finish up what school shopping we had left.  I handed the check to the teller with my deposit slip.  She said “Uh what is this?”  I said “it’s a check from giftcardrescue.com.  I sold a gift card to them and they give me a check for a percentage of the value of the gift card.  I couldn’t use the gift card”.  She was frowning and looking over the check.  In a rather condescending tone she asks “You only sold one gift card?”  I said “yes I won a $2000 gift card from Clorox but I couldn’t use it so I sold it.  That’s the amount that I sold it for”.  I had requested some cash from it and was going to put the majority in my account.  She said “We’re going to have to put a hold on this check.” I was a little frustrated but I understood.  I said “ok that’s fine whatever you need to do” She said “well you know i can’t give you any cash from it while it’s on hold” I figured that much but I was thinking the check would only be on hold until the could verify that it’s ok.  So I’m thinking a couple days.  So that’s what I asked her.  She said “well no…here I’ll check…it’s going to have to be on hold until Aug. 31.” Which is 3 days after the kids will have already started school.

Understand that I realize each of these places are just trying to make sure everything is kosher.  I’m sure they do have bad gift cards and bad checks coming through but it just seems like I’m never going to get my winnings I’ve been waiting so anxiously for.

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Author: Angie

I'm a wife and a a mom of 4: 3 boys and a girl. I also have 3 fur babies, cats named Soleil, Luna, and a Savannah cat name Malkia. I work part-time outside my home as a COTA/L at a local hospital. I cover Johnstown, Altoona, and Pittsburgh areas. I love to do reviews and host giveaways for my readers. Contact me: angwith4 at gmail dot com if you would like a review. View all posts by Angie