Spooktacular Giveaway Hop!

The picture pretty much sums up the point of this post! I am happy to be participating in the Spooktacular Giveaway Hop hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer. This is my first time participating in this blog hop and let me tell ya this thing is HUGE! There are over 300 blogs participating each giving away a prize worth at least $10. I looked around at my options and finally decided to make my prize 1 kindle copy of Stephen King's new book entitled Sleep Doctor! Enter to win. a Rafflecopter giveaway
And when you are done entering my contest go here to enter a whole lot more!  *Note: I does not seem to be showing up on my Rafflecopter but the book will be an E Book that I will be purchasing and gifting to you from Amazon.

Good Publicity

newswireservice.org
  Press releases are something that I never considered when thinking of the bloggerverse in general. I always thought of them as fancy packets that big companies send out in order to get publicity for their business. If you don't know what a press release is check out this helpful wiki page. As it turns out press releases can be used to bring publicity to your blog as well! There are a few things you should know when considering a press release, call it press release etiquette, and you can find 5 really helpful tips here.  I found one of the most helpful tips to be that you shouldn't be discouraged if you send one out and it is not picked up by anyone in the media or reported on, there is always a chance that someone in the media will find your blog interesting enough to subscribe to and that could really open some doors for you. I am excited to research this new method of blog promotion and I recommend anyone with a blog to do the same!

Buyer Beware!

Recently I decided to check out a popular sale site named KarmaLoop. I watched the site for a few weeks and eventually saw a pair of shoes that I fell in love with. The price on the shoes where decent and they had them in my size, so I placed my order and waited excitedly for them to arrive. They arrived about a week later and I eagerly tore into the box only to find that the size 8 I ordered was way too big. I was extremely disappointed and began the process of returning the shoes. At this point I had spent $19.21 on the shoes and the shipping. KarmaLoop does not pay return shipping so I had to pay an additional $8.75 to ship them back. I waited for a while and eventually got an email saying that they would not be sending me a replacement pair and instead would be giving me a $10.46 store credit which is the cost of the shoes originally. I was frustrated that I lost out on so much money with shipping but figured I would just use my store credit and be done with the company. I went to the site and with such a small credit and not intending to spend anymore money with them chose to purchase a small ring. The ring was priced at about $4.00 and with the shipping my credit would cover the full cost. As I tried to check out however I was informed that I would not be able to use the regular shipping and would be forced to use a more expensive shipping that would ensure that the credit would not cover the full price and not only would I be spending more money but the shipping would cost more than the ring its self. I was pretty angry with the company at this point and decided to email them to express my feelings. This is the email I sent and the one I received in reply:

Tonight I attempted to use up my store credit and was met with more disappointment. I figured with only $10 there was not much I could buy and decided on "The Early Bird" ring in gold. I went through the process of checking out and added my credit which brought the total down to 0.00 which I found reasonable considering how much I have already spent. When I attempted to place my order however I received an error message saying that the shipping method I chose could not be used in this scenario. The only other shipping option is one that would have me paying more in shipping than the ring even costs.  I do not think that I should be required to pay even though my credit covers all costs, at this point I am beyond frustrated with this whole thing and will certainly not be recommending this site to anyone in the future. If there is no possible way for me to actually receive my refund or use my store credit I intend to contact paypal to see what can be done about getting some of my money back. My intentions are not to be rude, but, surely someone must understand how I could become so frustrated, with my first purchase I lost $16.75 in shipping fees, and now I'm being told that I cannot even use my store credit unless I intend to spend another $4.69. In the end I spend $21.44 and all I get in return is a lot of hassle and a $3 ring. I really hope we can find a suitable solution to this issue and I do appreciate that you are speedy in your reply emails. 

Thank You.
The Reply:

Hello Crystal,

Thank you for contacting us. The problem is that store credit can not cover the shipping fee for that item. I apologize for the inconvience. If you have any more questions please let me know.

Thank you.

As you can see I did not receive any help or understanding from the customer service people. At this point I have decided to forget about the credit and be done with the company all together. I have certainly learned my lesson and while I am not suggesting that every interaction with this company by every person would be the same I wanted to share my story in the hopes that others can be more aware of what could happen if your purchase does not turn out the way you would hope it would. In this case the discounted price was just not enough to make up for all of the hassle and in the end money that I lost.