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Sears Discounts, Deals and Coupon Codes

Contests & Sweepstakes Tips, Advice, and Questions

58,150 56,135 June 2, 2008 at 07:50 PM in Other (6) Get Sears coupons Coupons
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Last Edited by BostonGirl March 8, 2015 at 07:18 AM
+89 Deal Score
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The intent of this thread is for users, both new and not-so-new, to ask questions, and help with tips/advice. This is not by any means the "gospel". Please feel free to add your words of wisdom, and if you have questions, just ask! If you have a tip that will make sweeping easier for folks, please feel free to share. This is a community effort. We all will benefit in some way.


The Basic Advice/Tips for the new-to-sweeping folks.
Enter for the items you want/need. If you have no interest in trips, avoid the sweeps where the only prize is a trip. If you know you can't afford the tax on a new vehicle, avoid entering for those.

Set up folders in your bookmark/favorites. Create a separate one for each month, and file any sweeps you are interested in into the folder corresponding with when it ends. Then, if you have a day where you're pressed for time, enter at least the ones ending that day.

Play the instant win games.

Follow the rules! If a sweep is restricted to only females, a certain age group, certain states, etc, make sure you fit the criteria! If you don't, move on to another sweep that you do qualify for. Do not create a bunch of email addresses so you can enter something more than once, or so you can play an Instant win game more. The Sponsors can tell, and will DQ you. You're better off playing by the rules than cheating and getting disqualified and having NO entries.

Don't immediately dismiss essay required sweeps (or recipes, photos, etc)....well, unless you know you don't want to write something. A lot of people pass on them, so you might have a better shot at winning something.

Don't expect this to be lucrative enough to become a job. Yes, a lot of us win, and often, but not nearly enough to quit a job!

Expect things to go slow at first. It takes a while for the wins to roll in. But once they do...look out!

Expect to occasionally hit a dry spell. It happens to ALL of us.

DEFINITELY USE YOUR REAL INFO! If you use a fake phone number, and a sponsor is calling to notify people of wins, you'll never know what you missed out on. I, and many others, have been doing this for a long time, and we have no problems with sales calls. Also, use your real name. If your name is Robert or Catherine, using Bob or Cathy is ok, as they are known acceptable shorter versions of that name. if your name is Matilda, and you go by Fluffy, don't use Fluffy. Looking at your ID to get an affy notarized, they may reject it because the names don't match. The sponsor may also say "Fluffy won, not Matilda". So stick with using your real name, or something close to it.

Most of all, HAVE FUN! And don't be afraid to ask questions. We were all new to this at one time. Any one of us would be happy to answer questions.


For easy form filling, check out Roboform [roboform.com]. Google Tool bar and the autofill feature on IE also work well.

For Mac users, the best form filler is 1Password: http://agilewebsolutions.com/products/1Password (thanks javaFlower!)

FireFox Form Filler browser extensions: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/...ll&cat=all

To set up the autofill feature in IE: Click on Tools, then internet options, then choose 'content'. When that pops up, click on "Autocomplete", and make sure to check the boxes for forms and passwords on forms. This is not a good idea if you are on a shared/public computer!

February 17, 2009, 3:10 am: System Notice: This thread has been automatically renewed after reaching a post limit. Most of its content has been moved to this thread for reference purposes.

July 12, 2010, 3:23 pm: System Notice: This thread has been automatically renewed after reaching a post limit. Most of its content has been moved to this thread for reference purposes.
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Community Wiki

Last Edited by JD123 November 1, 2014 at 11:13 AM
Before we had this thread, limpstar posted this site for info on sweeps & taxes in the I Won Thread:
All About Sweepstakes Taxes
http://contests.about.com/od/taxe...gtaxes.htm

Also consider talking to your tax preparer and/or researching further into your tax responsibility.


I have found this page helpful in understanding some of sweep's law - a sweeps law co.'s site:
The Lustigman Firm; Attorneys at Law
http://www.sweepstakeslaw.com/
The Lustigman Firm provides experienced legal counsel that helps protect the business interests
of its advertising and promotional clients around the United States and Canada

What does " age of majority in your state or province " mean?

(sometimes abbreviated as AoM+ )

it's the legal age of that state or province...

The Age of majority is the threshold of adulthood as it is conceptualized in law. It is the chronological moment when children legally assume majority control over their persons and their actions and decisions, thereby terminating the legal control and legal responsibilities of their parents over and for them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_majority

there's a list by country and by US State there....

For most purposes, the age of majority in the U.S. is 18,
except for 2 states with the age of 19 (Nebraska,Alabama)
and one state with the age of 21 (Mississippi)
and two (American Samoa and Puerto Rico) that retain 14 as the age of majority.
Occasionally PA is listed under the 19+ or 21+

~javaFlower

Regarding missing prizes
If you were expecting a prize you've never received you can complain 1st to the sweepstakes administrator, then to the sweepstakes sponsor and finally to USPS Postal Inspectors

https://postalinspectors.uspis.go...laint.aspx

-Kotik


ePrize Contacts
[email protected] - Bob Marsh, Senior Vice President, Midwest Region, Phone: 248.543.7522
[email protected] - Darlene Morris, Business Manager, Phone: 248.543.7403
[email protected] - Alesya Opelt, Vice President, Marketing, Phone: 248.543.7440


Occasionally a....less than ethical sweep will get posted.
You might end up finding unauthorized charges on your phone bill. Unauthorized charges on the phone bill are what's called "Cramming". Once you contact the company that's charging you, and you have requested your phone company remove the charge, if you so choose, you can file a complaint with the FCC.

FCC Online complaint form: esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm

You can also file your complaint with the FCC's Consumer Center by e-mailing [email protected] or calling 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322) voice or 1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322) TTY

You can fax your complaint to 1-866-418-0232

Or by snail mail:
Federal Communications Commission
Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Inquiries and Complaints Division
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, D.C. 20554.

I also recommend a 3rd party block on your line to prohibit this from happening. 3rd party blocks don't affect your phone in any way, except by not allowing some company outside of your local phone company from adding charges to your bill.


Slickdealers on Twitter
(I don't really know where is best to start this list, but I decided to just start it here. If anyone thinks we should move it somewhere else, please do so.)

SD name Twitter name
kdka421 k8fenner
Starbelly Lunachique
dodgers77449 michael0902
sanaperv @slicksweepberry
blueeyeleo  
Slickdealers on Facebook
(Hopefully, it is allowed to post this here. If anyone thinks this link should be deleted, please do so.)
You can find the facebook slickdeals sweepers in this group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/310504039006252/

Track incoming packages
UPS
http://www.ups.com/mychoice/
FedEx https://www.fedex.com/login/web/j...n.jsp?TYPE
USPS https://www.usps.com/manage/manage-your-mail.htm




This post can be edited by most users to provide up-to-date information about developments of this thread based on user responses, and user findings. Feel free to add, change or remove information shown here as it becomes available. This includes new coupons, rebates, ideas, thread summary, and similar items.

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This post can be edited by most users to provide up-to-date information about developments of this thread based on user responses, and user findings. Feel free to add, change or remove information shown here as it becomes available. This includes new coupons, rebates, ideas, thread summary, and similar items.

Once a Thread Wiki is added to a thread, "Create Wiki" button will disappear. If you would like to learn more about Thread Wiki feature, click here.

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Joined Jul 2010
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brainofj
03-18-2024 at 12:42 PM.
03-18-2024 at 12:42 PM.
Quote from eekster :
No that's not it. MC has a history of this happening.
I agree. I can roll for weeks at high volume without issue. But when I get the error, it can take days to weeks to resolve itself. And I don't feel like it resolves because of anything that I do (I've tried all sorts of fixes without success). But it does seem like at times it is related to the high volume of captchas that I use (in a general sense) on a daily basis. Yet I typically only have issue with the captchas on the mc.beverage sites at that point. So it appears to be related more to their site than the captcha system itself. Hope that makes sense.
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JetFlyersWife
03-18-2024 at 12:50 PM.
03-18-2024 at 12:50 PM.
Quote from eekster :
No that's not it. MC has a history of this happening.
Yes, I used to have the same problem with them, and now I only do a few at a time and have no problem anymore. Maybe it just depends on the device.
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idosew
03-27-2024 at 08:46 AM.
03-27-2024 at 08:46 AM.
I got an email from an AI company promising they could generate wins : "Introducing a game-changing approach to participating in giveaways: using AI to create engaging content that can help you refer others and massively increase your chances of winning. With our FREE video on "How to Create 30 Days of Content in 10 Minutes", you're about to discover how AI can not only optimize your content creation process but also amplify your referral efforts in these contests." This is why we likely win fewer prizes than when it first went online. What do others think of this?
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ancientalien
03-27-2024 at 10:39 AM.
03-27-2024 at 10:39 AM.
Quote from idosew :
I got an email from an AI company promising they could generate wins : "Introducing a game-changing approach to participating in giveaways: using AI to create engaging content that can help you refer others and massively increase your chances of winning. With our FREE video on "How to Create 30 Days of Content in 10 Minutes", you're about to discover how AI can not only optimize your content creation process but also amplify your referral efforts in these contests." This is why we likely win fewer prizes than when it first went online. What do others think of this?
How about if all these companies get rid of this referral and voting contests which are all just piece of crap fraud and actually host normal sweeps where they verify everyone with an ID in order to fulfill prizes this crap would finally stop. Wish more actually companies did ID verification.
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implode
03-27-2024 at 11:54 AM.
03-27-2024 at 11:54 AM.
Quote from ancientalien :
How about if all these companies get rid of this referral and voting contests which are all just piece of crap fraud and actually host normal sweeps where they verify everyone with an ID in order to fulfill prizes this crap would finally stop. Wish more actually companies did ID verification.
I'm with you on eliminating refferals, that is a huge issue.

Providing ID on non wins is opening yourself up to all kinds of fraud and a very bad idea. Even if companies running things are legit, it would make hacking them much more appealing for bad actors. That data would be used for identity theft.
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idosew
03-27-2024 at 12:55 PM.
03-27-2024 at 12:55 PM.
Quote from ancientalien :
How about if all these companies get rid of this referral and voting contests which are all just piece of crap fraud and actually host normal sweeps where they verify everyone with an ID in order to fulfill prizes this crap would finally stop. Wish more actually companies did ID verification.
I am for that!!
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greenpa1
03-29-2024 at 08:53 AM.
03-29-2024 at 08:53 AM.
Has anyone actually answered a "spam risk" call and had it turn out to be a win notification or prize fulfilment company? I've been ignoring those calls recently, but I always wonder. I suspect 99.9% are indeed spam.
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brainofj
03-29-2024 at 09:52 AM.
03-29-2024 at 09:52 AM.
Quote from greenpa1 :
Has anyone actually answered a "spam risk" call and had it turn out to be a win notification or prize fulfilment company? I've been ignoring those calls recently, but I always wonder. I suspect 99.9% are indeed spam.
I occasionally answer one thinking it might be a win verification, but it has not been the case so far. And on that matter, I detest win notifications via phone (with no messages left) policies. So much room for shadiness vs. email notification. I honestly can't fathom a valid reason for fulfillment using a phone vs. email policy (other than being an alternative for entrants without email access).
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ancientalien
03-29-2024 at 10:56 AM.
03-29-2024 at 10:56 AM.
Quote from brainofj :
I occasionally answer one thinking it might be a win verification, but it has not been the case so far. And on that matter, I detest win notifications via phone (with no messages left) policies. So much room for shadiness vs. email notification. I honestly can't fathom a valid reason for fulfillment using a phone vs. email policy (other than being an alternative for entrants without email access).
The worst companies are the ones that call you once and they don't give a crap if you are driving, taking a shit or in a meeting and just move on to another person. Any company that uses this shit method of notifiying winners, the brand automatically goes to my shit list and lose all repuation for that company. With all the these scam calls lately I totally agree email is the best way to go, give a timeframe to respond or give them a call. I found in the past years a reputable marketing company will call you and leave you a voicemail to respond back, those kinds of companies I give big respect to during these days.
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Joined Nov 2011
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dorsy28
03-29-2024 at 07:09 PM.
03-29-2024 at 07:09 PM.
Quote from greenpa1 :
Has anyone actually answered a "spam risk" call and had it turn out to be a win notification or prize fulfilment company? I've been ignoring those calls recently, but I always wonder. I suspect 99.9% are indeed spam.
I once received a call during one of my classes in nursing school (thankfully we had just wrapped up a section). The number said 'unknown'. It was Nabisco saying I had won a trip to an all inclusive resort in San Diego. My instructor wasn't even mad that I had answered it when she found out.

Since then I answer every call, 98% spam. After several decades of doing this, I'm pretty good at taking the spam call and not having it bother me. It amuses me sometimes.
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implode
03-29-2024 at 08:40 PM.
03-29-2024 at 08:40 PM.
Quote from dorsy28 :
I once received a call during one of my classes in nursing school (thankfully we had just wrapped up a section). The number said 'unknown'. It was Nabisco saying I had won a trip to an all inclusive resort in San Diego. My instructor wasn't even mad that I had answered it when she found out.

Since then I answer every call, 98% spam. After several decades of doing this, I'm pretty good at taking the spam call and not having it bother me. It amuses me sometimes.
I answer unknown calls but hate it. Many are outright scams. Frequently get Amazon, Medicare, Banking, House buying, warranty, roofing scams etc Feel like shady / hacked sweeps are were they get contact info. Been about 5-6 years since I've gotten a meaningful call.
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Joined Dec 2016
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japond
03-30-2024 at 04:50 PM.
03-30-2024 at 04:50 PM.
Quote from dorsy28 :
I once received a call during one of my classes in nursing school (thankfully we had just wrapped up a section). The number said 'unknown'. It was Nabisco saying I had won a trip to an all inclusive resort in San Diego. My instructor wasn't even mad that I had answered it when she found out.

Since then I answer every call, 98% spam. After several decades of doing this, I'm pretty good at taking the spam call and not having it bother me. It amuses me sometimes.
When I started sweeping a few years back, I received a call one day saying I won a cruise. I told them, "yea, okay" and hung up. Looking back, I think it could have been legit. I answer the spam calls now too.
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snowgirl2242
04-01-2024 at 11:20 AM.
04-01-2024 at 11:20 AM.
Every phone call that was a company letting my know I won a trip, came from an "unknown" phone number
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ancientalien
04-03-2024 at 08:13 PM.
04-03-2024 at 08:13 PM.
Just a warning for anyone that uses Twitter (X) That idiot CEO is now Permanently banning Sweepers from the platform, happned to me today as well as a few people I know. I commented on a post about my Summer plans and some time later my account that I had for over 10+ years was Permanently banned. Tried appealing several times and they refuse to give my account back saying I violated several rules which they even refuse to disclose or provide evidence which I cannot even understand what I did. (I enter mostly sweeps and engage with brands) Wrote about going on a road trip!

Sweepers and Advertisers avoid this platfrom at all costs, it's run by an idiot who destroyed the company and no wonder a huge amount of companies have ceased operation with this platform. They protect all the bot accounts that send you nudes and money scams but us regular people that just causally enter some promotions get banned quick as possilbe. The whole platform is a cesspool of disgust of what is has become, was one of my favorites before it was purchased by the new ceo that simply destroyed it. Wish more brands stayed away from Social Media and get back to normal web forms. These platforms are really getting out of control. Just a heads up if this happens to anyone.
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Last edited by ancientalien April 3, 2024 at 08:36 PM.

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Joined May 2006
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implode
04-03-2024 at 08:31 PM.
04-03-2024 at 08:31 PM.
I got an odd email today from sparkling ice that I wonder if it's legit….says reset my password for some reason, and they are giving away a free bottle. Seems like a really odd phishing attempt . Anyone else?

Quote :
Hey there, friend!
We've got a surprise waiting for you in your inbox. Redeem your FREE bottle of Sparkling Ice just by resetting your password when logging into your Rewards account. Then, you'll have access to even more Rewards and prizes.
Edit: I googled the correct website, and proceeded from that direct link. Seems like its legit for virtual coupon...which may or may not be hard for you to use.
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Last edited by implode April 3, 2024 at 09:06 PM.
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