
I’d nearly forgotten about an essay and photo contest I entered last December. I don’t enter contests – except for the occasional lottery draw or scratcher. I don’t have the time. I don’t have the money.
But! This one was different. This one was sponsored by a former favorite trade magazine, Lawn & Landscape, owned by GIE Media Inc. So, I sent the essay and photo via email to the associate editor, Chuck Bowen.
You can check out the contest, prize award, rules, and disclaimers here: http://lawnandlandscape.texterity.com/lawnandlandscape/201012#pg54 Did any of you see any? I certainly didn’t.
Low and behold, I get a call in late September of this year from none other than Chuck telling me that I had won AND in the same sentence asking me if I was planning on attending the GIE+Expo in Louisville, KY – that’s the Green Industry & Equipment Expo.
Nope. I had no plans to go. Why? Too busy. One day of sunshine and twelve inches of rain in a month will do that! The schedule is backed up. Customers have to be serviced. New employees are on board. No way! Can’t go! Besides, trade shows and sales people give me the ‘willies!’ All those pretty people trying to sell you on their latest and greatest products and heaven forbid you give them your name – hell, you can’t get rid of them! My phone and email have been blowing up ever since. Delete, delete, don’t answer that!, delete, delete, delete!
Okay, so I now have a question. Who else was called about winning the contest but couldn’t go? If others were contacted, the contest wouldn’t have actually been a contest, but an opportunistic ploy for attendance to the tradeshow! According to Lawn & Landscape’s website, it looks like there were three of us in the running, but this is unconfirmed http://www.lawnandlandscape.com/lawn-landscape-what-kind-of-reader.aspx:
Kathy Corker, Green Leaf Gardens, Inc.
Richard King, Eastern Land Management, Inc.
Lorelei Cox, home town lawns & landscapes – that’s ME!
Guess you may have figured out by now that my business partner and I did end up going to Louisville. Nice sales job, Chuck! He says – “gonna be a presentation…, an awards ceremony…, gonna be a videographer…gonna be a big deal” – his words, not mine. With all the rain we’d been having here in Northern Virginia, we’ve got a zero turn stuck in two feet of mud sinking into the side of the hill, but yet I have to make time for a pre-trade show interview with Chuck all the while I’m up to my eyeballs in mud with a 200’ rope tied to another zero turn trying to pull the sinking one off the bloody muddy hill!
Why an interview? OH! Well, Chuck said it’s so he could have some background for the presentation ceremony.
Come to find out, this dumb southern gal didn’t even need to go to Louisville to receive the award. That was a slick one, Chuckie! You see, purchase nor travel was required to win the prize.
Have I mentioned that there were no rules, no disclaimers, no start time, no end time, no nothing! Just an open-ended contest which stated, “ The best photo and story will win two Kindles and an all expense paid trip to Molokai, Hawaii!
Chuck, Chuck, Chuck…that’s just wrong! You can’t do that! A journalist – [clearing my throat] an EDITOR - should always check out the facts – especially if sponsoring a contest!
So, let’s fast forward to the trade show. All checked in. Paid a boat load of money. We had to pay for our travel to and from the trade show, had to pay to get into the tradeshow, had to pay handsomely to eat at the tradeshow, had to re-schedule customers, etc.
Had to be there at 11am on the dot for the presentation. There was no presentation.
Was handed the Kindles and took a picture. No one knew anything about the all-expense paid trip to Molokai, HI. Typical. No details whatsoever. No presentation. No awards ceremony. No nothing.
Where are we now?
We are more than $2,500.00 in the hole for the wasted trip not including the overtime paid to employees to meet our scheduling obligations.
The all-expenses paid trip to Molokai, HI is not an all-expenses paid trip after all. It’s air-fare for two to Molokai and five nights in a hotel. No rental car, no meals, no other expenses, etc. I envision changing planes ten times to get there. BUT, none of this was mentioned in the prize award. Merely, “an all expense paid trip to Molokai, HI.”
Hmmm…this is me thinking out loud…with no details on the prize award published, I’m thinking it should be first class air fare for two, ten days in a five star hotel suite, rental car, meals, and spending money!
Why am I so upset at ‘Getting Scrooged?’
Because Lawn & Landscape and their official editor/representative, Chuck Bowen, won’t admit their/his mistake.
I’m not a lawyer, but I could play one on TV.
There are specific federal and state laws regarding Contest & Prize law – none were followed. At a glance, you certainly didn’t follow Virginia’s or Ohio’s state laws – in case you’re wondering that’s where GIE Media is located.
What happened here is just not right!
As a small business owner, I know which side the proverbial bread is buttered on for Lawn & Landscape – it’s the big guys in the green industry. I know that the publication is biased towards the big players, the lobbyists, and the so-called non-profits. It’s the Valley Crests, the Ruppert’s, the Brickman’s, the ADVERTISERS. That’s what keeps Lawn & Landscape in business. Yet, I still favored the publication for its benchmarking studies and articles on streamlining operations – albeit, even though I was removed from their mailing list mid-year – probably because I don’t meet their minimum criteria as a small business owner.
And, more importantly, I do know right from wrong. In business and in the field, we make mistakes and we have to own up to them. We make things right. It’s the cost of doing business.
So, for this, thanks Lawn & Landscape. Thanks, Chuck! You scrooged us! We’ll keep our chins up, tighten our Santa belts and figure out another way to keep our little elves employed this holiday season. Enjoy your merriment and holiday parties. Unfortunately, getting scrooged by you just wasn’t part of our budget this year.