Spyders in the Redwoods raffle ??????

[Firefly]

So what ever happened ??

All I ever received were cryptic messages after my ticket purchase(and not all of them as I bought various sets at different times) that said:

"Hello,
Thank you for your support and recent purchase of raffle tickets.
I am processing your purchase and find that I am in need of a contact number for the ticket stubs as it is not provided by Pay Pal.
Please forward the contact number you would like to use and if you could confirm that a photo of your ticket (s) is sufficient for proof of purchase or if you would prefer that we mail you your stub (s) back to you.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Thanks again,

Raylene Smith"


I don't understand what this part means: " if you could confirm that a photo of your ticket (s) is sufficient for proof of purchase or if you would prefer that we mail you your stub (s) back to you." ???

Photo of what tickets? Are THEY supposed to send the photo? Was I supposed to take a photo of a ticket? I never received any photo or proof of the tickets.

Feeling scammed at this point.

Each person that bought tickets should have received NUMBERED ticket stubs via email showing they indeed bought tickets and were entered to win.
With the above wording, it appears they sold tickets via PayPal but didn't do a good job of tracking and sorting those purchases. How do we know they ever entered into the drawing if we never got proof of the tickets existing?


How were the online tickets handled?
Such raffles have to meet state and possibly federal regulations, which generally includes a ticket stub with a unique sequential number for each ticket sold, and a State registration number. I received neither.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

Anyone care to check with the AG in California as to how this should have been handled?

I've also yet to receive any info on when/if the raffle was held, who won, etc. All ticket buyers should have been notified via email.

I think I'm done buying tickets to Spyder raffles considering the last two have not been run by any common set of regulations or rules.

[Chupaca]

held they had a big container full of tickets and one of the dinner servers picked the winning ticket and the winner was Matt Hoyt. He was not present but was called and it went to voice mail (I believe the 585area code). Was posted in several places (facebook, SRA chapters etc) but don't know about the rest. I only buy tickets at the events and being a donation I don't expect anything in return...

[Lamonster]

http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/s...=1#post1025314

[SpyderAnn01]

Dan, it was all legit. The winner was in the Buffalo, NY area and he didn't answer when they called him at 11:00 pm his time. Raylene said he was shocked to hear that he had won.

[Firefly]

held they had a big container full of tickets and one of the dinner servers picked the winning ticket and the winner was Matt Hoyt. He was not present but was called and it went to voice mail (I believe the 585area code). Was posted in several places (facebook, SRA chapters etc) but don't know about the rest. I only buy tickets at the events and being a donation I don't expect anything in return...

Thanks for the info and congrats to the winner!

But I still want answers as to how the PayPal tickets were handled.

If I'm the only one that didn't receive proof of purchase and copies of the ticket stubs.. fine... but I have a feeling the mis-handling of these sales was wide spread.

Did anyone receive actual proof of purchase with sequential ticket numbers, etc??? What was this 'photos of tickets' thing all about that was sent via email?

When doing raffles, everything needs to be done 'by the book' to make sure all participants are given equal chances, proof of entrance for each ticket sold, etc...

I also look at this as a donation, but we should receive a matching 'stub' for each ticket sold.. as I'm sure they gave you when you bought in person.

I'm probably more 'by the book' on this as I've printed raffle tickets for 35 years and know a bit about the regulations and rules that must be followed... at least in Michigan. In Michigan, each ticket MUST have the raffle registration number on it as registered with the state, along with a unique sequential number as an identifier. This keeps things legit..

[SpyderAnn01]

Dan, I have sent a message to one of the organizers and asked her to comment here.

[Firefly]

Dan, it was all legit. The winner was in the Buffalo, NY area and he didn't answer when they called him at 11:00 pm his time. Raylene said he was shocked to hear that he had won.

I'm sure you're right Ann... and I'm not saying they did anything nefarious as I'm sure they didn't.... I just think it's not too much to ask for proof of tickets actually printed , tracked and entered into the drawing so everyone knows everything was done properly. I was still waiting for 'photos of tickets' to be sent.. then forgot all about it until after the raffle... so now I'm wondering.. did they ever get printed and entered? Fair questions to ask.

[Pirate looks at --]

Dan, I can assure you that things were handled properly as I know the people involved. They put all tickets purchased in the big drum and all who purchased tickets were fairly represented. The winner bought 1 ticket, and purchased it online as you did. The people involved in the drawing are as honest as the day is long and would not conduct the drawing if all tickets were not accounted for. If they are guilty of anything it is in-experience in dealing with the shear enormity of the sales through the Internet. All tickets were printed before the drawing, and there were only 4500. I am sure some of the organizers will get on with you to assure that all was above board. I can absolutely appreciate your concern, and if I was not close to the people involved, I would also have concerns. Needless to say there were lessons learned..

[k7xi]

I received a pic of my tickets by e-mail with my name and phone number. Didn't do me any good though....

[PassionSpyder]

So what ever happened ??

All I ever received were cryptic messages after my ticket purchase(and not all of them as I bought various sets at different times) that said:

"Hello,
Thank you for your support and recent purchase of raffle tickets.
I am processing your purchase and find that I am in need of a contact number for the ticket stubs as it is not provided by Pay Pal.
Please forward the contact number you would like to use and if you could confirm that a photo of your ticket (s) is sufficient for proof of purchase or if you would prefer that we mail you your stub (s) back to you.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Thanks again,

Raylene Smith"


I don't understand what this part means: " if you could confirm that a photo of your ticket (s) is sufficient for proof of purchase or if you would prefer that we mail you your stub (s) back to you." ???

Photo of what tickets? Are THEY supposed to send the photo? Was I supposed to take a photo of a ticket? I never received any photo or proof of the tickets.

Feeling scammed at this point.

Each person that bought tickets should have received NUMBERED ticket stubs via email showing they indeed bought tickets and were entered to win.
With the above wording, it appears they sold tickets via PayPal but didn't do a good job of tracking and sorting those purchases. How do we know they ever entered into the drawing if we never got proof of the tickets existing?


How were the online tickets handled?
Such raffles have to meet state and possibly federal regulations, which generally includes a ticket stub with a unique sequential number for each ticket sold, and a State registration number. I received neither.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

Anyone care to check with the AG in California as to how this should have been handled?

I've also yet to receive any info on when/if the raffle was held, who won, etc. All ticket buyers should have been notified via email.

I think I'm done buying tickets to Spyder raffles considering the last two have not been run by any common set of regulations or rules.

Good morning,
All the tickets that were purchased via Pay Pal were sent the e-mail that you received. Unfortunately Pay Pal did not provide a contact number for the purchaser. This was our way of reaching out to the person to obtain a contact number for the drawing. A photo of the tickets once a response was received was sent back with the purchasers information completed on the ticket stub. In some cases the purchaser preferred to receive the actual stub and in that case we mailed the stub out to them.

It appears based on the information above that your purchase was received and that the email was sent requesting the contact information, my question to you would be did you respond to that request? Photos were sent out up until Wednesday (the night before the drawing). I was advised by a few people that our e-mails ended up in their spam folders, so if you did respond did you check your spam folder for a response?

All purchased tickets were entered into the jar on Thursday for the drawing at SITR (as outlined on the tickets) with/without a contact number. The winning ticket was pulled by a staff member at the venue to avoid a conflict of interest and the winner was called in front of the group on speaker phone. Unfortunately our call went to voice mail and we had to leave a message. The winner Matt Hoyt contacted me the next day and is currently in the process of arranging the shipping of the spyder from Elk Grove Power Sports to his home in New York.
As for notification of a winner, a posting that included a photo of the winning stub was posted on all the pages that the posting to purchase the tickets was placed on.

I am sorry that you feel the message was cryptic or unclear. I would be happy to look up your purchase and your tickets or discuss this situation with you further if you would be so kind as to send me an e-mail at srasacramento@gmail.com with your name and contact number.

Thank you,
Raylene

[Firefly]

Thanks for the response. I responded right after I received the confusing email with all of my information. I actually responded twice... Once for each set of tickets I purchased at different times. This was well before that Wednesday. I received nothing back.


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[PassionSpyder]

Thanks for the response. I responded right after I received the confusing email with all of my information. I actually responded twice... Once for each set of tickets I purchased at different times. This was well before that Wednesday. I received nothing back.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you could provide me with your name/e-mail I will go into our system and look for your response and/or our response back to you.

Thank you!

[PassionSpyder]

Thanks for the response. I responded right after I received the confusing email with all of my information. I actually responded twice... Once for each set of tickets I purchased at different times. This was well before that Wednesday. I received nothing back.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Dan,
Here is what I was able to track down thus far:

1) 8/6/15 your first purchase via pay pal
2) 8/10/15 your second purchase via pay pal
3) 8/6/15 My first request to you for your contact information
4) 8/10/15 My second request to you for your contact information
5) 8/19/15 at 8:57 pm I received 2 responses from you questioning my e-mail request.
6) Per the log for Internet sells your ticket numbers that were assigned to you were 1088 - 1097 ( I will forward the photo to you tonight as it is stored on a detachable hard drive for safe keeping).

I would be happy to share any/all of the e-mails that include the time/date stamp for your point of reference if you would like to see them. Since you did not respond to me until late Wednesday night your tickets were placed in the drawing without a contact number as stated in my previous email for any buyer who did not respond by the time I completed the processing on Wednesday. 8:57 pm was well after I shut everything down.

I am truly sorry this was not a positive experience for you. We did our best to be transparent and communicate on a continuous basis with the Spyder community. We do appreciate your support and hope that providing you with all the documentation and supporting documents will put your mind at ease and allow you to consider participating in future fund raisers.

Respectfully,
Raylene

[ARtraveler]

Glad to see this is all in the open and that questions have been answered. Thank you for the prompt response.

[Firefly]

Thanks for looking into this Raylene. Other than the quantity of tickets you have listed is incorrect as I purchased 10 tickets and then another 3 a few days later, the information you've provided is sufficient for me and hopefully will put anyone else at ease that had a similar experience. That's why I addressed this publicly out here as I know a few others had similar concerns.

The concern was not that any 'funny business' was going on, but that things appear on the up and up for all involved. When I received no response to my emails pertaining to ticket stubs is what triggered my concerns. The wording wasn't clear (to me) what the process of receiving stubs would be.

In the future I would set up something where the tickets are automatically forwarded upon purchase to alleviate any confusion. Using an actual entry form on your website would take care of this and automate things.. which should make your job easier. It would also allow you to collect all the email and contact information for each person, which would make it easy to send out an announcement as to who won, etc....

Thanks again for looking into this!

[Pirate looks at --]

Thanks Firefly, I can appreciate your concern, and thanks for the great suggestions. We appreciate it.

[tajohn]

I know how you feel Dan........I too sent several messages ...never received a reply...................Will no longer support any charity through this site.

[PassionSpyder]

I know how you feel Dan........I too sent several messages ...never received a reply...................Will no longer support any charity through this site.

I believe that it was shown that there was no lack of response to Dan's messages. I would be happy to research any message you feel was unanswered as well. All I need is your name/e-mail.
I will await your information.

Thank you!

[Desert Spyder]

My only regret is I didn't win the Spyder for my wife, but then, she had twice as many tickets as I did so its twice as much her fault.

[Highwayman2013]

I bought one ticket and was completely satisfied. Except I didn't win of course.

[jimnsusie]

Thanks for the info and congrats to the winner!

But I still want answers as to how the PayPal tickets were handled.

If I'm the only one that didn't receive proof of purchase and copies of the ticket stubs.. fine... but I have a feeling the mis-handling of these sales was wide spread.

Did anyone receive actual proof of purchase with sequential ticket numbers, etc??? What was this 'photos of tickets' thing all about that was sent via email?

When doing raffles, everything needs to be done 'by the book' to make sure all participants are given equal chances, proof of entrance for each ticket sold, etc...

I also look at this as a donation, but we should receive a matching 'stub' for each ticket sold.. as I'm sure they gave you when you bought in person.

I'm probably more 'by the book' on this as I've printed raffle tickets for 35 years and know a bit about the regulations and rules that must be followed... at least in Michigan. In Michigan, each ticket MUST have the raffle registration number on it as registered with the state, along with a unique sequential number as an identifier. This keeps things legit..

I only bought one ticket and received an email asking if I wanted the stub mailed to me or would a picture of it do and would I provide a contact number. I went with the picture of the stub along with my number. They promptly sent me a picture of the ticket I had purchased. It looked like it was on the up and up.

[Brettssunshine]

I received a pic of my tickets by e-mail with my name and phone number. Didn't do me any good though....

I did as well.

[Firefly]

I believe that it was shown that there was no lack of response to Dan's messages. I would be happy to research any message you feel was unanswered as well. All I need is your name/e-mail.
I will await your information.

Thank you!

Actually I never did receive a response and photos of the tickets, but our conversation out here has settled the issue for me.... Although it would be nice to know that my other 3 entry tickets did in fact get entered. I think that's all anyone really wants... Is to know that their tickets were entered.

I had similar concerns on the other raffle as to just how they ended up mixing online tickets with in-person ones. I think online sales are more suspect in most people's eyes.


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[WIDOWSSON]

Even though it's over, i never received any photo of tickets. I just went thru my email and the only thing they asked for was my phone number. IF YOU CAN EMAIL ME FOR A PHONE NUMBER, YOU COULD HAVE ATTACHED A PHOTO OF MY SUPPOSEDLY PURCHASED TICKETS.
NEVER AGAIN. NOT UNLESS IT IS LOCAL.

Thanks for the info and congrats to the winner!

But I still want answers as to how the PayPal tickets were handled.

If I'm the only one that didn't receive proof of purchase and copies of the ticket stubs.. fine... but I have a feeling the mis-handling of these sales was wide spread.

Did anyone receive actual proof of purchase with sequential ticket numbers, etc??? What was this 'photos of tickets' thing all about that was sent via email?

When doing raffles, everything needs to be done 'by the book' to make sure all participants are given equal chances, proof of entrance for each ticket sold, etc...

I also look at this as a donation, but we should receive a matching 'stub' for each ticket sold.. as I'm sure they gave you when you bought in person.

I'm probably more 'by the book' on this as I've printed raffle tickets for 35 years and know a bit about the regulations and rules that must be followed... at least in Michigan. In Michigan, each ticket MUST have the raffle registration number on it as registered with the state, along with a unique sequential number as an identifier. This keeps things legit..

[jerseyspyder]

Not that it matters but after I responded twice requesting a photo of my raffle ticket, I am still waiting.

This is the 2nd problem I have had with raffles advertised on this site. The first was with the Road Warrior Foundation which decided to hold its drawing several weeks ahead of schedule without informing those who purchased tickets online and were not at SpyderFest. A simple broadcast email to all registrants would have been helpful.

I have no reason to believe that these are not honorable organizations, but they should review their processes in handling internet raffles that affect people across the world to insure that there is no hint of impropriety.