1800Flowers Denies Charity of Prize Winnings

Really? Really? 

Yup.

The short version of this story is that a loyal friend of Lucky Dog Rescue entered 1800Flower's There's a New Bunny in Town contest and won the grand prize including one year of dog food. However, when she asked for the prize to be sent to the rescue she entered for, things went silent. Months passed and it took Ashley, founder of Lucky Dog Rescue, calling and calling and calling to get any response from 1800Flowers. A prize like this means everything to a small 501c3 like Lucky Dog Rescue. In the end, after being transferred from person to person and being laughed at by at least one of the those people, she was told the prize was non-transferable and the woman who won rendered her winnings "null and void" by asking them to be transferred. Yes, you read that correctly. 1800Flowers stance on this is that they would only give the prize to the person who won, not a charity on her behalf.

I get that there are rules, but in this case there were no clear rules. Even the site I Love Giveaways that posted the contest lists "No clear Official Rules, Entry Frequency, Country Restriction, or Age Requirement." 1800Flowers took down the contest page shortly after giving the final say to Ashley, so I can't cite the specifics that were listed there. Even so, the rules are meant to cover the company when something goes wrong and to give guidance to those who are entering on what needs to be done in order to win. Whatever rules 1800Flowers thinks it had for this contest did not do either. Nothing went wrong. Someone won and that someone wanted to do something good for someone else. 1800Flowers response is to refuse to issue the prize.

So, now what? Well, for one thing, I will NEVER again by anything from 1800Flowers or any of the other affiliated companies on their website. And, I will tell them what I think of their stance. Please visit their facebook page and let them know what YOU think too. They were deleting the comments originally, but they seem to have stopped that. At least for now.

I've run contests, and I've transferred prizes. It's their call whether to do it or not, regardless of what their rules say - rules no one has even been able to find or refer to, including the 1800Flowers rep. 1800Flowers chose not. Maybe they don't realize how big the pet community is and how much negative publicity this will get them, but I encourage each of you to read what Ashley wrote about the situation and (again) let 1800Flowers know how you feel about it. Somehow this wrong needs to be righted.