Pay Your Dues Or Pay The Price
Enough reviewme’s already! Its time far more serious matters –who wants to win a free PS3 video game? We’ve got one which we bought when we ‘won’ a PlayStation 3 over at Darin.cc. Unfortunately its now two months later and we have not received the PS3 and by the looks of it, we’re never gonna either.
As excited as we were with winning, especially after we got screwed out of an iPhone we had also ‘won’, we went ahead and ordered a video game from the US as the PS3 was a US version. European games wouldn’t work. Eager as we were, we had it shipped as priority and it cost us over $100,00. And now we’re stuck with a copy of ‘Resistance - Fall of Darin Man’. Lucky you –we’ll give it away to someone random. Just leave a comment on this post and we’ll pick someone to send it off to.
About a month into the waiting for the PS3, we asked Darin what was up on IM. That’s where excuse #1 was used via Instant Messenger; “Oh hi Mr. Cow, you’ll never guess what happened! My wife just called me here at the office, and she says the PS3 was returned with the post just today. It doesn’t seem to have your address details on it!”.
Oh well, could have happened to anyone right? Surely any one of you at one point in your lives has posted a parcel and forgot to write a delivery address on it.
Anyway, Darin then told us he could still bring the PS3 back and get the money for it. He could paypal that to us in minutes! Even though the difference in price would be about $250 because the European version is more expensive, we agreed. Darin would pay us that very same day. NOT!
WTF! Then after a couple of weeks trying to get through to Mr. Darin via IM, he finally responded and guess what, he understood we were getting pissed off after 7 weeks and promised to paypal us the money once again that evening. He’s very busy at work you see. Its imaginable that 3 minutes of paypalling would mess up his busy schedule. Guess that’s why he still has not paid us the money he has promised twice now!
So two months later, no PS3, no money, no nothing. Fine whatever, Perhaps Darin just doesn’t like us. We can’t blame him. But we weren’t the only ones that won. Ms Danielle had won a Nintendo Wii in the very same contest we had won our PS3. Guess what; She’s still waiting for that Wii after two months! But wait, there’s more! Egonitron had also ‘won’ a prize from Darin.cc a little while ago. Seems yet again that he now is another blogger that has never actually received what Darin had promised him in a contest. Then there’s ContestBeat.com who ‘won’ an iPhone from Darin a few weeks ago. We’ve spoken with them via email about Darin’s iPhone contest. They still have not received their prize either.
Even though Darin was the first guy who ordered a reviewme with us for $200 and was one of the first sponsors on our new theme, we feel we have to warn anyone before entering any of Darin’s contests. It’s silly really if you think about it –Darin is trying hard to make a name for himself online in the PPC, SEO and SEM sectors. Doing things like this will definitely get him a name but most likely not one he can be proud of.
This ‘review’ was brought to you by JohnCow dot Com and has cost us $499,00. If there was even a slight chance that Darin was still going to pay up after two months, we’ve probably blown that away by doing this review.
Winner of the video game will be picked tomorrow kids! We’ll send it over to the winner if we’re not too busy forgetting to write your address on it.
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Oh! Oh! Send me the video game! I don’t have a PS3 yet, but I just might…
That’s pretty crappy if may say so! Sorry you got screwed AGAIN
Hey Cow, just send it to me. (:
Still haven’t received my USB drive that I “won” from Darin. This guy is seriously a douchebag.
Sorry to hear about the ps3.
The mini-cows and I can take the game off your hands if ya like.
http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/8365/dougshv7.gif
They are leaning up against a ps3… if only they had a game to go with it.
Dude, do you have a target on your back or what?
First your bike, then the iPhone, now this. I really feel for you.
By the way, I got my Wii and gift card, thanks
Don’t enter me for this one, I couldn’t stand the guilt.
I would love to win something from blog contest first one ever.
Well now this is a surprise.
I dont get these people who have competitions then don’t honor the prize
Okay, if you were going to scam people out of $400 prizes, don’t do it to John Cow or any popular blogger! (You really shouldn’t do it to anyone at all but still)
I wouldn’t mind having the game. I don’t have a PS3 nor do I plan to get one anytime soon. If I win I’ll probably hold my own little contest and give it a happy home. Or perhaps to someone else that will give it away. It might be the most well traveled PS3 game in the world.
I would like the game!
I have an Australian ps3 though so will it work? If so, Im in!
Just bought a PS3 last night, but couldn’t buy any games. D’oh! Wouldn’t mind a free one though
DOOD that sux cow udders.
i want to win plz let me know if i did thx!!
can I have it? By the way, it was pretty nice of you to warn us all and also Darin must certainly be pissed now
Oh well, right?
How long did this guy think he could get away with this? And were his contest winners “randomly” selected? What a coincidence that some of the “winners” are popular bloggers like you and Ms. Danielle.
I Guarantee that my Ipod Video Nano contest is NOT a joke and the winner WILL receive the prize.
LOL I could have told you it was fraud right when he said the package was returned due to lack of a shipping address. They would have to have an address to calculate shipping to begin with so something like that doesn’t even make sense. What is up with all these losers trying to scam people. I mean is it really that hard to have some integrity these days.
What a shdy guy i also had some problems with this guy so don’t trus or listen to him Thegeekboys.com
Hay john i’m still waiting for your income report
Hate to hear that you never got your ps3
wow sorry to hear that Mr. Cow. 2 months is so long to wait.
Oh God! Help me to win this contest. If i win this contest i’ll donate two cows to the Church
Wow, I never though that Darin would do that, I’m unsubscribing from he’s site, if I win the game I will gave it to one of my 10 readers . . .
I don’t need the game but I feel sorry for you. I never expected Darin to do so. Darin was gaining popularity and suddenly these type of scams put you off. I will stay away from his blog now.
That’s sad to hear. Perhaps, Darin not good man.
holy crap dude! I can’t believe these bloggers are putting their reputations on the line like this and not delivering. For those of you wondering if the winners of the Million Euro Wiki iPod Touch giveaway actually got their prize, I can attest that I surely did. I even blogged about it. I love it. In fact, my old ipod is sitting here on top of my gaming system collecting dust because I haven’t decided whether I should give it away to an RSS subscriber or just give it to my wife for the car.
In case you were wondering, JC had to paypal me cash because the Apple store was screwing with his credit or something…he wired me the cash for the iPod in a couple hours of email correspondence. This guy keeps his word folks, he’s the real deal.
It truly angers me that bloggers would promise a big prize and not deliver, there’s no excuse for that. That being said, I am giving away a book right and you can win if you are an RSS subscriber…I have yet to receive any entries for the contest.
Yup, still waiting here. I will give him some more time to do the right thing though, unlike John I haven’t been waiting anywhere near 2 months. Not looking good though!
I ran a contest that didn’t turn out how I wanted, but at least I had the dignity to pay up like I said I would. It is a shame to see people offer stuff but not give it.
[...] iPhone? Well, we are still waiting for that, and if you head over to JohnChow.com today and read this post you’ll see we might be waiting a bit longer. It hasn’t been over 2 months like John yet [...]
Shocking to hear that. Hope you guys get the stuff you won soon.
Would love the game
Just finished my own 100.00 Contest and paid right away, running another with Contest Blogger and will pay right away again. No pay and eventually you wont play!
Sorry to hear, but as you know ‘all publicity is good publicity’ I think you should remove the href links to darin. ce ce he doesent deserve the free linkage!
Oh and a game would be nice
Now the response from the accused for this one will be worth watching.
If you send it to me, I might just sell it to another person.
On the bad side: you didn’t win a PS3.
And on the good side though: you didn’t win a PS3
Hey! Enter me in that contest, I don’t have a PS3 but who cares? The game will make an excellent prize for my next blog contest!
Hope Darin just read this post and give some explanation or his reputation will go down..
Good info from cow..
That sucks. I ‘won’ a prize once and never got it, but not from Darin. Sounds like this guy really is making a name for himself… scammer. Anyway, I’ll take the game if you could remember to write my address on it.
Dude … and I used to read his blog all the time.
It’s pretty sucky when someone forfeits all their hard work this way. Even if he was super busy for two months straight, it doesn’t take much time to fire off an email saying “I’m sorry, but I bit off a bit more than I can chew.”
Hopefully this will be a lesson to anyone else that’s planning on offering those irresistible contest prizes
Dude … and I used to read his blog all the time.
It’s pretty sucky when someone forfeits all their hard work this way. Even if he was super busy for two months straight, it doesn’t take much time to fire off an email saying “I’m sorry, but I bit off a bit more than I can chew.”
It shows that scammers are really rampant on the net. It makes me wary of buying things on the net some times. Even experienced bloggers are being scammed.
I would really like to read or hear about Darin’s response to your blog post.
This guy Darin seriously seems like a douche.
wow…just give me the ps3..
I would like to enter this contest as well!
I liked that
I really appreciate the speed in which you processed my prize.
I’ve only run 1 competition but I send the prize the same day as the draw was one (with a little extra for good measure). Why the hell waste everybody’s time if you’ve got no intention of honouring the prizes. What a *******
The ps2 > ps3. Sorry Sony, but you really screwed up. No way they’re going to catch Microsoft and Nintendo.
Can someone run a contest for a Dreamcast please? I gave mine away when I left the UK and I wanted another one.
What a loser!
It’s a good thing his blog kinda sucks anyway; I’d hate to lose all respect for someone I actually read
you are joining the wrong contests. we always pay out! gotta pick our winners and 300$ cash is going out
i don’t know why anyone would hold a contest and not provide the prize. it’s like shooting yourself in the foot. john chow sent me the zune. i sent the zune to enkay. enkay bought an mp3 and sent it to his winner, and so on and so forth. it’s bad karma for darin. in this game you create your own reputation and so he’s created his. therefore i don’t judge, i let his actions speak for themselves. good luck to the winner of your contest!
I’ve only had good experiences with contest wins, it’s too bad people don’t honor their commitment…thanks!
If you’re going to hold a ‘fake’ contest, at least pull a professional Ashwin, and don’t announce real names, of real winners, of well known bloggers.
Two contests that come to my mind, in which I participated and who seem to have pulled shiningly obvious Ashwins are Dailywolf.com and Dailywaste.com
Is Darin some Dailydarin too? Beware of everything daily…
And of course, don’t forget to drink your daily milk. ^^
Enter me, please.
I’d love the game please…….. but I don’t believe you would send it to me anyway
What a sad sad story
I certainly won’t be visiting his blog.
How disappointing. He’s updated his blog but not addressed this glaring issue. Now that is shady.
[...] contest. Picking popular blogs to win so as to gain the additional baklink that these blogs afford. John Cow has come out lashing Darin for his failure to deliver on his promise of the prize that Mr John Cow has won. The likes of [...]
I’m actually on the flip side of the coin. I ran a contest and gave away the prize money. the condition was that the prize winner announced it on his blog that he won so that I can be accountable to my readers that someone really won. But that end of the bargain was never fulfilled even today.
I am with you Angel. He hasn’t addressed it. He should have read about this by this time. Shady.
@ Angel and Teejay
If someone has done something not really good (I didn’t say it’s bad), will they publish it and tell the whole world? I am sure they will, either with a valid explanation or a lousy excuse.
They have to address it right away. Tyler Cruz did.
[...] been held with promises of lofty prizes that are never dispatched to their “winners” (example). Some are left angry, some are left wondering, some like me are left feeling indifferent. So why [...]
[...] worry, we didn’t forget what we promised yesterday –someone has won our contest and gets a free copy of the PS3 hit video game; “Resistance - Fall of man”. (See Darin? [...]
What a crappy thing to do to people….he should’ve kept his word, plain and simple. Yet he blogs on and on….what a jerk.
If I were Darin, I would stop make a quick sale of the blog (if he can even sell it away now) and start another blog. Given his current reputation, I don’t think he’ll be able to live it up as the stigma sticks pretty well forever.
Hmmm, has Darin responded since?
No Ed, and I don’t think he will. He also won’t allow comments on his blog from people he’s screwed like this. At least he won’t with me, and of course he deletes all the comments and trackbacks that have anything related to this too.
Wow, I suspected as much when I reviewed his site on June 18th:
Well I have to say I am surprised.. then after doing a bit of research I see that I shouldn’t be surprised at all. Apparently there is a long history of such conttests at Darrin.cc
[...] not sending the promised prizes from a giveaway promotion. It might be worth your while to read the Cow’s post and Danielle’s [...]
[...] you! Please mail us your paypal address and we’ll cough up the ransom money right away! (Yes Darin, it’s that [...]
[...] This guy sucks! A bunch of people won prizes from his blog and they never received a thing. Don’t trust him. If you don’t believe me then go read what johncow.com has to say here is the link Johncow talking about darin [...]
We have a niche blog / group that we give away a door prize each week, but it is not something we can’t take care of, and as soon as the recipient gets the prize they always blog about it… I would think having 10 people blog about how cool it is, is better than this kind of press
[...] John Cow - Sony Playstation 3 [...]
[...] season) we won a Playstation 3 which we still have not received. We’ve already had our little rant post a while back, and it actually provoked a positive reaction from Darin’s side. He [...]
[...] has still not been delivered, despite repeated promises from Darin. The Cow originally posted about this over a month ago, and Darrin responded with a post of his own promising to change his [...]
[...] John Cow - Sony Playstation 3 [...]
That's pretty crappy if may say so! Sorry you got screwed AGAIN