Last week I wrote “Between 23,000 and 40,000 points for $46 and a cramped hand.” The idea discussed in that post was that you could enter the IHG and MasterCard® Priceless Surprises® Promotion by sending in hand written entries rather than staying in IHG properties. Since the odds of winning something are pretty good, it looked like one could send it the maximum 94 entries and most likely receive between 23,000 and 40,000 points.
More than 40,000 points (at least 47,000 points)
The 23,000 to 40,000 point estimate was based on the odds of winning described in the official promotion rules document. Since then, MileValue argued persuasively that every entry would win a prize of at least 500 points. Then, Deals We Like confirmed this interpretation with her PR contact. This means that the official rules document incorrectly labeled the chance of winning as “odds” rather than “probability”. This explanation seems right to me. When we interpret the numbers as probabilities rather than odds, the probabilities add up to very close to 100%. The small gap between the summed probabilities and 100% could be the assumed probability of winning one of the bigger prizes which weren’t assigned specific probabilities (these are “Group A Prizes” which range from $50 prepaid cards to all-expense paid trips to Paris or New York).
So, assuming the new interpretation is correct, the original Deals We Like post on this topic is also correct: If all 94 entries are guaranteed to win at least 500 IHG points, then we can safely assume that we would earn at least 47,000 IHG points altogether.
I’ll leave it to JEM and ‘Dem Flyers to estimate the likely total.
More than $46
In my first post on this topic, I said that it would cost $46 for 94 stamps. I forgot about the envelopes. Luckily envelopes are pretty cheap. For example, on Amazon.com I found these envelopes for $2.99 per 50. And, if you have Amazon Prime (or a total order of $35) you get free shipping.
How to
Instructions for sending in entries can be found in this Deals We Like post. Don’t forget the most important step: Register for this promotion!
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
[…] her behalf), so we earned ~90,000 points without even having to stay in one of their hotels. Frequent Miler had a great explanation back when that promo was going […]
Today I received 7 more emails. basically 10 days since my last batch. I had given up. And with my 60 something elevator rides I never got anything but 500 points. Today with those 7 emails i got one 5000, one 2000, one 1000 and four 500. Now that was a surprise. Now a total of 41500 points.
Definitely worth the cramps in my hand. Still missing 16 emails since I sent 90 letters.
I was missing 21 and sent an email to IHG (they forwarded to HelloWorld) several days ago. Today, the remaining 21 emails arrived. I have no idea if this was because of my email or if they would have arrived regardless.
94 wins for me totaling 63,500 points!
94 wins for my wife totaling 57,500 points!
All 121,000 points have now posted into our two IHG accounts. As an added bonus: I only sent in 91 entries for myself, but IHG must have assumed I sent in 94 because they let me play the elevator game 94 times!
A great promo! IHG rocks!
I still haven’t gotten one email. I wrote the cards during Snowzilla so they went out last Tuesday/Wednesday. I saw one commenter waited a month for her emails but the contest ends soon. I’m going to use the FAQ link to send an inquiry about my entries.
One week is not long enough try at least three weeks.
out of my 90 letters I sent, I have received 67 “surprise” emails and 29 have posted so far for 15000 points. The rest better post… but I guess it takes awhile cause the last 2000 points were posted today. Still already worth it. The whole thing was kind of fun.
Well all is said and done. From 94 entries mailed in between January 2-5. 61 emails received however I was able to play the last email multiple times. All 51,500 points have posted to my IHG account from the 94 entries. Thank you
Awesome! I looked for the last email I received and I was able to play it 25 times!
I have gotten most or all of my 94 entries and they were all 500 pointers. My husband is a little behind me. He got 5 more early this morning. Two of them were 2000 points, two of them were 1000 points, and one was 500 points. Funny that out of 94 entries I wouldn’t get any wins in a higher category, yet he got 4 higher wins in a batch of 5 entries?!
[…] by filling out and mailing in 3X5 cards to enter the “IHG Priceless Surprises” contest: More than 40,000 IHG points for more than $46 and a cramped hand. Since then, many people have sent in cards. Not surprisingly, it has taken a while to get […]
OK….. I have opened my last 22 emails and all of them were 500. Not one different. BUT the last 5 or so links said Sorry… “However, you do not have any instant win chances to use…etc”
Looks like I opened too many today which is weird.
Since the link is always the same I bet they have some kind of counter somewhere and I ran out of chances. Maybe I could have reloaded the link 50 times instead of opening each email and clicking the link.
Lets see if I get all those points.
Still 30 Entries missing.
I received 33 more elevator emails yesterday. Got a very nice haul: Two 5000 points, two 2000 points, twenty-seven 500 points, and two no-winners.
I had 3 500 pt winners but they have not shown up in my account. Is there another step to redeem them after the elevator?
I had 1 that said I did not win anything and then the next day I got an email that said I did win and there was problem on their end, but I still have nothing added to my account.
I think this is not instant. Somewhere (maybe even here) somebody said they posted much later on his/her account. It took about a month after extra points posted on the account after a Hotel stay.
I Finally received some emails today from IHG Priceless Surprises. I sent 10 cards for my husband and 10 for me on Dec 17, just received emails; 7 for each of us, Jan 19th. I mailed more in batches of about 20 a week. Only getter 500 pt prizes so far on the 2 each we have opened, but that’s enough to justify the cost of stamps, cards, and envelopes!
Sorry, getting not getter. That darn spell check gets me all the time!
I got 56 emails today and my husband got 31. All were 500 point winners except for 4 on my husband’s account that said he didn’t win. (I did go back a few hours later and re-tried and got some more 500 pointers.) I’m not sure if he won points on every play as I lost track. So…about 87 plays between the two of us and not a single one above 500. I had received 13 previous emails in December that were all 500 point winners as well. I was surprised that we didn’t get anything higher, given that many people in December reported multiple wins in the “B” category, even when they only had 10 emails or so. Did anyone who got a batch of emails today win more than 500 points??
I won some 1000, 2000, and 5000 points
I have just tried and clicked the link on the 4 emails I have already clicked earlier with no winnings. On all 4 I got the same 500 points….. so I cant tell if they fixed that or if I only won 500 points each or just once…. no clue.
Anybody else got different results?
After seeing your post, I clicked on 2 of the 3 emails my partner received this morning. The first 2 resulted in 500 points each, but the third gave me the “We love your enthusiasm” message “However, you do not have any instant win chances to use. Complete a qualified stay before February 15 to earn another chance to win.” Maybe, they haven’t worked out all the bugs yet? I’ll try again tomorrow.
I tried again and this time one of the emails resulted in 500 points. The rest said “We love your enthusiasm! However, you do not have any instant win chances to use.”
The exact same thing happened to me. One 500 point winner, and the rest of the emails said no instant win chances to use. 🙁
Good news! I just got the following email from IHG:
Dear XXXX,
Thank you for your participation in the IHG and MasterCard® Priceless Surprises® Promotion! It appears that you may have accidentally received a message that you did not win when you played the game today. Please be assured that you have won the following prize:
500 IHG Rewards Club Points
Our system indicates that you should have won this prize 9 times, for a total of 4,500 IHG Rewards Club points.
We apologize for any miscommunication with the promotion and thank you for your continued support of the Priceless Surprises promotion.
Congratulations!
Prize Fulfillment Services
Good news: it looks like they’re trying to fix the bug. The website now says:
Please check back soon
This promotion is undergoing a short maintenance period.
On the elevator emails there is an FAQ link. The questions and answers there are worthless … but at the bottom of the FAQ link there is an electronic complaint form. So I sent a complaint (it was easy), and got an email back that said they would respond as soon as possible. Maybe if others complained it might focus them on this particular issue.
Thanks… I just did the same thing. Lets see if we get a reaction.
I don’t see a FAQ link in my emails. Can you post the URL here?
Here it is:
http://ihg.promo.eprize.com/pricelesssurprises//faq.html
I just submitted a “Contact Us” form to the HelloWorld company that runs this promotion. I’ll try to find out for everyone what’s going on and how to deal with this apparent bug.
I had a similar thing happen. I received 6 emails “You qualify for a Priceless Surprise!” this morning at 1:43 am ET. I clicked through one of the links this morning at around 7 am or so and received 500 points. Now, when I try other emails, I get nothing.
Thanks to Eberhard’s comment, I checked the links in each email and found that they were all exactly the same:
http://ihg.promo.eprize.com/pricelesssurprises//?id=%5BREMOVED%5D
That is, the ID portion was the same for all of the emails. So, it does look like a bug to me.
Can someone who won more than once in the past check their emails and confirm that the embedded links were different each time?
I checked all the email responses I’ve received over the last month (58 so far), and they all have the exact same link. My guess is that it refers to my individual account at Hello World (or whoever), not to the # of points won. Those received by my partner today have a different link than mine, but all those he received have the same link as each other.
Thanks Bummed. Now I think there are two likely possibilities:
1) There is a bug in the system right now. Hopefully they’ll fix it soon.
2) They incorrectly applied a limit to the number of Group C prizes being given out.
Either way, hopefully they’ll fix it!
Same here. None of my entries generated any points 🙁
Just my opinion, but I think there’s a bug in the IHG contest that happened sometime this morning between 7:30 am and 9:30 am ET. This morning before 7:30 am, I received 21 emails from IHG, and my partner received 4 (his first response to the contest since he started later than me). I opened all of mine between 7 am and 7:30 am, and all of them resulted in 500 points. Ok, so far. There were 4 other emails for my partner at another email address. I didn’t have time to open and click them before going to work, so I waited til around 9:30 – 10 am at work, and then opened his. I only only opened one, and didn’t win anything, so I stopped. Here’s hoping the IHG/Hello World folks will fix this soon!
I have received 22 emails this morning. Finally after I finished my 90 letters before Christmas.
I played the first 5 and all were duds. I checked the link to ihg.promo.eprize…. and the ID was the same on all of them. I got 22 emails that are identical. Shouldn’t they all be different so I get 22 chances to win something or do I have to do one a day.
If the link is identical its as if I received one email.
Sorry, my post above is not quite correct. I see now that the 500 point prizes are in a separate Group C, and so should not be affected by the aggregate limits on Group A and Group B prizes. So I wonder why all these elevator doors are giving us nothing.
I also got several “elevator” emails today, played six of them and no winners at all!! Am going to wait until tomorrow to play the rest of them. I went back to the rules and scanned them over, and for the first time I noticed this in the official rules:
“TOTAL ARV OF ALL PRIZES: $373,026.66. Limit: One (1) prize from Group A and five (5) prizes from Group B prize per person.” Ooops! Group B includes everything from 500 points to 5000. Group A is the larger prizes. Did any of the bloggers notice this in the rules and comment on this before?? I copied the original rules into a Word doc way back when, and this language appeared in the original rules too.
the 500 points are in group C with the odds of 1:1.14 – I’ve argued this with several people and we’ve all finally come to the agreement that every entry is worth 500 points.
You missed my post from January 19 below in which I recognize the 500 points are in a separate Cat C. Its true there was a glitch that one day with the 500 pointers, and that IHG fixed that glitch and I got all my 500 pointers (see other posts below). However, I am really sure that NOT every entry will win at least 500 points. As my 94 entries played out, toward the end (e.g., in the last week) I had four entries in which I won zero points. All of them came after I maxed out my Group B winners. Here is my theory: With these entries, I won a group B prize — then the IHG computer said “wait a minute, you have reached your maximum for Group B prizes!,” and then the default was it kicked me to zero points instead of back into Group C. Don’t know for sure that this explanation is true — but know that I do have these four recent game plays with zero points interspersed with my other 500 point winners.
I got several emails this morning from the contest. Most of the wins were 500 but I got several duds where I didn’t win anything this time. This was the first group of emails where I won nothing! WTH! I filled all that crap for some no winners?
A few weeks ago, I was traveling and checking my email in the hotel business center. I’d received a few with the subject “You qualify for a Priceless Surprise®!” so I opened them. However, the computer I was using couldn’t read them. I tried a few times, and then again in another hotel, but none of them could read it. When I got home, I tried from my usual computer, and got a message like “We admire your enthusiasm, but you are not registered for this promotion” and proceeded to tell me how to register. Clearly, I’d registered. Seems like those emails are just lost causes since there’s no one to contact to complain. (I want a job like that!)
I’ve sent in all 94. I also did some stays in addition. But I have received 49,500 points so far from 82 entries. So i’m looking at a minimum of 55,500 points from this at this point.
I’ve only received emails for 10 of the 94 total that I mailed. I mailed 84 of them on Thanksgiving day(Nov.26th) so it’s been over a month and nothing. I just noticed that in my IHG account they added the points from the first 10 entries totaling 6k on Dec. 28th so that’s something at least.
I’ve sent in 21 envelopes, in groups of 3-4 mailed every 3-4 days. I’ve only received 1 email in response. I won 500pts from that one on 12/4 and there are still no points credited to my account. I don’t think I’m going to continue with this one.
Laura,
Assuming that you followed the contest entries rules to the letter, I would recommend continuing with this promotion. I sent in 5 entries early on in the promo, got the elevator door entries in early December, “won” 7000 pts., and found them added to my IHG rewards account today. It works! You have to be very patient, but it does appear to be working. Stick with it and you’ll be rewarded.
After receiving my first 15 in a bunch, I mailed in another 30. In 4 weeks now, I’ve only received 1 email for an entry from that second batch. I’m assuming they’re just slow, but it is odd that only one came through. They were submitted identically, so hopefully they didn’t get picky half way through and start rejecting on technicalities.
No emails received today. I have gotten 7/30 entries I sent in. Hoping that they are just behind and not destroying my entries.
For anyone who’s received a response/contest entry, from whom did it come? Is the sender’s email from IHG or HelloWorld or something else? What is the subject line? I don’t want to mistakenly delete it amongst all the junk mail I get!
Email is from IHG Rewards and the subject line is “You qualify for a Priceless Surprise®!”
I mailed in 10 entries on November 16th and another 84 on Thanksgiving Day. I received 2 entries last Friday and another 8 this Friday. Apparently, Friday is the day they send out the emails for the entries they’ve processed. I think they’ve processed the 1st 10 I mailed and the results are: 8- 500pt. winners and 2- 1000pt. winners for a total 6000pts. If this holds up through all 94 entries then I’m on a pace to rack up over 56k points.
You can only get a max of 5 awards that are over 500 points, so your 56k estimate is a bit high.
Actually Dan, you are wrong. I could win a trip prize(category a) or possibly a point prize higher than just the 1000 point prizes won so far. If the 5 b category prizes are the minimum of 1000 points and the rest are 500 points then I will have 49,500 points. That’s the least I will get. I will most likely get more assuming that they don’t lose any of my entries.
Mailed all 94 entries on Nov 15. Received 94 emails for the game today. Clickety-click away time… 🙂
I’ve played the elevator game, and won the points. Still waiting for them to post to my IHG account. Has anyone had any of these points post yet?
No points have yet posted to my account. No email entries received this week. Maybe they are out holiday shopping.
Finally got the points posted to my IHG account!! Here is my timeline: First, mailed in multiple entries on November 16. Then, got elevator game emails for some of these entries on December 4, and others on December 11. Played the elevator game on all these emails immediately. Then, finally, today (December 28), all the points that I won on Dec 4 and Dec 11 posted to my IHG account. So it takes time — but if you fill out the cards and mail them correctly, you should eventually get the points.
Pretty disappointing I mailed in 25 hand written entries on Nov 17th and got 3 emails and got 500 pts each. 1500 points for 25 entries stinks. It would’ve been cheaper to buy points.
Read some of the other postings from this afternoon and CHILL OUT!! If you did the entries right, IHG will get back to you very soon!
After developing a severe hand cramp, I prepared about 30 envelopes. Since November 16, 2015, I’ve been sending a few in every few days. Response or email link? NADA, NOTHING, ZILCH. I feel totally ripped off. What number do I call to reach an IHG person that can address this problem?
My wife and I both sent in 11 entries on the first day. We each got two “play the elevator game” emails a few days ago, and then my wife got her remaining nine game emails just an hour ago.
So I would advise taking a chill pill. Can you imagine how many entries they received over the first week?? Give them some time to do all the processing!
Sad! I mailed in 10 on the very first day, and I haven’t heard a peep!
Dave and Maureen – Something may also be said for doing entries later and avoid the early rush.
Of course you risk modifications in the promotion. Per the T&C “Sponsor reserves the right to cancel or modify the Promotion if fraud, technical failures, human error or any other factor impairs the integrity of the Promotion, as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion”.
Technical failures with an IHG promotion? Never.
Carl – Posts on Deals We Like claim success with return address label as well as no return address. Also success with mailing label.
I also received the 25 entries that I had submitted. I played the first 15 and grabbed a handful of 500 points, a 5000 point, and 2 1000 point wins. I submitted on laser printed envelopes, hand written on pieces of paper, with middle initial, same phone number twice, etc.
Any word on if the win comes based on time stamp of when you play the game, or just the order in which you play? Didn’t see that part of the formula in the rules. I’m wondering if it makes sense to just play all of the entries in a row or space them out.
I would spread them out. The wins are based on the time entered, not the email.
Just wanted to report that I sent in two entries on Nov. 15 and today during lunch, my husband and I both received the email saying “You qualify for a Priceless Surprise®!”
Dear LINDA,
Success! You have qualified to play for Priceless Surprises, from IHG® Rewards Club and MasterCard®. Now it’s time to open the elevator doors & see what’s waiting!
Each floor holds a chance for a Priceless Surprise, like:
a private helicopter tour over NYC
VIP access to the Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by MasterCard
1 million IHG® Rewards Club bonus points
and even more unforgettable surprises
Choose your floor here.
See you soon,
IHG® Rewards Club
Upon choosing the floor (one through six), my husband received 2,000 IHG points. He picked No. 5 BTW. Then I went and picked No. 6, I received 500 points. Neither has posted to our individual IHG accounts yet. After seeing the amounts, it said check your email for instructions on how to redeem your reward.
Pretty excited about this so I am going to go ahead and send it the rest of the entries.
For some data points: My husband’s entry had a handwritten address with a mailing label return. Mine had an addressed label and a stamped, inked return. Both were put on lined 3 X 5 cards purchased at Dollar Tree.
Here we go!
Sent in 5 entries on the 17th and got 4 emails today. 7000 PTS. so far! I’m gonna send in about 10 entries a week, now that it’s paying off. We’ll see if the points actually post to my account in 5-7 days, and if so, WAY TO GO IHG!!
Thanks FM for your awesome posts about these deals. Keep up the great blogging.
Richard, that’s fantastic! Congrats! Did you play all four one right after the other or did you wait a bit between each play?
Chris, I played them one right after the other, however, I got the big win ( 5000 pts.) on the first play, 1000 on the second, and then the 2-500 wins, so it does seem to make sense to space your attempts out if your hoping to score more than 500 on any of them.
Just got one email. I sent in 14 envelopes the first day. Maybe they’re now processing and sending 1-by-1? I won 500 IHG points. It says I will get a 2nd email on how to get those posted to my account.
There is no second email. The points will be credited automatically in 5-7 days, per my conversation with the agent.
Dropped 54 envelopes in the mail on November 13th and just got 7 emails an hour ago. Gives hope to anyone that dated their envelopes before the 15th in anticipation of them arriving the 15th or 16th!
Please note, anyone reading this. The entries had to be handwritten.
Has ANYONE gotten replies where the ENVELOPES were addressed using a printer or a label???
I have been holding off on this to see how it worked out. Please make comments in regards to how the envelopes were prepared.
I sent 10 in with handwritten 3×5 cards but with printed envelopes and I haven’t heard a thing. I’m guessing it was a waste. (It’s been many weeks, too, since I did that.)
I just received 14 Surprises emails!!
Up to 56 right now. going to let them all pile in before pushing my elevator buttons. Good job FM.
Please note, anyone reading this. The entries had to be handwritten.
Has ANYONE gotten replies where the ENVELOPES were addressed using a printer or a label???
I have been holding off on this to see how it worked out. Please make comments in regards to how the envelopes were prepared.
Mine entries were handwritten and ENVELOPES were used printed label. I do get the reply emails. Good luck to you
I mailed my entries in groups of 5. I just received 5 emails and each a 500 pt prize.
Please note, anyone reading this. The entries had to be handwritten.
Has ANYONE gotten replies where the ENVELOPES were addressed using a printer or a label???
I have been holding off on this to see how it worked out. Please make comments in regards to how the envelopes were prepared.
All of my entries were completely handwritten(envelope included) on a 3 x 5 index card. The first 10 I left off the return address and also the registered trademark symbol from the mailing address. For the remaining 84 it added a return address and the registered trademark symbols. I hope this helps.
My card was handwritten but the envelope was printed with the “to” and “from” addresses. I only mailed in one entry as a test and received one game play via email on 12/4.
I mailed in 10 entries on November 16th and then the other 84 on Thanksgiving today. So far, I have received 2 emails with a chance to play for points. Basically it’s a picture of an elevator and you choose floors 1-6 and then the door opens to fireworks and it tells you how many points you have won. First try, I won 500pts and the second, 1000pts. I am assuming more of my entries will get through so it will be exciting to find out the total points and see if it was worth the many hours it took to do all this.
Received my first email today! Sent in 8 entries on the Nov. 16, but only 1 email. Was the elevator and I got 500 points.
Update: I just spoke with IHG and they said the 500 points (surprise) will be credited 5 – 7 days after you win it, no second email. They did find my entry in the system and the date i selected it.
I then asked about my mail entries. The rep didnt know about it and checked with manager who said they dont have a process in place right now for those and are basically in the dark on what to do with them. They were sending messages to upper support for clarification. I then asked to speak to supervisor. just to note the rep and supervisor were knowledgable about the program and nice.
The manager was curious about whether my mail entries were invalid because i had a hotel stay but yet she was more confused why I never received an email for the entries after all this time. She then said she would contact some people and call me back in 3-5 days.
They have VERY obviously violated the terms as stated in the original rules and regulations. I am not a lawyer but I think this complete failure to go with what they posted in their rules is actionable.
The big problem as I see it going forward, if that since everyone sends in with a stamp and there IS NO TRACKING POSSIBLE especially without the machine stuff and everything handwritten, they could easily deny that ANYONE wrote in with the 3 X 5 cards.
This is a complete rip off and I am glad I am only out 2 stamps.
I sent an inquiry to the contest owner “hellowworld” but have not yet received a reply.
No response yet either so I called IHG and they credited me with 1000 pts for my trouble.
lucky you when i contacted IHG just trying to get a direct way to contact someone at hello world they just argued over and over no you have to stay than you can do the mail in entry which is not what their own terms and conditions state but the person was a complete moron not the question i was even asking
I sent in 14 of them November 19th. Figure that I should get emails from the administrator by end of week.
I’ve sent in nearly 50 entries (5 per day) with negative feedback so far.
I had two stays and received the 1000 points maybe a week later then the surprise email a day after that. Its a link that takes you to a page where you’re in an elevator and you choose a floor. The door opens and you’re presented with the surprise. Mine was 500 points, then it says i’l receive an email about how to get that 500 points. It’s been 5 days and I have not received that email yet.
I also mailed in 90 cards and assuming none of those made it through the process yet.
I have sent in 20 entries on the 16th and received no response as well. Hoping to get an email soon
Has anyone received confirmation emails with links to play? I sent on 11/16 and have not received any confirmation email as of today, 11/28.
Same here as well. I mailed in 3 entries about 2 weeks ago and haven’t heard a thing.
This is what it says in the Official Rules: “Once your mail-in request is received, you will receive an email within five (5) business days from the Administrator inviting you to play the Game and you will receive one (1) Game play for each mail-in request. Limit: One (1) request per envelope.”
Seems like they have completely fallen down on playing by the rules. I wonder what kind of complaint or class action could be taken? Even figuring in the weekends and holidays, seems to me that a lot of peeps have waited a lot more than “five (5) business days”!
I small a rat. I bet they realized FAR too late that they were gonna give up a LOT of points and the lawyers are busy trying to figure a way out of this mess.
Just remember everyone the first date was November 15th so i am assuming everyone who sent their entries in early prolly just got tossed in the trash, i sent mine in on the 16th and figure it didn’t get there until Friday so with holidays of this week i am hoping by Tuesday of next week to be an official 5 business days and get some emails, but i like all of you sent in a few as a test and plan on sending more in once i get some emails. If anyone gets the emails to play the game please let us all know
I think we are wasting our time and money.
I only sent in 5 entries about a week & 1/2 ago. No response from IHG. No activity in my IHG rewards account. No e-mails. BIG FAT NOTHING! Glad I’ve only spent about $5.00 so far. Got another 40 entries ready to go, but haven’t stamped them yet, so no loss there. Hopefully the delay is only due to the administrator being inundated with entries. Wait and see, I guess.
Same here…only sent in 5 (didn’t think they would honor it) almost 2 weeks ago…no response.
Wish we could hear some updates soon.
I have had zero activity in my IHG account since August and mailed in a ton of envelopes last Friday anticipating they would arrive this past Monday (the 16th). I havent received any sort of email regarding my entries but I logged into my IHG account today and saw this in the activity:
Nov 17, 2015 | Other | Deposit for the award F1100 0 pts. 0 pts
Seems very odd and a strange coincidence. Is this a confirmation of receipt?
I’m going to start this weekend to see what happens
I sent one entry in for my husband and one for myself on Tuesday. Each one was slightly different regarding the use of an address label or handwritten envelope. I have about 40 other entries ready to go. Wish we could start seeing some updates.
Yay, they rebooted the server and got it working again!
Looks like it is back unchanged (atleast the odds). Time to get the pen out
Anyone try to get the kids to help with the writing?
My guess (and it’s just a guess) is that they’re simply having technical issues. Hopefully their IT person will reboot the server and all will be well again.
Oh, brother. I’m sure this has happened before, and it’s a good guess they’re now in the process of changing the rules. Is that permitted? It seems like there are strict laws on running contests (hence all the legalese you always see).
My wife and I each mailed 20 entries, so I’ve got $19.80, an hour each of effort and two hand cramps invested in this.
Posted last night and this mo9rning I note that the offer is still MIA when you click on the links.
Can *anyone* here confirm it is dead or being changed? @FM, you hear anything new?
This is all that the page says. I suspect it will return changed, if it returns at all, so that they do NOT give everyone points, etc.
I have a feeling blogging killed this easy deal.
Here is exactly what it says:
“The resource you are looking for has been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.”
Is entry by this method over already? Clicking on the official rules link and the links in this post say unavailable or removed. Killed after one full day? Wow
Whoops — that’s I hope I do NOT win a top prize!
My wife and I each did 20 cards and envelopes. It’s a painful process. My hand hurts! I figure we’ll submit these and see what happens. I’m not really willing to do more work unless we actually get the points. The official rules say you’ll hear within a week, so we should know pretty quickly whether it will work.
I didn’t see anything in the promo rules that says they can pull the promo early. It seems like the law requires strict adherence to contest rules. So I’m guessing we’re safe in not submitting all our entries immediately.
That said, I’m guessing IHG will be amazed by how many entries they get. I don’t know whether they’ll mind: they have had many promotions in the past where they gave out a ton of points.
It’s highly improbable, but I really hope I do win a top prize. It would be troublesome to win, because the estimated value of most of these prizes is many times their actual value, so you’d have an IRS mess on your hands. I assume if you just win points (as long as it’s not a million points!), there won’t be any IRS reporting, right?
The rules state “full name”. I wouldn’t think we’d need middle name too, but I also don’t want to get my entries tossed out. First and last name good enough?
I thought about this myself, and concluded that some people don’t have middle names, and how on earth are they going to know from my entry whether I do or not.
Someone help me out here – can the 3 x 5 pieces of paper be lined index cards? And can we print the address on the envelopes?
since pieces of paper can be lined or unlined and index cards are paper, they should work.
To answer your question if we can print the addy to envelopes, yes you can but it doesn’t follow the rules of the game so I’m not going to take a risk of getting disqualified. Do what you’re comfortable with and see if your entry is accepted.
The rules state that the ENTRY needs must be hand written. It then says just that it should be mailed to that address without any regulation on how the envelope is addressed. No clear statement on whether the envelope must be hand written.
Since they specify ONE entry per envelope, if the envelope was to be hand addressed, I think they would say so.
I’ve submitted 10 entries each for DH and myself. Hopefully, we’ll get our emails to start playing by Thursday or Friday.
I decided to handwrite the address on each envelope. Once I get the first batch of confirmation emails, I’ll send a batch of 10 daily.
The terms say to address the envelope like this:
“IHG and MasterCard® Priceless Surprises® Promotion,” c/o HelloWorld, Inc., P.O. Box 5996, Kalamazoo, MI 49003-5996
Are the parenthesis required? I don’t want to waste $50 and a hours of writing over a technicality.
What parenthesis?
Figure it out. He obviously means the quotation marks but doesn’t know what they are called OR mis-typed.
Wow…only 1/2 done with just the notecard portion and my hand is not happy!!! Going to be a long weekend…
My spouse got an email invitation about this promotion and registered afterwards. I never got an email invitation about this. Would it be risky for me to register?
To confirm, the mastercard requested on this does not have to be an IHG mastercard right? It can be any mastercard, correct?
That is correct. The terms state any mastercard.
Also, what is the significance of 94 here, if any? Can we mail in all 94 in one day? I know folks have stated that we should first send about 5-10 to see how it goes, but if that goes well, will you guys send all others in 1 day although time available is till Feb 16?
Arghhh… no edit button. 50, not 50o… Dang typoes.
2.99 for 50 envelopes? That’s nuts when the dollar store has boxes of 50o for a DOLLAR and the grocery store has 50 for 1.69.
Kroger has a box of 40 for $1 as well. I like cheap!