Can we all sing, another one bites the dust, another one bites the dust. The latest word is out. Winning Ways Sweepstakes Newsletter is finished. Numerous people have emailed me asking if I know what’s going on with Winning Ways. I’m not a subscriber, so I am not aware of the problem first hand.Subscribers have not received a Winning Ways newsletter in three months. Or, is it more than three months. They have not heard a single word from the new publisher Suzanne. Recently, she took over publishing duties from her mom Susan, who originaly started Winning Ways. People are telling me that Suzanne is having problems with a newly born baby. Emails are not answered at all. No explanations, no refunds, nada, nothing, zilch. No one wishes ill health on anyone. I know when hard times fall on someone it’s hard to pick up the pieces and move on. Plus I don’t know the real circumstances of Susan’s ordeal. But, people only want a brief explanation. After all, it’s only fair to explain what’s going on. How about posting a message on the Winning Ways Sweepstakes message board or on the front page of the Newsletter website, onlinesweeps.com. It appears Suzanne is incapable of publishing the Winning Ways Sweepstakes Newsletter. So….what’s going on Winning Ways? An explanation and a refund is owed to all your loyal subscribers. That is not asking too much. Any one know whats going on? Comments welcome.
Read comments from an earlier post from my old blog site.
Jen responded:
Ah yea, I want a refund
Linda Clements responded:
There is still no activity from anyone with Winning Ways….and our emails are still going unanswered. And of course no refunds….I never thought it would go “belly up”, but it sure seems like it has. I have a regular address for the Susan, Suzanne’s Mother, so I think I’ll send a letter and see what happens. Not hoping for much though as it appears that they have taken our money and ran with it!!!
Cindy responded:
Hi Linda,
That really istoo bad that they are not answering. Winning Ways ran for many years without problems. Keep us posted and let us know what happens.
Linda responded:
Ok! I’ll let you know if I hear anything. Thanks for writing about this in your blog…maybe someone will read it that know’s something too and will post it here. In the mean time, I am referring members of the defunct Winning “Losing” Ways as it is known now, to other sweepsetakes newsletters and so far so good. Someone needs to step up to the plate so here I am!
tinymomo responded:
Just like when the other newsletter went under and no one got refunds last year- the one based in New England somewhere- that woman was a crook- took my 25 bucks and then sent an email that it was over. I had to contact the attorney general
cgroverla responded:
Well they were still open for business as far as taking money. Can this be charged back through Paypal? Any hope. I paid for the subscription in June and have received nothing
Cindy responded:
Paypal will refund your money. Make sure to file a complaint to them ASAP, explaining that you have not recieved the newsletter.
cindy responded:
tinymomo commented:
“Just like when the other newsletter went under and no one got refunds last year- the one based in New England somewhere- that woman was a crook- took my 25 bucks and then sent an email that it was over. I had to contact the attorney general.”
Have you heard anything? That’s RTR , Rags to riches. I’m really suprised that you haven’t received your money. Anita who owns RTR has always been honest and up front. It very well could have been an oversite. But you do have the right to have your money returned.
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
I am still checking this web site just about every day hoping there will be some kind of news as to what the heck is going on. But NOTHING! No postings what-so-ever from either Susan or Suzanne as to what has happend. Plus, even more interesting, there are new members signing up…and most of them from other countries. What’s up with that???? Some of the current members have recently renewed their membership, but once they started reading the different posts, they realized they had better get refunded and they are doing just that. The thing that bothers me is that they are able to renew. That means transactions are being processed either thru credit card, or Pay Pal. WHY??? So what is happening with this money???? There hasn’t been any updates since April (new contest listings) and what we got then were very few. So everyone started sending emails asking why. But no one responded. I personally have sent many emails, and have written two letters to Susan at two different home addresses without any response. Other members have phoned numbers that they believe are for either Susan or Suzanne, but either leave messages on a voice mail, or talk to a relative. But it could have been either Susan or Suzanne answering the phone for all we know. Either way, one of two things need to happen IMMEDIATELY: ONE, there is a post on this website telling us what has happened, the newsletter is updated, and our membership extended. Yeah, right… TWO, shut this web site down NOW, so other people are not taken advantage of anymore. I would add a THIRD request, like refund all of its members, but I doubt that will ever happen. If this web site goes on like it is right now, then in my opinion this sounds like FRAUD and it should be reported. There are so many, many disappointed members because of what Winning Ways has done. Many of us have been there from the beginning, so to be treated like this is so inconsiderate, not to mention RUDE. My postings of messages have really taken over on the website now and a lot of members are asking me for referrals. So that’s what I am doing!! And I’ve met a lot of great people on line as a result of it. Fortunately, for me, I subscribe to other newsletters, so I am referring all of those lost members to new contest newsletters. Soon they will be winning again and the old website called Winning Ways will be a distant memory. Well, maybe it will be for them, but to me? This is a real THORN IN MY SIDE, and someday I am going to find out what happened. Thanks for letting me vent. Boy, do I feel good!!!
Thanks for the informative update Linda.
I am sending a complaint to bbb today after months of no answers. complaints@boston.bbb.org
they continued to take money
I sent a complaint to the same email address yesterday. I got an automatic response telling me that they would “respond” within 3 days…so I will let you know what happens. In the meantime and yes, Patricia is right…people are still signing up for this newsletter and paying money. This has to end now. Not only that, the people that are signing up are mostly from other countries, and they list their own website addresses. Even more strange is that I’ve gone into these websites and they are in very poor taste and should not be listed at all. Whatever is going on here has to be illegal.
I noticed that Winning Ways message board forum is loaded with spam comments. Another sign that the website/newletter is not being updated. Another sign of negligence.
Interesting tidbit. I did a whois check up on Winning Ways web site. The webmaster (might) own 23 other web sites. I hope they are not taking advantage of other people.
Late entry: Here is the whois link to Winning Ways Web site. I’m not sure if the 23 web sites is related to the Winning ways newsletter or if its web sites related to the word “Winning Ways”. So I may be wrong that she owns 23 web sites. Interesting observation tho.
Has anyone reported the wrong doing to PayPal?
Wow! I knew something was wrong here…and they own 23 other web sites too? Geeezzzz Louise…well, I will report this wrong doing to PayPayl right away….I haven’t heard from the BBB yet, but hope to soon…otherwise I will do it again. Thanks for the tip!!
I do know for sure Winning Ways owns two (2) websites. One is an instant win sweepstakes site. There is a link to the instant win site on winning ways. The instant win site is well maintained and sweepstakes are up to date. Hmmmm, why isn’t winning ways maintained and updated??????? But they still collect money! It’s not right.
I too, know that Winning Ways has two websites. And the one with the instant wins is run by the Mom, Susan. The other one, the now defunct one is/was, run by the daughter, Suzanne. Good question though. Why isn’t this maintained and updated like the other one? And yes, they can still collect money. I even tried it and it still works. Oh…I did call Pay Pal, and all they recommend is if someone does order this newsletter and pay thru Pay Pal, they must go to merchant disputes and file a claim. They have just 45 days upon payment to Pay Pal to do this. If there are enough claims filed against Winning Ways, the website will be shut down. Otherwise, there is no way they can flag it. He also told me, just to try and get the word out about this website so people wouldn’t sign up for it. He also asked me “do you think this would be an automatic renewal”. And I told him no. I don’t recall them every automatically renewing it without writing to me by email first.
I am still waiting to hear from the BBB. It has been 2 days…so hopefully I will hear something by the end of the week. Otherwise, I will just write again. Other “former” members are writing also. Were a determined force aren’t we?? You betcha!!
Let’s rally to make sure the website is shut down. This is fraud! We work too hard for our money to give it away. Maybe we can get enough people who have been defrauded to contact the FBI as this is internet fraud.
Rose,
Complaints can be file at the Internet Crime Complaint Center. I found a link to this site on the FBI page. It’s a government agency, it’s legit.
Great idea Ladies! I think we should rally together and do something about this. It is fraud and it is illegal as heck, so why not. I will do it, that’s for sure…by the way, today, I got a letter that I sent to Susan back from the Post Office. It had marked on it “RETURN TO SENDER, ATTEMPTED – NOT KNOWN”…Yeah right…I sent it to an address in Nashua NH… So enough, is enough. This website needs to be shut down and shut down now! We’ve given them more than enough time to explain what is going on. And yet, NOTHING! Time to “shutter” down!!!
I’m keeping this post at the top of the list, so other people are made aware of this problem.
I have been a subscriber to winning ways on and off for years and used to email Susan(the mom)on her other email address. I have tried repeatedly at all the different email addresses to contact them for two months now with no response.
I renewed my subscription back in Mar 08 so the time limit is over for me going back to PayPal. I would guess that it is a family situation that is causing the inactivity with the newsletter, but I am with you ladies – they should,at the very least, post something on the home page and stop taking new subscriptions. I would like to get my money back but it doesn’t look like that will happen!
The address below is public record. See if it helps any.
Registrant:
Winning Ways
62 Stoddard Point Ways
Washington, NH 03280
US
Domain Name: ONLINESWEEPS.COM
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Donahue, Sue
Winning Ways
77 Cambridge St.
Lawrence, MA 01843
US
603-616-7388 fax: 719-593-2996
Any news, good or bad?
I just stumbled onto this website this morning and wanted to tell my story. In 2001 I subscribed to winning ways and did not have any trouble with them for years. On August 22, 2008 I applied for a new 1 year subscription via paypal and never heard a thing even after repeated emails. Does paypal have any obligation to not accept money from fraudelent companies.
Hi Selma
I think you need to report the problem to Paypal. If enough people complain they might refund the money.