We, the creatives, are held to strict contest entry deadlines - as we should be.
There are 49 contests on SH that have been closed and pending winner announcement for over one month. There are a few that are over two months.
This incredibly talented creative pool has to wait up to a business quarter to get paid. If at all.
Though it can often be challenging to select one winner from many excellent submissions, there should be a strict time limit that CH’s must adhere to. Especially since the vast majority of contests are guaranteed anyway,
CH can choose a winner and it is up to them to use the name or not.
To make this fair from all ends, there should be strict deadlines for decisions to be made after contests are closed. If the CH is having a tough time, than perhaps the administrators of SH can help.
There could be two categories of contests - one with preset contest decision deadlines, and one without. This way creatives could opt to invest their resources - their time - into contests that are going to pay within a reasonable and pre-stated time, if at all.
There are deadlines.Usually CH’s have 30 days unless they have contacted SH that they need more time to check trademarks,confer with committees etc.
If after 30 days or so the CH hasn’t chosen…then they are given a final reminder to choose…and if they do not, then SH chooses the winner(s) among the top rated entries.
First, we want to express how much we appreciate how efficient the SH Creatives are with contest deadlines. Thank you for expressing your concern for this topic, this is a great opportunity our team to explain our policies and the process we follow for selecting winners!
Our goal is to ensure a winner is selected by contest holder in as many cases as possible. Therefore, even though our policy is to award the abandoned contests after 30 days, we sometimes defer the winner selection if there is an active communication with the CH. We also hold off on winner selection if there is an issue with the contest which needs to be resolved with the CH. If you see a contest that is late to be awarded, rest assured that we are actively working on resolving the issue to achieve the most fair outcome for the contest.
The SquadHelp customer service team’s ultimate goal is to ensure the greatest possible outcome for the CH. We are continuously overseeing contests and working with CH offering them advice and tips on how to communicate / give feedback to the Creatives. We help solve many different situations that I can give you some examples of. Sometimes CH reach the end of their contest and haven’t found exactly what they are looking for. We work with them and offer solutions to help explain how to get the most success from this process. It is very common that larger businesses use our platform and take longer to decide on winners because there are many people involved in the decision.
We are dedicated to offering as much help as possible to both Creatives and CH. We believe that efficient, helpful, and friendly customer service is extremely important. We hope this has helped answer your questions and concerns. You can find more detailed information on our policy here.
Please let me know if there is anything else we can answer for you!
@NomDePlume - a few weeks ago, I had some issues with extremely old contests where my domain got registered but a winner had not been selected. It was so old that I couldn’t even report my domain. So, I asked SH (using the little bubble) about those particular contests to find out what the reason might be. They were great and they answered my questions about those in particular. So whenever you have a question about a certain contest, don’t hesitate to ask SH directly (privately) what the deal is. There’s always a reason and they are more than happy to explain.
Have there been any updates to imposing time limits for a CH to select a winner? I am still waiting for over a year on a closed contest and I am sure there are other creatives who are waiting as long or longer. This really puts the Creatives in a situation to continually check to see if the name has been registered and we have no recourse, except of course to withdraw the name…Thoughts?
I think it makes no sense to write on the blue button if the problem is systematic. I have long suggested starting to stimulate the customer to choose a winner. Before the contest team need to charge the CH for $ 100-200 more and notify him that this money will be returned to him when he chooses the winner. This will be a good incentive.
Their is something that is going on that i don’t like, i notice that some of my domain have been registered without my concern and when i report to squadhelp they could not do anything. Please squadhelp you guys should do something about that.
