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Why isn’t there any official message from Microsoft?

Microsoft announced a “BlogStar” contest last year and the winners were announced in the first week of November 2006.

How do I know that I am one among the winners?

On November 5 or 6th I got a call from one Ms. Bharathi claiming to be working in Microsoft. The number from which she called is 91-80-65605725. She said that I have won a prize and needed my size and full contact address to ship a jerkin. As the line wasn't clear I couldn't hear properly for what exactly is this gift for? But at that time Blogstar was the only Microsoft competition I was participating so I presumed it to be that.

So, you got a call from Microsoft employee and hope you have received your prize as well! What else are you asking for?

Excuse me :) As the female's communication was not that professional I thought its some spam caller and asked her to mail me the reason for requesting my contact address so that I can communicate my address back to her official ID. That said, it’s almost two months now and I am yet to hear from her :)

More over I was bit puzzled as Microsoft already has my shipping address (as I am a MVP)! May be there are some confusion in the way client/customer informations are stored within Microsoft!! I thought based on my email ID they should be in a position to fetch the contact details with ease! Am I missing something here?

Few days later I saw the winners list announced here: http://www.microsoft.com/india/blogstars/winners.aspx

I am really wondering why there isn't any official mail communication from Microsoft regarding this which would have avoided lots of confusion!! I even checked with few other winners on whether they have got any official communication from Microsoft? The response is big NO :)

Below is the extract from Microsoft site

“Over the next few weeks, the Top 20 BlogStars will meet with Tarun Gulati, General Manager - Developer and Platform Evangelism, Microsoft India and Microsoft IDC Products teams, and discuss the future roadmap of Microsoft technologies. That's not all - these Top 20 blogstars go on to form the first ever - Microsoft Blogging Leadership Cell (MBLC).” --- This too hasn’t happened yet. Hope this would occur sometime in future :)

Related Posts: http://vadivel.blogspot.com/2006/11/i-am-one-of-microsoft-blogstar-winner.html

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Comments

Anonymous said…
I too haven't recieved any official mail from microsoft...

Vivek
http://www.DotNetGuts.blogspot.com
The other day I got a mail from MS saying that I am a winner of MS webcast and only one among the few. But till now I haven't received the T-shirt that they have offered for the winner.It has been 3 months now
Srini said…
I wish you guys get it soon.

On a lighter note, I heard the entire blogosphere buzzing with the news that MS is shipping Acer Ferrari Laptops powered with Windows Vista for free to be tested and reviewed by bloggers !! Hope you get contacted for that :)
Mallik said…
Even, I am still waiting for officle mail, gift and what about MBLC (MS blogging leadership cell) ??
Vadivel said…
Yeah I never thought Microsoft would do something like this :) As ppl say i guess they just announce something for the sake of advertisement and then forget it.
Mallik said…
When I contacted the Support at Microsoft regarding this issue, the final reply they sent was:
"Hello,

This is Cherlene and I am writing to send you an update on your inquiry about the Microsoft India Blogstar contest.

The DPE team in India is in the process of setting up a round table with Tarun Gulati and would be contacting the winners individually within the next 15 days via e-mail with the schedule.

If you have other concerns, please feel free to send us another e-mail.

Thank you,

Cherlene
Microsoft Online Customer Service Representative"

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