Often when I go to Wal-Mart these days, I’m given a survey code on my cashier receipt. The survey code allows me the opportunity to go to an online site to fill out a survey about my visit to Wal-Mart.  Have you seen these?  They are printed on your receipt and look something like this:

*****************************************

Enter for a chance to Win 1 of 3

$1000 CDN Wal-Mart Gift Cards

To enter, please complete a survey

about today’s store visit at:

http://survey.walmart.ca

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We want to know how

we’re doing!

Well, for a chance at $1000 to spend at Wal-Mart, I have been taking about 15 minutes at a time to fill out most of the survey requests I receive.

The survey itself is interesting.  It always asks the same questions, doesn’t care if you respond incorrectly and would like to ‘fix’ an answer, and doesn’t really seem to care if you have more to say than their radio-buttons will allow.  There is no place to provide any feedback that doesn’t fit onto a scale of “Completely Unsatisfied” to “Completely Satisfied”, or some other similar description scale. There have been a few times when I’ve really had a thing or two (or ten!) to say about my visit to Wal-Mart, and the survey has conveniently not given me any way to share those things.

That’s one thing, but today I was wondering when the drawing for these $1000 gift cards was to take place. It’s clear when submitting your name for entry into that drawing that within 14 days of the drawing you’ll be contacted if you are one of the 3 lucky winners. But I had to search a bit to find the drawing date.

Here’s what I found:

The Sweepstakes ends at 11:59:59 pm ET on July 31, 2012, however, mail-in entries will be accepted up to August 2, 2012 for the drawing on August 16, 2012 as set out in Rule 4 below.

July 31, 2012!!

You’ve GOT to be kidding me!

ALL entries from surveys completed between now and July 31, 2012 will be entered into a draw for 3 (THREE!) $1000 Wal-Mart Gift Cards!?

Am I the only one who thinks this is completely crazy?  ALL those surveys for ONLY 3 prizes!? And don’t get me wrong – I could use $1000, but that’s a pretty chintzy prize, Wal-Mart….

I’m really not sure it’s worth my 15 minutes 2x a month (how often I go to Wal-Mart) knowing that there will likely be MILLIONS of entries all competing for THREE measly gift cards.

I know if you don’t enter, you can’t win.  But I’m not thinking I’ll be doing these weird Wal-Mart surveys anymore.  No thanks!