On with the menial details that leads up to a trip of a lifetime.
Several months went by and I changed my job to an administration job in Calgary to make more money and I could commute with my wife since it was the same company that we worked for.
Life was routine, go to work, come home, go to work, come home, ad nauseum. I set up my personal email to be retrieved by my work computer to make it easier to go through my emails on my breaks and catch up on potentially important stuff, you know, how to increase the size of your…, or cheap medication from Canada, or YOU WON A TRIP TO INDIA!
I was perusing my emails and suddenly I found this email, I had won a trip to India! Yeah right! I don’t honestly know what made me even scan the email to confirm if it was true or not, perhaps it was the “This is not spam” that they wrote in this text email.
I did a double take, upon reading further I found just certain things that sounded too authentic for it to be spam. I called my wife, Christine in to my office and she read the email over my shoulder.
“It’s spam. Delete it.” She said.
I read it further and clued in that it was pertaining to all the scans that I had done with the 7-11 app and that made me consider further the authenticity of the email. I checked the email header, it seemed correct, I checked the one link it had, and it was what it was supposed to be. So I threw caution into the wind and gave them my information, name, address, phone number and answered the skill testing question.
“I’ll believe it when I see it.” Christine said.
I looked up 7-11s head office phone number in Burnaby, BC and explained the email. They confirmed that if the email came from a certain address it is legitimate and I would hear from the contest department in a couple days.
I went to the 7-11 website and it listed the winners, but the trip to India wasn’t claimed yet. While waiting for contest department to get my email and do something about it, I read the rules and such. It turns out that the 7 Wonders of the World contest was as such, they were giving away trips for 2 to one of the 7 Wonders of the World. The Great Pyramid, Machu Picchu, The Great Wall of China, Chichen Itza, Mexico, The Roman Colosseum, Christ the Redeemer, Brazil, and Taj Mahal, India.
The rules stated that each week they would draw a name of one of the Wonders and the winner would be contacted by email and have 10 days to respond. I did the math trip I supposedly won should have been drawn on May 4, it was June 17th, 46 days from the draw date. I figure the draw was made, May 4, the winner informed May 5, didn’t respond in 10 days, drew another name May 16, no response for 10 days, another name drawn May 27, no response for 10 days, June 7 new name drawn, no response, June 17, MY NAME DRAWN!
I can see why people would respond, the email can come across as a little suspect. This is the text:
WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT: Read this as You have been selected in our “7 Wonders of the World 7Rewards” Contest!
Guess what – this is NOT SPAM! 7-Eleven Canada is trying to reach because you were successfully scanning your 7Rewards app, and your entry has been chosen.
Weekly until Thursday, April 30, 2015, we gave away 7 Grand Prize trips and packages for two (2) to the various 7 Wonders of the World .
IMPORTANT: Your entry was selected this week as the entry for the
TAJ MAHAL, INDIA trip! That means after you answer the skill-testing question below, provide the details of how we find you, and complete the waiver below, you are the winner of a trip for 2, including: 12 nights with 14 day guided tour Imperial Rajasthan tour of India. Approx. value $ $13,000, courtesy of 7-Eleven Canada. Prize may not be substituted and you must respond to this email with 10 days of this email being sent to you or we must select another entrant.
After you provide your information below, we will reach out to you by telephone to organize your prize with our 7Rewards travel agency.
Yes, YOU. But before you call all your friends to brag, we need you to answer the skill-testing question below to claim your “7 Wonders of the World 7Rewards” prize. Upon providing your information we will reach out to you by phone to discuss next steps.
Uh huh, what do you think? (I know that this blog is titled India – Day 0, so obviously it’s legit.)
A couple of days went by where Christine begged me not to tell anyone because we don’t want to look the fool. And then, this happened on the 7-11 webpage:
“I won’t believe it until I get the tickets from them.” Christine said.
So, everything as it is, I called 7-11 again and advised them that my wife is disbelieving of this win and won’t believe it until we have tickets. A few hours later I get a call from the travel agent with 7-11 confirming that I have won and have done everything right so when she got to the office she would look up the available dates for the trip and off we’d go.
Of course you can imagine, I had a hard time concentrating on work during this week. I got to announce to the office that we won, and everybody was ecstatic. I had a few definite offers on the table to take someone besides Christine, but of course I have to go with Christine, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Several emails from our travel agent back and forth and we settled on the date of November 7-22. It’s the beginning of “winter” in India so it won’t be so cold, it’s not “monsoon” season and it would be good to get out of Calgary for the beginning of winter.
STILL disbelieving, but starting to give way, soon came the itinerary via email and a e-brochure for the trip.
http://insightvacations.uberflip.com/i/408085 Pages 18,19, and 20
June gave way to July, to August, I was offered a new job because the office one was just temporary. I explained the situation to them, they were excited for me and of course could have the time off for such a trip.
August became September, and soon October was here, less than a month to go. What happens next, we received some fancy pants packages in the mail for our trip. Our itinerary, luggage tags, e-tickets. We applied for our Indian visas online and poof. IT’S GOING TO HAPPEN.
“I don’t know.” Said Christine.
I understand her reluctance to accept this, things like this just don’t happen to us. (On a side note, the day I found out that we won the trip, on my way into Safeway, I found $5 in the parking lot and no one around to suspect it came from them. I bought a lotto ticket with the $5 but won nothing.)
Tickets in hand, visas printed out, we went to get our vaccinations. Local pharmacy gave us our shots and there’s no looking back now.
Christine found some new luggage for us online at an incredible price, and we needed luggage since our last bags were man handled so much they were tearing at the seams.
November 6th, packing was being finished, the dog had gone to Grandmas and the cat was going to go to Omas for our trip.
Stay tuned for Day 1 of this exciting journey.