FAQ

Support - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

This page contains answers to common questions related to the operation of SweepsWizard, along with some tips and tricks that we have found useful.

Are there any tricks for entering sweepstakes faster?
How can I change my information?
What if I don't want to enter a particular sweepstake?
What are those The sweepstake above was not successfully entered...messages all about?
What if I can't seem to get past the entry for a particular contest?
What if I'm using SweepsWizard behind a firewall or proxy server?
What can I do about "A Runtime Error has occurred" error messages?
Why do I have more sweepstakes listed then I just entered on my last pass?

Are there any tricks for entering sweepstakes faster?

Although SweepsWizard enters sweepstakes as fast as they can be accessed on the Internet, some sweepstakes sites can still take a long time to load, especially with a slow modem connection. To speed up access to sweepstakes sites, you might want to disallow the use of pictures and sound on web pages. You can change this option in Internet Explorer using the Internet options item on the Tools menu. Select the Advanced tab and uncheck the following options:

Play animations

Play sounds

Play videos

Show pictures

Even if Internet Explorer is not your normal browser, you can still use it to change these settings. Please note that these settings apply to normal browsing in Internet Explorer, as well as SweepsWizard.

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How Can I Change My Information?

When you first registered your SweepsWizard, you filled in the Master Questionnaire, containing information about yourself. Over time things change and now you need to change a phone number, e-mail or something else. Here's how to do it:

Start SweepsWizard running on your computer.

Press the "Get New Sweepstakes" button. After looking for new sweepstakes, Sweepswizard will display a status report in the large main window.

Scroll down to the bottom of the status Report.

Click on the "Change User Information" link. You will be taken to a form containing your current information.

Change the fields and submit the form.

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What if I don't want to enter a particular sweepstake?

Some times you don't want to enter a particular contest for various reasons.

To disable the sweepstake, do as follows:

Start SweepsWizard running on your computer.

Go to the Sweepstakes>Select Sweepstakes menu option.

In the Select Sweepstakes window, pull down the category control and select the category for the offending sweepstake. Note: if you can't figure out what the category is, you can also use the File>Detail Report menu option to list all sweepstakes and their categories.

Once you've selected the category, the contests in that category will be listed, scroll until you see the desired contest. Click on the check box to uncheck it. This will prevent if from being processed.

Click the Close (X box in the upper right hand corner) to close this window.

This technique can also be used for contests that are causing SweepsWizard to have problems.

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What are those The sweepstake above was not successfully entered...messages all about.

Whenever you process sweepstakes in SweepsWizard, you receive a list of all the contests that SweepsWizard tried to enter for you. Some of those contests will inevitably be listed with the The sweepstake above was not successfully entered... message.

There are a number of different reasons why these messages occur. But they break down into three categories:

1) SweepsWizard can't get to the site

You use a dial up line and were disconnected or have a marginal line.

Your provider is having a temporary problem and the site isn't reachable

The site is having a technical problem and is unreachable

You can use the copy of Internet Explorer on your computer and go to the site to make sure it's available and working. Note: Just click on the contest name in the results listing after you enter contests.

2) The site has changed since SweepsWizard got the sweepstake

The site has been removed and is no longer available

The site has changed their entry page so the answers we are supplying don't match the modified page.

When we prepare a sweepstake to be put on the SweepsWIzard servers, we go through a complete Quality Assurance and testing cycle so that each sweepstake is tested as working before it is posted. When a site is changed, we have procedures to correct the problem. If you see a broken sweepstake, send a quick e-mail to sweeps@sweepswizard.com giving us the name of the contest. We'll look at the sweep as fast as possible.

3) The site is dog slow

On-line contests are put up by many different types of organizations, from mom and pop businesses to multi-national corporations. Many of these sites are on dedicated servers that are professionally managed while others are on free-site systems where thousands of sites are on the same server.

When SweepsWizard goes to pull up the entry page, it sets a time limit on how long to wait for the page to come up. There are a number of time limits in the program ranging from one to three minutes. If the page isn't completely downloaded with graphics, SweepsWizard will time out and mark the sweep as not completed with the red message.

Since these types of problems can vary from minute to minute based upon load on the sweepstake site's computer, it isn't always easy to identify this problem. But if you've just gotten a red message on a site you can go to the site with Internet Explorer and see if it loads slowly.

One way to reduce the effect of these type of sites is to turn off graphics display in the browser. See the article on entering sweepstakes faster for more information.

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What if I can't seem to get past the entry for a particular contest?

We have seen cases where we can enter a contest from the series of test computers we have, but the customer's computer hangs up or has a fatal error when trying to enter a specific contest.

In order to get the customer up so they can complete the rest of their contest entries while we work on their problem, we usually suggest that they disable the offending contest. That is done as follows:

Start SweepsWizard running on your computer.

Go to the Sweepstakes>Select Sweepstakes menu option.

In the Select Sweepstakes window, pull down the category control and select the category for the offending sweepstake. Note: if you can't figure out what the category is, you can also use the File>Detail Report menu option to list all sweepstakes and their categories.

Once you've selected the category, the contests in that category will be listed, scroll until you see the desired contest. Click on the check box to uncheck it. This will prevent if from being processed.

Click the Close (X box in the upper right hand corner) to close this window.

This technique can also be used for contests that you don't want to enter for any reason.

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What if I'm using SweepsWizard behind a firewall or proxyserver?

SweepsWizard in many ways works just like Internet Explorer because it used parts of IE for it's browsing. This means that the settings that you set for Internet Explorer work for Explorer and SweepsWizard.

So the answer about using SweepsWizard behind a firewall is if you can use Internet Explorer, SweepsWizazd should work also. If you need to setup Internet Explorer, there are some great articles on how to do this in the Microsoft support web site (search the knowledge base for Internet Explorer and Firewall or Proxy).

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What can I do about "A Runtime Error has occurred" error messages?

Depending upon how your computer is setup and how your Internet Explorer Browser are setup, you may occasionally receive a pop-up error message similar to the one below during sweepstake entry.

This is an error message returned by Internet Explorer telling you it is having a problem handling some of the information in the contest entry web page. If you get this message during sweepstake entry the best way to handle the pop-up is to click No so the page will continue loading.

We run a number of versions of Internet Explorer in our offices and we see pages that will work perfectly on one version of IE and will produce this error on the next version.

To make sure this is the problem, start Internet Explorer on your computer and go to the sweepstake page. If you get the error message with standalone Internet Explorer then this is the problem.

There are two possible ways to resolve these problems.

1) Update your version of Internet Explorer to a newer version.
We see these problems where the site was authored on IE 5.5 but the site authors didn't test on IE 5.0 so they don't know people with IE 5.0 are having a problem. Going to the latest version of Internet Explorer may prevent a certain number of these problems from happening.

Note: Because of the fast changing nature of Browser technology, this may continue to be a problem in the future as new features are added to the sites. So solution number 2 is also something you should be aware of.

2) DIsable the sweepstake on your system.
Go to Sweepstakes>Select Sweepstakes in your SweepsWizard menu. Pick the sweepstake that is giving your browser a problem and disable the sweepstake (uncheck it's Enter checkbox).

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Why do I have more sweepstakes listed then I just entered on my last pass?

SweepsWIzard has several ways of deciding whether you should be entered into a contest. You won't be entered in a sweepstake if:

1) If you're running the free version and the sweepstake is a Premier Club sweep.

2) If you state or province is excluded in the sweepstake rules.

3) If the sweepstake has an entry age limit that you don't meet.

4) If the sweepstake has recently ended.

Once a contest is entered, it won't be entered again until its entry period is reached again (daily, weekly, monthly, etc). So contests can sit on the list and you will only see them entered each month. And, some of the contests are enter once, so you won't see them again after the first entry.

As you can see SweepsWizard keeps track of a very complex schedule and tries to enter you in contests only when you're eligible. This gives you the maximum number of entries possible without disqualifying yourself.

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