WSS Admin:Well, thank you for your responses, and for some of our players who have been contacted directly, it is a bit shocking to see this on our forums.
We apologize for the wait, although the prizes are not the main focus for his website, we do try and keep our players informed and their ID's secure. Confirmation is a big priority on both sides. Please answer the confirmation email so we can first make sure you are who you are, we get a lot of bad reproductions of ID's or ID's that are not even close to being valid. Then we have to re-confirm and wait for a reply. If we do not receive it in the mail then we have to go over the confirmation process and again, our finance department likes to see a proper form, and ID or we can not give out the award. Keeping this all in mind, again this is not just a game to give away money, we want to see the players become 'traders' and invest in their future. We apologize for the wait and your patience is appreciated.
Thanks for your reply - It's nice to actually receive a reply and get some recognition on this subject.
Don't mistake my displeasure for the prize department as a reflection of my overall satisfaction with WSS. Understand, however, that offering a prize and then making someone wait four months for it is a little over the gray line. It sucks to get Christmas gifts and Birthday presents late. Offering me a hundred dollars for a random daily prize and then keeping me waiting is like looking at the dessert cooler at a restaurant and finding out they're not available yet.
The prizes definitely aren't the focus of this website but if they are going to be offered they should be sent out in a timely fashion. Confirmation is very important to WSS to know that, in the words of Dennis Green, "they are who we thought they were," however, confirmation to the players is just as important and that is the part of the WSS Prize Distribution Breakdown that is so frustrating to the players. In fact, an email explaining the expected prize arrival date of xx/xx/xxxx would be considerate at the very least. If a player receives an email explaining the reasoning behind the red tape and an expected amount of time that is expected it would get rid of the prize frustration that so many players have. If you take a look at many threads you will find more posters that are unhappy than just the ones that have posted here.
If everything stays the same you will find many players as unhappy as the donkey that keeps chasing the carrot in front of his face - we may keep walking but it still gets old.
Incidentally, I have years of experience running businesses, promotions, etc. and have plenty of schooling and experience to backup my opinions. If you want some help understanding the other side of these discussions or need any help with anything at WSS I would be happy to volunteer my services. You know how to get a hold of me if you wish to continue the conversation off this forum.
Thanks again for running a fantastic site with a great dedication to teaching us how to play the markets. Adding such things as Survivor University and working on new research tools really shows your passion for teaching. Your development of a realistic trading platform also shows how much it means to you that a trader learns how to trade and gains experience doing so here with their portfolio.