Question for past Raffle winners?

[Lord Freaka]

Hey question for past raffle winners, I sent a email to Ana at US after receiving a email from her informing me on winning one of the Diamond prizes in the Winter Raffle and she did not get back to me so I sent her a couple of emails trying to get info on adding upgrades and selecting my Saber(the Graflex CE with upgrades) so after a week and a half I finally got a reply from her and she said that "Emory should be responding to all top tier emails, this is out of my pay grade LOL", now has any other winners have this happen and is it normal that the top winners have to wait for Emery to contact you before you can choose your saber or does he want to be directly involved with the winners on setting up there Sabers.

[N9neRhymes]

I have no experience dealing with prior raffles as this is the first I've entered and won, so I'm sorry I can't be of help in that regard. I'm also in the First Place Prize category, so I don't think I technically qualify as a "top-tier" winner.
I do find it strange that Ana is the person who initially sent all the confirmation emails, and was also the one to assist me with upgrades to my prize, but would then tell you that Emory will be taking care of all of that. The only thing I could think of that would make any sense is that because the lower tier prize winners have no control over which options their saber comes with, upgrade requests need to be channeled through her so that it's ensured the proper payment gets collected. The Higher-Tier winners might not have to pay for their upgrades. They might be able to just pick all the options they want, and Ultrasabers will accommodate that order. In which case it would make sense that Emory handles all of those, so that he can override the price points in whatever billing system they use.

Another thing I find highly strange is her response to you. Especially if that was the only thing written in the emails. To me that comes across as highly unprofessional, but from personal experience dealing with Ana all of her emails have been very professional, cordial, and even apologetic for the delays in responding to my email. Without knowing exactly what was included in your emails to her, it would be hard for me to form an opinion on if her response was appropriate or not.

One other thing I'll add for what it's worth. It was mentioned in the Raffle winners prize thread earlier today that as of now, no raffle prizes are being worked on. Their estimate is that they will begin working on and shipping raffles prizes after the original orders have been fulfilled. Meaning you'll get the saber you ordered to enter yourself in the raffle first, and then possibly 3-4 weeks after that the raffle prize will be delivered. I can imagine the frustration in your situation, but just know that you won't be forgotten about. Ultrasabers isn't going to announce you as a winner, and then pull the rug from under your feet saying, "Sorry no prize for you!"

[Maestro Jones]

I am a previous Diamond Prize winner.  When I won, my email correspondence went through Emory.  I picked the Lost Gray but wanted all the bells and whistles so I ordered some upgrades.  The Diamond Prize includes only the basic options.  Recharge ports, etc. are upgrades.  I ended up discussing the upgrades, he gave me a price and instructions on how to pay for them (add the cost in the quantity in the requisition charge, and in the order comments put my upgrades and that they were approved by Emory). 

[N9neRhymes]

I am a previous Diamond Prize winner.  When I won, my email correspondence went through Emory.  I picked the Lost Gray but wanted all the bells and whistles so I ordered some upgrades.  The Diamond Prize includes only the basic options.  Recharge ports, etc. are upgrades.  I ended up discussing the upgrades, he gave me a price and instructions on how to pay for them (add the cost in the quantity in the requisition charge, and in the order comments put my upgrades and that they were approved by Emory). 

Great to know. Thank you for a much more informative answer than I was able to give.

[Lord Freaka]

I am a previous Diamond Prize winner.  When I won, my email correspondence went through Emory.  I picked the Lost Gray but wanted all the bells and whistles so I ordered some upgrades.  The Diamond Prize includes only the basic options.  Recharge ports, etc. are upgrades.  I ended up discussing the upgrades, he gave me a price and instructions on how to pay for them (add the cost in the quantity in the requisition charge, and in the order comments put my upgrades and that they were approved by Emory). 

Thanks I guess that answers my question, so basically because I want to upgrade the saber  Emery is going to contact me on what saber and upgrades and  pricing.

[ktulu1347]

I was lucky enough to be an Emerald Prize winner a few raffles back and I can confirm what Maestro said.  Emory will get in touch with you, ask for your saber choice and give you a price and a procedure for paying for your upgrades if you select any.  I actually thought it was pretty cool that the boss wanted to handle that personally, but the drawback is that when they're still digging out of a backlog like now it may take some time for contact.  Hang in there!