Trying to Salvage my Blunder

I was kicking myself for having to email the Administrator for Scriptapalooza, explaining the possible mistake I had made because even when I called to clarify the entry options, I still hadn’t been sure when I had selected. My lack of understanding led to my having two entries into their contest, and requesting a refund, which just meant more work for them.

I was mortified that I was not putting myself in the best light in the industry.

To try and salvage this, when I emailed them explaining the situation, I made sure to state that I was fully responsible for the mistake. I didn’t blame them for my entering into the contest twice. Also, when I brought up the refund, I posed it as requesting if it was possible to get one. This was my mistake after all, and I feel most competitions make it clear that all entries are final. I first checked to make sure Scriptapalooza didn’t have such language, and then I still only asked if it was possible to get one.

I also made sure to include a screenshot that showed the double entries into their competition. I felt that if a refund option was available, this would be something they would request, and I wanted to have it available for them without asking. The situation was still a result of my mistake, but I was hoping that by doing these things, I might be able to salvage some part of the bad first impression I made in the hopes that with the actions I took after the blunder, they might see me as a professional who just had a bit of bad luck.

There was one last thing I did, in the hopes of tipping the scale somewhat in my favor.

In the screenshot I provided that showed I entered into their contest once, I made sure the screenshot also showed the results I had gotten for my script of Dig Down. As a reminder, at that time, I had placed twice as a finalist in the only two contests that had reached the results phase.

While the subject of my email to them was to ask for a refund for a duplicate entry that I had mistakenly made because I didn’t understand what service I had selected, I was going to make sure they saw that contests who did read my work thought very highly of it.