Connecticut resident Judy Senft felt excited when she saw a "congratulations" email from Charmin in her inbox on Monday morning.
"I was at work and I checked my email at some point, and I got the email that said, 'Congratulations, you are this month's sweepstakes winner. You have won a year's supply of 18 packs of Charmin Super Mega Rolls,'" Senft said.
Senft said she unintentionally entered the Charmin Super Mega Sweepstakes after purchasing a pack of Charmin toilet paper and saw on the package that she could get a free extender piece for a toilet paper dispenser to help make thicker rolls of Charmin fit any type of dispenser.
She visited the brand's website to get the free extender and ended up taking a quiz.
"I go on their website, and it's probably the first time in my life I went on a Charmin website, and as I'm clicking through, they had this cute little Charmin pop-up that said, 'What Charmin bear are you?'" Senft said. "So I clicked on this and played along, and now apparently that was how I entered the contest. In all honesty, I don't think I really knew I entered a contest. I was just clicking through and having fun and seeing which Charmin bear I was."
Two weeks after taking the quiz, Senft received her winning email from Charmin.
"I was dying, I was telling everybody at work," she said. "I'm texting my kids .. .and I'm telling them what I won, and they're hysterical. It just brought a lot of happiness, the whole story."
Later that night, around 9 p.m., Senft said she got another email from Charmin. But this time, the subject line read: "Oopsie, we made a poopsie!"
Charmin informed Senft via email that she did not win the Charmin Super Mega Sweepstakes and that the congratulations email was "sent in error." The toilet paper brand said that it would send another email in the following days with instructions on how to receive a $2 coupon off Senft's next purchase of Charmin.
"It was so deflating because it went from this fun, happy, silly story to, 'Wow, you don't even have to honor (that prize),'" Senft said. "A $2 coupon, it just felt wrong."
After receiving the disappointing email, Senft reached out to Charmin and its parent company, Procter & Gamble, explaining her situation.
"I wrote everything. I'm like, 'I really feel like this is wrong. You told me that I won a year's supply and now you're just giving me a $2 coupon.' And they were like, 'Sorry for the disappointment, but that's all we're doing,'" Senft said.
Senft said a day or two later, other Charmin customers who also received an "error" email from the brand about the sweepstakes shared their experiences online. Charmin then said it would offer two $25 coupons to those who received the incorrect email. Senft said she has not received her coupons yet.
"I would love to know how many people got the same email as me," Senft said. "I haven't seen anyone who said they won it."
Senft said she knows her incident with Charmin is "not the world's biggest problem," but she feels disappointed that she missed out on a prize that brought joy to her, her children and her coworkers.
"It really brought a smile to so many people in its silliness, and then it was like just a sad ending to that story," she said. "I really wish (Charmin) would honor their commitment to the sweepstakes."
Senft said she will "think twice" before she uses Charmin's products again and may look to other brands instead of her former "go-to brand."
"I'm turned off by the whole experience, and Charmin's expensive," Senft said. "I think I might be looking at the store brand, the knockoff version of Charmin, if it saves me money. And it's just my little way of saying, 'You know what, this was pretty crappy.' No pun intended."