everyone has to go through the same procedure, nothing special about that. i did not submit but i went with someone to submit, the lady also put it on the panel behind her, i don't see anything wrong with that. i just confirmed that there was no receipt given this year. she was very friendly, perhaps if you are friendly she will be friendly too.
to put it bluntly, if you didn't win, you didn't win. there is no need to find many other reasons to explain why you didn't win. get on with life.