Inside the Free iPod Offer

jonathanhowell writes "David Lazarus, The SF Chronicle's tech guy, has an article in today's paper with an interesting investigation into the work you have to do to get a "free" (as in beer) iPod. I'm trying not to call it a scam, because it appears completely legal, if ethically challenged." From the article: "What it doesn't say is that the offer terms will expose you to reams of spam and marketing solicitations, that the user survey is actually a lengthy marketing ploy, and that the sponsor offers needed to qualify for that free music player will almost certainly cost you money."

Comments

Doesn't "free" have a meaning?

[Anonymous Coward]

From the SlashDot article:

I'm trying not to call it a scam, because it appears completely legal, if ethically challenged.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if a person has to buy something, even from another company, to get a "free iPod", then advertising the iPod as "free" is false advertising, no? That makes me not so sure about that "completely legal" part.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:TINSTAAFL, indeed

[Pfhorrest]

Not to be a grammar Nazi (I probably can't even spell grammar), but "ain't" is a word, it's just depracated in modern English due to frequeny misusage (such as in the TANSTAAFL acronym). "Ain't" (or an't) is a contraction for "am not", and thus the only proper usage of it would be in the form of "I ain't...". "Is not..." and "are not.." are misusages. But technically, I ain't making any major errors in this sentance.

(And for those actual grammar Nazis out there, yes, beginning a sentance with "but" or "and" is technically acceptable as well, so don't come bitching at me about that last sentance. Or anything else for that matter. This post is offered "as is" with no guarantee of grammar, spelling, or factual correctness. YMMV).

The article is pure FUD

[vincey37]

First of all, the company profiled, Incentive Reward Center, is not the freeiPod company. They aren't even on the radar. Gratis Internet operates the most well known freeiPod site, while OfferCentric comes in second. Both are reputable companies that have good track records shipping products and providing customer service. Secondly, the author compains about spam. Both Gratis and Offercentric do not spam your email addresses. I have had over twenty people do referrals under me with these two corporations and have had no trouble. Finally, there is the issue of paying for offers. This is a total non starter because you know the terms of each offer before you choose to complete it! There are several free offers, including the easy eFax, which even allows cancellations within the 14 day trial to be done online. I can confirm eFax does not spam either. Is getting free stuff from these sites difficult? Yes. Is it feasible? Definately. Don't let this poorly researched article scare you away if you're dedicated.

Cost of Time

[sexistentialist]

People fail to realize that their time has value. The chump who got his $400 ipod in exchange for lots of pain with opening and closing accounts, shelling out some cash, arguing with vendors, using bunk email addresses so as not to drown beneath the deluge of spam, and so on, probably spent 40 hours overall. If you subtract the $75 from $400 and divide the remainder by 40, you end up with a cost per hour of about $8.13. I suppose that you could argue that taxes and such make the Ipod worth more, or the hours worth less, or something, but I would counter with the cost of the pain of having to deal with all of these issues.

Another way to look at it is to compare the cost of those hours against the cost of doing something else, from an overall well-being perspective. Perhaps instead of spending 40 hours fenagling a free Ipod from some shyster in Florida the chump would have a higher quality of life doing something he actually liked.

Maybe people just undervalue their time.

Maybe people just get obsessed with the idea of "free."

Re:I wrote about this a while back, too...

[Ilgaz]

You should also write an essay about the amazing lowing profile of Slashdot users.

See all those lame iPod signatures with referrer? Thats what I talk about. Look when did they subscribe. Look if there is a single 5 digit guy/gal having that signature.

Yep, that's what I talk about.

From now on, I admit I will overrate all posts mentioning that lame free iPod. I don't think anything useful/insightful will come out from a guy/gal is so low to abuse signature system of slashdot for a free (!) thing in return.

I never abused slashdot for years and thats why I have excellent karma. That should give something back to me.

I don't have to view anything except Slashdot ads while using this site.