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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."
Well duh....
Don't bother to mod this as redundant. It is. What I'm wondering is who wouldn't think that there'd be a catch to getting a free $300+ gadget?
I don't respond to AC's.
I participated in some offers from Gratis Internet, and it did work.
I got my free iPod
I got my free mac mini
They lived up to their reputation. You can see my blog posts on getting a free iPod here. I did my best to cover every step... including the waiting.
What I found is you typically will wait about 3-5 weeks after you complete the requirements, until something ships.
But they do ship... and I have yet to pay a penny to complete an offer (there are typically 1 or 2 completely free ones).
I'm currently looking at getting a Sony PSP, so if you want to help make my bounty 3: Here's the link.
Rather than one of those complex schemes, why not just enter a free giveaway? We give away a free iPod Shuffle once per month to our newsletter subscribers. All you have to do is subscribe to our very low volume newseletter announcing our specials:
http://www.assortedinternet.com/specials/
Take care,
Brian