A Day Late

I was watching the news a week or so ago and they featured a web site called “freeipods.com.” The idea behind the site is you signup and pick an iPod you’d like to receive. They offer all colors of the mini-iPod in addition to the 20GB model. To receive your free iPod you have to participate in one of their sponsored “offers.” The offers vary from joining BMG or Columbia House, applying for a credit card, subscribing to a newspaper, etc. In addition to completing an offer you have to refer 5 people who also complete an offer. Once you and your five referrals complete an offer, you request your free iPod.

Sounds like your basic pyramid scheme, huh? Well…probably because it is. None the less, the news featured a couple teenagers who successfully completed everything and received a free iPod. It all sounded a little too good to be true, so I did a little google searching and discovered similar reports from CNN and Wired magazine. I also found a few weblogs with positive information about it. I didn’t find anything negative so I decided to signup and see how it goes.

The offer I chose was the free blockbuster online 2 week membership. You have to remain a member during the two week trial after that you can cancel. When you signup for the blockbuster offer you must enter a credit card number. If you neglect to cancel after the free two weeks you get charged $17.95/month for your membership. That’s the kicker on most if not all the “free” offers. You HAVE to remember to cancel or you’re going to get charged. It’s also good to read the fine print. One of the free offers was for a free 1 month membership (I forget what for). However, in the fine print it indicates you must submit your desire to cancel 2 weeks before the free trial runs out, otherwise you’ll get charged for the next month. The blockbuster online seemed like the easiest, most trustworthy so that’s what I signed up for. I loved the two week trial membership. I received 3 free DVD’s in the mail and also two free in store rental coupons. Not bad for not paying anything. Also, I should note that the offers aren’t always available. For example after I signed up a few friends tried to get the blockbuster offer but it was unavailable. I suspect the site limits how many people participate in each offer. I checked today and the blockbuster offer is available again, so it looks like they upped their limit.

That’s been my experience thus far. The offers are pretty easy to complete but the hard part is finding 5 people to refer. You’d think it wouldn’t be that tough, but it is. Anyway, if anyone who reads this is still interested. Here’s my referral link, feel free to click on it and signup: http://www.freeiPods.com/?r=12078946.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 30th, 2004 at 10:11 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.