07th Apr 2005
Free iPod (Really! Sort of. Maybe)
So, here’s the deal. I’ve been working for weeks on a report that DoubleClick will soon issue called The Decade in Online Advertising. In the course of procrastinating writing it one night, I clicked on an ad on Webster.com.
The irony here is, although my profession, not to mention this particular report, revolves around online advertising, I don’t often click on ads. But this one just got me. It was an interactive bowling game. I tried it about five times without bowling a strike. Right as I decided to give up, it read my mind and as I was letting go of the ball to get back to my report — snap! — a strike! I was then ushered through to FreeiPod.com.
And, hey, who doesn’t want a free iPod? So, I start filling out some various forms, and quickly I realized the deal is they show you an endless supply of “special offers” for all sorts of crap — diet stuff, mortgages, credit cards, and on and on. You’re impelled over and over to view just one more page of these offers.
The longer I spent scrolling through them, the more determined I was to get my free iPod. To make a long story short, I may actually get one. With your help…
But see, I’m going to short circuit the process for you. As far as I can tell (and please do read the terms and conditions for yourself and don’t just take my word for it), you really need to sign up for only one of the endless offers. In my opinion, the one to go for is the BMG music club. It’s a really easy deal to abide by. You get six albums for a really low introductory price (I can’t be bothered to do all the research again now to get my facts straight, but something like $15 with shipping for six CDs). The selection isn’t like Amazon’s, but there’s enough that you can find six you want. Then, you have to buy only one more CD at list price (something like $18, plus shipping), and you’re free to quit the club. In the past, I’ve actually remained a member of BMG for a year or more; they constantly have special prices, and it’s not such a bad deal.
Or you could go for the same kind of club for DVDs, books, or the diet stuff, mortgages, credit cards, sex aids, whatever. They have a gazillion offers; point is you need to sign up for only one. (I say I think that’s true; I actually got suckered into to signing up for about for offers before I lost patience. Even so, I signed up for stuff I like: DVDs, CDs, books, so I can justify the expense and I’ll still come out ahead compared to the $400 for a new iPod. Possibly the limit is two. Please read the terms and conditions for yourself.)
When you’ve signed up for one (or maybe two), skip the rest of the offers click through directly to FreeiPod.com and make sure you register your account. Then you sit around and wait for them to acknowledge that your offer has been processed. That may take 2-3 weeks. That’s the stage I’m at. The site says 15 days, but I waited longer than that before I registered a comment with their customer support online ticketing system. A couple of days after that — today — my account shows that they’ve acknowledged I’ve signed up for the offer.
Now, supposedly the only next step is to convince five friends or anonymous blog readers to do the same. Yes, it’s a bit of a pyramid scheme. But, if all you have to do is sign up for BMG and get six heavily discounted CDs and buy one at full price, and then convince five of your friends or others to do the same, it still seems to me a good bargain for a free iPod.
Now, I’m not an idiot, or a scam artist myself. Here’s where I give you lots of caveat emptor advice. Please don’t follow my advice on this if you are an idiot. Here is an article from SFGate.com I just found that heaps lots of doubt on the service, including that there have been several complaints about it to the Better Business Bureau. Granted, it is not a highly transparent service. There is no obvious listing of a telephone number (though I know I’m a good enough researcher I am confident I could find one if I were really determined). So far, for better or worse, I’m still taking it on faith. The SFGate piece, BTW, notes that the one guy who the writer tracked down who went through all the hoops did eventually get an iPod for considerably less than the retail price.
I’m also given some confidence from the fact that the advertisers on the service include the likes of AOL, Bertelsmann, Blockbuster, Citibank, EarthLink, General Motors and USA Today, and that I first saw the ad on Webster.com. You’d think if it were a total scam, those reputable companies wouldn’t be associating with it.
Also, obviously, use a disposable or spam-protected email address for the registration process. There’s no doubt these guys will sell your email address to anything that moves. I personally use rickbruner@mailblocks.com for stuff like this, a $10/year service that is pretty bullet-proof email address service for spam protection (otherwise, I rarely check that address for anything but registering for dubious stuff online).
The key is to be organized enough about these kind “thing-of-the-month clubs” that you understand the obligation getting in and then quit before you get soaked (i.e., do unto others before they do unto you).
If you’re smart and organized enough to deal with all those caveats and you want an iPod for the price of a few discounted CDs, then click here. (And please do click there and don’t navigate directly to FreeiPod.com, as I am only going to get the prize if five of you navigate there via the link with my embedded code. If, for some perverse reason you decide to sign up without my code, your karma will make your life miserable.)
Or, if you prefer to inform me what an jerkwad I am for falling for this whole thing, feel free to send me a free iPod yourself, and I’ll strike out this whole post.
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After Book of the Month Club kicked me out as a member of about ten years standing, they said I wasn’t buying enough, I decided I needed to support my local book store and record shop before they get amazoned and walmarted to death. So, I try to buy my books at The Regulator Bookshop http://www.regbook.com and Offbeat music. I still need to visit Madd Waxx http://www.maddwaxx.com. They turned me on to John Legend with a giveaway sampler CD. When did BMG ever do that?
Also, BOMC now sends me a mailing about once a month asking me to return. It is really pathetic.
Don’t become a pod person, Rick.
I cannot belive you fell for this shit. I wouldn’t mind signing up for this as a tokan of goodwill, but it makes those assoles win. I dont like it one bit that they cash in on the human weekness for free stuff. I got tempted a couple of times by the I-pods and DVD player offers, but I am smart enough to read the fine print.
Sorry, rick, I cannot help ya here.
Remember,” THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FREE MEAL”
When are you ever anywhere that listening to an Ipod would be viable? Gonna listen to it while unicycling down the street? At your cushy new job? Don’t tell me you want to listen to “podcasts”. I like d “podcasting” better when it was called “taping stuff off the radio” “Time shifted media”, my ass.
You don’t need that much music with you at all times. And who the fuck cares if this offer is legit or even semi -legit? It’s just pandering to the consumer greed of the reluctant, people who have convinced themselves they don’t need an Ipod-but hey, this one’s really cheap if you also buy a dildo, a toothwhitener, and some insurance.
Don’t do it-that’s the white man’s game.
What a bunch of downers you lot are. And Jay, lecturing me on musical excess, a man with some 7,000 LPs in his living room. I think I’d quite enjoy listening to my would-be iPod while unicycling to work.
Props, Pablo, though, for the Invasion of the Body Snatchers reference. You’ll all envy the hell out of me when I have those white buds dangling from my ears…
Yeah, but those 7,000 records are in my living room, not strapped to my head as I ride my dorkcycle to and fro in public. It’s not musical excess, they’re for research and evaluation (as they say on MP3 blogs). That’s the other thing music is for, besides
rockin’ the mike like a vandal, makin’ heads nod and booties bounce. Don’t let the ofays tell you how to consume music. What would you rather have, a fucktillion songs that sound kinda crappy (audio wise) Or twenty songs that sound really good?
If you must take the road of excess, get a portable CD player that also reads MP3s and a burner. You can get the whole shebang for about
100-200 dollars less than an Ipod and also do other things with that gear.
Actually, Rick, the freeipods.com thing actually works, and I’ve got the iPod filled with prog rock and fusion to prove it. I’m one of the poor suckers who proves the concept, as I never cancelled my 99-cent trial offer of Rhapsody because I really liked it. Definitely beats trying to decide which CDs to bring to work on any given day, at least until I poke a hole in my firewall at home to stream stuff off my home computer.
Can’t speak to any uptick in spam, as it’s just a drop in the bucket at this point. Creating an e-mail alias specifically for the offer might help track that.
Hey dude, did you have any luck getting your iPod? I found a place that helps you get your referrals and keep track of how far along you are with it — check it out at freeipodnetwork.com
I’m tryin to get my iPod Shuffle — my friends say I’m a fool, but I’m goin’ for it.