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."

TINSTAAFL, indeed

[RobertB-DC]

As anyone who's read Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress [wikiquote.org] knows, the Loonies were schooled in survival, not proper English. "From the TINSTAAFL Dept" may be more proper, but the definition (according to the usual source [wikipedia.org]) is "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch". Sure, it's a double negative and ain't ain't a word. But I don't think you'll ever hear a Loonie say "There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch, by Jove" on their way to High Tea.

Or perhaps the editors left it that way so that us whiners would have something to bi^Wcomplain about.

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

[Tuxedo Jack]

And I dissected the bastards' EULA at length.

Read, if you're interested. [tuxedojack.com]

Simpler way

[Profane MuthaFucka]

TiVo has a TiVo rewards program. Sign up for a credit card and you get points with your purchases that you can use to get an iPod. If you pay the thing off every month, your iPod is free.

Besides the iPod, they also have Bose noise cancelling headphones, a Nikon digital camera, a couple types of new TiVo units, and some other lesser things.

People have sold their demographics for a lot less

[DavisNet]

For an uninformed or disconected soul, the "chance" for a free iPod is well worth selling out your vital statistics. I'm always amazed at how easy it is to convice someone to sign on the dotted line, and it's offten only for a T-Shirt.
This organization simply raized the reward, and thereby made the hoops you must jump through more elaborate.

Worked for me

[L. VeGas]

1. I used a throwaway email account.
2. I signed up for free AOL for broadband.
3. I put links on my personal website.
3. I cancelled AOL for broadband 2 weeks later.
4. I waited about 6 months.
5. They sent me an iPod.
6. A week later they sent me a t-shirt as well.

For every story like mine, there are a bucket of people that never got enough referrers. I think I got in early enough so that it was still a novelty.

Re:FREE IPODS! yo

[shadowlordseth]

That is so cruel! It was an accident. I promise! I dropped it while copying our site to it. apparently while spinning, hard drives are more prone to crashes.

Re:No such Thing

[Anonymous Coward]

It's amazing that when *Sony* does something completely stupid, and releases a player that requires DRM, everyone assumes that *Apple* must be doing the same thing.

At least, that's all I could think of, since anyone with actual information would know that the iPod has always had native support for MP3 and AAC, which are both industry-standard formats with no DRM.

Not *the* Free iPod people

[Robotech_Master]

Note that this article is not about the Gratis Networks freeipod offer, which was the first and most well-known, but about one of their more sleazy imitators. Here's another article [boston.com] that compares and contrasts a sleazy imitator to the original Gratis Networks.

Gratis Networks just requires you to do one single promotional offer--and get several of your friends to do the same. Unlike the fraudulent con game that most people are referring to when they say "pyramid scheme" (you know, the "send five bucks to everyone on this list and then add your name" type thing) no money changes hands between you, Gratis, or your referrals; the money is paid from the advertisers to Gratis. Click the link in my signature to find more info. It's legit. Granted, you're going to receive a lot of spam to the address you sign up for with, but that's what easily-available GMail addresses [isnoop.net] or disposable email address services like SpamGourmet [spamgourmet.com] are for.

Oh, and FYI, I received my free 20 gig iPod several months ago, and just got my free 27" Sony flatscreen TV last night. And I only need six more completed referrals to get my free Mac Mini...

Doctors have figured out the ipod for free

[acomj]

The doctors wrote software that integrates the ipod.. And had their employers buy them ipods..

Pure Geuinus..

article 1 [silicon.com]

article news.com.com [com.com]

Re:TINSTAAFL, indeed

[Anonymous Coward]

Not only that, you used ^W instead of ^H.

^W is a standard shortcut (in Unix) to delete the previous word. If he had pressed ^H instead, he would have ended up with "bcomplain", which I'm pretty sure is not a word. The actual correct alternative, ^H^H, is getting a bit verbose.

My experiences...

[bmooney28]

Disclaimer: I haven not tried hard nor received
my free ipod [freeipods.com]...

But...

Several friends of mine have... Some have even gotten free flat panel monitors,
and even a free Dell Dimension 4000 system... Apparently, it helps to have
a popular website [randomdrivel.com] to promote it...
But the truth of the matter is that SOME of these free offers do exist... Wired
has published stories [wired.com] with mixed results...

Also, since signing up, I haven't noticed *any* increase in snail mail spam... I
did not give out my real phone number, and no credit card is necessary. My
throwaway gmail account has only 8 messages in it (and only 2 may be related...)
so who knows... I am a believer for the time being....

Re:No such Thing

[Trillan]

From the tech specs page, the iPod can play MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Music Store, M4A, M4B, M4P), Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4) and WAV.

The majority of these formats are not encumbered. I really don't understand why so many people think the iPod can play only iTunes Music Store songs.

Re:Doesn't "free" have a meaning?

[__aamcgs2220]

You're right but you're wrong. Yes, it's illegal in most places to make you buy one thing to get another thing free. In the case of these schemes, though, you only have to sign up for an "offer," which has a free trial period involved. As long as you cancel the offer within the trial period, you've incurred no charges and that's why it's legal. The shady part is that it's not always very clear (pronounced: @#%&ing hidden) how to opt out of the offers. Most people will probably forget about it in 90 days and lose the cancellation instructions that they might not have ever found in the first place, and therefore they incurred charges. They had an opportunity to get it for free, and that's what counts. Their own neglect to cancel the offer isn't the fault of freeipods.com and it's therefore legal. So, if you do choose to sign up for one of these things, know the people you get to sign up for the offers, get them some disposable email addresses, search diligently for cancellation instructions and make sure they work, and mark on your calendar when you can cancel the offers and still get the free stuff. Your diligence and patience is how you pay for the free stuff.

Re:Obvious

[Anonymous Coward]

I know several people who have gone thru all the steps on these sites, and actually received a free ipod! For real. Then they just cancelled their trial accounts.

Scam and not scam...

[NYTrojan]

I've seen those consumer incentive places and they look pretty sleezy to me, but I DID get an ipod for free from freeipods.com. And it really was free.... with the possible exception of some junk mail to my house (easy enough to throw away) and some spam to an email account I don't use, and some telemarketing to a phone number that isn't really mine (When forced, I give out numbers that are a few digits off).

Seriously people I don't get the "They're going to spam me under" argument. Who doesn't have access to a 'spam account' now a days? If not, get a free one from google. As to the 'deals' they make you do, if you're careful you and your friends won't have to pay a dime. The key is be CAREFUL...

oh and avoid that consumer incentive one... but just looking at that site should be evidence enough

Re:Let the Flaming Begin. But! (A 'sob' story.)

[Tibor the Hun]

I'm sorry to hear you got flamed.
Some script kiddies probably got jealous.

I think everyone knows that this is a piramid scheme, but it also works. You just "hack" the system with dummy email addresses, and get the iPod.

I myself found it easier to buy a shuffle, than have to nag on my friends, but I've never heard of anyone NOT getting an iPod after sucessfuly jumping through the hoops, while I did hear of people who got theirs.

Man, what the fuck do people expect?

[tekunokurato]

The point of free ipod is to offer you something that costs essentially only time, as opposed to mountains of cash. That, to the vast majority of people out there, is valuable. I've got a pal who paid people to sign up for the orders for him and collected his ipod for about $50 bucks. Saved a boatload of money.

Re:TINSTAAFL, indeed

[Sabaki]

Bzzt.

I ain't sure if you're joking, but Check here [reference.com] just in case.

However, their was a mistake in the grandparent, in the spelling of "sentence." So it goes.

Re:Obvious

[christopherfinke]

This isn't as obvious as it sounds. The sites that the article talks about are not the Gratis (e.g., freeipods.com [freeipods.com], freegamingsystems.com [freegamingsystems.com], freeMiniMacs.com [freeminimacs.com]) sites. They are the sites that have the "Hit the target to win an iPod" ads, and then ask you to complete a survey. From what I have seen, it is so obvious that those sites are a waste of time and money, I can't believe anyone tries them.

The Gratis sites are completely legitimate, and it is actually beneficial to complete the offers to get the iPod. I actually got the shipment of my free 1GB iPod Shuffle today (for my fiancee; she was thrilled), and by doing a $1/month trial of Great Fun (I think), I ended up with $20 in Circuit City gift certificates to boot. Hardly a waste of my time, since all I had to do was take 5 minutes to fill out the sign-up form, and then take 5 minutes to call in and cancel (literally, 5 minutes). So in the end, my free iPod Shuffle cost me negative $19 and 10 minutes. Not bad at all.

Re:Obvious

[christopherfinke]

Also, I wanted to mention that when I signed up for freeiPods.com, I got tons of spam to the throwaway address I used, but when I signed up at freeiPodShuffles.com, there was an option:

"I would like to receive promotional e-mails from Gratis's partners."

(or something like that). I unchecked it, and I have not received a single spam e-mail to the account I used for that offer.

Re:Worked for me

[christopherfinke]

I mean, even the "freecreditreports.com" is a scam that is not free.

As mandated by the United States government, every US citizen is entitled to three free credit reports (one from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies) each year: https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp [annualcreditreport.com]

Re:No such Thing

[javaxman]

And by "equally good" you mean HD based media players that can play music in non-DRM encumbered formats, right? I'd consider that better, not equally good.

Quick, name a non-DRM format the iPod does not play. Hmmm... oh! I know! It doesn't support FLAC, I think... though, you could convert that FLAC to an AIFF or WAV and you'd be in business, i guess...

Just curious, why do you think iPods play only DRM formats??? Only Sony would try to do something so crazy as make a player that doesn't support at least MP3... and even they would figure it out after the it failed to sell...

Re:Obvious

[Magus424]

I've gotten a free iPod, free Photo iPod, and I'm 3 refs away from a free Mac Mini :-)

free mac minis dissected

[pcp_ip]

It works [studio2f.com] but it's more ponzi scheme than pyramid. Only the early ones in receive anything.

Re:TINSTAAFL, indeed

[opqdonut]

Well, ^U is kill line...

jam:~% stty -a
speed 38400 baud; rows 24; columns 80; line = 0;
intr = ^C; quit = ^\; erase = ^?; kill = ^U; eof = ^D; eol = ;
eol2 = ; start = ^Q; stop = ^S; susp = ^Z; rprnt = ^R; werase = ^W;
lnext = ^V; flush = ^O; min = 1; time = 0;
-parenb -parodd cs8 -hupcl -cstopb cread -clocal -crtscts
-ignbrk brkint ignpar -parmrk -inpck -istrip -inlcr -igncr icrnl ixon -ixoff
-iuclc -ixany imaxbel
opost -olcuc -ocrnl onlcr -onocr -onlret -ofill -ofdel nl0 cr0 tab0 bs0 vt0 ff0
isig icanon iexten echo echoe echok -echonl -noflsh -xcase -tostop -echoprt
echoctl echoke

"man stty" might be useful. Your shell might some have nifty shortucts too, so "man bash" (or "man zsh" in my case) is nice. You might also want to check your wm's man page.