Have you ever received a "free gift" from a promotional incentive program?

I would advise against it for several reasons: 1. you will probably spend more on the “simploe” offers (which usually are not so simple) than you would spend to purchase a free ipod or PS3. 2. The “simple” offers usually have terms and conditions which you must agree to in order to accept these offers. These “terms and conditions” sometimes include hidden monthly charges or subscriptions. 3. There is no such thing as a free lunch. If you are offered something free, look very closely to find the hidden costs.

There is ALWAYS a hitch. Chances are you will end up paying more for the item than if you bought it at regular price in the first place.

…and I am not a cynical person, for the most part.

All I can say is, READ THE fine print!

They are scams. TO get you to buy more “other” things then what the “free” gift is worth.

Does anyone have any actual personal experience with these programs? I’m well aware there’s no such thing as a free lunch, but I also know information is valuable. Information such as shopping habits, names, addresses, etc can be very valuable to advertisers and marketers who aren’t usually paying for the free gifts they give away anyway. So for them to exchange something that is basically value-less to them, such as a PS3, for information that is valuable- it’s basically a good deal for all involved (in theory)

That’s why I’m looking for actual personal experience people may have had, not just “it’s a scam.”

@jballou The only thing I’ve come close to finding being a “real deal” are websites like MyPoints, where you click on their website before you do online shopping, gain points & really get rewarded with free gift cards from the points you’ve racked up. In one normal year of online shopping, I attained 25,000 points (to clue you in: most $50 gift cards from them “cost” 7500 points)

Otherwise, all the rest are just a catch to get you to sign away your credit, or your life to them to get a “free” $100 item.

I know people who tried doing this but when they realized all the personal information they asked for and all the hidden fees, they backed out.

Most of the reasonable ones like that are gone. Like 4 years ago however, they were legit. I got a free ipod. My friend made a killing on them. He got like 4 ipods an xbox 360 a flat screen tv and some other stuff. I also had like maybe 4 other friends who recieved stuff. but the companies got wise and made it really hard to actually succeed so I wouldn’t try it nowadays

They wouldn’t “give away” the premium unless they received back something of equal or greater value. Most of the time, it’s easier to just buy it with money, and everyone knows what’s going on.

The one or two times I was bored enough to try to play that game, it was just “one more offer away” for offer after offer after offer, so many that I just stopped. A lot of them are “opt-ins” for getting junk mail, junk email, salesmen to call, and sales. Your data is thoroughly mined. Luckily I have a “spam” email account for crap like that. I used a variant on my real name, and got crap mail for a long, long time addressed to that name.

Never did get a free anything, though, which is what I suspected all along, and just wanted to verify, ya know?

My brother received free Tampax in a mail promotion once, one of the funniest moments of my life.

@jaketheripper and @laureth Thanks so much!

I just looked at downloading Ad-Aware Plus FREE if I would only accept one of the following offers. I looked through them and saw flowers—hey, I was going to order flowers for my party anyway. Picked out a couple of nice centerpiece arrangements totaling $64 and was about to click Place Order when I looked again at the final total—double what I expected! What’s the deal? Oh. FTD added a $29.99 service charge to each item. F—orget that. Cancel, cancel, cancel…back to the original order page. If I wanted Ad-Aware Plus, I might as well just pay for it—at ¼ the cost of getting it free.