One day a year, the good folks at Ben & Jerry's give away a free cone to anyone that comes in to one of their stores. It's part of showing gratitude to their customer base. I'm sure they hope to win new customers and it's good PR. Yesterday was that day. My husband and son went in to collect theirs and encountered a really rude employee. I'm sure she was inundated by the crowds, but at the same time, she should be glad to have a job in this economy. Right?
Let's move on to America Online. Several years back, executives at AOL decided that they would make their services free to anyone who already had internet access. Millions of subscribers quickly changed over. Here's the catch--if you are not a paying member, they don't provide any technical support. So, if their service happens to hit a kink, which it frequently does, they won't talk to you.
Finally, I've been hearing a lot lately about Acai berry scams. The Acai berry was touted to be the best thing since the birth control pill. It was supposed to be high in antioxidants and very good for your health--so good that they would give you a supply for free. The catch was--when you signed up for your free batch, you had to give your credit card number to continue to receive it after your free batch ran out. Unfortunately, most folks started getting charged long before they even received the free supply. Many had to actually cancel the credit card in order to stop the charges.
The moral of the story is--Sometimes it's better to pay for services and have recourse, than to be at the mercy of a freebie. What do you think? Any more examples?
Your comments--priceless!!
I TOTALLY AGREE , SOMETIMES FREE ISNT JUST WORTH IT .. BUT I MUST ATEST TO NATURAL ACAI BERRY JUICE ,,I AGREE PLEASE DONT BUY THE SUPPLEMENTS ONLINE ..THOSE ARE SCAMS.. AT UR LOCAL STORE IN THE ORGANIC ISLE U WILL FIND NATURAL ACAI BERRY JUICE ..( IT VERY GOOD ) AND DOES HAVE GREAT HEALTH BENEFITS.. STAY AWAY FROM THE SCAMS
Have a friend who received an email for a free sample of a powdered diet drink she only needed to pay for shipping, so she did. she got the free sample without an invoice or anything, she was not impressed by it and promptly forgot about it. Till her next bankstatement with an $89 draft to this company. by the time she tracked the company down and asked what was going on the man told her did u read the terms or conditions, well she hadn't as she thought she had just orderded a free sample and she had never received any further products from them. She has been dealing with this since feb. Be careful when u use a credit or debit card!
I agree...most of the time, you get what you pay for. Same as, you get what you ask for. When you ask for nothing, it's usually what you get. ;)
Almost nothing is actually free. Use the freebie if you are interested in the product. If there was a criminal offering a free punch in the face with every free robbery, I doubt the line would be long. The question is how well you can live with the terms for the free item. Some entity always subsidizes the freebie.
You do surveys for free stuff, you are giving away research data about yourself that makes it easier for the quantitative marketers to figure out how you make decisions, probably better than most understand.
McDonald's gave away free fries here on Tuesdays in February. It was a package of small fries and you had to ask for them to get them even if you saw the signs on the window. The hook was the reality that almost no one can walk into McDonald's and just get a small fry order.
I'm sure the Ben & Jerry's expects to see you again. That free cone deal is not the best offer, but it does get people focused on the start of the ice cream season.
...and handing over the credit card before the first sample of a freebie is CINDERELLA FOOLISH. Let's find a shoe and use it to pick a bride.
I like free but won't stand in long lines,answer a whole bunch of questions etc to get it. The AOL free experience is one of those you get when you pay for experiences. The tech service was never that great so I'll deal w/the inconveniences before I'll pay again. Luckily I have good ISP w/decent tech support