Beginning of the end?

[bischbosch]

Has the freebie bubble burst? Or does it have further to go? I suspect it has further to go, but with itemsforyou remaining ominously incommunicado and ipodhush having already gone AWOL, I can't help but feel a little jittery.

The freebie scene is ripe for ripping people off. We, the punters, are a perverse lot - we have overcome our initial scepticism and learned to disregard our instincts. Previously when something seemed too good to be true, we held back, not wanting to get our fingers burned. But look how easily we are lulled into a false sense of security.

Woostar will, I hope, forgive me for using the Freeclickz Blue Square promo as an example. How many of us flocked to spend our £10 by signing up! How many of us have rec'd our cashbacks? Well, me for one. And several more are promised. But, and here I by no means wish to imply that Freeclickz won't be true to their word, it's remarkable how trusting we freebiers become just because one or two punters receive their goodies. Take freegadgets4me - with $600 on offer, it could be renamed freemoney4me. We have seen rogerdodger's Paypal credit and now we have faith - we all believe we can have the same. So we pay others to go green for us - £15... £20... £25... because we are so certain that we can earn more in return.

Maybe caution is called for. Is the resounding silence of itemsforyou the first sign that the tide has turned?

The fact is anyone can set up a freebie network. Anyone can visit these forums and sound accommodating and genuine. It doesn't take much to convince freebiers the site is 'legit'. And the more people sign up, the bigger the temptation to do a runner becomes, especially as the logistics management challenge grows exponentially. More time, resources, staff are needed to maintain the customer interface. Yet who is willing to commit to them? It will always be easier to pull the plug.

So, even if itemsforyou does emerge from the darkness, I have no doubt that other scares and disappointments are just around the corner. I just hope that by the time the sky falls in, my 'goods received' exceed my 'expenses'.

Tread carefully, fellow freebie-seekers.

[rogerdodger]

all i needed was some good starwars music in the background.

very informative - sceptical - optimistic - etc etc

[holybatman]

I feel the same.... sigh.....

[Amanda]

You make several valid points - we are so quick to jump on new sites, particularly with decent offers and/or refs, that we forget ourselves. However, I wouldn't say the freebie bubble has "burst" exactly. There are only one or two users here who have gifts from practically all the major sites. I have only one, from freepay.

But yes, you are absolutely right, we need to learn to be much more cautious!

[Will]

Hasnt' burst!
Just need to be careful... make sure you know someone's completed the site - if needs be getting the lowest ref item - before you try the site - if they havent, stay away!

[holybatman]

Just recived my bluesquare money from Woostar !!! Thanks ! Go Woostar ! I'm off to spend my ill gotten gains on ebay !!! Tee hee !

[hinz]

Originally Posted by Amanda

You make several valid points - we are so quick to jump on new sites, particularly with decent offers and/or refs, that we forget ourselves. However, I wouldn't say the freebie bubble has "burst" exactly. There are only one or two users here who have gifts from practically all the major sites. I have only one, from freepay.

But yes, you are absolutely right, we need to learn to be much more cautious!

Yes, we do need to be more cautious, and bischbosch you've made some very good points I think everyone should think about.

Up until recently I've done well so far to avoid tricky sites, but I signed upto freebiefreebie and now items4you. Now neither of them are scam sites, but I still think something is not right with freebiefreebie and the current items4you situation doesn't really inspire alot of confidence.

But it's definetly not the end!!!

hinz

[DiscoDJChris]

no way! sites will come and go, sites will go and sites will come but we will have the freebie scene for a long time to come yet - i bet!

[rogerdodger]

Originally Posted by DiscoDJChris

no way! sites will come and go, sites will go and sites will come but we will have the freebie scene for a long time to come yet - i bet!

lots of fresh faces here.
except for a few, faces will come and go too i have seen that already

[Free4Me]

Interesting topic.

The freebie world is always changing - and site owners need to be able to adapt to that. The problem is most sites come with intentions to be legit - but after they ship a few gifts they realize their business model was not as wonderful as they thought and they go under. It is too easy for anybody to make a freebie website - and that is the downfall of it.

The best choice, although undesireable, is to wait about 4-6 months after a site opens to see if it still maintains good shipping and customer support. At that point if a place is still up and running it is safe to assume they are not going to turn on you.

[rogerdodger]

not wanting to beat about the bush mate, but any thoughts on recent issues in the US concerning certain US sites?

[Dave_UK]

It's not so much a case of freebie sites coming or going but the offer sites will do.

Merchants such as screenselect are becoming more and more aware of the 'one time transaction' strategy used by their so called freebie seeking 'customers'.

There are only so many merchants offering high enough commission for referals to stay at e.g 5, and eventually these merchants will dissapear.

[Free4Me]

Originally Posted by rogerdodger

not wanting to beat about the bush mate, but any thoughts on recent issues in the US concerning certain US sites?

Hmm...not sure I'm sure what you mean. Care to elaborate?

[rogerdodger]

what are your thoughts on the apparent disappearence of the site owner of itemsforyou and gogreen.
a lot of people are beginnning to "panic" but its only been three days since her last post in the US.
would you say "there is nothing to worry about" or is the owner, that you have worked closely with in the past, struggling to fulfil the role of site owner?

[Free4Me]

I am friends with Maree of itemsforyou, and she hasn't been here lately or on other boards for a few reasons, but primarily because she is moving out to Cali soon, so she has been swamped.

Other sites in the US have been frantic though. A huge advertiser - Jet Bingo/Bingo Cafe has decided to screw us and not pay us. For many that is several thousand dollars. I personally can easily eat the cost, but several smaller networks are struggling with what to do. It is very possible that things could get messy and if they don't pay us there could be a lawsuit involved. So if you're wondering why some of the site owners have been kind of slow and or almost non existant lately, theres a good chance that is a good reason.

No reason to worry though, we have to deal with things like this all the time

[bruffterman]

could you draw up some kind of class action suit?

[Free4Me]

Originally Posted by bruffterman

could you draw up some kind of class action suit?

That's the plan if we get nowhere but I honestly believe that we will get paid in the end without having to go that far - I've had to deal with situations like this before, it's just a matter of patience.

[bruffterman]

often a free 30 min visit to a lawyer and $50 worth of a threatening type letter can be useful to expedite the proceedure however

[rockykabir]

As with any business, if you are not able to fully commit to the cause then you shouldn't be involved at all. I'm hearing to often of freesite owners being uni students or doing everything part time with another job

I'm sorry, but Maree's excuse of being too busy due to her move to Cali is not good enough. If she is too busy, then she should allocate the work to someone else. I hope it works out fine but tbh I'm very pee'd off anyway as the damage has already been done.

I also get extremely stressed when you seem someone opening up a site which has clearly been scrapply done up one night. Presentation is key in marketing (which is what this industry is about) and you want to manifest as much confidence to newbies as possible.

These pretenders are damaging the freeitem scene which depends almost entirely on reputation.

It is clear that the reason why a lot of people jump into new networks is because of the lack of desirable gifts offered by the main players (Freepay, are you listening?). Also, the fact that you can only complete the site once means that it is enough for people to try alternatives. Unless Freepay (in particular) sort out these problems, I can't see any prevention to dodgy networks....

[DiscoDJChris]

well said rockykabir.