So yesterday I got a little ranty (although for me, that was quite the tame rant, donchathink?) about companies that don't send freebies as promised or send out emails/Facebook statuses that say that a deal was posted "fraudulently".
But see - here's the thing. While not all companies yet understand the viral nature of The Internets, we as customers and potential recipients of freebies need a little reality check ourselves.
So without further ado (what exactly IS an ado?):
Dear Freebie Lovers:
First of all, I hope that we can all agree that no company owes us free product, right? If you don't agree with that statement, you may as well stop reading right now.
Onward....
If you have been on this site for more than a week, you know that I often reference my Getting Freebies The Smart Way post. Most freebies require that you give them an email address to get it and if you are giving them your "regular" email, you are being foolish (unless you reallyreallyreally like/trust that company and want to start receiving daily/weekly/monthly emails from them)
It would be vanity to assume that I am the only "Deal/Frugal Blog" that you read, so this needs to be said. When I first started this site, I linked to some freebies that I would never consider linking to now. There are a ton of "freebie offers" that are no more than phishing sites and many sites/blogs continue to link to those so-called "freebies" (not for malicious reasons, but generally because they haven't yet learned to recognize a phishing site). They want your email so that you can start getting even MORE emails for "male enhancement supplements" and from desperate Nigerian Widows Of Very Wealthy Men. Setting up an additional/spam account solely for the purpose of freebies is a good idea. I just checked my Spam email for the first time in 2 months and I have 7492 emails in it. Need I say more?
And onward (starting to feel like Willy Wonka...not the Johnny Depp Willy Wonka - the REAL Willy Wonka - Gene Wilder!)
What do you do when a freebie is cancelled?
Simply put - you move on. After all, you haven't given them your REAL email address, have you? And If I really wanted to find out the address of Sally FreebieLover, there is always The Googles
I know that for many people, their first instinct is to cry "SCAM!". I've seen it so many times and the worst is on Facebook (mainly because of the ability of annoyed Facebook Fans to leave very nasty comments while the owners of the companies are sleeping, eating or just having a life off of Facebook)
But you know what? There are 4 kinds of Freebie Offers out there:
1. The ones that are phishing sites and no freebie will be forthcoming. I make every effort to NOT post those, likely even skipping over legitimate freebies if there is a question in my mind about the validity of the offer.
2. The very small business who thought it would be cute to offer some freebies and then gets slammed with requests that they cannot fill without pushing themselves in to bankruptcy. These are not people who were offering a freebie simply to get your precious email address. These are people who never saw it coming and are deleting requests like crazy and crying to their family over the multiple people who are calling them names. They simply didn't "get it" before. Rest assured - they get it now!
3. The medium-sized company who knows enough to include an "offer good while supplies last" disclaimer. You will get no email/personal apology from these people for not sending the freebie. You just won't get the freebie and you might be added to their email list (which is why you should have a separate email for freebies)
4. The large company with sophisticated-enough software to pull the freebie as soon as it has hit the limit, or deny you if you have already requested it. You are getting this freebie, if you are eligible.
But the bottom line? What are we really talking about? With very few exceptions, we are talking about single-serve or single-use items. If I don't get a freebie, I don't even really notice. I only sign up for half the freebies that I post on this site and my mailbox is full almost every day.
Freebie-hunting should be fun. I really doubt that a single-use packet of expensive face cream is the only thing standing between a person and the poorhouse. As long as you are using an email designated just for freebies, what is the harm of not getting the freebie?
Unless you think that the site was designed by your own personal stalker solely for the purpose of getting your home address (among the 15,000 other requests that they received), when they could have just used 1 of 20 other sites on The Internets to get your address in 5 minutes. In which case, that's a WHOLE other issue that I won't touch with a 10-foot strand of free shampoo samples!
Bottom line? Freebies are a gift, not a right. If you don't get the freebie, I promise you, there will be a bunch of other offers to replace that one!
Thanks and smooches!
- Mindi
Ok - the last post was critical of companies...something that people always love. This time it is critical of some (not all) of you! Please feel free to call me out if you disagree with what I have said!
Heather
Oh no, I agree. There are a lot of freebies out there that I don't bother signing up for because they aren't something I'm interested in. Some I don't sign up for because I think they want to know too much. I'm a bit paranoid but I think in this day and age that can pay off.
Dawn
You are SO RIGHT about freebies being a gift, not a right. So many times on Facebook fan pages, people complain about not getting a coupon for a free this or that, or complaining that the coupon says "buy one get one free" (not just "free"), and that they're boycotting the company and never buying their products again. All I can think of is "greed greed greed" and I hope the companies don't think all us freebie-lovers are like that!
Mindi Cherry
I have to say - your comment made me a bit uncomfortable for a minute, because it reminded me of the whole Texas Pete fiasco...and I was wondering if I was being hypocritical.....
Until I remembered that my whole issue with the Texas Pete deal was NOT that they pulled the freebie, but that they pulled the freebie and then set out on a systematic campaign to smear bloggers for "getting it wrong" (without realizing that some of us have the ability to copy & paste the original offer when it occured 😉 )
Janet
Mindi, I LOVE your dedication to issues like this and your awesome coupon ethics. I also love your full disclosure with all your reviews and give a ways. There's some blogs out there that do none of that, and while I may enjoy the blog it always makes me feel a little uneasy reading sometimes. You keep your readers well informed on everything and I thank you for that!
- Janet
Beth Anne
This is a great post and a great reminder to all of us. I do feel sorry for those smaller companies that get slammed sometimes, but like you said -- they know now! And hopefully they were able to handle the situation in a way that even though they pulled the freebie, their name is out there now. Likewise, hopefully WE handled it in a way that the little company might try and do another freebie (with "while supplies last" written this time!)
.-= Beth Anne´s last blog ..Book Review: Saint Patrick =-.
Andrea Rains
I love this post. Thank you for the time and dedication that you put into your blog to not only give us tips on great deals, but for always taking it two steps further with posts like these. You are very appreciated.
Caroline
Amen again!!