beef

1. set a goal.
hey guys, i found this cool site freeipods.com. i think i’m going to try to get one.

no way man, that’s a scam. it’s a pyramid scheme. there is no way you are going to get one.

no really. i’m just going to try. they are so cute and i would look so sexy with one.

2. set your game plan
I signed up on the front page, making sure I gave them a new email address. I may be gullible but I don’t need anymore spam. How tough could this be? Sign up for one offer and then get five other people to do the same thing and the ipod would be mine. I harrassed a few people I knew and tried to convince them of the glories that could be theirs if they just helped me out once. First, I had to sign up for my offer. As it happened, when I signed up, the ebay offer was still available (currently, other offers include BMG, Columbia House, PetMeds, Blockbuster, etc.). All you needed to do was sign up for a new account and bid on an item. You didn’t even need to win the item. Well, they got wise to that one pretty quick and it was removed from the offers but I got in on that one. I sent out my referral link to a few places I hang out. I got the typical - get that spam out of here, why don’t you get a life, why don’t you just buy one? I wasn’t going to be deterred by such weak attempts to stop me. I got my five referrals.

3. wait
Now the waiting begins. They got multiple steps to “verify” all your referrals. i waited a few days. no response on the website to my status. i check back one day and it says two of my referrals have been denied due to “irregular” circumstances. My account was then placed on “hold”. At this point, I’m having doubts concerns and then the holiday season comes around and I don’t really think about it too much. After the holidays, the lightbulb comes on again upstairs and I battle to get two more referrals. I get one from a random and then convince a-ron to help me out for the fifth one. They both go through and now I have to ait for the verification process again. I think an additional month goes by with a few emails going back and forth, they are telling me that things are backed up and will take a little while.

4. tenacity
Finally, after a few exchanges back and forth on February 10 as shown here, we finally come to an understanding that my account can come off hold because I’m such a nice guy. Really, all customer service responses were curt, one to five word responses. Straight and to the point. I’m sure they are dealing with a lot of people who were just misinformed. wheeeee! Now, my account went into verification mode again.

3. wait
We had resolved the hold issue on the 10th of February, so it was back to step three. Waiting. Finally, my status was upgraded to processing, then sent to vendor, and finally, shipped. The status turned to shipped on March 8. I had no idea how long this was going to take. No information about who was shipping it or where exactly it was coming from. At this point, nothing would be suprising.

5. nirvana
Saturday, March 12, there is a knock at the door. A tall, handsome, Airborne Express driver hands me an oddly shaped box. My eyes light up. It has arrived. From start to finish, it only took me about 7 months to get the ipod. Was it worth it, I think so. It got me a free ipod. I have enough things to listen to music on, why should I spend all that money to get another one. Well, here it is - the holy grail.

P.S. My experience may be unusual, boring, normal, or unique. I have no answers for anyone. I know three other people who have also received their free ipods. They managed to do it in a much more timely fashion than I was able to. I think their typical experience was 6-8 weeks. Don’t care, because in the end I was able to get mine without too much of a fight.