So first off, I don't know the ages of everyone out there who's has an "experience" with Internet Opinion Group or any of their dopplegangers, but try and realize this. You are greedy. You like free stuff. And how many times have you been told that, "nothing in life is free, " or, as another post here so eloquently stated, "some things are just too good to be true." IF you're going to venture into the world of "free offers" you have to have your realistic cap on and now that you're probably going to get screwed. Or at the very least that someone is trying to screw you.
That being said, here's my as of yet unfinnished business with IOG. Back in December, a good three months ago, I said what the heck I'm gonna get screwed and clicked through to IOG's site with my greedy hopes for a free Motorola Razr. To my horror (gasp!) my mere opinion would not yield the fruit I searched for.instead I had to sign up for five offers from "sponsors" who wanted me money.
Trying to be the prudent consumer I only signed up for the offers which I knew came from reputable companies and/or offers I actually needed. Video Professor, Blockbuster Online, AOL MusicNet, AOL Broadband and DentalPlans.com were my poisons of choice.
My basic strategy here was to cancel each offer as soon as humanly possible while still getting credit for the offers. I ended up cancelling Video Professor, AOL MusicNet and AOL Broadband as soon as I saw on my IOG account status page that they went from "Pending" to "In Progress". I ended up cancelling Blockbuser Online but not after paying for one month (which was really a wash because I got to rent and watch six movies which I would have rented anyway). DentalPlans.com cost me around a hundy but it's a service I needed anyway and have since used. So in the end, my account status registered all five offers as being "In Progress."
Let me take a step back here because I've read that a lot of people haven't even been able to get to their Account Status pages.initially, the website "conveniently" did not give me a password and "conveniently" said that if I did not receive it by e-mail that it was due to my ISP weeding it out as spam.
At this point I had already decided to pat myself on the back for being a greedy * who's once again lost the fight for "free stuff", but I wrote IOG through their "Contact Us" link and did get a response AND a password a good week later. Hmmmm, this might turn out okay after all.
Back up to speed, my "In Progress" status for all five offers took another good month to become "Approved" at which point I was able to print out my rinky-dink "certificates" which I then had to mail to them. Soon after my status went to "Confirmed" and then a month later it went to "Shipped."
And so here I am patiently waiting for my not-so-free-anymore phone. Should I get the Razr, I would have paid about 130 bucks and put in a good two hours of my time for a 400 buck phone. Still a pretty good deal actually.
I'm no internet scamming pro but I'm guessing their basic business model is something like this. IOG is banking on the fact that MOST people will give up on the whole free gift process, but not after shelling out the cash to complete one or more of their offers. For those FEW that do not give up on the process and do receive the gift, IOG is banking on the fact that those "customers" will neglect to stop shelling out cash to IOG's sponsors, making the free gift not so free in the long run. If you spend only four months with four sponsors, you've already probably paid more than full retail for the gift. The only way to beat the system is to apply to all the offers, cancel them once the sponsors have them reported as fulfilled and never stop going after IOG for that gift. It's a dirty business, I know, but this is marketing at it's best (or maybe its ugliest?).
My caveat to all of you is to (1) read the fine print (2) only apply to offers from companies which you know (3) choose a gift that you would be willing to pay for anyway (because in the end you'll end up paying something for it), and (4) give yourself plllllenty of time to get the gift.
As for me, I'm going to wait another couple of weeks to see if I get the phone. Otherwise, I live fifteen minutes from Mountain View and I'll have to go up there to pay NetBlue/IOG/YFD a personal visit from a very disgruntled customer.
But seriously, stop the whining and playing the passive victim. Either file a formal report to the BBB and put these sleezeballs out of business (which again they're banking on you not to do), or just suck it up and don't let yourelf be duped the next time someone offers you something free. You're old enough to read the fine print.
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