Journal Mulletproof's Journal: Tale of the Free PSP - Part ONE
The following entries will be dedicated to just what it takes to get a free PSP from freePSPs.com. If it works, you'll see it here. If it's a scam, well, you'll that here too, along with a liberal amount of flaming.
This specific entry will encompass quite a bit, since we're already joining our tale in progress.
So roughly too weeks ago I was meandering through the freeipods website, grumbling over the fact that I STILL hadn't gotten the five people nessisary to get a free ipod. But then, who was I really to complain? I was doing this the ultra lazy way, doing nothing more than posting the requisite link in my sig and having people click on it at mostly random. I figure the 'freshness' of the offer had something to do with it, but at least my bro Caelth got his
There is was: A free PSP offer.
How forunate it was only a mere day or so after launch! I haven't seen anybody pushing this offer, so there was little doubt that participating therein would be on the leading edge of the free cool gadget of the month trend. How was I going to pull this one off? Same MO as before: Maybe a dedicated forum post here and there and the addition of the link in my sig of all the forums I frequent, which adds up to about 4 decent sized ones. Other than that, it was going to be a minimum effort attempt... No hard core spamming and no friend pushing. Just mostly passive linkage on forums I normally frequent anyway.
Long story short, this offer indeed up like a wildfire. It only took 2 weeks to gather 5 people who seriously wanted a PSP for themselves, a stark contrast to the freeiPods offer that took me 2 months just to get 3 of the 5 nessisary. Of course, along the way you get the people who call scam, it doesn't work, or say it's only fair to mention you get credit toward the offer. Huh? Why is that again? You want a free PSP or not? Going through me makes next to no difference in the qualifications you'll need to get it. Fairness isn't involved here. You do it or you don't. Knowing me changes nothing. But whatever. I can't fit the ground rules in the sig space anyway. What are the gound rules? You must participate in one vendor trial offer. It's up to you to read the fine print as to how long the trial lasts and how much you'll be billed after the trial completes if you decide to continue. The second rule is that you need the forementioned five people to do the same thing. Not exactly hard. The trial offer I chose (which may be defunct at the time of this reading since they seem to randomly rotate through offers) is the Blockbuster (hereafter known as BB) offer. You paid $9.99 for soemthing you might actually use: 3 movie rentals delivered right to your door. Besides, I can afford $9.99 for a PSP, can't you? But I saved that part for last. First, some statistics--
Time to complete 5 people: 2 weeks
Total number joined to get 5: 63
Breakdown: 1 friend, 4 anonymous
Joined at: 9,15,20,21,57
Ratio: Roughly 12:1
Not bad for noing next to nothing. The next step was the free offer. As I said, I'm going ahead with Blockbuster, but have been having a few preflight issues... Namely, they keep denying my credit card! I click the freePSP through link to BB and fill out all the requisite blanks, including a credit card number.
Sidenote: Yes, kids, you're going to have to give up something to get a 200% discount on your PSP. If you're that paranoid, grab your tinfoil cap and run far, far away.
Well, BB DENIES the card. Huh? Quick check of the online balance says more than enough funds. Try again! NO. DENIED! Ok, this is screwy. So I call my banlk first to see if there are any problems. They report the dollar "pings" to my account theat BB is making for CC approval as, well, approved. A call to blockbuster insists that the card is denied, but would I like to register over the phone? NO. I don't get my 200% reduced price PSP that way. AS IF! So back to my bank. Same story. Approved, only now I'm seeing the "pings" register in my real-time online account balance. The bank is saying approved. My account is registering the fact, but BB refuses to even acknowledge that something is screwed up on their end. When asked why they showed denied when my account balance was being deducted in real time, they could only answer that it was my banks fault... But would you like to register over the phone?
So that's where I stand now. BB doesn't have a brain in its head, but it's the best offer of the lot for my purposes, given the minimal cash outgo and minimal risk. After all, BB is fairly well know. I'm attempting to secure my friend's CC in order to bypass this little dilemma and finish this final qualification. I'll just pay him back the $9.00 and change the CC on the phone later or something.
