I didn\'t want to blog about this until all was said and done since if it blew up in my face, I wouldn\'t have to eat my words. However, that being said, all is now said, done, and signed for.

Carrie just informed me that my new toy has arrived after much nail-biting, cursing, and nervous night sweats. You see, back on April 11th I went against my better judgement and actually signed up for one of those Free iPod deals. (It\'s now the one where you get other people to complete an some offers. It was one from incentiverewardcenter.com where you complete a number of offers from three different pages, I\'ll explain).

Normally I don\'t do things like this, I know it puts you on tons of mailing lists, spam lists, etc and there is a change you wind up getting ripped off. I didn\'t come across that site until after I\'d completed three offers...needless to say I started to get worried.

The only reason I did this was because a Sully did this and it worked for him without issue. Therefore, I said what the hell...

What followed was a real nail-biter for someone like me, I quickly completed the first few offers and then cancelled them. (Apparently this is frowned upon but not against their rules...\"loophole!!\"). Then I got to the point where I complete all six offers and met my end of the bargain, however this is where the adventure gets interesting.

My earthlink offer did not get marked as completed and to this day it still hasn\'t. I had read enough about this company at this point to know that there were some things I wanted to do to head off any issues immediately. I waited about four weeks and then made a phone call to a number from their website. I must\'ve been one of the lucky ones because I got hold of someone right away by the name of Summer. I explained that I\'d been sitting on 5 of 6 completed offers for four weeks and was asking what the problem was. She asked me if I could prove that I\'d completed the Earthlink offer by faxing in the welcome letter. I did one better and faxed both the welcome letter and the first invoice. Within a few hours I recieved a Thank You email in my inbox stating that the ship request was made.

Within another week or so, I received a tracking number and my iPod is now sitting at home waiting for my arrival. I LOVE new toys...

But Ryan, you say, \"How much did it really cost you, with completed offers, personal time, etc?\" Let\'s break this down. The particluar iPod in the offer costs about $350-$400 retail. In offers I spent approximately $65.00. My personal time really doesn\'t measure into it except for the time spent to cancel a few offers, and send in my faxed proof...I\'d say no more than 2 to 3 hours really. That really isn\'t a whole lot since I waste that much time in front of the TV in one week alone. This time was spread out of the entire 6 week period. I don\'t feel like doing the math, but per day, that isn\'t a whole hell of a lot. The worst part was the worry.

Would I do something like this again...I don\'t know...probably not, but if I do I am going to do it the same way I did this.

My suggestions to you if you were to try are this:

• You will get TONS of spam...TONS and TONS...therefore create a seperate email account somewhere to handle this. Then when you receive your gift, cancel the account. No more spam!
• Write down the cancellation deadlines for any offers and stick to them as long as the offer completes.
• Visit this site often. It will help you figure out which offers will work best for you
• Don\'t expect something for nothing...it WILL cost you money and some time. NOTHING is truly free
• Research the company offering the free gift. The company I went with has been sketchy but it seems that they are coming around finally due to all the complaints they\'ve had to the Better Business Bureau and local Attorney General\'s offices
• Be patient...they really do follow through, but stay on top of it. If you feel an offer has gone too long without completion, get on the phone.
• Remember the separate email address I mentioned above? Monitor that daily once you start inquiring, that is where your notifications will go as well as any offer information you complete. Only save the information that you will need to prove offer completion...delete everything else.

If all this sounds like a pain in the ass, it is...however for me I think the pain was worth it. I look at it as if I\'d gotten a $290 discount on an iPod for a little bit of patience and persitence...and a couple of charges on a card that will be cancelled ;)