Complaint Review: Gratis Network - Freeipods - Washington District of Columbia

After about three and a half weeks of waiting, I just received the Mac Mini, and am informed that my Free Sony PSP has just shipped. A couple of observations. 1. It's unfair an inaccurate to call Gratis a scam. It's just falt out not true, and possibly slanderous, given that so many people have received their products. 2. As the previous post illustrates, they are cautious to the point of being ridiculous. This is a direct result of the throngs of people who would seek out a way to defraud them to get a free iPod or Mac or whatever. They obviously have to be careful, and clearly they are short handed, so they always err on the side of not giving away the free product. And most of the time, they are probably correct to do so. The rest of the time, all it takes is a complaint or two (and a lot of waiting) to rectify the problem. 3. Their customer service personnel are incredibly inept. My account was shown to be "processing" for more than 2 weeks after it had been approved. Even now that I've received my Mac Mini, my account shows that it has not yet shipped. 4. The reports of SPAM are completely unfounded. I have an e-mail address just for my freemacmini account and I haven't received one single unsolicited e-mail in six months. Ultimately, Gratis is a cumbersome and unnecessarily time-consuming way to get a free iPod. But free is still free, so if you're not in any hurry, and you don't mind having to fire off the occassional complaint, they do make good on their promises. It's not a scam, just a company with horrendous customer service.

I have had nothing but completely positive results from Gratis. I am not an employee or represent them in any way. But, I have got a free ipod from them, and just yesterday a PS2 from freegamingsystems.com You really need to read the fine print and understand what you're getting into before you sign up for the offers and how this site works. The items you're getting are not technically free, but they can be free if you know how to properly sign up, and which offers to choose from. If you search around on the internet, you'll find plenty of guides on how to do these sites properly and which offers are the best, and which ones to avoid.

Well, about a month after contacting the attorney general's office, I received a reply. Enclosed was a letter from Gratis explaining their actions (some of them) and telling me that they would now credit me for a freeipod. I waited to file this update until the ipod actually arrived and today it did. Gratis claimed that they believed my girlfriend and father were the same person (namely me) because for a very strange reason my girlfriend and father decided to choose the same password for their Freeipods accounts. Their passwords were not very unique however, and if Gratis had actually investigated the situation, and not just told my girlfriend that she violated their terms, they would have learned that she was in fact not me, nor my father, and that both of them had correctly completed their offers. The crux of my point remains unchanged. Gratis initially did not credit my sister, due to "technical problems" when she joined real rhapsody, then this same technical issue arose when she joined BMG music service. When this technical issue was "resolved" (ie. my sister bitched at gratis until they credited her) they then declaired my girlfriend and father as fraudulent, even though they had been listed as valid for months prior to my getting my 5th and final credit. Gratis basically reached the point where they had to give me my ipod and then went fishing for excuses not to give it to me. Because both my girlfriend and dad chose the same simple password for the Freeipods website, gratis concluded that I was not going to get an ipod. The only reason I now have an Ipod from them is because I filled a complaint with the DC Attorney General. Gratis never explained why my sister was never credited the first time. Why she wasn't credited the second time without having to complain to them and why Gratis's Fraud team didn't immediately put a hold on my Dad and girlfriends accounts when they joined or why these cunning internet sleuths were unable to discern that a 60 year old man and a 22 year old girl weren't the same person. Stay away from Gratis. It's not worth the trouble. But if you were unfortunate enough to get involved with these shysters here is the link to the DC attorney general's online complaint form. Please take this form seriously. The attorney general's office called me the very next day after I filled this out and were very very nice to me. it's nice to know that there still are some public officials out there concerned about the little guy. http://app.occ.dc.gov/services/complaint.asp As a side note a reporter from the Washington Post contacted me and is writing a story about Gratis...apparently a lot of people (including her) have been getting screwed over by Gratis and she's writing a story about it. Hopefully this company's days are numbered. Oh...and by the way my Ipod rocks!

I have been approved and placed my order for both a Sony PSP and Mac Mini. I am still waiting. They seem to be dragging this out as long as they possibly can. I've noticed that every time I send them a letter inquiring about the wait, within a day or two I get another confirmed order on my freeipod account. They seem to be willing to hold out a lot of carrots, but at this point I no longer care about the iPod. I want my Mac and I want my PSP. I more than earned both of them, and I have copies of my account displayed on their website saying that they acknowledge this. I have no doubt that they ship out Macs and PSPs, but they've made it clear that they will not do it unless their backs are against the wall. If they haven't shipped by the end of the week, I'm going to file with the AG's office.

I would just like to say that I not only received a FREE iPod from Gratis but also a FREE iPod Shuffle. How can you call that a scam? My friends have also received FREE iPods, therefore they aren't only sending things to a few people. Read the ToS, if you follow it correctly you will have NO PROBLEMS getting your FREE stuff.

I would just like to say that I not only received a FREE iPod from Gratis but also a FREE iPod Shuffle. How can you call that a scam? My friends have also received FREE iPods, therefore they aren't only sending things to a few people. Read the ToS, if you follow it correctly you will have NO PROBLEMS getting your FREE stuff.

Jason hit the nail right on the head. The company makes $66 in referral fees. How the hell do you expect them to give you a free ipod and still stay in business with $66? The only way they can make a buck is by keeping all the referral income and sending you nothing. Common sense. But, clearly, many people lack that. That's why this fraud continues to stay in business. Free ipod? Free laptop? Free this? Free that? The minute I see the word free, I tune out. They lose far more business that they ever gain. What can they get, maybe one person out of 10,000 who is stupid enough to fall for this?

Just to follow up on my previous post, my free PSP has been approved and the order is being processed. More amazingly, my free Mac Mini order was approved less than 24 hours after being submitted and that order is also being processed. I should have both items within a week. Except for the backorder with the PSP, and the occassionally non-responsive messages from Gratis, their site has worked more or less as advertised. One word to Gratis if anyone there reads this site. Legitimate customers should not have to contact Gratis to get their orders confirmed. The site is set up for Gratis to get this information automatically from their advertisers. The fact that this doesn't always happen poses two problems: 1) it takes an already dubious business model and engenders mistrust among their customer base, and 2) it suggests that advertisers may not be paying Gratis their commission on all orders completed. Anyway, the site seems to be legit if a little rough around the edges.

Originally, I had signed up for this site, completed an offer and then tried to bug friends. This was not successful at first so I forgot about the site for a few months. Then, I decided to try again. There was one thing that was shady; this was the fact that when I logged back in after a few months of inactivity, the credit I had was gone. So, I completed another offer. I believe I had to e mail them so that they would give me credit, but they did so quickly and efficiently. By the time I bugged everyone, I had about 10 or so people signed up under my link, but only 5 green This was not because the others didn't get credit, they told me that they never completed an offer. I even used my mother as a referral, and while she does not live in my household, she has no credit card so I had to use mine. I thought I may have trouble with that, but I figured if they said anything I would explain to them that my mother honestly wanted to try Blockbuster Online Rentals but has no credit card or checking account. This is true, as she stayed on for a few months at Blockbuster until she moved. I was approved within 5 business days and received my iPod a week or so later. I do not see why you would have had any trouble, and that is clearly wrong of them. I suppose the hoops I was referring to was having to complete another offer and having to e mail for credit. Those, however, did not bother me as I would never have been able to afford an iPod otherwise.

I have opened two accounts with Gratis Network, one for a free Mac Mini, and one for a free Sony PSP, and while I do believe they are very reluctant to confirm that orders have been completed, I don't think that necessarily makes them guilty of fraud. I signed up for Blockbuster Online in one case, and after 15 days, I had to send them a copy of the confirmation letter in order to get them to confirm my order. I need one more referral confirmed to get the Mac Mini, so the jury is still out on that one. Two and a half weeks ago, I got the five confirmed referrals I needed to get my free PSP (which took me less than two weeks, BTW) so I submited my order for approval. After a week and a half, I received a letter from them apologizing for the wait, but the PSPs are on backorder, with no definite date of arrival. Given their popularity, this is, I suppose, possible. They did say that my order had been approved, so all that remains is for them to ship the PSP once it arrives. If they don't, they are pretty clearly guilty of fraud. Three things I have noticed, and two of them might be the cause of the other: 1) an inordinate number of people who signed up with my referral ID were simply bogus sign-ups who had no intention of completing an order, and some of those sign-ups I am certain were friends and family, 2) some people who did complete an order failed to contact Gratis in the manner clearly stated in the website to get them to ackowledge the confirmation - no e-mail, contact them through their help menus, and 3) while some orders get confirmed very quickly, often within a few hours, most of them take several weeks as Gratis works to be absolutely certain no one is defrauding them. As a result, I have more than a few legit signups which have not yet been confirmed. The fact that Gratis has not confirmed them does not necessarily make them guilty of fraud. On the other hand, I will be watching this PSP thing closely, if they do not send me one within the next few weeks, even after acknowledging in writing that my order was approved, then I will be contacting the AG's office too.

That's a nice thought. Unfortunately it's not true in my case and many other people's cases. None of my referrals had the same address. The people Gratis said were the same people were my father, age 58 and my girlfriend age 23. They have completely different names, different internet service providers, signed up for different offers and live over 100 miles away from each other. They aren't the same person. And for Gratis to say that, is fraud, period. Making you "jump through hoops" is another way of saying "trying to avoid fulfilling their responsibilities" which is exactly what I'm saying they do. They invent problems in order to try to string you along or make you jump through hoops to avoid giving you what they have agreed to give you. So after my girlfriend told gratis she wasn't the same person as my father. They acussed her of having me "walk her through" the process, which violates their terms. Apparently by her telling me "Hey freeipods.com says I'm the same person as (insertmydadsemailaddresshere). Who is that?" and me answering "that's my Dad..." she was "Walked through" the process. Complete crap. The only reason she asked me about it was because they lied in the first place, creating a situation where they could claim she violated their terms. What a joke. I have a few questions for you. First. How many total referrals did you have? Not ones that completed their offers, just total referrals. What I think gratis does is not allow more than a certain percentage of your referrals (probably 60%)to receive credit, forcing you to obtain more than 5 referrals...again...fraud. I am also interested in the "hoops" you had to jump through in order to get your ipod. Perhaps you can describe them so that we can all see how different your situation was from ours. I have filed a consumer complaint with the attorney general's office in Washington DC...they actually called me back the next day and sent a complaint to Gratis...and guess what....no response from Gratis...

I have dealt with Gratis and have not encountered any of the problems that you mentioned. I have received not only a free 20gb iPod from them but my free 1gb iPod shuffle came in the mail today. I do know people who have had trouble but this was mainly because they violated the ToS. If you have anyone at all sign up with the same shipping address you will be put on hold. Or, if someone signs up and immediately cancels the offer, you will be charged with fraud. Sometimes, cookies are not accepted and that can be a problem. If you e-mail them with your confirmation e-mail that you completed an offer, they give you credit as I had to do that. You have to jump through a few hoops, but in the end, it's worth it.