I Broke Down and Did It

For years I've been complaining about banner ads, popups, popunders, spam, etc. I hate it! I hate all of it. But I broke down today. Yep... I gave in. I clicked. Worse yet, I didn't just click, I bought.

Let me explain...

Earlier a friend was in my office and we were talking about money and debt and I went on quite a tirade about all the things I've bought thinking I'd have the money in a day or so, only to never seen the money and end up with interest charges on my credit card while trying to figure out how to pay it off. Of course, if this had only happened once you might understand how it could happen and maybe even admit to a similar experience yourself. This hasn't happened to me just once... no, more like five times. Well, maybe six if you count that other thing. Now you probably think I'm just stupid and you would be right.

Anyway, in the course of the conversation I raved on about how my boss has a 512Mb USB key fob (something that I have absolutely no use for but desparately want), a friend has a wireless network (something that I think is totally cool and have been drooling over for years) and yet another friend has an iPod mini with the iTrip attachment to listen to it over any FM radio (again something I have been jonesing for like you wouldn't believe).

While doing my usual time wasting multi-window surfing in my tabbed browser I came across a banner advertisment for a free iPod. Free. Really. Of course it couldn't possibly be true could it? Well... I guess clicking the link won't hurt me... I'll just open it in another window and if its crap I can keep surfing all the other crap I usually waste time on. If its a legit offer... well... I've been wanting an iPod since the day they were announced.

Two minutes late I was typing in my VISA number. Hold it! The iPod was supposed to be free, right? What's the credit card for? Well, in order to qualify for the 'free' iPod I had to sign up for one of their 'offers'. Hmm... that can't be so bad... Look, five DVDs for 49 cents each! Wow! This is way too good to be true! A free iPod and cheap DVDs! So I signed up for it. The whole time I'm thinking that I'm gonna get screwed. This is gonna cost me WAY more than what they're telling me. Of course now that I've clicked submit they've got me don't they. And not just me... They've got my email address (a real one. Not my null@null.com), my street address and (sigh!) my phone number!

Then they hit me with the catch.

I shoulda known better. In order for me to get my free iPod I have to refer my friends to them. Worse yet... I think at least one friend has to sign up for me to get credit for the referral. Crap!

Well, I'd already given my VISA number... what would it hurt to give up a few friends. After all, some of them already have iPods! So I refferred all my friends, all my family and every single email address I could scrape off the internet!

I'm kidding about that last bit. I was feeling too guilty about the friends and family so I didn't scrape the net. Bottom line: This bloody well better work or they're gonna submit my email address to every form on the net! Hmph... They'll probably do that anyway.

So, in case you want to join me in my fallen state, here's the URL for the free iPods:
www.freeipods.com