Free Money
 

Three months ago I bought a new car and shortly thereafter got a J.D.Powers questionaire, as expected.
What I didn't expect, was questionaires from three or four other polling companies. Easy to spot, thick envelope and the make/model of the car over my name on the address. I didn't even open them.

Three months later, I'm getting follow up surveys from the same companies. After throwing a couple away, unopened, I opened the J.D.Powers envelope to find a dollar bill inside, along with the survey. A couple days later I got one from Maritz Research and sure enough, a dollar bill inside.

I wonder if all those unopened envelopes.......... :blush:

I once came that close to throwing out an obvious junk mailing from the local grocery store.

It had a $50 gift certificate that I'd won in their "frequent shopper" drawing. :mg:

My wife used to work for Maritz, trolling for Mystery Shoppers to hire in weird, isolated places. It was kind of interesting. She'd call people out of the blue in some podunk burg and ask them if they'd go be a mystery shopper. Most were highly suspicious, but it was completely legit.

I got a message that landed in my junk mail about taking part in a medical survey. I thought it was another one of those tiresome come-on's - you know, win the shopping spree of your dreams, just send us $100.00! Turns out they were legit. In exchange for answering about 20 questions on how I use the Internet to get medical info, I got a check for $75.00!

Someone send me some damn surveys.

Well, the down side is that you have to have been doing some research on cancer for a friend and visited a whole bunch of pretty depressing sites and left behind your e-mail to get updates on treatment break throughs. My friend is currently going through chemo. I forwarded a copy of the survey to her e-mail, but don't know if she was able to fill it out. :(

Def don't wanna go there.... again. Buried my wife of 16 years in '92 after an awful bout w/ lung cancer. And more.

Hold the surveys, please.

I once got about $10 from a company that wanted me to track my TV watching habits. Which was pretty funny, since I didn't watch TV, so they got two weeks worth of cards that just said, "Didn't watch TV today"

I got a couple bucks for being an Arbitron family when I was in college.

Kept me in cigarettes and beer for about a week. Cigs and beer were cheaper then.

You guys have all the luck. All I ever get is a quarter when they want money for restoring Mt. Vernon.

I think PETA sent me a stamp once. And I get a lot of very nice address labels from organizations I don't care to donate to.

And nickels, a number of nickels from PETA.....along with a stamp to send tham back all the trash along with a note thanking them for the nickel and telling them to f*ck off. ;)

I got a little cheap medallion of an angel once when some Catholic organization wanted me to donate to some worthy cause or other. I propped the angel up on the windowsill at the post office. It was gone the next day. I guess they were worried about seperation of church and state. :headshake

I got $100 for being in a focus group which gave opinions about an ad campaign. They would hold up a print ad and ask "what does this say to you". They really didn't say anything, so I bullshitted. Then I took the check. :blush: Funny, I haven't been invited back... :headshake

We were a Neilson family for two weeks and got a dollar for it.

I was hoping that my participation would influence the networks to make better TV. I only watched good shows those weeks. But it obviously didn't work.

All my "free money" comes with huge caveats, like: SAVE $50.00 ON GROCERIES! *after you spend 150.00 in one order*. Shit like that.

I can't very bloody well carry or store 150.00 worth of groceries in one trip.

I've been getting these surveys for years. Have a collection here in the draw of all those $1 bills. All but one are crisp and uncirculated. The oldest date is Series 1988 A (don't recall ever seeing an A version series). One is a crsip $2 of Series 1995.

It may be that because I usually respond to every survey that has money included, then I get asked more often. In this drawer is about $20.

(Bills are just too crisp and clean to get dirty).

So ... when are you gonna SPEND THE MONEY????? :eyebrow:

Same here. I live alone and see no reason to, as the deal is here. 1/2 price if you spend $50 bucks for a 48 oz cooking oil. WTF

Not to mention mail-in rebates. I bought a computer part a while back with a $10.00 MIR. I went online to request it (on dial up mind you) for 15 mins. only to be redirected to the old postage stamp ritual, can't remember exactly why. It would have eaten up at least a half hour of my time.
NEWSFLASH TO SELF: If I had worked in my trade for the half hour instead of seeking a freebie I would have profited WAY more.
Seems like the retailer would send them all as a batch and give you the rebate/discount at the counter. Why do they insist on complicating the damn thing? Hell if you are prepared to offer a discount, why procrastinate.

mark down the fu@#ing price on the shelf.
I think the consumer response would be comparatively higher. I know they are counting on the folks like me that say to hell w/it, but really....

I don't know, I've been wondering how soon I'll be able to get $150 worth of groceries into 1 bag. :(

On the mail-in rebates..... I was wondering why instead of knocking $50 off the PC, they make me mail it in and wait 2 months. Do that many people say screw it, it's not worth the trouble?

Yes, most emphatically yes.

Actually, I was kind of thinking the same thing on the groceries. I'm a very frugal shopper. My last trip to the market I bought two cans of tuna (on sale), two cans of soup (on sale), mayo, butter, a loaf of bread (on sale), 8 oz of cheese (on sale), one can of dogfood = $18.00, and it wasn't even an entire bag of groceries. I bet I could buy two bags of groceries for $150.00 if I set my mind to it.

As for rebates, I got one from microsoft last year and I absent mindly forgot to take the check down right away. I remembered in time to take it to my bank on the last day it was supposed to be good through, and the bank wouldn't take it because it was after 2:00pm and they said all transactions would be posted the next day. Thanks for nothing! :mad: