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Advice on "free MacBook" websites? Anyone tried one?

H

hoosiergirl2012

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 9, 2012
13
0
First of all, please hear me out before you jump down my throat :) YES, I am perfectly aware that the sites claiming they'll give you a "free macbook" are not really free at all. With that said, here's my scenario:

You know those sites that advertise "free macbooks" but when you read the fine-print you have to complete a bunch of offers which cost money? Well, since I'm in the market to buy a new macbook anyway, I'm figuring, even if I have to pay several hundred for all those offers, I'd STILL be saving a lot of money compared to spending over a thousand on a new laptop from Apple. I've read articles online about people who did experiments, jumping through all the hoops required to get the "free" computer, and wound up spending about $500 -- but they DID receive the macbook in the end. So they essentially got a Macbook, not for free, but for a darn good price.

My concern, of course, is picking a site that's not legit and doing all the offers but never receiving the computer. Does anyone have experience with this? Anyone actually tried completing the offers, or better yet actually received a computer from the company at the end of it all? If so, which sites are legitimate? There are sooo many of them, and I can't tell which ones can be trusted.

Also, please don't respond just to make fun of me:) I know it's a far-fetched idea, but since I'm a poor college student, I figure it's worth looking into! Thanks in advance for your help:)
 
I think that, even if ten people post the exact same sequence of how they got a MacBook, there's no guarantee that (a) they're being honest, and (b) even if they are, that the same steps will work for you.

Buy a used model that you can see in person first, or buy a refurb off the Apple Store. Spending more but being guaranteed a system is vastly better than spending $500 with no guarantees whatsoever.

Trust me. If the "free MacBook" route really worked, you'd be seeing a million posts here about it. You don't. It doesn't.
 
no, you complete the offers, then it errors out and kicks you out or claims you didn't do it right. They are all a scam. All of them.


hoosiergirl2012 said:
First of all, please hear me out before you jump down my throat :) YES, I am perfectly aware that the sites claiming they'll give you a "free macbook" are not really free at all. With that said, here's my scenario:

You know those sites that advertise "free macbooks" but when you read the fine-print you have to complete a bunch of offers which cost money? Well, since I'm in the market to buy a new macbook anyway, I'm figuring, even if I have to pay several hundred for all those offers, I'd STILL be saving a lot of money compared to spending over a thousand on a new laptop from Apple. I've read articles online about people who did experiments, jumping through all the hoops required to get the "free" computer, and wound up spending about $500 -- but they DID receive the macbook in the end. So they essentially got a Macbook, not for free, but for a darn good price.

My concern, of course, is picking a site that's not legit and doing all the offers but never receiving the computer. Does anyone have experience with this? Anyone actually tried completing the offers, or better yet actually received a computer from the company at the end of it all? If so, which sites are legitimate? There are sooo many of them, and I can't tell which ones can be trusted.

Also, please don't respond just to make fun of me:) I know it's a far-fetched idea, but since I'm a poor college student, I figure it's worth looking into! Thanks in advance for your help:)
Click to expand...
 
Doing stuff like this are for people who enjoy the challenge, like you LOVE going into a car dealer and haggle with the salesmen, and if you lose the money, no big deal, u got some fun and lesson out of it.

For people who are short of fun, you got a be completely desperate. In life, is about managing risks, and this is a big risk. Your call.
 
I have never heard of a single one of such sites to be anything more than a complete scam. I wouldn't waste mouse clicks on such sites. Just save up and buy whatever Mac you want.
 
Try only with huge research and if you got a 500$ to spare you earned from a bet or something. As far as i know, nothing in life is "Free". But if you really think they can give you the macbook for 500 bucks, just try it if the money won't hurt you but i am 95% confident it won't work. (i would've given you a confidence interval, lol, studying statistics)
 
I might be remembering incorrectly but a few years ago a blogger (totally legitimate and quite well regarded) I read occasionally did such an offer for a PSP. There's an obvious difference in scope though.
 
I like how the OP falls back to "how do you know it's a scam".

How do you know it isn't a scam?
How do you know the people bragging about their MacBooks aren't part of the scam?

Why would anyone sell a MacBook Pro for less than cost that wasn't old, broken, or stolen?

My advice: don't buy magic beans from strangers on the internetz.
 
Take a deep breath and repeat after me:

THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH.
ELVIS IS DEAD.
FREE MACBOOKS ARE A SCAM.

You'd do better to try your gambler's luck on the penny auctions. I saw a Macbook Pro go for $23.28 once. I've now spent $1762 in penny bids and I'm pretty sure I'm about to win...
 
Don't do it, like others are saying.

The offers on those sites are not worth spending on. You'll do one, then have issues trying to cancel the subscriptions, or them selling your information. The amount of spam is unbelievable, and we're not just talking about e-mail, but also telemeters, people trying to get you to buy into loans, and even mailbox junk that doesn't stop coming.

You are better using a cash back program that has places like Amazon and iTunes as places you can buy from and build up a few cents from each purchases. It's pretty much the same deal, as the offers would give you, except it's from legitimate places you want to spend money at.
 
It's obviously a scam, like those old affiliate scams. Way back in 2003 every scam site was offering free ipods for jumping through hoops, etc. I think they even had problems with spammers joining macrumors and promoting those rip offs. Don't touch that site with a ten foot pole.
 
Thank you for all the replies! (except for the few of you that chose to be rude -- no need for that!)

In case anyone is interested in an update, I talked to a bunch of my college friends and one of them actually tried one of those sites, but for a much smaller item (just an ipod). He said that by the time he paid for all the offers, he spent pretty much the same he would've spent for the ipod itself. He also said it was super difficult to cancel all the subscriptions, etc. However, at the end of it all, he DID indeed receive the ipod, albeit 2 months later.

So, those of you that said these sites are ALL liars, you were actually wrong. But the majority of you were correct in saying that in the end it is not worth the hassle, as I suspected.

I shall save up my waitressing tips and buy a used Macbook that way :)
 
I apologize if you were offended by my post. I was going for funny, but perhaps I failed.

Actually your friend is evidence that we were right. You said he paid as much as he would have at a store, waited 2 months, and then was stuck with subscriptions he didn't want.

That does not sound like a free iPod to me. Add his cash, plus the hours he spent times what he could have made if he'd worked minimum wage for that time, and it sounds like he got scammed.

If he'd done all of that and not gotten the iPod, he'd have been worse than scammed. He would have been (insert coitus related expletive of choice).
 
You put yourself at great risk if you do these, they are just out there to get your information
 
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