I love a free gift. Who doesn’t? A little something for nothing is always welcomed. Like our lovely local Indian restaurant who always sneak an extra main course in for us, or extra naan bread. Lovely.
Recently however I have seen free gifts that are making me very grumpy. And I am not normally ungrateful.
As a for instance, this actually dropped through our letter box this week.
I nearly screamed. A free gift from a jeweller?!!! OH EM GEE. Maybe some free earrings if you buy a necklace? It is the month before Christmas, I thought. I might be able to be a bit sneaky here and get something rather spectactular for Christmas. So I sat down immediately to open up the card and pick my free gift from what must be a list of options. Oh no. How wrong I was.
For the free gift was this:
A LOYALTY CARD
A loyalty card
Now I am sorry, but as a free gift from a jewelers that is NOT what I expect. And I cannot believe I am alone in that.
Then this week, I got an email that said “Flowers for Tanya” in the subject line. Look:
and then in big letters “Our way of saying thanks on your first anniversary” . From Tassimo.
How fabulous. Where do I go to Interflora and sign up?
Wait, what’s that?
“….. we’re giving you the opportunity to win …. ”
What? So I don’t have a free gift? I have the opportunity to win.
Well that isn’t a free gift at all.
The chance to win something, the chance to get a stamp on a card …. these are NOT free gifts.
And these sorts of gifts ridiculous offers make me ranty
This is my Ranty Friday for this week. Below are other people having a rant. Do visit their blogs!
Wow what a great way to lose customers. I’d be so pissed off with that, I would take my custom elsewhere. A free gift is lovely chocolates through the post. 🙂
All these new opportunities to win are getting out of hand. Unfortunately, there are many people out there who take them seriously just for the sake of a few extra page views on their blog and that’s why they keep coming.
Everything has a price, simple as. There’s always a catch somewhere. If I get anything that resembles an opportunity to win, I either bin it or delete it. I’m noticing tons of tweets these days where it says things like “be our next follower for a chance to win…” It’s all a big con.
CJ x
My rant is on a very similar theme today!
Ouch. Marketing ploy fails right there. My favourite at the moment are the amazing offers for bloggers to publish free advertorials on their blogs in return for the POSSIBILITY of being added to a prize draw. We’re so lucky.
Totally agree, the other thing that really annoys me is various charities *cough* the British Heart Foundation et al *cough* that send out free gifts, I really wish their money was better spent rather than them buying dodgy coasters and greeting cards to blanket post out, and most invariably will be chucked in the bin!
Failed marketing ploy!!
Oh I hate those “fee” gift thingos. They’re not free and they’re just annoying. I don’t know who does their marketing but they clearly need a boot up the bum!
I have to say, one of my favorite companies is Liz Earle. When I order stuff from them, it not only arrives beautifully wrapped, but they always put some free samples in, which I usually can use and I got a mail from them yesterday saying if I spent x amount I would get two items one free, and one half price. That, sort of thing, I like! They are on my happy list!
What a fab idea for a linky – I certainly agree with you about the gifts and am off to read the others now.
Wow, I knew the economy was tough but really!
Here’s a free gift for you. Just you!
A hug*
Enjoy!
*must be accepted between 4.30 and 4.31pm on 7th december 2012
These cheeky companies! x
I so hate these so called free gift things, total rip off.
Especially for the vulnerable when, they are so cleverly worded that sometimes people really think they will win if they buy stuff and do stuff.
Really p#sses me off!!!
Just found this Ranty Friday what a great idea, I have a lot to rant about at times lol