Caivis and mfl-center.com will be our first topic. Before proceeding, please read my entry from July 2011: “The night explodes…” — Scroll down to what ARG Insider said, then read what I responded with. I will repost ARG Insider’s informative comment for our review.

ARG Insider “You will be happy to know that Caivis closed down their Colorado office last month and has laid off all the people who worked in that office, including the VP of Technology for the promotional marketing/freebies division.”

As happy as I was, I knew the gift program could still function no matter how many people got laid off and how many offices were closed. Especially with several ex-ARGers under David Steinberg’s leadership. Former COO at ARG, Steven Gerber, is now President at Caivis and is COO at XL Marketing. Former Senior IT Engineer at Active Response Group, and former VP of Technology at XL Marketing, Keith Larson, holds a position at Oracle as an MySQL Community Manager. He was one of many who got laid off. Has the Director of Technology at XL Marketing, Yesenia Rodriguez, been fulfilling the operations of the promotional marketing/freebies division ever since Keith Larson’s exit? And what about these three? Geoffrey Mott, VP of Strategy at Caivis, was a Senior Director at InPhonic; Phong Tran, VP of Operations at Caivis, was a Director at InPhonic; and Christopher Spring, CFO at Caivis and CFO of Xl Marketing, served as the SVP-Divisional CFO at InPhonic. Anyone related to InPhonic or ARG are a high risk to this industry. We remember the events of ARG, but what happened with InPhonic? See this entry for more: “May Mayhem…” – It is important to realize the severity of a company’s actions, and the steps we must take to prevent future destruction.

A reader wrote in with this, “btw as of beginning of march a morefromlife rewards link for a samsung hdtv was being marketed, MFL-center is steinberg. so he is still at it.”

How could this be? I just had to investigate this, so I started with a simple whois report.

whois:

As you can see, mfl-center.com was created on February 10, 2009, and it expires February 11, 2013. If Caivis’ gift program ended in the summer of 2011, then why did someone spot an advertisement for a Samsung television? I searched the web for this promotion since my reader lost the link but came up empty-handed. So I went directly to mfl-center.com to get results…

mfl-center.com front page:

“That offer is expired” means the original promotion is down; however, they still offered a reward so I kept going…

Survey pages:

You will notice the last two pages say “OnDemand Research.” OnDemand Research is owned by Caivis/XL Marketing, and is a provider of data solutions for organizations and consumers. Through OnDemand Research, Caivis offered rewards opportunities for those interested in offers and surveys. Was their gift program actually called OnDemand Research? Or was it that OnDemand Research only powered their sites?

Step 2. Confirming information:

That was a breeze. So what’s the next step?

I’m lost. Why is a ShopAtHome toolbar required to complete an offer?? ShopAtHome.com is a web site offering online coupons, grocery coupons, cash back rewards, free samples, restaurant coupons and contests. The installation page stated, “Prize will not be awarded by ShopAtHome.com” and “Claim Your $20 Best Buy Gift Card”, so I was probably still locked into the gift site. I was not comfortable going any further so I closed the page. There WAS someone who completed two offers on a Caivis site. You can read about their experience below.

url: http://www.scaminformer.com/scam-report/mfl-center-com-mfl-center-com-more-from-life-rewards-for-all-those-who-c8193.html

The author of this complaint is no stranger to incentive programs, so I don’t think it was inexperience that cost them their reward. If they were disqualified, it might have been over the 30/60-day rule. BUT this person was right because the 30/60-day rule was not present in the EULA, policy or the gift rules. This member probably pointed that out which is why Caivis stopped responding. What could they say to that? Caivis, “Oh, hold on… We’ll add that to our Gift Rules. Once we’re done, sign up for another site and remain a customer for 30-60 days.” If a rule is missing from a company’s T&C, policy, Gift/Program Rules, or EULA, then the member should be able to contest it, IMO. Doesn’t take much to put it in writing. This is why we CANNOT have Caivis running anymore gift sites. I think they have been stealthily generating sites through OnDemand Research well after their Colorado doors slammed shut. And if I am right, perhaps the reason for that is so they could manage the gift program from their New York office.

My job now is finding out if Caivis’ gift program is still active. In spite of everything I said, mfl-center.com, as well as all their other gift sites could be inoperative, and just the domains are active until they expire. But because OnDemand Research is very much alive at Caivis, we can’t know that for certain. Their sites seem to depend on OnDemand Research’s substructure, and as long as OnDemand Research remains, they could effortlessly build new sites upon it. I don’t like that they quit answering the individual who complained. I responded to the complaint, and I hope the author sees my comment so I can help them. Caivis could have at least restated the 30/60-day rule instead of ignoring all other e-mails. Caivis/XL Marketing are back on my radar, and my eyes won’t be off them anytime soon.

We have a new site to examine, popularproductsonline.com. Let’s look at the gift site and offer pages…

gift site:

url: http://www.popularproductsonline.com/gift/?src_key=84x2e4u223x213c433y2641343e4d454c4c4x2y2z254t244g4a4u2x2

Like Nuitech, you cannot cancel more than two offers within 30 days, and the remaining program requirements must be met within 180 days of registration. But is this Nuitech? I’d like to compare this site’s offer page to an offer page on a Nuitech site.

offer page:

The bottom of this page has the same “Check Gift Status – Help – Privacy Policy – Terms & Conditions – Unsubscribe – Contact Us” links, and copyright like Nuitech has on their sites. And the gift box and house at the top– aren’t those Nuitech’s graphics? Hm…

Nuitech’s offer page:

Entirely different look and feel of offer page. And the “SUMMARY OF PROMOTION PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS” wording on the front page and offer page of www.popularproductsonline.com isn’t anywhere on Nuitech’s sites.

Nuitech gift site:

url: http://yourrewardstoday.com/rd_p?p=207753&t=18432

See? It’s not there. Even the policies and terms and conditions pages are not alike.

popularproductsonline.com’s policy:

popularproductsonline.com’s T&C:

Nuitech’s policy:

Nuitech’s T&C:

Now, I want you all to think back to what Nuitech said about servicing other companies. They said, “Our company provides customer service for multiple companies.” This statement can be found in this blog: DIY rose bouquet delivery, Part 2. — They also told a member over the phone that with rewards aisle and cool premiums, two promotional sites, that they only handled their fulfillment processes. Below is that member’s discovery.

“As for NT I have a question that maybe you know the answer to. I have two links listed below. Their DBA’s are rewards aisle and cool premiums. On the freeipod forum I asked if anyone had done either of these. One person posted stating they were a NT look alike out of canada and I should stay away. I called NT myself and the rep stated they only handled their fulfillment process and everything else was separate. Soooooo now I am not sure if I should proceed or not. Give me your thoughts. ”

Could it be that Nuitech alters a company’s gift site since they handle their fulfillment/customer service? It would explain why parts of these sites mimic Nuitech while other areas do not. Its important to remember that just because a company’s site is similar to another, the gift program may not be run by the same company. Now please look at the bottom of the terms and conditions page for popularproductsonline.com.

bottom of popularproductsonline.com’s terms and conditions:

Meet Ace Brands Online, Inc., a company out of Southern Ontario, Canada. I found other sites with the company name and Richmond Hill address, however, I ignored them because I assumed Nuitech handled their Fulfillment; the Ace Brands Online sites I found were similar to ones by rewards-aisle, sites proven to be managed–but not owned–by Nuitech. And I am almost certain rewards-aisle had a Canadian location like Ace Brands Online. Are Nuitech providing customer service to Ace Brands Online, Inc.? Below is what I asked them.

My e-mail:

“from: xxxx@xx.com xxxx@xx.com
to: contact@oglogistics.net
date: Sat, Apr 14, 2012 at 4:40 PM
subject: Ace Brands Online, Inc and Nuitech…
mailed-by: xxxx.com

Hi,

In the past your company has said that they offer service to multiple companies. Do you provide service to Ace Brands Online, Inc.? Below is the location for this company as well as their web sites if you need more information.

Business: Ace Brands Online, Inc.

Location:

24-155 East Beaver Creek Road
Suite 233, Richmond Hill, L4B 3J9

Main web site: http://www.popularproductsonline.com/

Gift sites: http://www.popularproductsonline.com/gift/?src_key=84x2e4u223x213c433y2641343e4d454c4c4x2y2z254t244g4a4u2x2 – http://www.acebrandsonline.com

Thanks,

me”

Nuitech’s reply:

“from: Onlinerewardcenter Support usersupport-648889@oglogistics.net
to: xxxx@xxxx.com
date: Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 8:22 AM
subject: In response to your inquiry

me,

Thank you for your inquiry.

In order to contact the appropriate department, please submit your
request through below link. We appreciate your interest.

http://www.qinteractive.com/contact.html

*** DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL. THIS MAILBOX IS NOT MONITORED ***
Please use the contact form provided at our website if you have further
questions.

Thank you,

Support”

For confirmation I inquired about Ace Brands Online, Inc. I expected them to respond with, “No, we do not offer our services to Ace Brands Online, Inc.”; instead, they directed me to www.qinteractive.com, a site operated by Q Interactive, Inc., an online direct marketing and media company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Q Interactive, Inc. are Nuitech, btw. I don’t think they own Ace Brands Online, Inc., but they may handle their customer support. I have since resent the same e-mail to Q Interactive and OG Logistics. Until they respond, Ace Brands Online, Inc. will be regarded as a separate entity. Next we’ll look at more sites by Ace Brands Online, Inc….

Both popularproductsonline.com and popularproductsonline.ca link to this page:

urls: http://www.popularproductsonline.com – http://www.popularproductsonline.ca

url: http://www.acebrandsonline.com/

I thought www.acebrandsonline.com was the company web site until the page loaded but it was a gift site. So there is no company web site for Ace Brands Online, Inc., though their gift program’s portal seems to be popularproductsonline.com/ca The terms and conditions states that Ace Brands Online carries on business as popularproductsonline, but is Popular Products Online the name for their entire program? Like how Product Test Panel is the name for Consumer Resource Corporation’s gift program. Sometimes a gift program will be the company’s name like I-Deal Direct Interactive is I-Deal, and Consumers Reward Solutions is, well, Consumers Reward Solutions (CRS). I just sent Ace Brands Online a message through popularproductsonline.com. I’m hoping they can answer some questions about their company.

As for freeverizonipad.com, the site is gone, but the domain has caused quite a stir. Here are some complaints:

“Got a call at 10am Pacific time (Feb. 1,2012) where a recoded message came on and told me “..For being a valued Verizon customer you have won a free iPad. Type in your phone number or go to our website www.verizonfreeipad.com and enter your cell phone number at your redeem code.” I was busy, hung up and the next day I typed in the web address, it didn’t exist. Then I typed in www.verizonfreeipad.com into google and it came up with a lot of comments about these people posing as Verizon and scamming them to gain information. I’m sure they were looking for me to type in my number to authorize them to sell it. :/ A CELL PHONE COSTS MONEY BY THE ABOUT OF MINUTES YOU USE!!! Like I want to PAY for a solicitation.”

source of complaint: http://www.callercenter.com/801-803-6858.html

“Voicemail left about a free ipad2 because I was a “valued Verizon customer.” wants you to go to a website and enter your phone number to redeem. Sounds like a scam.”

“Lot the message last night on my voice mail. They said I was a Verizon customer, I’m not. They said to go to www.freeverizonipad.com to claim my ipad2.

Doesn’t look to me like it would be free. Long, long, long list of things that I’d have to do in order to even be put into the running for the ipad. Looks like I’d have a dozen companies all of the sudden emailing and calling me trying to sell me their products (which I don’t want or need).”

“Recorded message claims that you, a valued Verizon Wireless customer have won a free iPad. Go to www.freeverizonipad.com and enter your info to claim prize.

I called the number back and got a similar message after which the call went to a voice mail box. The domain name is not one of the domains owned by Verizon Wireless.

This is defiantly a scam so I am reporting it as such to the National Do Not Call Registry.”

source of complaints: http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-801-803-6858

“it has only been one so far. but it said, “Since you have been such a good version wireless customer, you have won a free ipad 2. please go to {cant remember the sight name} enter your version wireless number and claim your prize”

source of complaint: http://mrnumber.com/1-801-803?page=9

Anytime a company has a “cell phone” field on their gift site’s front page it is bad news. Those sites are usually sent to people through text messages. If someone clicks the link, they’re taken to a site like popularproductsonline.com/ca which asks for a cell phone number and e-mail. All the front page should ever ask you for is an e-mail address or else there is some serious textspamming going on! The problem I have with text spam is, depending on one’s carrier and monthly plan, people may be charged for incoming text messages. Computer users don’t pay for site spam, so why should cell phone users? I suppose they shouldn’t open the text messages, but the fact remains that we aren’t paying to view DIY sites online. Text spam is a little impersonal to me anyway, because it’s going to someone’s cell phone. It should stay where it belongs– on the internet!
This is like the Nick Brown case except the domains registered to Nick Brown pointed to other DIY companies, because he never had his own freebie site. He only had a site for Best World Media, Inc., his lead generation company. Ace Brands Online have their own promotional web sites. Here’s a wild thought. What if Ace Brands Online, Inc. WERE Nuitech. Nuitech would be just as guilty as Nick Brown for spamming! But I can’t picture Nuitech doing that.

Back to the “SUMMARY OF PROMOTION PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS” wording on Ace Brands Online’s site, www.popularproductsonline.com WinHundred has similar wording on their gift sites…

WinHundred site:

url: http://www.happyholidayrewards.com/aseg-864?trkSessID=200710037&dLID=4004&pRdrTrkID=698090837&skipExit=[skipExit]&pLeadEmailAddress=[pLeadEmailAddress]

Howeever, on the WinHundred site it is, “SUMMARY OF PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS” just like I-Deal. But Ace Brands Online added “promotion” to their gift site, making the sentence “SUMMARY OF PROMOTION PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS.” What if Ace Brands Online are WinHundred? If they are, then WinHundred are textspammers. The main graphic for certain WinHundred sites cover the whole page and are narrow. Please study the WinHundred site below and my search results.

WinHundred site:

url: http://www.giftcarddealsonline.com/aseg-759?trkSessID=200710037&dLID=4318&pRdrTrkID=698442914&skipExit=1&pLeadEmailAddress=test@test.com

Search results:

The bottom links read “1000 Best Buy Gift Card – Mobile [Pre-Pop]” and “1000 Walmart Gift Card Mobile [Pre-Pop]” Both links point to two narrow WinHundred sites, with one of them being the above $1,000.00 Best Buy gift card site. The “Mobile” part may mean these promotions are used for text spam. Ace Brands Online, Inc. have textspammed, but I need more proof for WinHundred. Ace Brands Online and WinHundred have something else in common. Can you guess what that is? Their sites are privately registered. If I had to choose which company might be affiliated with Ace Brands Online, Inc., it would be CoverClicks, LLC. which manages WinHundred. Not Nuitech.

I have an update on our Nuitech member, but if you need to read up on this member’s experience first, please see these entries: “DIY rose bouquet is delivered, Part 2.” – “Lucky shamrocks”

Nuitech member:

“from: member xxxx@xx.com
to: diyfreebies@gmail.com
date: Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 11:42 AM
subject: Hey
mailed-by: xxxx.com
signed-by: xxxx.com

I finally received my Macbook Pro last night after five long months since I started this whole process.

I might do a DIYFreebie offer again, but I doubt I’ll be doing it through this same company. Unless that’s the standard time it takes to go through the entire process. I would prefer working with a company who has telephone support, and who communicates much better during the whole process or getting sponsors to confirm memberships, etc.

Did you ever find some websites for I-Deal that will work? Or, are there any companies around now who offer telephone support?”

My reply:

“From: diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to: member
date: Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 8:19 PM
subject: Re: Hey
mailed-by: gmail.com

Hi member,

Congratulations on your reward! That is fantastic. I am so happy your Macbook Pro finally arrived.

I-Deal and Nuitech are the main DIY companies right now. I would suggest Consumer Gain, but the last time I checked in on them I couldn’t get through to their customer service department. I had questioned them as to why their sites’ T&C pages had Nuitech’s DBA in them. Nuitech said they provided service to multiple companies after I asked them about it; I asked them as well since I got no response from Consumer Gain. I don’t think Nuitech acquired the company, but its strange for Consumer Gain to not answer their main e-mail… Does Nuitech answer Consumer Gain’s support tickets? I’ll send one through a Consumer Gain site to see who answers. Anyway, that is where we are with Consumer Gain. I wouldn’t do them until we find out exactly what is going on. If you need to refresh your memory on this topic, please read DIY rose bouquet delivery,Part 2.: http://www.diyfreebies.com/diy-rose-bouquet-is-delivered-part-2-nuitech-sponsor-reporting-issues-members-experience-popular-diy-company-sold-to-nuitech-misc-freebie-proof-pics/

Another company is Product Test Panel. There have been some issues, BUT they offer phone support and pay out. You may want to check out some of their links in my blog: http://www.diyfreebies.com We may have a new company soon– LeaderDirect. They are supposed to e-mail me back once they fix their gift site. If the individual who offered to test their site is still willing after they contact me, then hopefully that person can report something positive back and that’ll give us another company. How do you feel about Consumers Reward Solutions? They sent me a $3,000.00 check last year: http://www.diyfreebies.com/lucky-shamrocks-scattered-over-ptps-incorrect-1099-forms-new-nuitech-dba-letter-to-company-and-member-update-crs-releases-contact-info/ <--- CRS hired a third-party company after they dismissed Dave, the former customer service rep. An address was given for us to mail in our documentation for approval. Although we have no e-mail, at least we have a location to send our paperwork to. Our anonymous source never said if they received a reply from CRS through their ticket system. I hoped they would so we could have gotten an e-mail address that way. You may want to hold off on CRS until someone has had success with the Las Vegas, Nevada address.

As for I-Deal, they don't offer phone support, however, they have excellent customer service. I highly recommend them. You don't have to worry about communication when it comes to I-Deal. They will take care of you. Unfortunately, there are no good deals by them right now. But I will let you know if that changes.

Thanks for updating me on your gift status with Nuitech. Enjoy your new Macbook!

Regards,

wozniack"

My reply is a complete rundown of our companies' affairs. I still cannot get in touch with Consumer Gain. Product Test Panel are still around. I'm waiting for LeaderDirect to contact me back. No word yet on Consumers Reward Solutions' Las Vegas, Nevada address, so we don't know if it's successful. And I-Deal and Nuitech are the current top-paying DIY companies. The only thing that's changed is we have Ace Brands Online and Caivis to investigate.

Another person wrote in with the following...

Member:

"from: member xxxx@xx.com
to: "diyfreebies@gmail.com"
date: Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 12:12 PM
subject: Re: Inquiry
mailed-by: xxxx.com
signed-by: xxxx.com

Hi wozniack,

Thanks for reply! I just qualified for an Apple iPad 2 and $250 Apple G/c from ConsumerIncentiveRewards, they gave me a hard time at first but approved everything last week.

member”

My reply:

“from: diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to: member
date: Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 12:35 PM
subject: Re: Inquiry
mailed-by: gmail.com

member,

Congratulations on qualifying for an iPad2 and $250.00 Apple gift card! That’s terrific. If its alright by you, may I share your positive experience with my readers? I can make you anonymous on my blog.

Thanks,

wozniack”

“from: member xxxx@xx.com
to: “diyfreebies@gmail.com”
date: Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 12:38 PM
subject: Re: Inquiry
mailed-by: xxxx.com
signed-by: xxxx.com

Yes, no problem!

member”

Congrats to these members! I always like hearing when someone gets paid.

So I contacted LeaderDirect last month since I hadn’t heard back. Below is our brief exchange.

My e-mail:

“From: xxxx@xx.com
Date: Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 1:52 PM
Subject: Re: LeaderDirect/TheFreeLaptop.com offer…
To: main@membershelpdesk1.com

Hello again,

I haven’t heard back so I thought I would ask. Is the site properly functioning now? And if not, about how much longer will it be until it is repaired? Because I am still very interested in doing it, and would like to start the site sometime soon.

Thanks,

me”

LeaderDirect’s reply:

“from: main@membershelpdesk1.com
to: xxxx@xx.com
date: Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 9:09 PM
subject: RE: LeaderDirect/TheFreeLaptop.com offer…

Thanks for your email.

We’re sorry, but the offers for completion are not yet populated into the system, so there are no advertisers offers to complete.

We’ll email you back when ready – may be a few more weeks, sorry.

Best regards,

LeaderDirect”

We’ll have to be patient. It does take time to add offers to a gift site, so I completely understand. Will let everyone know on this as soon as I hear back!

Got another $25.00 to Target after cashing out on a Tango Card from Toluna. My balance is 58,150, so I only need 16,850 more points to redeem my next Tango Card.

*links ‘n such*

Nuitech–

http://www.rewardingpromos.com/?oid=ur03y65j&clk=e60605238333041f568e4e2222bcab4c&s=1717 – offers unknown/$1,000.00 Visa gc

http://cpaalpha.com/offerpreview/display.php?k=ad0abdf587cdb15f5f894750994df54290f75b0c – 10 offers, no refs/$1,000.00 Best Buy gc

producttestpanel–

http://myrewardadvantage.com/vegas/index.php?lid=vegas_14380_100400&add_offerid=7915999&addomain=avcounter10.com&addomain_id=67&uniclk=true – 13 offers, 3 refs/$1,000.00 Las Vegas vacation + misc. gifts

http://branddealsonline.com/cabelas/index.php?lid=cabelas_13326_[=afid=]&add_offerid=1757369&addomain=avcounter10.com&addomain_id=67&uniclk=true – 13 offers, 3 refs/$1,000.00 Cabela’s gc + misc. gifts

http://branddealsonline.com/kyzls/index.php?lid=kyzls_3156_CD1&add_offerid=53493247&addomain=avgauge10.com&addomain_id=63&uniclk=true – 13 offers, 3 refs/$1,000.00 Kay or Zales gc + misc. gifts

http://retailreportcard.producttestpanel.com/rrc1000/register.kohls.php?lid=rrckohls_3156_CD1&add_offerid=165829&addomain=ileadztracker.com&addomain_id=8&uniclk=true – 6 offers, no refs/$1,000.00 Kohl’s gc + misc. gifts

http://tjmaxxgiftcard.giftcertificatedelivery.com/form/iframe/36149/9503/?&sid=affiliate_id&ref=36149 – 13 offers, 3 refs/$1,000.00 TJ Maxx gc + misc. gifts

http://branddealsonline.com/wm/index.php?lid=wm_14281_168&add_offerid=676547&addomain=avcounter10.com&addomain_id=67&uniclk=true – 13 offers, 3 refs/$1,000.00 Wal-Mart gc + misc. gifts

http://mysterymallshopper1.com/secretzas/index.php?lid=secretzas_15029_{affiliate_id}&aff_sub={aff_sub}&add_offerid=4562611&addomain=avcounter10.com&addomain_id=67&uniclk=true – 13 offers, 3 refs/$1,000.00 merchant gc of your choice + misc. gifts

http://www.claimhotdeals.com/amex.php?sid=135&aid=1043&subid=57967&subid2=&subid3=139299006 – 10 offers, 3 refs/$1,000.00 AmEx gc + misc. gifts

http://www.claimhotdeals.com/walmart.php?sid=136&aid=1043&subid=57969&subid2=&subid3=139299076 – 10 offers, 3 refs/$1,000.00 Wal-Mart gc + misc. gifts

Much to do between now and June; further investigate Caivis/XL Marketing, gather more info on Ace Brands Online, Inc., and prepare for our anniversary blog! It will be a celebration for sure. You may notice the images are smaller when they’re enlarged. That’s because Photobucket resizes them after the images are uploaded. However, I did not know that until after I uploaded our images. This bothers me because our policy and terms and conditions are now smaller, which makes it difficult for us to compare company info. And the worst part is, I still haven’t modified our blogs with the new links, so now we have images linking from two locations! I have to upgrade my Photobucket membership, or find another photo storage site as soon as I can. Enjoy the links and blog everyone…

Take care,

wozniack

Site testing is now up for discussion. Where are we with WinHundred, Brightfire, and LeaderDirect? Well, I went on a site search for these companies and one caught my eye. It was a 6 offer, no ref/$1,000.00 Wal-Mart gift card site by WinHundred. Who could beat that? Take a look…

gift page:

url: http://www.giftcarddealsonline.com/aseg-829?trkSessID=197463797&dLID=3340&pRdrTrkID=682077106&skipExit=[skipExit]&pLeadEmailAddress=[pLeadEmailAddress]

6 offers, no refs for a $1,000.00 is pretty good! WinHundred has a cancellation limitation but that wasn’t a problem considering how great the payout was. So I then registered…

Registration page:

Survey pages:

Offer pages:

Great offer selection: Santuko Knife, Ahh Bra, No! No! Hair, HCG Ultra Diet Drops, FreeScore 360, 100 Day Loans, Shoe Dazzle, Sytropin HGH Spray, Keranique. Six offers was a cinch since I hadn’t done any I listed. Before I began, I gave attention to other areas of my blog, so I put the site off. Less than a week later, an account suspension error replaced the front page; the gift site was gone!

Site error:

While investigating numerous companies in the past, I’ve gotten the account suspension error. If a company terminated their web host service, wouldn’t their gift site link to a domain provider like godaddy? Because an account suspension error is present for these main reasons: violating the Terms of Service/Terms of Use and e-mail abuse (SPAM) policy, server resource overusage, expired web host account, billing issues. Terminating one’s own hosting service to abolish his/her gift site(s) would be tiresome with the amount of links they would have. The company would need another web host for their sites, and I can’t see that becoming routine. With giftcarddealsonline.com now gone, the WinHundred site I registered for, I advise against doing them. Customer support still unresponsive. We wouldn’t know if our documentation was received, assuming proof is required with there being a cancellation limitation. My point of view won’t change until their gift program shows signs of improvement.

Progress was made with LeaderDirect. I inquired about turning in documentation, and where to send it since they, too, have a cancellation limitation. Below is what I asked followed by their response.

My e-mail:

“From: wozniack [mailto: xxxx@xx.com]
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2012 3:59 PM
To: info@thefreelaptop.com; jim@pingserve.net
Subject: LeaderDirect/TheFreeLaptop.com offer…

Hello,

Once I complete my offers, must I turn in my billing statement, invoices and/or my e-mail confirmations from the sponsors? I assume this is a requirement with there being a cancellation limitation, correct? And do I send all my documentation to info@thefreelaptop.com? Just making sure I know what to do before I begin…

Thanks,

me”

LeaderDirect’s reply:

“From:
Date: Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 9:44 AM
Subject: RE: LeaderDirect/TheFreeLaptop.com offer…
To: xxxx@xx.com

Thanks for your email.

We’re sorry, but at this time our website is experiencing technical difficulties. Our technical staff is looking into this matter. We will contact you back when the site is functioning properly again.

Best regards,

LeaderDirect”

Hopefully they tell us where to send our documentation, as I am sure that is a requirement with there being a cancellation limitation. Someone is willing to test LeaderDirect, but may not until the company gets back to me. If this person does and is successful with the site, that gives us a payment report. As for BrightFire, their gift site, mygiftcardspot.com, is the only promotion I’ve seen by them. I will contact them again, though they never responded to my previous e-mail. So far there are no payment reports for WinHundred, Brightfire, or LeaderDirect. LeaderDirect are responsive, but let’s wait until they resolve their site issues and answer my questions before we proceed.

New WinHundred address:

P.O. Box 1883
New City, NY 10956

Next is an update from our Nuitech member. For those who haven’t been keeping up, please read these entries, starting with “DIY rose bouquet delivery, Part 2″: “DIY rose bouquet delivery, Part 2“, “Lucky shamrocks…”

Member:

“from: member xxxx@xx.com
to: diyfreebies@gmail.com
date: Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 7:28 PM
subject: Fw: Redeem Voucher
mailed-by: xxxx.com
signed-by: xxxx.com

Finally got this message and sent in the voucher right away. So, I should be getting it anytime.

member
xxx-xxx-xxxx

— On Mon, 2/27/12, Consumerincentiverewards Support wrote:

> From: Consumerincentiverewards Support
> Subject: Redeem Voucher
> To: xxxx@xx.com
> Date: Monday, February 27, 2012, 12:56 PM
> Dear member,
>
> Thank you for sending us your billing statement. Your
> information has
> been approved by our Confirmation Review Department, and you
> are now
> qualified for a Apple Macbook Pro. Please click on the
> following link
> to redeem your voucher.
>
> http://consumerincentiverewards.com/redeem.htm
>
> You can mail the voucher to the address provided on the link
> or you may
> fax it to our Verification Department at 954-364-7011.
>
> Please allow 4-5 weeks for the fulfillment center to
> assemble, package,
> and ship a gift after the Shipping Request has been sent.
>
> Please do not reply to this email as the account this is
> sent from is
> not monitored for incoming mail and you will not receive a
> reply.
> Please use the contact form provided at our website.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Support”

This member said they’d let me know when their laptop arrived. It has been over 3 weeks since they sent their voucher in, so it shouldn’t be too much longer. I’m happy they were approved! As for the letter I’d written to Nuitech in February, they never replied. Didn’t expect them to either, I just wanted to give everyone the status of my letter.

Remember our discussion on company complaints in Part 1. of February’s blog? If not, read this first: http://www.diyfreebies.com/diy-rose-bouquet-is-delivered-part-1-new-information-and-crs-person-exposed-discourse-on-diy-complaints-shane-crawford-of-zooz-solutions-valentines-link-list/ – In that entry, I shared the e-mails between myself and Shane Crawford of ZOOZ Solutions, Ltd. with my readers. Our correspondence was to exemplify a company’s distress brought on by false claims, and explain how it could affect the company and person responsible for the complaint. The reason I brought this up is because of a post I read on I-Deal. The I-Deal site I did, brandgiveawaycenter.com, was labeled a scam on this web site: http://trueler.com/2011/10/22/free-1000-walmart-best-buy-gift-card-scam/#comment-27176 – I will only post the top of the page, and the part about brandgiveawaycenter.com to avoid getting in trouble.

Trueler.com post:

This complaint concerns this link: http://ca.bestbuy.mygiftcarddeal.com/ I stumbled upon this site during the Nick Brown investigation, and I’m 99.9% certain it was CRS. Can’t confirm that though, because the site is now gone and I would have to look at it again. But I think the answer was found on the gift site’s status page.

Okay, brandgiveawaycenter.com IS an I-Deal site. The gift site is under their new DBA, True Power Media. The promotion is still around: brandgiveawaycenter.com – That’s the site I did to receive my $1,000.00 Visa and $250.00 bonus check! Proof of payment can be found in these entries: “New Years ball drops…“, “DIY rose bouquet delivery, Part 2.” – Somebody named Joe commented on the Trueler post. He said he received a $1,000.00 Wal-Mart gift card “in less than 6 weeks.” Trueler put this warning on Joe’s post: “seems like this comment came from person associated with brandgiveawaycenter.com – another site offering “Free $1000 Gift Cards.” See below.

I believe Joe, and here’s why. While doing my offers, many had finished theirs and reported their progress to me. Several people said they received their gift card in under six weeks. I remember telling these individuals, “That was fast! I didn’t expect you to get it for two more weeks.” And most of them said, “Me either!”, and they received Wal-Mart or Target gift cards. My reason for receiving a Visa instead of a Wal-Mart or Target gift card was because I was late getting the site done. I-Deal’s offer system was messed up back then, so I burned through a lot of offers. In total, I did 15 offers instead of 8! When they paid me 3 months later, I guess there was a shortage of Target cards? Because I got a Visa instead of a Target gift card, and they wouldn’t substitute a Wal-Mart card for a Target card. You get what you sign up for with I-Deal. But I’m glad it took me longer because I got a Visa!

I don’t think Joe is associated with I-Deal, who maintains brandgiveawaycenter.com. Joe is just like many of us in freebieland who know the ropes, and who’ve learnt the art of patience while waiting for their reward. In mine and Joe’s case, it isn’t a scam. For nearly everyone else on that page, however, it is due to their own negative experience or doubting self. I see why people think this is a scam. They don’t understand why “free gifts (trial offers)” come in the mail, then they are charged for them. To them the advertised gift isn’t exactly free, and they are right because it isn’t. You pay money to try the offers on a gift site. To be a “scam”, it depends on one’s own experience, and what their definition of a scam is. Though you must spend money to earn a free gift card, it’s not a scam to me because you DO get a free gift card. My experience with I-Deal has been nothing short of stellar. But its the fact that these companies promote a “free gift card” that makes it so misleading to the general public. Only a small percentage of us know these aren’t all scams. Let’s change that by posting on complaint sites and blogs when our DIY companies are attacked. Anyone who has done brandgiveawaycenter.com, or any I-Deal site for that matter, can defend them here: http://trueler.com/2011/10/22/free-1000-walmart-best-buy-gift-card-scam/#comment-27176

While on the subject of I-Deal, I would like to discuss a rule in their T&C. But first read my exchange with a member as it concerns this matter.

Member:

“from: member xxxx@xx.com
to: diyfreebies@gmail.com
date: Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 4:09 PM
subject: Re: 10 offers, no refs/$1,000.00I-Deal site…
mailed-by: xxxx.com
signed-by: xxxx.com

Wozniack,

As always thank you. Just one question. I did the last $1000 ideal site you sent me and it went through flawlessly. Then i tried for the iPad but my account was put on hold for apparently signing up for offers sponsored by the same sponsor. So how do i make sure this doesn’t happen again. Basically how do you make sure you don’t sign up for an offer which they consider to be the same as another?

Thanks
member”

My reply:

“from: diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to: “member”
date: Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 4:54 PM
subject: Re: 10 offers, no refs/$1,000.00I-Deal site…
mailed-by: gmail.com

member,

That is usually what gets you disqualified, because it is so hard to tell which offers belong to the same sponsor. How I do it is by finding similarities between the offers on each page. I look at the red wording under the offer image. For example. Shopping Club Trial’s offer description reads,”Join the shopping club today for 14 days for only $2.98. Get a Wal-Mart gift voucher with your trial membership.” And the offer description for Profinity Save is, “Try Profinity today for 14 days for only $2.98 and receive a free $25 shopping voucher.” That alone tells us these offers are probably from the same sponsor. But you can also examine the offer pages. Look for similar wording, and check to see if the policies and terms on the offer pages are alike. Google is also helpful as you can research these offers to see what’s been said about them. If both trial offers are the same, then perhaps is proven somewhere online. The name of the sponsor may be found on a forum, or on the sponsor’s main web site. If you can find out the exact company name for these sponsors, you might be able to find out which ones are connected.

I apologize that that you were DQ’d for doing an offer by the same sponsor. You can try disputing the hold by contacting their Legal Department, though it is difficult to get the hold lifted once it’s done. Was one of the same sponsor offer Online Savings Club? I ask because two others I know of where put on hold recently for doing that one after they did other offer(s) by the same sponsor. I may contact I-Deal about this matter. They should put the name of the company sponsoring these offers in small black print below each offer on the offer pages so everyone knows which is which. There are too many disqualifications because of this.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Thanks,

wozniack”

Member:

“from: member xxxx@xx.com
to: diyfreebies@gmail.com
date: Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 6:52 PM
subject: Re: 10 offers, no refs/$1,000.00I-Deal site…
mailed-by: xxxx.com
signed-by: xxxx.com

I am pretty certain that online savings club was one of them. Do you know if once a person is DQ’d for this reason if they are able to start over again and try to sign up for new offers to get the same gift?

Thanks
member”

My reply:

“from: diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to: “member”
date: Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 4:59 PM
subject: Re: 10 offers, no refs/$1,000.00I-Deal site…
mailed-by: gmail.com

When your account goes on hold, you really cant sign up again for that gift because that is two accounts and you are asking for trouble. Do another gift with a new DBA. Which DBA was under your iPad gift that was put on hold, by the way?

Thanks,

wozniack”

This matter concerns accounts put on hold due to this rule, “YOU MAY SIGN-UP WITH EACH OF OUR ADVERTISERS ONE TIME EVERY SIX (6) MONTHS. ONCE YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED AN ADVERTISER’S OFFER, YOU ARE PROHIBITED FROM SIGNING-UP FOR THAT OFFER, AS WELL AS ANY OTHER OFFER SPONSORED BY THE ADVERTISER FOR SIX (6) MONTHS.” I sent I-Deal a letter, so they knew our concerns and heard my suggestion. Below is our exchange.

My letter to I-Deal:

“From: xxxx@xx.com [mailto:xxxx@xx.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 8:47 PM
To: Customer Service
Subject: One offer per advertiser six-month rule… (Thread:308628)

To whom it may concern,

I’m writing to you about the six-month rule in your terms and conditions: “YOU MAY SIGN-UP WITH EACH OF OUR ADVERTISERS ONE TIME EVERY SIX (6) MONTHS. ONCE YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED AN ADVERTISER’S OFFER, YOU ARE PROHIBITED FROM SIGNING-UP FOR THAT OFFER, AS WELL AS ANY OTHER OFFER SPONSORED BY THE ADVERTISER FOR SIX (6) MONTHS.” There is a noticeable increase in account holds due to members’ being in direct violation of this rule. Based on my communication with those whose accounts are on hold, I feel that the offer pages are partly to blame. The name of the advertiser sponsoring these offers should be present on the offer pages. Perhaps the advertiser names could be shown in fine black print below each description and image of the trial offer. That is why there are so many violations; your members cannot tell the offers apart, then they do an offer(s) by the same advertiser and are put on hold, which 99.9% of the time leads to disqualification by your Legal Department.

Unless the offer pages are amended, this can’t be prevented. Members will continue to be put “on hold.” Your members don’t want to break the rules, they want a solution so they can legitimately complete their gift sites. I am willing to provide more suggestions if this one isn’t well received.

I hope this is taken into consideration.

Thanks,

me”

I-Deal’s reply:

“from Customer Service contactus@expertcustomerservice.com
to xxxx@xx.com
date Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 1:02 PM
subject RE: One offer per advertiser six-month rule… (Thread:308628)
mailed-by expertcustomerservice.com

I would go by the name of the offer. We check on that level meaning if it’s called “offer1” we only disqualify if you again apply for “offer1”.”

My reply:

“from xxxx@xx.com xxxx@xx.com
to Customer Service
date Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 4:55 PM
subject Re: One offer per advertiser six-month rule… (Thread:308628)
mailed-by xxxx.com

What you are saying is that if someone completed “offer1″ a second time they would be disqualified. Okay, I get that. But what if someone did a different offer from the same advertiser as “offer1″? Are you saying that people can do other offers by the same advertiser since you only disqualify for repeats? Your terms state that members are prohibited from signing up for the same offer twice, “AS WELL AS ANY OTHER OFFER SPONSORED BY THE ADVERTISER FOR SIX (6) MONTHS (from the T&C)” This is where the confusion sets in. Is it fair to say the terms and conditions should be rectified?

Thanks,

me”

I-Deal’s reply:

“from Customer Service contactus@expertcustomerservice.com
to xxxx@xx.com
date Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 10:42 AM
subject RE: One offer per advertiser six-month rule… (Thread:308628)
mailed-by expertcustomerservice.com

I am trying to help you out. Our terms will remain as stated. Best of luck.”

My reply:

“from xxxx@xx.com xxxx@xx.com
to Customer Service
date Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 12:44 PM
subject Re: One offer per advertiser six-month rule… (Thread:308628)
mailed-by xxxx.com

Hi,

Thank you for the help you have provided so far. Is it that we can do another offer in the same family (advertiser) as “offer1″ as long as it is not “offer1″? For example, there is Green Tea Fit Plus and Green Tea Fit 2000. Most likely they belong to the same advertiser. So if I did Green Tea Fit 2000, I wouldn’t be allowed to do Green Tea Fit 2000 for six months; however, I could still do Green Tea Fit Plus even though I just did Green Tea Fit 2000 in under six months? People are worried about doing an offer from the same advertiser even if the offer is completely different, like Green Tea Fit Plus and Green Tea Fit 2000. They feel taking this action may result in disqualification.

I apologize if my last e-mail came off surly; I am just making sure I understand this, so I can correctly relay these details to your members. As always, I appreciate your helpful replies.

Sincerely,

me”

I-Deal’s reply:

“from Customer Service contactus@expertcustomerservice.com
to xxxx@xx.com
date Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 2:37 PM
subject RE: One offer per advertiser six-month rule… (Thread:308628)
mailed-by expertcustomerservice.com

You should be basing it off the Red Text not the offer landing pages.”

My reply:

“from xxxx@xx.com xxxx@xx.com
to Customer Service
date Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 1:23 PM
subject Re: One offer per advertiser six-month rule… (Thread:308628)
mailed-by xxxx.com

hide details 1:23 pm (2 days ago)

On the Gold page for e-consumergift, the US Financial Resources offer can be found here: http://e-consumergift.com/?session_id=eb9a126878fd11e1bd41ce3ea83e1266&map=299&stage=70 – The red text for that one is as follows: “Sign up now to start your free 10 day trial!” However, the text for the other US Financial Resources on the Platinum page (http://e-consumergift.com/?session_id=eb9a126878fd11e1bd41ce3ea83e1266) offer reads: “10 Day FREE trial!” — Although the red text is unique, its obvious these offers shouldn’t be done more than once in a six-month period since the offer name is the same, correct? The red text and images may not match for both US Financial Resource offers, but the offer name remains the same. I’m pretty sure I understand all this. I always go by the red text when comparing offers, but it’s hard to determine which offers are off limits when there are doubles at play. As long as the red text and status/account page offers are dissimilar, there is no margin for error?

Thanks again,

me”

I-Deal’s reply:

“from Customer Service contactus@expertcustomerservice.com
to xxxx@xx.com
date Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 1:32 PM
subject RE: One offer per advertiser six-month rule… (Thread:308628)
mailed-by expertcustomerservice.com

I am referring to the large red text such as “US Financial Resources” As long as those do not match you should be ok.”

My reply:

“from xxxx@xx.com xxxx@xx.com
to Customer Service
date Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 3:56 PM
subject Re: One offer per advertiser six-month rule… (Thread:308628)
mailed-by xxxx.com

Simple enough. I really appreciate your time and effort in helping with this matter. Thank you so much.

Have a good afternoon,

me”

The “red text” I-Deal refers to are the actual offer names. No matter how varied an offer is in appearance (landing pages and image ads), if it’s name matches one you have done, avoid that offer. As for my earlier argument on doing “ANY OTHER OFFER SPONSORED BY THE ADVERTISER FOR SIX (6) MONTHS (from the T&C)“, ignore that. You cannot do any other offer by the same advertiser for six months as per the terms and conditions. If the account hold rate continues increasing, I will again suggest to I-Deal to include the advertiser name below each offer, as that is a surefire way for people to know what offers not to do. We all know NOT to repeat an offer. But if we’re looking at a different offer and can’t tell who the advertiser is, how can we avoid doing an offer by the same advertiser? That’s my worry. I only see more account holds since there’s no indication as to who the advertisers are.

MyPoints sent me my $75.00 in amazon codes! And I spent my $25.00 Tango Card from Toluna on a $25.00 Target gift card. The voucher didn’t arrive by e-mail, I had to navigate to the rewards section in my Toluna account to get the redemption code and pin number. A Tango Card is an electronic voucher that you can redeem for cash and gift cards, or donate the amount of your gift to a charity. To learn more about the Tango Card, click here: http://www.tangocard.com/shop/tango-card

*Easter link list*

I-Deal–

http://www.publicsurveypanel.com/?session_id=b34d16ea790611e1b0cbeb38b8df804b – 10 offers, 1 refs/$500.00 Visa gc

http://www.publicsurveypanel.com/?session_id=fcf534f8790611e1a1708ce6a68cb92e – 10 offers, 1 refs/$500.00 merchant gift card of your choice, or 16gb Apple iPad or 64gb Apple iPod Touch

Nuitech–

http://www.yourrewardstoday.com/rd_p?p=320732&c=55535-yrt_hhgregg500gc_728_hibrand&a=PFTEST – 8 offers, no refs/$500.00 hhgregg gc

producttestpanel–

http://webbrandrewards.com/phutzas/index.php?lid=phutzas_14281_168&add_offerid=2565585&addomain=promolnk.com&addomain_id=89&uniclk=true – 13 offers, 3 refs/$500.00 Pizza Hut gc + misc. gifts

http://webbrandrewards.com/dicacademy/index.php?lid=dicacademy_14056_-1&add_offerid=482712&addomain=avgauge10.com&addomain_id=63&uniclk=true – 13 offers, 3 refs/$500.00 Academy or Dick’s Sporting Goods gc + misc. gifts

http://webbrandrewards.com/employmentzas/index.php?lid=employmentzas_15029_{affiliate_id}&aff_sub={aff_sub}&add_offerid=211795&addomain=promolnk.com&addomain_id=89&uniclk=true – 13 offers, 3 refs/$500.00 Visa gc + misc. gifts

http://webbrandrewards.com/chkfl/index.php?lid=chkfl_15029_{affiliate_id}&aff_sub={aff_sub}&add_offerid=9713228&addomain=rsgauge10.com&addomain_id=62&uniclk=true – 13 offers, 3 refs/$500.00 Chick-fila-a gc + misc. gifts

http://www.pampermerewards.com/bathbod/flash_index.php – 6 offers, no refs/$500.00 Bath & Body Works gc + misc. gifts

http://webbrandrewards.com/occupy/index.php?lid=occupy_15029_{affiliate_id}&aff_sub={aff_sub}&add_offerid=68778339&addomain=avgauge10.com&addomain_id=63&uniclk=true – 13 offers, 3 refs/$500.00 Visa gc + misc. gifts

http://webbrandrewards.com/snc/index.php?lid=snc_14056_-1&add_offerid=2823835&addomain=sbfollow10.com&addomain_id=61&uniclk=true – 13 offers, 3 refs/$500.00 Sonic gc + misc. gifts

WinHundred and Brightfire are out, but I am excited about LeaderDirect because I think we can get somewhere with them. The sooner they reply the better. Trueler approved my blog comment. So if you have something to say, say it! I will go out of my way to protect the name of any company that is good to us. They need to know that all freebies are not scams. About our forum, if anyone’s account has not been approved, please contact me at: diyfreebies@gmail.com. We’ve tightened our security due to the amount of spam on the board. All sign ups must be manually approved. I wish everyone a Happy Easter! Have fun.

Take care,

wozniack

Anyone who has done Product Test Panel in the last year, listen up! The company reported their prize amounts in the wrong box on Form 1099-MISC. To learn more, please read what these two members said…

Member #1:

“Surprise, surprise.

I received my 1099 form from PTP today, and they reported my prize as non-employee compensation (Box 7) instead of other income (Box 3). Box 7 is supposed to be used only for services performed for a company (say, as an independent contractor) and subjects me to a self-employment tax, which could considerably screw up my taxes. Of course, if it’s left in Box 7, PTP gets a windfall essentially for purposely reporting it incorrectly. I remember iDeal tried to do the same thing a few years ago until enough people complained, and it was changed. I already called the number on the form and left a message, and I will continue to contact them until it’s fixed. Otherwise, I’ll have my accountant take care of it. But I just thought I would let you know that they’re continuing to try to screw me over.”

Next comes an e-mail I sent to Member #2 concerning Member #1:

“from: diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to: xxxx@xx.com
date: Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 4:08 PM
subject: PTP 1099 form…
mailed-by: gmail.com

Hi member,

Did you receive your 1099 from Product Test Panel? Did they put the amount in Box 3 or Box 7 on your 1099? I ask because a member who I helped two months ago had problems with the company, and has recently received his 1099 form with the amount in Box 7 instead of Box 3. I’m trying to find out if they purposely did this to him, or if it is being done to everyone who did PTP. I-Deal pulled the same stunt a few years ago but after enough people complained they changed it. Even Active Response Group made this error: “Celebratory anniversary blog…” <--- I posted about this woman's experience here, she never even worked for them, haha...

Anyway, just thought I would ask since you successfully completed them last year. If they are doing this to everyone, then it's good that people know so they can take action.

Thanks,

wozniack"

Member #2's reply:

"from: xxxx@xx.com
to: diyfreebies@gmail.com
date: Sat, Feb 11, 2012 at 8:59 PM
subject: Re: PTP 1099 form...
mailed-by: xxxx.com

I'm sorry it has taken me a couple of days to get back to you. Yes I received a 1099 from PTP and it was in Box 7 (Non-employee compensation) which I don't believe is correct. I still haven't made the donation I promised but I will! Do you have any new information about CRS? I would like to do another site but I'm not sure if I should. On a side note...Nuitech has been a little shady - I mailed in all of my confirmations and they said they did not receive them....I then faxed them and they were able to approve my account....THEN they "lost" my redemption form even though I had tracking to prove it was delivered. I had it re-notarized and they did finally receive it and I did get my gift - $500 worth of Chili's cards...ha ha.....I was hoping for cash. I was just curious if anyone else was having problems with them.

Thanks,
member"

If your 1099 form was misreported, please follow these instructions:

"Topic 154 – Form W-2 and Form 1099–R (What to Do if Incorrect or Not Received)

If you do not receive your Form W-2 or Form 1099-R by January 31st, or your information is incorrect, contact your employer/payer.

If you do not receive the missing or corrected form by February 14th from your employer/payer, you may call the IRS at 800–829–1040 for assistance. You must provide your name, address (including zip code), phone number, Social Security Number, dates of employment, your employer/payer’s name, address (including zip code), and phone number. The IRS will contact the employer/payer for you and request the missing form. IRS will also send you a Form 4852 (PDF), Substitute for Form W-2 or Form 1099-R, along with a letter containing instructions.

If you do not receive the missing form in sufficient time to file your tax return timely, you may use the Form 4852 to complete your return. If you receive the missing or corrected Form W-2 or Form 1099-R after you file your return and a correction is needed, use Form 1040X (PDF), Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return. For additional information on filing an amended return, refer to Topic 308.”

source: http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc154.html

That’s from IRS.gov. Prize amounts should be reported as other income in Box 3, not as non-employee compensation in Box 7. Individuals who received incorrect forms are encouraged to contact the IRS at once.

To begin our Nuitech discussion, we’ll start with an update on this member’s Nuitech gift. Our correspondence is in Part 2. of February’s blog: “DIY rose bouquet delivery, Part 2.” — Below is our recent exchange.

Member:

“Well, I haven’t heard anything since Monday. I’ve sent them probably at least ten emails asking for some sort of verification or confirmation of my new documents I sent in. I haven’t heard anything at all. Pretty lame. I think they are just done with me at this point. But, they never said I wouldn’t be getting my gift or anything. So, at this point, I’m not sure if they will ever respond to my emails again. Pretty lame. They won’t even tell me No. I wish there was some way to get a phone number for them. I’ve got their fax number – 9543647011. I actually just faxed them all of my emails and credit card statements again just to see if they would respond”

Member:

“Interestingly enough, they just emailed me after I emailed you. This is almost the same email they sent me on Monday. But, I already sent this info into them on Monday. So, It’s kind of lame they are asking me for it again and saying I haven’t sent it in yet. I just faxed them like 30 pages of email confirmations and credit card statements before I got this email. So, maybe I’ll try just sending the few pieces of info they want, again. Funny they told me to stop emailing them so much, huh? Maybe they should just give me my laptop and they won’t hear from me at all. How’s that? Haha

— On Fri, 2/3/12, Consumerincentiverewards Support wrote:

> From: Consumerincentiverewards Support
> Subject: In response to your message
> To: xxxx@xx.com
> Date: Friday, February 3, 2012, 12:44 PM
> Dear member,
>
> Thank you for your inquiry. Please stop sending so many
> emails in a day.
> As soon as we receive your information we review it and get
> back to you.
> Now, we have emailed you twice asking for more information
> and you are
> not providing it. Please send us ONLY:
>
> – Welcome email for Valu Pass and Zbiddy with your name and
> date on it
>
> – Any second or subsequent charges on your bank statement
> for Valu Pass,
> Internet Profit System and Zbiddy. If you do not have second
> charges
> please send us an email or screen shot with your name and
> date on it
> showing you stayed the initial 30 days with the sponsor.
>
> You may fax this information to 954-364-7011.
>
> Please do not reply to this email as the account this is
> sent from is
> not monitored for incoming mail and you will not receive a
> reply.
> Please use the contact form provided at our website.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Support”

My reply:

“lol @ their reply… That’s funny. Hopefully after you fax them the remaining information you won’t have to do it again.

Let me know if you hear anything new on Monday.

wozniack”

Member:

“So, I was just googling the fax number I keep sending stuff to for Nuitech. It’s a fax number for a general contractor in Florida. Seems very close to the address for all Nuitech sites(the Davie Florida address). It has the guy’s name and phone number on there(gcgeneral.com). Now that I have a phonen umber for the guy, I’m not even sure what I would say if I did call him. It’s not like I want to piss him off or anything by calling him.
Another piece of info I have on them is from my neighbors who initially told me about consumerincentiverewards.com They actually have the receipt this guy sent to them with the iPad they received for their gift. But, the name on the receipt is different than the guy’s name on the website.
I just got another email from Nuitech today saying they received all my stuff I faxed in, and now they will conduct an investigation as to why my sponsors never reported my involvement. And, then they will get back to me after it is finished…..I sent an email back to them saying I’m fine with the investigation thing. But, why would the lack of communication caused by their website prohibit or stop me from receiving my laptop? If consumerincentiverewards isn’t getting a response from these companies due to their ‘software program’, then why is that my fault?
I guess at this point, I’ll just wait until I hear back on this ‘investigation’ before I attempt to make any phone calls to this phone number I found. What do you think about all this? I guess this is turning into detective work lately…”

My reply:

“member,

Since Nuitech’s fax number points to this man, he could be part of the company. However, you cannot know for sure unless you call the number and talk to the man. On the receipt is there a phone number anywhere? If not, you might try Googling the guy’s name on the receipt for more info. Nuitech goes through the investigation process to learn why your offers were not reported. Once they find out, they should get back to you and hopefully work toward your approval. They may be checking with some of the sponsors. It isn’t your fault. Nuitech desperately needs to fix their failed system before continuing their promotions, IMO. This hasn’t worked from the beginning, and it never will unless changes are made. Before adding certain offers to their sites, they need to see which sponsors can report through their software program. I always thought it was ridiculous for the member to be tasked with getting the sponsor to report back. It should be Nuitech’s job to get their sponsors to report an individual’s successful offer completion. The member should only be required to provide the necessary documentation (billing statements, confirmations, invoices, screen shots, tax form, government-issued photo ID) upon request in addition to satisfying all other requirements of the gift program.

Wait for Nuitech to reply before dialing that number. If they refuse to pay you, or if their reply leads to another roadblock, then give it a try. Its worth it to get through to a live person who could possibly help. I just don’t know how much assistance they could provide if it’s a personal phone number, or one in which isn’t at their main office. The detective work is ongoing with these companies, there is always something new to investigate and discover!

Let me know when you hear back from Nuitech.

Thanks,

wozniack”

Member:

“So, I just checked my Gift Status page. It shows all of my sponsors have reported back except for one. Nuitech emailed me a couple of days ago asking about this sponsor and any documentation I have for them. I told them I faxed the info into them twice, and I have at least two charges on my credit card statement showing payments to them. So, this should be easy to clear up for them. But, that’s about where it stands now”

My reply:

“OK good. Let’s hope they approve your last offer… What a struggle this has been.

Thanks for updating me on your status.

Good luck,

wozniack”

Member:

“Ok, can you interpret this email for me. From what I understand, it looks like they are essentially doing the same thing they did a couple of weeks ago which is ask me for all of my credit card statements, email confirmations, etc. but, where I’m a little fuzzy is the agreement form at the bottom. What is that? Have you seen that before? Is this the voucher form to get my gift?
I just a little curious because it says on one portion of it that “I will not receive the gift. I might have to return this gift…”. Is this the standard form?

member
xxx-xxx-xxxx

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Consumerincentiverewards Support
> Date: February 15, 2012 9:22:00 AM MST
> To: xxxx@xx.com
> Subject: In response to your inquiry
>
> Dear member,
>
> Thank you for your inquiry. After reviewing your gift status, we do not
> have confirmation of the necessary number of offers.
>
> Please print out the form below and be sure to provide the following:
>
> – Your Billing Statement from the bank showing the first and second
> transactions (where applicable) – the statement must include your name,
> address and account number (block out the numbers except for the last 4
> digits)
> – The welcome email and/or invoice you received from the merchant
> – Any cancellation email in case the offer had been cancelled.
>
> We will review the information you provide and you will receive an email
> within 72 hours. We are able assist you with up to 2 offers.
>
> Please note, as of December 10, 2009, only one gift is permitted from
> the company identified under this site\’s Terms and Conditions per
> person and/or household for one year after your registration date.
> ———————————————————————————————————————–
> Confirmation of Completed Offer(s)
>
> Please print this email form. Complete the form, keep a copy and fax it
> with the printed confirmations to the number below. Please print
> clearly.
>
> Email:
First Name:
Last Name:
>Street Address:
>City:
State/Province:
Zip Code:
Phone Number:
>
> Please list the merchant names for the confirmations included:
>
> By signing below and returning this form, I hereby certify that the
> information is accurate and complete, and agree under penalty of perjury
> to the foregoing and that I have not used any illegal, unauthorized,
> fraudulent or other means in breach of the program Member Agreement
> (Terms and Conditions). I am aware that a) I will not receive this gift,
> b) I may be required to return this gift or c) I may be required to
> compensate you for the monetary equivalent of this gift and I may be
> subject to civil and criminal legal penalties and that you shall pursue
> such penalties to the full extent of the law to protect your rights and
> the rights of your other licensors if you discover I have done so.
> __________________________________ ___________________
> Signature Date
>
> Please print this form, include it with the printed confirmations, and
> mail it to:
>
> Customer Service
> Attention: CS Pending
> Re: 643207
> 13762 W. SR 84 Suite 612
> Davie, FL. 33325 USA
>
> Or, please print this form, include it with the printed confirmations,
> and fax it to:
>
> Customer Service
> Attention: CS Pending
> Re: 643207
> Fax: 954 – 364 7011
>
> Please Note: Without this form completed in its entirety, we will be
> unable to process your confirmations.
>———————————————————————————————————————–
> Please do not reply to this email as the account this is sent from is
> not monitored for incoming mail and you will not receive a reply.
> Please use the contact form provided at our website.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Support”

My reply:

“Hi there,

That’s the standard MCR form; it’s been around for ages. You will need to provide your name, address, offers, then attach the bank statement and send them the welcome and cancellation e-mails. On this part, “I will not receive the gift. I might have to return this gift…”, don’t worry about that. Most DIY companies state that in case a member breaches their gift programs terms and conditions.

wozniack”

Member:

“So, do you suggest I physically mail all of it in or fax it all again, or both?”

My reply:

“I would fax it all to them so they get it faster. Of course you can mail it as well.

wozniack”

Member:

“So, that is the gift voucher form I just filled out and sent in? What do you think? Am I pretty much on my way to the laptop? Or, could there be anymore hangups from here? How long will it take from here to get the laptop? Another month or two?”

My reply:

“Once you send in the manual credit form with all documents, you will get the next e-mail. If you’re owed more than $600.00, you will get the w-9 e-mail and that must be notarized. It is unclear if Nuitech still does the gift voucher, as they waived my friend’s but required a w-9 form for the new year. I know for a fact gifts under $600.00 probably get the voucher form waived, that happened to my friend last year. But that only works if you did not receive any other gifts yet that make your total over $600.00 or you are back to the w-9 form e-mail again. Gifts ship within 6 to 8 weeks as per the terms and conditions, but you may receive your laptop within 2 weeks or so.

wozniack”

Me again:

“Hi member,

Have you made any progress with your gift? Since it’s Monday, I thought you might have heard back from Nuitech regarding your gift.

Thanks,

wozniack”

member:

“I was hoping I would hear something by today, but nothing yet. I’ll email them again. I know they love that

member
xxx-xxx-xxxx”

What about gcgeneral.com? The site this member found… Is the general contractor, Gilberto Martins, out of Coconut Creek, Florida, connected to Nuitech?

Nuitech’s fax number: 954-364-7011

GC General, Inc. contact page:

url: http://gcgeneral.com/contact.htm

GC General Inc’s other address:

Same fax number as Nuitech… The only way to know for certain is by calling him. At least this member is close to finishing. I’ll update my blog again on this member’s status next month.

My letter to Nuitech:

“from [Available] xxxx@xx.com xxxx@xx.com
to contact@oglogistics.net
date Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 4:54 PM
subject Attn: xxxxx, Verifications Department
mailed-by xxxx.com

hide details Feb 14 (3 days ago)

February 14, 2012

::name inserted here::
Verifications Department
OG Logistics, LLC.
1613 NW 136th Ave
Suite 100
Sunrise, Florida 33323

Dear xxxxx,

There is great concern for the functional difficulties in your gift program, The Useful. The first problem is the required “additional information”, which the sponsors can’t always provide. This information consists of cancellation e-mails, exact dates on welcome e-mails, and first and second charges from sponsors. On the cancellation e-mails, the sponsors do not always send you one after you cancel an offer. You may get a ‘return e-mail’ to return the product, or the sponsor will send you an automated e-mail which won’t show the actual cancellation date. And you sometimes never receive the welcome e-mails; upon your request, the sponsor often sends you one with a wrong sign up date. As for the first and second charges, some sponsors give you 30 days free, so you can’t cancel on day 30, and there won’t be a second charge in the first 60 days to produce this documentation.

The next issue is the sponsors not reporting through your software program. Many of them cannot because they don’t know how. The sponsors need to be instructed on how to use it so that your members are credited for their offers. Now for my suggestions… Address a letter to your sponsors. Properly explain to them how to utilize the software program. It can be a friendly welcome letter of sorts, but one of which contains these details. What I’m suggesting now is an “offering screening”; we need to know which sponsors provide the aforementioned “additional information” so members do offers they can obtain this information from. If a sponsor cannot give your members this additional information, they should be removed from your gift sites. To make this work, your company must screen the offers or hire a “tester”, someone willing to try each offer and give you their evaluation.

If this persists, your members may stray from your gift sites, and your company’s reputation may potentially be damaged. I’m looking out for everyone here. I am willing to provide more suggestions if you’re interested.

I hope you take this into consideration, or forward this to the appropriate department. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Anonymous”

By sending this letter, I know someone will read it, and it may get their minds going! They need a better framework for dealing with these problems, namely the “software program.” I kept the person’s name in the Verifications Department private so they wouldn’t be bothered. My letter alone is probably more than they want to see.

Nuitech has a new DBA, Coffee Shop Boys, LLC. Haha, they love their java? We’ll compare my findings, which will explain the DBA name that ties into a Georgia-based coffee shop. c[_]

whois info:

T&C with new DBA:

Although retail-surveycentral.net, Nuitech’s gift site, results in an error page I found their terms. The terms clearly state the DBA is Coffee Shop Boys, LLC. Now let’s view a whois report for this domain: retailsurveycentral.net; the same as the other just without a hyphen.

whois info:

The administrative and technical contact is Logan Shelton, and has the coffee shop’s location as the address. But scroll up to the whois for retail-surveycentral.net… Nuitech created this domain on September 2, 2010, and it expires September 2, 2012. And retailsurveycentral.net was created 3 days before retail-surveycentral.net, and doesn’t expire until August 30, 2016. Since retailsurveycentral.net, registered to the coffee shop, expires August 30, 2016, “Coffee Shop Boys, LLC.” must be tied into Nuitech with that being Nuitech’s current DBA. Both are active; Nuitech’s DBA, Coffee Shop Boys, LLC., and the domain retail-surveycentral.net registered to the coffee shop. The site may be down, but the domain is good until August 30, 2016 with Nuitech and the coffee shop sharing the same name.

Coffee Shop Boys contact us page:

url: http://coffeeshopboys.com/contact.html

The contact page has the same address and phone number as the whois info for retailsurveycentral.net, the domain registered to Coffee Shop Boys, LLC., a Nuitech DBA.

CRS finally spoke to our anonymous source! But first, check out Part 1. of February’s blog if you missed it: DIY rose bouquet delivery, Part 1. — I will post my correspondence with this individual as it is an excellent source of information. It may help some of you get approved after Dave’s dismissal.

My e-mail to anonymous source:

“from: xxxx@xx.com xxxx@xx.com
to: xxxx
date: Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 2:45 PM
subject: Re: Re
mailed-by: xxxx.com

member,

I hate to bother you again, but have you heard anything back yet? If not, that’s okay… I just wanted to see if you had as a few members are in need of an e-mail address for CRS as they are trying to make progress with their gifts.

I appreciate you going out of your way to get this for us. If you hear anything, please let me know.

Thanks,

wozniack”

Anonymous source:

“from: member xxxx@xx.com
reply-to: member
to: “diyfreebies@gmail.com”
date: Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 3:27 PM
subject: Re: Re
mailed-by: xxxx.com
signed-by: xxxx.com

No nothing. They are being really difficult about calling me back at all. I am going to call them yet again.”

Anonymous source’s second e-mail:

“from: member xxxx@xx.com
reply-to: member
to: “diyfreebies@gmail.com”
date: Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 5:14 PM
subject: Re: Re
mailed-by: xxxx.com
signed-by: xxxx.com

Okay so I called them yet again. This time the rep put me on hold to talk to a manager that was actually there.
They are telling me now that they cannot give out that type of information. I ask why they didn’t tell me this in the first place.
They said it is because this is the first time they actually had the answer to my question being that a manager was there today
right when I called. They did give me a physical address they said I could try sending confirmation emails and other info directly to the
company. They also said that they were a third party company hired to handle the customer service portion and that is why this info could
not be given. Apparently there are a lot of new managers, new rules, as well as new sites in place. I am going to attempt to go through the sites
support ticketing system to see if an actual person writes me back. That is how I got a hold of Dave in the first place when he was working there.
( I miss Dave LOL) I personally never liked the ticketing system as usually they review your inquiry and then close it without actually answering your questions.
I am really sorry I could not be of more help. This whole change of things has gotten me kind of at a stand still as I do not want to complete anymore sites until I feel more at ease. I would like to know that there is in fact someone who physically sends out the checks. FYI, I do not believe there are any actual products like they have advertised. I truly believe they only send out checks as there would be too much cost in having to actually run a warehouse full of laptops etc. It is so much cheaper to send out a piece of paper as apposed to a product that could actually break during transit. Which is a whole other problem all together. Why they don’t send out gift cards, I have no idea. You will notice in their updated rules they have written that they reserve the write to send a check etc.

Here is the address they gave me:
7251 West Lake Boulevard
Suite 300 Las Vegas, Nevada 89128

If you have any suggestions on what else I could do, please I am all ears. I personally have never done any other sites because most
(not all) other sites require too much money to be spent.
That is why I have been such a faithful CRS follower. I don’t completely trust them as you never know with big companies.
Sigh… I just don’t know what I am going to do. I am sure I will do another site but I am not sure when.
I truly hope the other members are able to get results soon. Patience is key. ”

My reply:

“from: diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to: member
date: Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 8:36 PM
subject: Re: Re
mailed-by: gmail.com

member,

WOW.. The information you’ve given me is excellent! I’d like to know the name of the third party company handling customer service for my records. Good idea. Try the support tickets anyway to see if you get a reply. I miss him too, lol… He was a great guy. Wonder what he’s doing now? It’s going to be harder having to mail everything in. It’ll be more like Nuitech where you must mail off your documentation; however Nuitech allows you to fax your confirmations and other materials. My gut feeling was that CRS never had any any products, and for the same reason you gave me.

Dave told a member this once:

“I am having trouble ordering your gift card online. (American VS Canadian issue)
I can replace your gift card with a check in the amount of $1000.00 USD and you can use for anything you like.
The check will be a bank draft and will send it registered mail. This will happen the third week of November.
Let me know

Dave”

Wasn’t entirely sure I believed him… Part of me thought the “American VS Canadian issue” was an excuse to send a check. They probably just advertise laptops and gift cards like many other DIY companies and only pay with a check. I will take a glance at their updated rules. When things like this happen with DIY companies, I take a step back and wait before I do them again. They don’t seem like a total scam after all the money they’ve paid out; but as time goes on companies change, you never know what they might pull. I suggest taking a break from them until you feel more at ease. Maybe do an I-Deal site? They paid me $1,250.00 on my last site– a $1,000.00 all on ONE Visa (nice!!) in December, and my $250.00 bonus check in January. Someone had a crediting issue with them recently, but there are others who have said their crediting system has improved. So I don’t know what to say about that, other than to be careful. If you do your offers all in one sitting and only 2-3 credit, then there’s a big problem. I would then suggest doing no more than 1-2 offers at a time, taking it a section at a time. Unfortunately, I don’t have too many good links right now… I’m hoping some better deals appear this spring.

Thank you for providing me with this information. You’ve been a BIG help because we now have an address to send our confirmations and billing statements to! I was getting worried since we had nothing to work with, and there are members trying to get approved but couldn’t without Dave.

Thanks again,

wozniack”

Anonymous source:

“from: member xxxx@xx.com
reply-to: member
to: “diyfreebies@gmail.com”
date: Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 12:24 AM
subject: Re: Re
mailed-by: xxxx.com
signed-by: xxxx.com

You are very welcome! IF I get a response through the ticketing system (I won’t hold my breath hehe) I will let you know right away.
I also plan on communicating through this system more than once. I am hoping that if I am persistent enough someone will reply.
Just one reply should be enough, because (as we all know) when an actual human being responds they usually leave a first name. I will then turn around and
reply to the email that response came from. Like I said, that is exactly how I got a hold of Dave. I was then SUPER NICE, and he became my friend.
I have since then left him alone, even though I still have his personal cell number. So sad he had to leave, they really should have renewed his contract.
He did a phenomenal job. Hopefully someone else will learn a thing or two from him at CRS. Time will only tell. If this address works out and there is progress,
would you let me know? I would really appreciate it. Many Blessings to you and all members! ”

My reply:

“from: diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to: member
date: Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 1:06 AM
subject: Re: Re
mailed-by: gmail.com

Absolutely! I’ll let you know right away if I hear there is progress with the address. Dave was amazing at what he did. He stayed on top of everything, and even worked weekends which earned him an extra star from me! Can’t understand why they didn’t renew his contract… Well, I guess they let him go so the third party company could handle support? They may or may not replace Dave with another main guy, hm… It will be interesting anyway to see if someone responds to your tickets. )

Thanks again for all you have done. My readers and I are very grateful for the information you have provided.

Sincerely,

wozniack”

Anyone needing to be processed should send their confirmations and billing statements to:

7251 West Lake Mead Boulevard Suite 300
Las Vegas, Nevada 89128

Include a letter explaining your situation, and that you’re trying to get approved for your gift. Also give them the e-mail you registered with, and your phone number for them to reach you. This was the best our anonymous source could do. I hope the address helps you all with your gifts. If you have any questions, send me an e-mail: diyfreebies@gmail.com — Anonymous, thank you for everything! I appreciate all you have done.

My $25.00 CVS card arrived, and I’m waiting on $75.00 in amazon gift certificates. Thanks MyPoints!

Hatful of lucky shamrocks offer these deals…

*links ‘n such*

I-Deal–

http://www.giftcardsurveys.us.com/?config=7543 – 10 offers, 1 ref/$500.00 Visa

http://www.giftcardsurveys.us.com/?session_id=0817855c5aad11e1a4d686fbb7df804b – 10 offers, 1 ref/$500.00 Visa

www.e-researchcenter.us.com/?config=7198 – 10 offers, 2 refs/iPhone 4, iPad 3G, Macbook or iPod Nano

http://www.saveandsmile.com/?config=7628 – 8 offers, 1 ref/$500.00 restaurant gift card of your choice

http://www.saveandsmile.com/?config=7433 – 10 offers, 1 ref/$500.00 Footlocker gc

http://www.giftcardbonus.us.com/?session_id=2ec5b98c5a8311e19f18e39e3a697067 – 10 offers, 1 ref/$500.00 restaurant gc of your choice

http://www.consumergiftcenter.us.com/account.cgi?config=7019 – 10 offers, 2 refs/$1,000.00 Visa gc

Nuitech–

http://gascards.giftcertificatedelivery.com/form/iframe/10885/9109/?&ref=10885 – 10 offers, no refs/iPad 2

http://www.gatheringopinions.com/rd_p?p=207753&t=18440 – 6 offers, no refs/$250.00 restaurant gc of your choice

producttestpanel–

http://retailbrandprize.com/tjmmiyo/index.php?lid=tjmmiyo_12967_PFTEST&add_offerid=934582&addomain=promolnk.com&addomain_id=89&uniclk=true – 13 offers, 3 refs/$1,000.00 T.J. Maxx gc + misc. gifts

http://mysterymallshopper1.com/secretzas/index.php?lid=secretzas_15029_{affiliate_id}&aff_sub={aff_sub}&add_offerid=4562611&addomain=avcounter10.com&addomain_id=67&uniclk=true – 13 offers, 3 refs/$1,000.00 merchant gift card of your choice + misc. gifts

http://retailstorereport.com/scshopzas/index.php?lid=scshopzas_15029_{affiliate_id}&aff_sub={aff_sub}&add_offerid=24231725&addomain=sbfollow10.com&addomain_id=61&uniclk=true – 13 offers, 3 refs/$1,000.00 merchant gift card of your choice + misc. gifts

I’m happy we have an address for CRS; it’s not an e-mail address but it will do. Our anonymous source did great. As for Nuitech, I hope they take what I said into account. As long as they read it, I don’t care if they ever respond. If anybody else needs Nuitech help, please do not hesitate to ask. I love helping my readers!

Take care,

wozniack

A member inquired about this Consumer Gain site. We’ll start with the front page…

gift site:

url: http://giftpile.net/G/landing?campaignId=4396&subcid=&%40gmail.com&uid=1-628593241#cid=4396#sid=131#vid=2423

Just your average Consumer Gain site, right? Well, keep going…

Member’s question:

“The TOS for this site looks familiar to me, is this a Consumer Gain site?

http://giftpile.net/G/landing?campaignId=4…id=131#vid=2423

Program Requirements
This promotion is conducted exclusively by GiftPile. By continuing, I have read and agreed to GiftPile’s terms . To obtain the gift for this promotion you must: 1) register with valid information including e-mail address, shipping address, and phone number; 2) complete the survey; 3) You must participate in and satisfy a total of 12 Sponsor Offers as follows: Page 1: 1 offer, Page 2: 2 offers, Page 3: 9 offers(offer availability will vary); 4) be a US resident 18 or older; 5) not cancel your participation in more than a total of 2 Sponsor Offers within 6 days of the Sponsor Offer Initial Transaction Date (the Cancellation Limitation). You can receive the gift at no cost by completing free trial Sponsor Offers otherwise some Sponsor Offers may require a purchase to qualify. Upon completion of all Program Requirements, your gift will be shipped to the shipping address you provided. Limit one gift per household per year. Void where prohibited.”

These “Program Requirements” aren’t in the T&C: http://members.giftpile.net/Info/t&c; but I trust this person enough to know that these “Program Requirements” were once present. And we did find something else! It’s in the FAQ: http://members.giftpile.net/Info/faq — Scroll down to question #4 in the FAQ.

FAQ screen shots:

Screen shot #1: This is Nuitech’s one year rule and DBA, Net Radiance: “Only one gift is permitted from Net Radiance per person and/or household for one year after your registration date.”

Screen shot #2: Taken from FAQ: “You will not be eligible to receive a gift in this promotion if, within 45 days of your sponsor offer initital transaction date, you cancel your participation in more than two sponsor offers you have completed as part of the program requirements.”

Screen shot #3: Taken from FAQ: “To be eligible to receive a gift, you must not cancel more than two offers within a 6-day period. After 6 days, you’ll be asked to submit acceptable documentation to validate your full participation in the offers.”

As for screen shots #2 and #3, I cannot find anything in the T&C which speaks of a cancellation limitation. Is that because the Consumer Gain T&C page was never updated to reflect this change? It only tells us there is a cancellation limitation in the FAQ. Screen shot #2 states that you cannot cancel more than 2 offers in 45 days, while screen shot #3 states you cannot cancel more than 2 offers within 6 days. Is it 45 or 6 days? Has to be one or the other.

Consumer Gain said this about the 6-day rule:

“Hello,

As long as you make a payment to the advertiser, are credited for the offer in your account with our site, you can cancel the offer with that advertiser before or after the six days. We ask that the advertiser get back to us in at least 5 days about offers, which is why we have that 6-day rule out there. But, in all honesty, if you complete the offer and it’s already posted in your account, you’re not going to be penalized. That is, provided that a payment was made.

Some offer are free trial ones, but again, make a payment, wait for it to show in your account, then cancel it.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

Member Services”

There was no real cancellation limitation with Consumer Gain. Before I contacted them, I read the entire FAQ and did not see anything about a 45-day rule. So that was added sometime after March of 2011, when I spoke to Consumer Gain. My post with Consumer Gain’s reply: “More fun with the 2011 Ad-tech convention…”

After analyzing this site, I sent Nuitech a support ticket. They replied to the first one but I’d hoped they could provide more details. So I sent another after that.

Support ticket #1:

“Hi,

Did Nuitech buy Consumer Gain because in the FAQ it says this under question #4, “Only one gift is permitted from Net Radiance per person and/or household for one year after your registration date.” Nuitech has the same rule, and Net Radiance is one of their DBAs. Since that ties Consumer Gain to Nuitech, I wanted to know when Nuitech took over the company? Also, people who successfully completed sites through Consumer Gain before they became Nuitech, can they do these sites again since they are through your company (Nuitech)? The sites I’m talking about are like giftpile.net that have Consumer Gain’s web site layout. Below is a giftpile.net site.

http://giftpile.net/G/landing?campaignId=4396&subcid=&email=tlc4upayday%40gmail.com&uid=1-628593241#cid=4396#sid=131#vid=2423

Any information you can provide is appreciated.

Thanks!”

Nuitech’s reply:

“Dear anonymous,

Thank you for your inquiry. Our company offer customer service to
numerous companies.

Please do not reply to this email as the account this is sent from is
not monitored for incoming mail and you will not receive a reply.
Please use the contact form provided at our website.

Thank you,

Support”

Support ticket #2:

“Hello,

Thanks for responding. Does that mean that your company, Og Logistics (Nuitech), never bought Consumer Gain, and that you only provide customer service to them? Seems like your company does more than offer customer service since the FAQ has a Nuitech DBA. If you only offer customer service to Consumer Gain, the company must have copied your rules, especially this one, “Only one gift is permitted from Net Radiance per person and/or household for one year after your registration date.” — In my last conversation with Consumer Gain, they said they limited our receipts to one gift per lifetime. The rule for question #4 sounds as if you can do more than one Consumer Gain site provided your last site was done a year ago.

Why did Consumer Gain borrow Nuitech’s rules if they are still in business? Is it because your company offers customer service to them? Is that what that means? Could you please elaborate on this? I am just trying to figure all this out.

Thanks!”

Nuitech’s second reply:

“Dear anonymous,

Thank you for your inquiry. Our company provides customer service for
multiple companies. Please see the terms and conditions agreed to at
the link below.

http://lgn6.coolsavings.com/info.htm?tp=tos

We hope this answers your questions. Should you have any other
questions please feel free to contact us again.

Please do not reply to this email as the account this is sent from is
not monitored for incoming mail and you will not receive a reply.
Please use the contact form provided at our website.

Thank you,

Support”

They referred me to the terms and conditions after telling me the same thing twice. The T&C didn’t answer my questions. I knew they serviced other companies, so that may be their only connection to Consumer Gain. I contacted Consumer Gain via their customer support e-mail but they never replied. I could only ask Nuitech.

Results from the Secretary of State of California which validated Member Source Media as an active entity. It still shows Chris Sommer, CEO of Member Source Media since 2004, as the agent. There would be new company information had someone else taken over, especially with weekly database updates. Without hard evidence I cannot tell you if Nuitech bought Consumer Gain. Nuitech said they offer their services to numerous companies which IS true. And Consumer Gain remain under the ownership of Chris Sommer. With that, I believe Consumer Gain and Nuitech are independent businesses with Consumer Gain partially operated–but not owned–by Nuitech. Not sure WHY Consumer Gain hasn’t answered me though. If I could get through to them maybe I could get some answers!

Members continue to have problems with Nuitech’s sponsor reporting. If you haven’t read my previous entries, these posts will bring you up to speed: “Nuitech’s new manager…“, “DIYfreebies’ third annual anniversary blog…” — Start with “Nuitech’s new manager…” Words cannot describe my frustration with Nuitech. To sum it up I will post my correspondence with a member regarding their gift. They allowed me to share our e-mails.

Member’s initial message to me:

“Just had some questions about getting credit from some sponsors for my free laptop. What do I say and how do I get the sponsors to report back to consumerincentiverewards.com on my behalf? The sponsors have no idea what I’m talking about when i ask them to do this for me. Contact phone numbers would be nice, if you have them for consumerincentiverewards.com or nuitech, etc.

Sender e-mail address: xxxx@xx.com”

My reply:

“Hi,

Tell the sponsors that they are promoting their offers on consumerincentiverewards.com, and that the company (Nuitech) needs them to report back to them on your behalf. In your e-mail include the gift site domain, the exact name of their offer, and your name and e-mail address that is on file with Nuitech. As for phone numbers, Nuitech has one but it goes to a machine and the recording tells people to e-mail them. The best way to reach them is via a support ticket: http://consumerincentiverewards.com/info.htm?tp=con&promo_name=2809name&catalog_id=14880&gift=71

Also, our main forum is at DIYfreebies.com/freebieforum, so you may want to post there so your messages are answered in a timely manner. We’ve had issues with the main forum but hope to get the spam problem under control very soon.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Thanks,

wozniack”

Member:

“Yeah, I’ve been on the forums. There is a bunch of spam on there. I see there are a lot of people who have the same question as me which is, “How do we get our sponsors to report our membership/verification of fulfillment?” I’ve been calling all of my sponsor offers multiple times to ask the same thing you replied with in your email to me. I’ve told them about consumerincentiverewards.com and have given them all my information. But, the sponsors just keep telling me that they can’t send emails to these third party websites and blah blah blah. They just get stumped on what to do from there. There has to be a better dialogue to use with them. Consumerincentiverewards told me through an email that these sponsors have to verify through a software program. I mentioned this software program to some sponsors and they have no idea what it is. Now, consumerincentiverewards won’t even email me back. It’s been about a week and a half since they responded to an email of mine. And, I’ve probably sent them about ten emails since then. Isn’t there like a 60day time limit to receive the gift or complete the offers or something? I started the offers around December 4th.”

My reply:

“Hi,

With Nuitech, you have 60 days to complete the required number of offers after you sign up, and all the other steps in their program requirements, such as mailing in your gift redemption voucher, must be completed within 180 days of registration.

I am writing to Nuitech as we speak about these sponsor reporting issues. If they read my blog, which some companies do, they may be willing to listen to what I have to say. I’m making some suggestions to them, and I will try to get them to look at your account. This may not work, but I’ve had success in the past when dealing directly with these companies. Could you tell me which sponsor(s) said they “can’t send e-mails to these third party web sites”? Could you share their written responses to you with me? This information will help greatly as I can pass it on to Nuitech, they need to see it themselves, that the sponsors put in writing that they cannot send out the e-mails. That can be used against them, and Nuitech cannot deny what the sponsor(s) put in writing.

Still working on that strong e-mail to them. I will do everything in my power to help you out here. Apparently, they no longer offer phone support and aren’t that responsive. So we’ll have to work a little harder.

Thanks,

wozniack”

Member:

“I don’t actually have any emails from my sponsors that say they can’t do it. It’s mostly just when I’m on the phone with them they say they can’t do it or they don’t know what I’m talking about. I do have a couple of emails from Gamefly and book of the month club 2 who say they will send a response to my third party website for me. But, I’m not sure they even know what I’m talking about to be honest with you.

I’m still waiting on responses from zbiddy.com, netflix, greatshapetoday, credit protect, internet profit system, book of the month club 2, and gamefly. I’ve gotten 5 out of 12 sponsors to report.

Consumerincentiverewards has sent me emails saying they want me to wait until the seventh week after signing up with these sponsors in order to give them a call for verification. Week seven is next week. My neighbors are the people who told me to use consumerincentiverewards because they just got an ipad from them. So, I figured it was a safe bet to give it shot.

I’m just getting a little nervous, and very annoyed that all my subscriptions to these sponsors are going to be all for not after the 60 day mark.

If you ever need to speak to me instead of trying to decipher these emails, my number is xxx-xxx-xxxx. My name is xxxxxx”

My reply:

“member,

If after the seventh week you haven’t got the rest report back, ask Nuitech what you should say to these sponsors to get them to do it. If they don’t know what to do then Nuitech needs to remedy that. If Nuitech is unable to help you, ask them if it’s possible to do makeup offers in order to not lose your gift. I know you must keep offers for an X amount of days, but given this situation you may need to do more to successfully complete the site. The problem though is that the site you did requires you to keep all but 2 offers for 30 days, and you only have about 2 1/2 weeks left out of 60 days. They may not go for it but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Have you received any responses from the sponsors today? Just keep working at it, and hopefully you’ll have better results next week. I didn’t send Nuitech that letter last night either. I’ll wait to see how this all pans out with your gift before writing them. And if I need to, I will try add something to my letter regarding your gift provided that it is OK with you.

Good luck,

wozniack”

Member:

“No one has reported today. I did receive another email from the book of the month club 2 about them still trying to get in touch with consumerincentiverewards.com about sending verification to them.

Do you think I can cancel some of the other offers I’ve been with for the entire six weeks now, or should I not risk it?

I was thinking about signing up for another one, but I can’t get ahold of the sponsor. i wanted to speak with them first before I signed up with them, but they don’t answer the phone or return emails. Good sign, huh?

I don’t mind if you use my name in your letter to nuitech, but I’ve seen those forum posts about people getting those emails from them about paying people to help them with offers when they really haven’t. So, I’m not sure what they would try to do if they thought you were helping me. But, I guess it won’t matter in a couple of weeks when my 60 day time limit is up.”

My reply:

“You should be able to cancel them since you’ve been with them six weeks. However, since you are still waiting for them to report back, it could create problems for you if the sponsors refuse to report back because you have already cancelled. But I don’t see how Nuitech could not credit you for those offers since you stayed with them that long. Your billing statements should be more than enough proof that you kept your offers.

I decided to not mention you in my letter as to not possibly jeopardize your gift. I still haven’t written the letter to Nuitech, but I need to see if they’ll at least address these offer reporting issues. In the meantime, I can offer suggestions and try to guide you as you go along. Would it be alright by you if I shared your e-mails with my readers? I like to update them on company status so that they know what they’re getting into. Many are aware of this problem but it is getting worse I’m afraid. I promise to make you anonymous. The blog won’t be published until early February, so it will be a while yet. Hopefully by then your site will already be completed! *staying positive*

Regards,

wozniack”

Member:

“Sure. You can share my emails

member
xxx-xxx-xxxx”

Member:

“I got this message today from Consumerincentiverewards.com It looks like they will help with up to 3 manual credits. But, I still need about two or three more to convert other than the 3 manual helpers they will give me. I’m not even sure who this Direct Brands or Zooba company is who they are talking about. I don’t have any kind of record of signing up with anyone by that name.

Anyway, I thought I would just show this to you, not that it makes a difference either way. I still have no idea how I’m going to get these other two or three companies to report to them for me…

— On Thu, 1/19/12, Consumerincentiverewards Support wrote:

> From: Consumerincentiverewards Support
> Subject: In response to your message
> To: xxxx@xx.com
> Date: Thursday, January 19, 2012, 9:41 AM
> Dear member,
>
> Thank you for your inquiry. Direct Brands contacted us and
> approved
> Zooba to be converted. You should see the conversion in a
> few hours.
>
> We still need more offers to convert. Please be sure to
> comply with each
> sponsor\’s own terms and conditions. Once more offers
> report we will be
> able to assist in up to 3 manual conversions.
>
> Please do not reply to this email as the account this is
> sent from is
> not monitored for incoming mail and you will not receive a
> reply.
> Please use the contact form provided at our website.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Support”

My reply:

“Direct Brands is a direct-to-consumer distributor of media products. They offer multiple book clubs to Nuitech and other DIYs alike, such as Zooba, Book of the Month, Doubleday and Columbia House to name a few. Do you remember signing up for any kind of book club? Didn’t you say earlier you did Book of the Month Club? Maybe that is what they meant by “Zooba.” They could have the wrong book club in that e-mail and/or on file .

wozniack”

Member:

“Yes, I did Book of the Month Club. That might be what they’re talking about with Direct Brands. I was confused because they referred to Zooba, which is another book of the month club that was on the offer pages. But, I didn’t do the Zooba offer. I did Book of the Month. So, I’m hoping Zooba doesn’t get verified as one of my sponsor offers, but I can’t prove it on my statements because it’s really the Book of the Month Club. You know what I mean?”

My reply:

“Yeah. If anything is said about it just be honest by telling them you did BOTM and not Zooba, then show them your offer confirmation for BOTM. On your billing statement does it show BOTM anywhere? I’m guessing it does, so you can show them that too. Explain to them how the error is on their end, that they put Zooba down as one of your verified offers. Could you tell me what the remaining offers are that haven’t reported back?

Thanks,

wozniack”

Member:

“So, the Zooba/Book of the Month thing seems like the same thing to them. But, interesting info they mention about telling the sponsors it’s an incentive program call The Useful

— On Fri, 1/20/12, Consumerincentiverewards Support wrote:

> From: Consumerincentiverewards Support
> Subject: In response to your message
> To: xxxx@xx.com
> Date: Friday, January 20, 2012, 5:15 AM
> Dear member,
>
> Thank you for your inquiry. Zooba is also know as
> Book-of-the-Month Club
> 2. All merchants who have not report you may contact them
> and have them
> report back to us directly by telling them you signed up
> for their offer
> through a incentive program called The Useful.”

My reply:

“Nuitech rebranded itself as The Useful in sometime in 2005, so that is where that comes from. But they’re commonly known as Nuitech. I will start instructing people to tell their sponsors that they signed up for their offer through ‘The Useful’, an incentive program. Maybe that will help move things along.

Let me know if there are any changes in your offer status.

Thanks,

wozniack”

Member:

“So, this is interesting. I got this from Gamefly.com And, you can read the correspondence from prior contacts to get the idea of the story. Adteractive?

— On Fri, 1/20/12, GameFly Support wrote:

From: GameFly Support
Subject: GameFly Notice – Please Read [Incident: 120119-005503]
To: xxxx@xx.com
Date: Friday, January 20, 2012, 2:20 PM

Response (Jordan G) 01/20/2012 01:20 PM
Hello,

Thank you for contacting GameFly. The name of the 3rd party company is Adteractive and they confirmed your rewards as issued on 1/12/12 at which time we emailed you. Unfortunately there is no further review we can do, however, as mentioned in the previous email, you may contact them directly if you would like.

We do not have contact information that we may publicly distribute for our contacts at Adteractive, however, if you can, simply search them online and use their “Contact Us” information.

We apologize for any additional inconvenience this has caused. If we can be of further assistance regarding other matters on your GameFly account, please let us know.

If you require additional assistance, please respond to this email at anytime as we provide email support 7 days a week, Monday – Friday 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM Central Time and Saturday – Sunday 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM Central Time. If you would prefer to talk to us directly, please reply to this email with a number where we can reach you and a convenient time or you may call us directly at (888) 986-6400, Monday thru Friday, 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM Central Time.

Sincerely,

Jordan G.
The GameFly Team
Email: support@gamefly.com

Member:

Customer By Email (member) 01/20/2012 09:34 AM
I found out the third party incentive program goes by the name of The Useful. Their support center just sent me an email saying you would probably understand who I was talking about when I mentioned ‘The Useful”. Thanks for your help. Please call if you have any questions for me about it. I just need a verification or confirmation of my membership with Gamefly sent to them.

member
xxx-xxx-xxxx

Member:

Customer By Email (member) 01/19/2012 04:18 PM
The third party website has still not been informed of my membership with Gamefly. THey are called consumerincentiverewards.com Please contact them in order to give them verification of my membership. They have not received any confirmation or verification from you about my membership yet. I would just go to their website, consumerincentiverewards.com and send them an email through their ‘contact us’ link and just tell them I am a member of Gamefly. Thank you.

member
xxx-xxx-xxxx”

My reply:

“Hi,

Adteractive is it’s own lead gen network separate from Nuitech. But Nuitech may use their service for certain offers, which is why Gamefly says the third party company is Adteractive. My advice is to send your correspondence with Gamefly to Nuitech, then see what Nuitech says so you’ll know how to proceed,

wozniack”

Member:

“I don’t know how to send stuff to nuitech other than the contact us form. Do I just copy and paste emails into it? I’ve done that before with them, but nuitech has never emailed me back about them

member
xxx-xxx-xxxx”

My reply:

“Yes, send your correspondence to them through their ‘Contact Us’ form.

wozniack”

Member:

“Consumerincentiverewards just sent me an email saying not to bother sending in correspondence from other companies because it won’t do any good for me. They have to confirm through the specific software program they use. So stupid. I’m like one week away from not qualifying at all.”

My reply:

“Did they say how long that could take? I would ask them. And if they say it could take over a week, tell them you don’t have that long. Hopefully it won’t take longer than a week for them to confirm your offers.

wozniack”

Member:

“It’s annoying how they work. They will reply in to any emails in order to tell you what won’t work. But, they will never email you any information on how to make it work better or go faster. They did tell me they would manually confirm up to 3 different offers. But, I’ve got five offers yet to be confirmed. So, I’m pretty much screwed at this point. I had three of the five companies actually get onto the consumerincentiverewards website and actually send an email through the contact us form on my behalf. That’s when they sent me the reply that said they wouldn’t take an email from any of my sponsors on my behalf.

So, they tell me I can’t send in my confirmation emails because the corresondence has to come from the sponsors instead of me. Then, when I actually get the sponsors to send them emails on my behalf, they say they won’t accept them. Confirmations can only be submitted though ‘the software program.’”

My reply:

“member,

Nuitech should understand that since 2 out of 5 of your remaining offers need confirmation through this software program, you need more information. The sponsors aren’t getting it and this is really dragging out. Myself and others have tried to get in touch with Nuitech for the last week but our messages went unanswered. They don’t offer phone support, so unless they respond through e-mail these issues will not get resolved. Have you heard anything else regarding your gift?

Thanks,

wozniack”

Member:

“I haven’t heard anything from them since Monday morning. Nothing about the gift or anything. Everytime I ask about specific details, they don’t respond. Anytime I ask a question about something general, then they will respond, but with something they’ve copied and pasted out of the terms and coniditions. So annoying”

Member:

“Nuitech finally sent me an email saying to send my information(credit card statements, confirmation emails, etc) to them via fax. They said they would conduct an investigation to see if I qualify for the free gift. So, hopefully that’s some good news”

My reply:

“That’s great news! Sounds like you’ve gotten past the offer reporting hurdle. Hopefully they won’t ask for anything else, and will just work on approving your gift.

Let me know what happens. Good luck.

Regards,

wozniack”

Member:

“Now, tell me this, in the terms and conditions it says you can cancel up to two sponsor programs within the first 30 days and still be eligible for the free gift. I cancelled two of the sponsor offers within the first thirty days. But, I completed the rest of them. I’m a little anxious that Nuitech might let you cancel up to two sponsors in the first thirty days, but then you still have to complete 12 offers altogether. So, I completed 10 offers for more than thirty days, and signed up for two more offers, but cancelled them in the first thirty days.
What do you think? Am I still eligible, or will that come back to bite me?”

My reply:

“member,

You abided by their terms and conditions by not cancelling no more than two offers within the 30-day period, so you shouldn’t be disqualified.

wozniack”

Me again:

“Hi member,

Just wanted to check in with you on your gift. Do you know if you’ve qualified yet, or are you still waiting to hear?

Thanks,

wozniack”

Member:

“They’re trying everything they can to avoid getting me the gift. I sent in all my documentation last week, and they sent an email back to me saying they needed more documentation showing my cancellation of the two sponsors I cancelled. Well, I never received any cancellation email for one of them. Then, the other one I cancelled sent me a return email so I could return the product. But, the email didn’t say anything about cancelling the product or service or membership. So, they are trying to say that it doesn’t count as a cancellation email. Then, they said my welcome email from one of my sponsors won’t work because it is dated last week(I had to request a welcome email from one of them because they never sent me one). So, that is pretty annoying. Then, they are telling me I only have 8 out of 10 sponsors confirmations that can be validated by them or something like that. I’ll forward you their email about it. It’s ridiculous. They’re basically saying I signed up with 12 sponsors, cancelled 2(but one might not count because of the dumb email date), and they can only verify 8 of them with the information I sent in. Why is that my fault? I have no idea”

My reply:

“member,

Ah, I am so sorry… Why do they need documentation for cancellations? That is ridiculous. I do not agree with this company’s rules AT ALL. I guess you’ll have to contact the sponsors you cancelled your offers with and request a cancellation e-mail for each. It may be hard to get that welcome e-mail from the other sponsor with the original date. Will look at that e-mail now…

Thanks,

wozniack”

member:

“Here’s the email I received from them today. Interesting how they say they
only 8 of my offers ‘check out.’ What does that mean? I sent in the proof of membership with credit card statements, emails, etc. Stupid

Thank you for sending in the requested documents. Our
> Verification
> Department has reviewed your documents and we see there is
> some missing
> information. Please send us the following:
>
> – Need to see welcome emails for the following: Value Pass
> (you sent a
> document for a welcome to xxxxxx dated 1/27. We need to
> see the
> original welcome email dated on or around 12/6)
>
> – Need to see second and any subsequent charges on your bank
> statement
> or an email/screen shot with your name and date on it
> showing you stayed
> the initial 30 days with the following: xxxxxx, xxxxxx (we need
> to see the emails for cancellation with your name and date
> on it)
> xxxxxx
>
> Also, per our Terms and Conditions you are allowed up to
> two
> cancellations, however, 10 of the 12 offers you sign up with
> must check
> out. We have confirmed 8 of the 10 required offers. Once we
> receive the
> correct documentation for your two cancellations you will
> still need two
> more offers to check out in order to qualify. You may send
> in the
> information showing you stayed the initial 30 days with
> xxxxxx for one but then we are still missing one last offer
> to complete
> the total 10.”

My reply:

“It just means you have two offers that didn’t pass the test. Did you send them a credit card statement that may contain a second round of charges? They may want to see that you were charged again in order to confirm that you kept the offers. But the deal about them requiring “cancellation e-mails” for cancelled offers is silly. I understand that they probably want that for their records, to show which ones you cancelled, but still…

wozniack”

Member:

“Well, the problem with them only looking at a second round of charges from some of the sponsors is that some of the sponsors give you the first 30 days free, so there won’t be a second charge in the first 60 days”

My reply:

“That’s true. I just don’t know how you could produce this additional documentation if it isn’t there. You can only give them so much to be verified. You will just have to explain why you cannot provide them with certain proofs and hopefully they will still work with you. If they really are wanting a second round of charges, tell them its impossible since you were given the first 30 days free.

wozniack”

Me again:

“Hi again,

Were you able to make any progress with Nuitech? Was hoping they verified any new documentation you may have given them.

Thanks,

wozniack”

Member:

“No response today. I sent like three emails after we talked yesterday. Then, after not hearing back this morning, which is typical from them, I sent another email. So, hopefully I’ll hear something from them in the morning

member
xxx-xxx-xxxx”

The issue was the sponsors reporting back. Now it’s getting them to go through a “software program”, and not all of them know what that is. Then there’s the slow customer service which takes a week or more to reply. And based on your question, they do not respond or they refer you to the terms and conditions. And they’ve discontinued their phone support. How is your problem solved when you’re given vague responses, if any at all, and can’t communicate by phone? When you finally make headway they require additional documentation, some of which cannot be produced. The overseer of the Verification Department needs to address these issues once and for all. This won’t change unless action is taken. I may write that letter to Nuitech. If they’ll listen to me, I can offer them some suggestions.

My bonus:

This came while I was out of town. My $250.00 bonus check from I-Deal. Thanks I-Deal.

I also received $20.00 from Toluna. As for my Shopping Tally credit from MyPoints, they gave me 3,500 points instead of 3,300, which I used towards a $25.00 to CVS gift card. My CVS card hasn’t shipped yet but MyPoints are slow.

This concludes Part 2 of our Valentine’s blog. Please see, “DIY rose bouquet is delivered, Part 1.” for our Valentine’s link list, and info on CRS and ZOOZ Solutions, Ltd. Good stuff in both entries.

Take care,

wozniack

While waiting for our anonymous source’s reply about CRS, I researched freerewardscentral.com, a CRS site a member and their friend did. Dave helped this member’s friend, so they got paid. However, since he left, this member wasn’t as successful. Below is our correspondence.

Member:

from: member xxxx@xx.com
to: diyfreebies@gmail.com
date: Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 12:56 AM
subject: ipad offer from CRS
mailed-by: xxxx.com
signed-by: xxxx.com

Hi,

I read your post (http://www.anything4free.com/forums/index.php?autocom=blog&blogid=419&showentry=1406) – got to it through searching how to get in contact with CRS. I’ve completed a “free ipad + gift card” offer at “freerewardscentral.com” a site that has only just been taken down, but was affiliated with CRS. Also the two phone numbers I had found (through whois searches on the affiliated internet marketing survey company) have been recently discontinued – I left a number of messages in the last months but never got a real person! My friend successfully completed this same offer about 6 months ago, and dealt with Dave. The email address she used to contact him (Svcacct@internationalsurveycenter.com) is no longer working. This all tallies with your post describing how he no longer works for CRS.

My question is: did you ever find out who is taking over for him? I need to find someone to help with this, it has been some time since I finished my offers and I have nothing to show for it!

thanks for any help!

member”

My reply:

“from: diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to: member
date: Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 8:05 PM
subject: Re: ipad offer from CRS
mailed-by: xxxx.com

Hi member,

I’m sorry for the trouble you’ve had contacting CRS. I will contact my “anonymous source” who was supposed to get a call back from a supervisor at CRS about the new person in Fulfillment. As soon as I found out I will let you know asap.

Talk to you soon,

wozniack”

My second e-mail to member:

“from: diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to: member
date: Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 1:04 AM
subject: Re: ipad offer from CRS
mailed-by: gmail.com

member,

I sent my anonymous source two e-mails. The first one they replied to saying they would get back to me as soon as they called CRS back. The second e-mail I sent on Monday as I hadn’t heard anything, so I am just waiting for another response from this person. While I was waiting, I researched the site you did and discovered some new info on CRS, which I will post in February’s blog. So you may want to read the upcoming entry.

Anyway, I wanted to update you on this so you didn’t think I had forgotten about it. Will let you know if I hear anything.

Regards,

wozniack”

Member:

“from: member xxxx@xx.com
to: “diyfreebies@gmail.com”
date: Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 1:28 AM
subject: Re: ipad offer from CRS
mailed-by: xxxx.com
signed-by: xxxx.com

Ok thanks! I will read the post and wait in hope that you hear back from your source! member”

My reply:

“from: diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to: member
date: Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 2:31 AM
subject: Re: ipad offer from CRS
mailed-by: gmail.com

member,

I meant to ask you earlier if it was OK to share your e-mail on my blog? The reason I need it is to show that you site you did ties into a new individual at the company (CRS). I just found this new information tonight! I promise to make you anonymous on my blog for your privacy.

Thanks,

wozniack”

Member:

“from: member xxxx@xx.com
to: “diyfreebies@gmail.com”
date: Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 9:01 AM
subject: Re: ipad offer from CRS
mailed-by: xxxx.com
signed-by: xxxx.com

Sure.

- member”

My e-mails to our anonymous source:

“from: diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to: member
date: Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 8:09 PM
subject: Re: Re
mailed-by: gmail.com

Hi there,

I hope you had a good new year! Thanks for letting me share your e-mails, by the way.

Did a supervisor at CRS ever call you back and give you the info on the new person in Fulfillment? Was just wondering if you heard anything yet.

Thanks,

wozniack”

Anonymous source replied:

“from: member xxxx@xx.com
reply-to: member
to: “diyfreebies@gmail.com”
date: Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 9:08 AM
subject: Re: Re
mailed-by: xxxx.com
signed-by: xxxx.com

Same to you. No I have not heard anything yet. I will be calling them again on Monday. I will let you know if I find out anything.
Hopefully they can tell me more this time.

member”

My next e-mail to anonymous source:

“from: diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to: member
date: Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 2:15 PM
subject: Re: Re
mailed-by: gmail.com

Hi member,

Checking in to see if you heard anything from CRS last week? I was hoping you got a name, and possibly an e-mail, for the new person on staff. A member that I am helping needs to reach CRS, but they are unable to because the e-mails aren’t working. I really need to supply this member an e-mail address or phone number that works.

Any information you can provide is appreciated.

Thanks,

wozniack”

An update from our anonymous source:

“from: member xxxx@xx.com
reply-to: member
to: “diyfreebies@gmail.com”
date: Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 6:52 PM
subject: Re: Re
mailed-by: xxxx.com
signed-by: xxxx.com

So far several Reps are not able to provide me with any new information. They can only answer questions regarding the sites. At this point they have contacted their Supervisors via email about my requests and each time I have been told and assured that a supervisor will be getting in contact with me either by phone or email. They never contacted me that last time, but they apologized to me for that and told me someone would contact me. They couldn’t tell me when. I have been contacted by a supervisor in the past for a different issue, so I am definitely hopeful they will eventually get in touch with me. I have noticed that it does take patience and kind persistence when dealing with CRS. It is frustrating and sadly there are no guarantees when it comes to them. I count my blessings that I have gotten this far, but I also keep myself prepared for any and all possibilities. Sorry I couldn’t be more help so far. I will keep trying.”

Our source is just waiting to be contacted. Hopefully CRS can provide them with this new information.

With freerewardscentral.com down, I couldn’t view the terms and conditions or the policy. It’s also a privately registered domain. But I had an address to work with…

The 1148 Pulaski address is in Bear, Delaware. That address doesn’t tie into anything except “Ultimate Rewards.”

Ultimate Rewards was an online rewards site that is now out of business. The domain, ultimate-rewards.com, was created on August 5, 2010, but it doesn’t expire until August 5, 2012, so the domain is active.

The whois report for ultimate-rewards.com has a Canadian address, e-mail, and new name: 15 Lorna Court, wota_man@yahoo.com, Mike Morgan. ultimate-rewards.com is also registered in this gentleman’s full name, Michael Morgan. Below is another e-mail and address for Mike Morgan.

jimmylick@yahoo.com is the e-mail, and the address is located at 32 Churchill Avenue. Both are Canadian addresses. Since the extension of the e-mail in the contact information for freerewardscentral.com was “ultimate-rewards.com”, we found Mike Morgan. Then we made a CRS connection because freerewardscentral.com was once a CRS site!

Next comes an inquiry about a BBB complaint. A member filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau due to not receiving their reward from CRS. Please read their e-mail to me followed by the response they received.

Member:

“from: member xxxx@xx.com
to: diyfreebies@gmail.com
date: Sat, Jan 21, 2012 at 1:10 AM
subject: filed a complaint w/ bbb (2 freelaptops consumers reward solutions)
mailed-by: gmail.com
signed-by: gmail.com”

Dear Wozniak,

I recently filed a complaint with bbb:

consumers reward solutions
6-6150 Highway 7 STE# 220
Vaughan, ON L4H-OR6
&
received a response from:
NAME:

Consumers Reward Solutions
BBB MEMBER:

NO
CONTACT:

–None–
ADDRESS:

P.O. Box 93, 119 Spadina Ave.
Toronto, ON M5T 2T3
PHONE:

866 670-0126
FAX:

416 849-3343
Website:

www.skill2thrill.coms

stating:
Dear Sir / Madam,

Thank you for your correspondence.

Please note that our company name is not Consumers Reward Solutions and none of our contest webpages make the claim and/or promise consumers two free laptops. All of our webpages operate as a contest, in which users have a chance of winning the advertised prize on a monthly basis.

In order to investigate this matter further, we require the 10-digit mobile number which is or has received text messages from our service.

If you could please kindly reply, providing us with your full mobile number, including area code, we will work to investigate your plaint as soon as possible.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any additional questions.

Yours sincerely,

Mobile Customer Care Team

Do I have the wrong company?
Has this happened to any of your other readers?
Do you think they are saying because they no longer have that site?
I thank you so much for your help. It has been so frustrating dealing with this.”

My first reply:

“from: diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to: member
date: Sat, Jan 21, 2012 at 6:14 PM
subject: Re: filed a complaint w/ bbb (2 freelaptops consumers reward solutions)
mailed-by: gmail.com

Hi member,

Thank you for contacting me. This is the first I’ve heard of this ever happening. None of my readers have had this problem that I know of. 2freelaptops.com WAS indeed a CRS site because I was paid for that one, and was approved by Dave. For denying any association with CRS is strange to me since the site you did was 2freelaptops.com. 2freelaptops.com is long gone now, but if your complaint had “Consumers Reward Solutions” as the company name and the Vaughan, ON address, then why are they replying? Doesn’t make sense because the Vaughan, ON address should have nothing to do with them– unless CRS moved from that location, and somehow TMG, the company who responded to you, has now moved in. Or perhaps this is really Consumers Reward Solutions but they no longer do business under that name. Could you please show me your written complaint? It may help me decipher their response to you. I have many questions.

Unfortunately, I cannot tell you anymore than that until I find out more. I am currently investigating this matter, and would like this topic to be featured in February’s blog. Would it be alright if I shared these details with my readers? I promise to make you anonymous to protect your identity.

Thanks,

wozniack”

Second reply:

“from: diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to: member
date: Sat, Jan 21, 2012 at 6:37 PM
subject: Re: filed a complaint w/ bbb (2 freelaptops consumers reward solutions)
mailed-by: gmail.com

Hi again,

I just visited the Better Business Bureau site for Canada, and found these businesses in the search results: https://www.bbb.org/consumer-complaints/file-a-complaint/find-business/name/consumers+reward+solutions/ — The last one was for a “Consumers Reward Solutions” with spaces, and it has “Consumers Reward Solutions aka TMG” as the company name. Did you file a complaint with that link? If so, I don’t think that is Consumers Reward Solutions, our Canadian company. You may have filed a complaint with the wrong one. Try the one that has “ConsumersRewardSolutions (no spaces)” as the company name with “Prize Promotions” under the type of business. The middle result is the one you go for, it also has the Broadway address.

Please let me know if this was indeed a mistake, because if not I will further my investigation on TMG/CRS.

Thanks!

wozniack”

BBB search results:

I didn’t understand what had happened until I saw the search results. Upon reviewing TMG and their promotional web sites, I inferred that the complaint was made in error. For these sites always choose the middle option containing the Vancouver, BC address. The first option is also CRS, but I suggest the Vancouver, BC location since this company primarily operates out of Canada. You need the exact company when filing a complaint to get paid, and so the wrong one isn’t blamed. The same goes for blogs. You may recall last year’s incident: http://www.diyfreebies.com/2011/05/ — Owing to my oversight, I stated that “ConsumerRewardSolutions” was CRS regardless of the omitted ‘S’ on Consumer. This put me in a tough spot with Zooz Solutions, Ltd., who managed the rewards program, ConsumerRewardSolutions.com. As a blogger, I am more apt to get in trouble since everything is in writing. I must report what is accurate and be truthful at all times. The slightest mistake can have serious consequences if it hurt someone’s business. Be mindful of your actions when posting on complaint sites and blogging. Research a company first to gather the right information so it doesn’t affect you or them.

President and Founder of ZOOZ Solutions, Ltd., Shane Crawford, gave his consent to posting our e-mails. The purpose for doing so is in our recent exchange. See below.

My e-mail to Shane Crawford at ZOOZ Solutions:

“from: diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to: “ZOOZ Solutions Ltd. (Shane)”
date: Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 5:08 PM
subject: Re: DIYfreebies.com
mailed-by: gmail.com

Hi Shane,

We haven’t spoken in a while but I had a question. I’m in the process of writing my blog, and the topic I’m working on is about making false claims. Someone recently had written a BBB complaint for a company known as TMG; however this business had “aka ConsumersRewardSolutions” in the BBB info, which resulted in a complaint made about the wrong company. So I decided to start a topic to stress the importance of knowing which company you’re complaining/writing about online as to not damage their name, and so that my readers have a better chance of getting paid by having the correct company information.

I thought about using our e-mail correspondence as an example of how a simple mistake can escalate into a much bigger problem. My readers may be more likely to pay attention to detail for bringing this up, and less likely to attack the wrong company. Is it OK if I posted our e-mails? I could make yours anonymous for your privacy.

Thanks,

wozniack”

Shane’s reply:

“from: ZOOZ Solutions Ltd. (Shane) shane@zoozsolutions.com
to: “diyfreebies@gmail.com”
date: Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 5:17 PM
subject: Re: DIYfreebies.com
mailed-by: gmail.com
signed-by: gmail.com

Hi Wozniack,

Yes, of course I don’t mind you referencing our past situation. That’s a good idea, making people more aware of who they’re complaining about.

I had to change domains it got so bad, I was getting phone calls all the time from people who were mad at ConsumersRewardSolutions.

Now, I go by www.RetailRewardSolutions.com and www.PetFoodFrequentBuyerProgram.com

Let me know once it’s up, I am interested in reading it.

Sincerely,

Shane Crawford
ZOOZ Solutions Ltd.”

Our exchange starting April 21, 2011; Shane’s letter:

“from: ZOOZ Solutions Ltd. (Shane) shane@zoozsolutions.com
to: xxxx@xx.com
cc: diyfreebies@gmail.com
date: Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 3:51 PM
subject: re: DIYfreebies.com
mailed-by: gmail.com
signed-by: gmail.com

HI there,

Do you run the blog on DIYfreebies.com?

Please reply, I would like to discuss the blog and comments about ConsumersRewardSolutions.com

I am with ConsumerRewardSolutions.com (no S on Consumer) and I noticed this quote on your blog:

“There’s more. Bear with me. There is an omitted ‘S’ in “consumers” when pulling up their company, but this screen shot will confirm that whether or not an ‘S’ is in “consumers”, it is the same company. They go by both so there are no mistakes. This knowledge also proves that the above complaint is really about them.”

This is false, we have no affiliation with this problem company, and I would like it to say so on your blog.
http://www.diyfreebies.com/surfs-up-with-consumers-reward-solutions-exposed-and-indicted-nuitechs-rule-change-webprizeland-wave-of-new-links/

and

http://www.anything4free.com/forums/index.php?autocom=blog&blogid=419&showentry=1174

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Shane Crawford
ZOOZ Solutions Ltd.”

My reply:

“from: wozniack diyfreebies@gmail.com
to: “ZOOZ Solutions Ltd. (Shane)”
date: Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 4:05 PM
subject: Re: re: DIYfreebies.com
mailed-by: gmail.com

Hi,

I am sorry about that. The name of your company is similar to the problem company, and I will bring this to everyone’s attention in my next blog. I’m currently in the writing process, and will amend the written mistakes. The new blog will be posted early May, so expect a brief post explaining this to everyone as well as the Surfs up… entry modified.

Once again, I apologize for this, and it will be edited once I get the chance to this evening.

Regards,

wozniack”

Shane’s reply:

“from: ZOOZ Solutions Ltd. (Shane) shane@zoozsolutions.com
to: wozniack
date: Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 4:17 PM
subject: Re: DIYfreebies.com
mailed-by: gmail.com
signed-by: gmail.com

Thank you so much for the quick response, and for editing your blogs, I really appreciate it. I’m starting to think I chose a poor domain name.

Sincerely,

Shane Crawford
ZOOZ Solutions Ltd.”

My reply:

“from: wozniack diyfreebies@gmail.com
to: “ZOOZ Solutions Ltd. (Shane)”
date: Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 4:28 PM
subject: Re: DIYfreebies.com
mailed-by: gmail.com

Hi again,

Once more, I apologize for involving your company with Consumers Reward Solutions. The domain name really is quite confusing! It isn’t your fault, just another company had the same name. If it’s alright by you, I would like to advertise your company, Consumer Reward Solutions, on my blog. I would tell members about your services, and it may help them sever any ties between your company and Consumers Reward Solutions by learning that your company doesn’t have a gift program (freebie site). The more differences they see between the two, the better chance of them not putting both names together. Many people read my blog, so it would bring you traffic as well. Its the least I can do for making such an error.

I removed the content, including the image, from my blogs last night. I also replied to the comment you left on DIYfreebies.com. I’m looking forward to clearing this up for good in my next entry by giving an explanation about the post.

I have a quick question… I found this last year and was confused as the “problem company” is in Canada, yet the BBB report shows Consumers Reward Solutions is out of Largo, FL. Is it possible the BBB rating is for your company, and your company name was spelled with an ‘S’ by mistake? http://www.bbb.org/west-florida/business-reviews/incentive-programs/consumers-reward-solutions-in-largo-fl-90079815 — If its not your company, I’m sorry for bringing it up. It would be helpful for me to know, however, as my research of DIY companies helps members, and I could have it for my records. I could also state that that BBB report has nothing to do with your company as well. It’s things like the BBB report that confuse many people as they aren’t sure which company it concerns, especially if both companies have the same name.

Thank you for your time and understanding with all of this. I appreciate it.

Regards,

wozniack”

Shane’s reply:

“from: ZOOZ Solutions Ltd. (Shane) shane@zoozsolutions.com
to: wozniack
date: Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 8:25 PM
subject: Re: DIYfreebies.com
mailed-by: gmail.com
signed-by: gmail.com

Hey Wozniack,

That would be awesome! I would love the advert, and any opportunity to be regarded as a separate company than that problem one.

I’ve only had this domain for about 10 months or so, so maybe they had the non-plural as well before? That’s certainly not me on the BBB, and I did notice that on there, their address is in FL. What’s really weird is, that the address on their site, (the Broadway, Vancouver one), is like 6 blocks from me. Not sure if it’s still legit or not.

So yeah, the BBB report has nothing to do with me, and our clients are retailers not consumers.

Let me know if you need anything from me, and thank you again for addressing this and going extra to put our name in the good books.

Sincerely,

Shane Crawford
ZOOZ Solutions Ltd.”

My reply:

“from: wozniack diyfreebies@gmail.com
to: “ZOOZ Solutions Ltd. (Shane)”
date: Sat, Apr 23, 2011 at 5:51 PM
subject: Re: DIYfreebies.com
mailed-by: gmail.com

Shane,

I am currently in the process of doing a brief up up on Zooz Solutions, and ConsumerRewardSolutions. Could you provide me with a little information on your company, such as the year it was established, details about your services, any big achievements your company as had? Perhaps you built a web site for a major corporation, or have worked with notable figures in your line of work, whoever they may be? If there is anything special you’d like me to add I can. So far I have, “Zooz Solutions, Ltd. a web site and web application provider based in Vancouver, BC,…”

I, too, thought it was really weird about you being so close to the other CRS! Wow. I will try to work on this some more tonight.

Thank you for your time,

wozniack”

Shane’s reply:

“from: ZOOZ Solutions Ltd. (Shane) shane@zoozsolutions.com
to: wozniack
date: Sun, Apr 24, 2011 at 5:23 PM
subject: Re: DIYfreebies.com
mailed-by: gmail.com
signed-by: gmail.com

Hi Wozniack,

Yes, I’d be happy to tell you more about ZOOZ.

I started ZOOZ back in 2004, building websites mostly. Started designing and building some web applications and the website for Anipet.com (which we still maintain). I built another web application in 2006 specifically for the pet food retail market in regards to rewards management, and this program has evolved over these few years. So I re-designed the website (from www.frequentbuyerprogram.ca) to www.consumerrewardsolutions.com to make it clear that we can cater to any business, and not just the pet food sector. (The program has been used in stores since early 2007.) ZOOZ Solutions Ltd. was incorporated in 2007. We continue to evolve our products and offer more features so that it can be a very efficient, convenient, affordable tool for any business, especially for smaller to medium sized businesses that may not have the budget for large reward programs, but would like to manage a program so that they can offer rewards to their customers.

We continue to build websites, but our focus is on the rewards side now. Our focus is also to provide outstanding customer service, and our clients are all very happy with the service we provide. Which is what made finding your blog particularly unsettling.

Thank you so much again for all this added information and for going out of your way.

Have a nice Easter!

Sincerely,

Shane Crawford
ZOOZ Solutions Ltd.”

My reply:

“from: wozniack diyfreebies@gmail.com
to: “ZOOZ Solutions Ltd. (Shane)”
date: Mon, Apr 25, 2011 at 12:55 PM
subject: Re: DIYfreebies.com
mailed-by: gmail.com

Shane,

Thank you for your company information. Do your services extend outside Canada? Also, would your job title be CEO of Zooz Solutions, Ltd., or would you prefer to be refered to as founder or president of Zooz Solutions, Ltd.? Would the web application you built in 2006 be for Canadian Naturals Dog Food? Just making sure that I have everything right.

Hopefully after this is all cleared up, people will view your company in a whole different light since it isn’t the same as the one 6 blocks away!

Thanks, and I hope you had a wonderful Easter too.

wozniack”

Shane’s reply:

“from: ZOOZ Solutions Ltd. (Shane) shane@zoozsolutions.com
to: wozniack
date: Mon, Apr 25, 2011 at 3:56 PM
subject: Re: DIYfreebies.com
mailed-by: gmail.com
signed-by: gmail.com

Wozniack,

Yes, we currently have clients across North America, but of course, am open to clients anywhere in the world. I am the founder and president of ZOOZ Solutions Ltd. Canadian Naturals is only one pet food brand that stores use in our program. There are 80+ brands of pet food currently being used in our system among all our clients. It’s simply a tool that retailers can use for any products, any brands however they like. We are not affiliated with any of the pet food brands. And as we move into other markets, other brands will potentially be used. eg. shoe stores, boutiques, cafes, etc.

Sincerely,

Shane Crawford
ZOOZ Solutions Ltd.”

My reply:

“from: wozniack diyfreebies@gmail.com
to: “ZOOZ Solutions Ltd. (Shane)”
date: Tue, May 3, 2011 at 2:46 PM
subject: Re: DIYfreebies.com
mailed-by: gmail.com

Hi there,

Thanks for providing additional information about your company. I posted a new blog yesterday and cleared up the entire matter. In case you haven’t seen it I’ll link you: http://www.diyfreebies.com/ — I brought up the BBB reports so your company would not be tied into them. Both reports point to Consumers Reward Solutions (problem company), not yours. I also advertised both web sites: www.consumerrewardsolutions.com – www.zoozsolutions.com in addition to the formal introduction to ZOOZ Solutions, Ltd.

Have a good day!

wozniack”

Shane’s reply:

“from: ZOOZ Solutions Ltd. (Shane) shane@zoozsolutions.com
to: wozniack
date: Wed, May 4, 2011 at 6:48 PM
subject: Re: DIYfreebies.com
mailed-by: gmail.com
signed-by: gmail.com

Hey,

Thanks so much for addressing the issue, and writing about ZOOZ and myself. I appreciate it!

Thanks again!

Sincerely,

Shane Crawford
ZOOZ Solutions Ltd.”

Everyone please make note of this. Shane’s domains have changed to www.RetailRewardSolutions.com and www.PetFoodFrequentBuyerProgram.com, and his rewards programs are not affiliated with Consumers Reward Solutions. Shane Crawford, thank you for your permission to share our e-mails. I wish you all the best.

*Valentine’s link list*

I-Deal–

http://bestbuybbacktoschool.giftcertificatedelivery.com/form/iframe/33866/8170/?&ref=33866 – 10 offers, 1 ref/$1,000.00 Best Buy gc

http://www.giftcardbonus.us.com/?session_id=c86d9f38472c11e1bc3611c37f685fd3 – 10 offers, 1 ref/$500.00 Bed Bath & Beyond gc

Nuitech–

http://www.rewardingpromos.com/?c=137&s=1717 – offers unknown, no refs/$1,000.00 Target gc

producttestpanel–

http://visa.agiftcarddeal.com/?t_id=W9KQt38AAAEAACs9ZcUAAAAA&spid=&sub=PFTEST&uid=440009003&pre_q=1&email=&exit_p=&id_p=15612866&oon=visa1000 – 13 offers, 3 refs/$1,000.00 Visa gc + misc. gifts

http://walmart.electronicrewardsnow.com/?t_id=bzA%401n8AAAEAAB30QUgAAAAQ&spid=260065&sub=6247889&uid=429950335&pre_q=&email=&exit_p=&id_p=1525706&oon=walmart2 – 13 offers, 3 refs/$1,000.00 Wal-Mart gc + misc. gifts

http://digitalbrandrewards.com/vis1000/index.php?lid=vis1000_16096_11_&add_offerid=412119 – 13 offers, 3 refs/$1,000.00 Visa gc + misc. gifts

We covered a lot in this entry. So much in fact we needed a double blog! I’ll recommend CRS again once we have their contact information. I’m nervous for us to do them without ANY contact information. Not that they’d scam us, but we need to communicate with them to be rewarded. Sorry January and February’s link lists are so scant, there hasn’t been much in the way of links. March may be a better month. I moved our images to photobucket, btw. Now I just have to link them to my posts. I’d like to thank jasoneggleston for destroying our forum spam. He did an amazing job as always! For our Part 2, please go to “DIY rose bouquet is delivered, Part 2.” That’s where our Nuitech discussion is.

See you there!

wozniack

2012 has finally arrived, and with a new year comes new money making opportunities. 2011 was profitable until the year’s end. What will become of 2012? I guess we’ll see as the year progresses. I’m ready for a fresh start.

Reopening the Nick Brown case. You may remember this person’s blog which I introduced in July: Duane’s blog — His name is Duane Browning, and the object of his posts is to help people fight against text spam. My entry from July: “The night explodes…” — We’ll start with the following comment posted to his blog on June 14, 2011.

Blog link: http://fixedgear808.blogspot.com/2011/06/filing-complaints-with-domain.html

Comment:

“Anonymous said…

There seems to be dozens of these MONEY70, PAY600, GIFT50 etc web sites sending spam SMS messages. They all seem to link to doublemypayday.com. The domain owner is:

NetTangerine Inc.
2225 E. Bayshore Road
Suite 200
Palo Alto, CA 94043-3220

Tel: (650)641-0184
Fax: (866)723-2155

contactus@nettangerine.net

I called them up and spoke with a person called Amy. She admitted that her company owns the web site doublemypayday.com. She stated that they do not directly send SMS messages from her company, it must be some affiliate of theirs that is doing non-compliant things. She did not want to admit a direct responsibility for the text message we all receive, but my argument was that they should be controlling their affiliates. She admitted that this is not something they want happening either as it damages their brand image. She promised to investigate who is doing this, and NetTangerine would shut them down.

I promised to Amy that I will post this information on every complaint site I can get my hands on.

I suggest everybody gives a call to NetTangerine Inc Tel: (650)641-0184 and complains about the SMS messages. I’m sure the more calls they receive, the more motivated they are in finding out and shutting down which ever affiliate of theirs is doing this.

June 14, 2011 2:37 PM”

My research has shown that gift50.com and gift90.com, both domains registered to Nick Brown, linked to CRS and Product Test Panel. According to the comment above, gift50.com linked to doublemypayday.com like many other sites. If Amy at NetTangerine denies SMS messages ever being sent from her company, and suggests that it’s an affiliate of theirs, then there must be a ‘Nick Brown’ at one of their affiliates? Someone is responsible somewhere.

whois info for another domain:

pay14.com expired October 7, 2010; the original report is no longer around, I just happened to find it here: http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-347-822-1925 — There is also a different e-mail in the registrant info below.

So we have Brownmobile, Inc., and the e-mail nickbrown012@gmail.com. I don’t know exactly how old this corp is, but pay14.com was registered before Nick Brown’s most recent domains. The current sites registered to Nick Brown now don’t have any corporation in the registrant. Here are the results from Business Net Pages and YellowPages.ca.

The first screen shot for Business Net Pages shows that “Brown mobile” is a welding shop in Canada. The second screen shot has the full corporation name: Brown Mobile, Inc. The only difference is that the corporation name in the whois info for pay14.com is Brownmobile, Inc. without the space. If we could prove that “Brown Mobile” is in fact Brownmobile, Inc., then that would mean that Nick Brown has Canadian ties.

I Googled the 7454 Lancaster address and found this site: http://whoscall.in/1/3479259811/ — The following comment on this site confirmed the 7454 Lancaster address is a mailbox.

“MFMD
2011-06-06 20:46:40
Unknown

From a 2006 State of Delaware Supreme Court decision when Sean Sisson appealed a conviction on SIX counts of child Pornography… nice guy! Netvantage appears to be the homebase.
“7. Your Affiant verified that Sean Sisson is employed by Netvantage
Solutions Inc., located in Hockessin Delaware. Your Affiant
completed a business check, through the Better Business Bureau,
for Netvantage Solutions. The check revealed that the principle
[sic] of the business is Sean Sisson. Netvantage Solutions offers
intranet development, computer support, and software integration
and Internet services and is located at 7454 Lancaster Pike,
Hockessin, De.
8. Your Affiant completed a search for 7454 Lancaster Pike … and
found that this address is a Mailboxes Etc. Mailboxes Etc. offers
mailboxes “drop boxes” that a person may rent.”

Link to the Delaware Supreme Court decision: http://webservices.lexisnexis.com/lx1/caselaw/freecaselaw?action=OCLGetCaseDetail&format=FULL&sourceID=bcfbc&searchTerm=eLhQ.XHDa.aadj.edEQ&searchFlag=y&l1loc=FCLOW — Sean Sisson’s appeal isn’t the topic of discussion, however, I scrolled down the court document to find the part about Mailboxes, etc. I wanted it straight from the source.

Then there is this comment:

“MFMD
2011-06-06 20:46:40
Unknown

That’s Sean M. Sisson – don’t want to drag anyone else in on this!
Sean (and wife Susan) are in:

Netvantage Solutions, Inc.
Incorporated by Sean M. Sisson, Susan Sisson, Netvantage Solutions, Inc. is located at 3837 Northdale Blvd Ste 191 Tampa, FL 33624. Netvantage Solutions, Inc. was incorporated on Monday, June 01, 1998 in the State of FL and is currently not active. Sean Sisson represents Netvantage Solutions, Inc. as their registered agent.”

Netvantage Solutions, Inc., NetTangerine, Inc., amongst other businesses with the 7454 Lancaster address are predisposed to public censure, even the local restaurants and banks on that street. They all should be aware of this textspamming issue so it doesn’t leave a bad impression on the city’s inhabitants. My next finding will reveal a new person in connection with the Nick Brown case. Look at the whois info.

This person is named Eric Brown. Who is Eric? It started with Nick Brown, then we met Bart Brown, now there is an Eric Brown, hm… The e-mail in the whois report for getgreencamps.com is the same as the one registered to Nick Brown. I posted it again with the whois report. Doesn’t someone usually have their own e-mail address? Why would Eric be using Nick’s e-mail? And what’s the point in registering domains with multiple names if you’ve already used your own? I think Bart Brown and Eric Brown are a product of Nick Brown’s work. As for Bucks Media Group, Inc. that is in the registrant info, I found “Bucks Media Group, LLC.”, a business consulting company out of New Hope, PA. But I don’t know if its connected to Bucks Media Group, Inc. or not. I need to investigate this further.

More info on CRS! A member sent me an e-mail a couple nights ago to give me Dave’s status at CRS. His contract with CRS ended, and his e-mail no longer works. Somebody else now works in Fulfillment, and I’m waiting to hear back on who it is. To learn more about this, please see our correspondence below.

Member:

“from member xxxx@xx.com
reply-to xxxx
to “diyfreebies@gmail.com”
date Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 1:45 PM
subject you don’t know me, but I have completed many sites through CRS
mailed-by xxxx.com
signed-by xxxx.com
Important mainly because of the people in the conversation.

hide details Dec 28 (2 days ago)

Dear wozniack,

You don’t know me, but I am one of your many readers and I have also completed CRS sites 7 times. I was paid every time and have made around $14,000.00 not including what I had to pay out in order to complete each site. I have only completed sites through CRS and I am considered one of their long standing members as I have been completing sites through them for almost 2 years now.
I got to know Dave a little and he actually called me a friend. I spoke with him last month and found out that his contract with
CRS has ended. I was able to get a hold of him via the personal cell phone number he had given me. I just wanted to make you
aware of this so that you might let other members know that this is why his email no longer works. I am currently trying to
find out more information from the company on who the new person is that handles sending out prizes. I also got confirmation that the new sites
we have been seeing are indeed CRS’. I called them up and specifically asked them what the name of their company was. The funny thing is that the rep had to actually go and ask a supervisor who they worked for. He came back and told me the name of the company was
Consumers Reward Solutions. He said it really slowly like he was reading it off of a piece of paper. So apparently they are still in business like we thought. I feel for the members who lost out. I have personally never had any problems with them. When I work with them I never trust their sites
ability to track when I complete each and every offer. I always save every bit of information I can proving I completed offers. I then would send them to Dave etc. I highly recommend when doing sites like these to be sure to file your taxes and make sure to pay whatever taxes that are owed to the government. If you have any question for me, feel free to ask. If I find out anymore information, I can let you know if you want.
I would like to remain anonymous as I do not want my communication with you to cause issues for my membership with CRS.
By the way, I love your blog!”

My reply:

“from [Busy] diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to member
date Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 2:18 PM
subject Re: you don’t know me, but I have completed many sites through CRS
mailed-by gmail.com

hide details Dec 28 (2 days ago)

member,

Thank you for contacting me with this information. On the confirmation, are the sites you’re referring to in connection with Nick Brown? The domains registered to him have also linked to Product Test Panel, as well as numerous marketing companies. Could you let me know if you find out who now handles Fulfillment at CRS?

Congratulations on the large profit you received from CRS! $14,000.00 is an impressive amount, and I hope you have enjoyed your earnings. I always keep a spreadsheet of my completed offers, and I do agree with what you on paying taxes. And need not worry, I’ll make you anonymous so your relationship with CRS is not affected. I wouldn’t want to mess that up for you.

Thanks again,

wozniack”

Member:

“from member xxxx@xx.com
reply-to member
to “diyfreebies@gmail.com”
date Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 3:09 PM
subject Re: you don’t know me, but I have completed many sites through CRS
mailed-by xxxx.com
signed-by yahoo.com
Important mainly because it was sent directly to you.

hide details Dec 28 (3 days ago)

Honestly I don’t know anything about Nick Brown. The sites I am talking about are the ones that say they are located in
Honk Kong, United Kingdom etc. They have the exact same layout as the CRS sites with contact information for Canada. Yes Dave really
surprised me one time when he sent me 3 checks at once. The reason being I had completed 3 sites at one time. Let me tell you that was not easy to do. You have to keep track of every little thing. But it was definitely worth it. The checks totaled $7000.00
It all helped because I am a stay-at-home mother of two little ones. I can never have an outside job due to a disability. So in a way, I consider this my job. I will absolutely let you know if I find out anything more about CRS.”

My reply:

“from [Busy] diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to member
date Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 4:33 PM
subject Re: you don’t know me, but I have completed many sites through CRS
mailed-by xxxx.com

hide details Dec 28 (3 days ago)

Oh yes, I know the sites you’re talking about… I had written about them several months ago. Wow! 3 checks arrived all at once. How exciting. ) You probably are aware of their 30-day cancellation limitation which was put in place in April. I wanted to get an idea of just how hard, if at all, 30-day rule is with CRS, and exactly what they require. Nuitech has gotten kind of difficult because you have to get the sponsor to report back to them on top of everything else. I haven’t heard any complaints about that sort of thing with CRS, and I’m considering doing them again which is why I’m asking.

I really appreciate the information on CRS and Dave. Thank you for that; and I hope you continue to be successful in your freebie endeavors.

Thanks,

wozniack”

Member:

“from member xxxx@xx.com
reply-to member
to “diyfreebies@gmail.com”
date Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 8:15 PM
subject Re
mailed-by xxxx.com
signed-by xxxx.com
Important mainly because of the people in the conversation.

hide details Dec 28 (3 days ago)

I haven’t found it difficult in the least. The important thing is to make sure you don’t cancel more than 2 offers and wait 30 days before canceling the others. I simply pay attention to offers that are already 30 day trials, and I keep close attention to the cost of each offer after the trials are up. With that info I just simply decide which I cancel right off the bat and which ones I can afford to stay with longer. It is very important that you follow the rules exactly. I truly go into each offer with a heart of actually trying each product. It’s exciting for me to get different products in the mail, kind of like Christmas. I save every email, statement, screen shots of orders, you name it. Then I email, request fax numbers, ask to talk to supervisors. I do whatever I can to get my information and proof to them so that they can see I am a legit member that takes the process very seriously. I have actually introduced myself recently to the reps when I called and I let them know that I have been completing sites for them for quite a while. Their response was “oh so you are one of our long standing members” I try to be super nice and appreciative with them. I found that it really helps to be patient and understanding and very honest. Oh and always keep track of the sites you complete, so as to not complete them again until a year has passed. Another new thing is if you compete an offer, you cannot get credit for that offer for 6 months. Sometimes I call up just to thank them for what they have done for me. I want them to see that when they actually follow through and pay out like advertised, their members really appreciate it. It’s my subtle way of hopefully encouraging them to not cheat us. I am currently waiting for a supervisor to call me back with the info about the newbie who sends out the incentive checks. Hope this helps. ”

Who will replace Dave? I miss him already. His contract is up which is why his e-mail hasn’t been working. I wish him all the best. I will update you all next month when I find out who is in Fulfillment. Thank you, anonymous, for allowing me to share your e-mails.

Next comes Ifficient. A member contacted me about the problems he was experiencing with Ifficient’s sites. His following e-mail preceded the phone call he made to Ifficient. Below is my correspondence with this member as well as the audio recording of the phone call.

From member:

“from member xxxx@xx.com
to diyfreebies@gmail.com
date Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 2:27 PM
subject Fwd: Non-working Offer Links for $1000 Visa Gift Card at globalonerewards.com
mailed-by xxxx.com
signed-by xxxx.com
Important mainly because of the people in the conversation.

hide details Dec 17 (12 days ago)

Wozniack,

I am trying to participate in the $1000 “choose a gift card” DIY freebie at www.globalonerewards.com. Over half of the offer links are broken / non-working and display an error page. Currently, it is impossible to complete the required 13 offers on this site because only 7 of the total offer links are even working. I tried emailing both fulfillment@globalonerewards and remove@globalonerewards.com and the remove@globalonerewards.com account returned a failed delivery error.

I am hoping since you posted a conversation with Sean McCormick at Ifficient you could offer me some advice. I have already contacted them via their “Contact Us” link on www.globalonerewards.com and sent the email below. Thanks for reading!

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: member
Date: Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 1:24 PM
Subject: Non-working Offer Links for $1000 Visa Gift Card at globalonerewards.com
To: remove@globalonerewards.com, fulfillment@globalonerewards.com

I am trying to complete offers for the $1,000 Visa Gift Card and getting very frustrated. I understand that I am required to complete 13 offers before I am eligible to receive my free gift. I am trying to do so, but at this time it appears it is IMPOSSIBLE to participate in the 13 required offers. I clicked through all three offer pages, by clicking on every offer link and clicking the Next button at the bottom of the page to advance to the second and third offer pages. At this time, the majority of your offer links result in an error page.

Only 7 offer links on your entire site are working correctly!

I will list the working links:

Working:

Netflix
24 Hr. Fitness
Disney Books
Dr. Seuss Books
Hammer X Driver
Renaissance Health (Priozil)
Discover Escape Card

I will also list the non-working links that you need to fix immediately.

Non-working:

Equifax Credit Report
ADT Home Security System
Amber Alert GPS
Columbia House DVD Club
Proactiv Acne Treatment
National Family Protection (Identity Theft Protection)
E-Cigarettes
DirecTV Satellite
Sirius Satellite Radio
Simple Savings Network
Purse Hook Links to Hammer X Driver Golf Club site

When I click on these offer links, which all seem to be served by hbatrack.com, my browser displays the following error:

“404 – Not Found
Invalid CID”

How do you expect members to participate in and complete the 13 required offers if only 7 offer links work at all? If you do not maintain the site and all of the offers result in errors, you are advertising a contest with requirement that can not be completed.

Please view the following screenshot for proof of the error:

http://i.imgur.com/uwCn8.png

Please fix these issues immediately. It is incredibly frustrating and I will complete no offers on your behalf until these critical issues are resolved. Thanks.”

Second e-mail to me:

“from member xxxx@xx.com
to diyfreebies@gmail.com
date Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 2:47 PM
subject Fwd: Non-working Offer Links for $1000 Visa Gift Card at globalonerewards.com
mailed-by xxxx.com
signed-by xxxx.com
Important mainly because of your interaction with messages in the conversation.

hide details Dec 17 (12 days ago)

Wozniack,

Shortly after I sent you that last email, I dialed the telephone number listed on Ifficient’s “About Us” page.

http://ifficient.com/aboutus.php

303.945.2808

To my surprise, Sean McCormick answered the phone! I informed him of the non-working links on globalonerewards.com and he said they no longer promote that website. I asked him which sites Ifficient was currently promoting and he replied that they no longer promote any websites of that nature. Sean made it sound like Iffiicient is no longer in the “freebie” scene.

I have attached the recording of the phone call with Sean.

You can also listen to the recording on SoundCloud:

http://snd.sc/tSN56l

This might make for an interesting Blog article and/or update to the DIY Freebies forums. Thanks for reading!

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: GOR Member
- Show quoted text -

2011-12-17 time 15_30_05 Outgoing Telephone Call +13039452808.mp3 2011-12-17 time 15_30_05 Outgoing Telephone Call +13039452808.mp3
758K Play Download”

My reply:

“from [Busy] diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to member
date Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 3:15 PM
subject Re: Non-working Offer Links for $1000 Visa Gift Card at globalonerewards.com
mailed-by gmail.com

hide details Dec 17 (12 days ago)

Hi Chad,

I guess that after so many problems they’ve been having maintaining their gift sites, they decided to discontinue their rewards program. When I spoke to Sean McCormick back in January, he wanted to “tighten” Fulfillment in order to provide better service. It took their customer support over a month to respond to me though, and this was after my discussion with Sean. But I tried signing up for one of their sites anyway since Sean had told me via e-mail that they were paying $1,000.00 cash or check on their sites. The last time I looked at their sites, however, was in the spring. I wasn’t able to complete their sites then due to a lack of offer variety. Apparently now, their sites are beyond impossible to complete. And with your permission, I’d like to share your correspondence with me for my readers. With this news coming straight from Sean McCormick, it is confirmed that they no longer offer a gift program.

Would it also be alright if I posted the phone call as well? I could try writing it down word-for-word, but it is hard for me to hear certain words through my laptop. I will listen to it again to be sure of what I heard. If you will allow it, I will e-mail Sean to get the OK from him as well. I do thank you for sharing this with me.

Thanks again,

wozniack”

Member’s reply:

“from member xxxx@xx.com
to “diyfreebies@gmail.com”
date Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 10:27 PM
subject Re: Non-working Offer Links for $1000 Visa Gift Card at globalonerewards.com
mailed-by xxxx.com
signed-by xxxx.com
Important mainly because it was sent directly to you.

hide details Dec 17 (12 days ago)

Wozniack,

Thank you for replying. You do indeed have my permission to post anything that I have emailed to Global One Rewards, to yourself, or I have posted in the forums. Sharing is caring! I would be happy if you posted the phone call as well, although I did not ask Sean for permission to record the conversation. You may want to get his go ahead before posting. If you don’t hear back from him, I would assume a transcript would do just as well.

Chad: Hi Sean. Is this Sean McCormick?
Sean: Yup.
Chad: Interesting. Ok. My name is Chad. I’m a member trying to use one of your rewards websites – globalonerewards.com
Sean: Uh-huh.
Chad: ..and over half of the offer links listed on that webpage, that website, are resulting in an error right now.
Sean: Yeah Chad, we’re not promoting that website. The promotion’s down.
Chad: Oh, what are your current promotions websites?
Sean: We don’t have any. We don’t have any. We’re not doing that anymore.
Chad: Ok, I was unaware of that.
Sean: Yeah.
Chad: Ok, thank you.
Sean: Alright, buh-bye.
Chad: Bye.

Thanks for listening and taking an interest in this change that affects DIY Freebies members.”

Then I asked permission from Ifficient’s CEO, Sean McCormick:

“From [Busy] diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to Sean McCormick
date Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 7:01 PM
subject Phone call…
mailed-by gmail.com

hide details Dec 17 (12 days ago)

Sean,

A member said they called you today, and provided me with the details of the telephone conversation. Would it be okay if I posted the phone call on my blog? Then everyone would know the gift program is no longer in operation, and wouldn’t have to inquire about your sites. I wanted to ask before making the audio recording public. I will try to print the conversation if you’d rather me not post it. Thanks.

Have a blessed holiday,

wozniack”

Sean McCormick’s reply:

“from Sean McCormick xxxx@xx.com
to “diyfreebies@gmail.com”
date Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 9:11 PM
subject Re: Phone call…
mailed-by xxxx.com
signed-by xxxx.com
Important mainly because of your interaction with messages in the conversation.

hide details Dec 17 (12 days ago)

Absolutely.”

Phone call:

2011-12-17 time 15 30 05 Outgoing Telephone Call +13039452808 by wozniack

Ifficient no longer offers a gift program as they are “not doing that anymore.” Our list of companies to test is one down, as we just have LeaderDirect, WinHundred, and Brightfire. Thanks to this member, and Sean from Ifficient for their permission to post the phone call.

I-Deal sent me this for Christmas!!

I qualified for a $1,000.00 gift card + $250.00 bonus. Originally I was supposed to get a Wal-Mart gift card, but I was sent a $1,000.00 Wells Fargo Visa and I am not complaining. The $250.00 bonus checks were shipped December 20, 2011. I-Deal said the bonuses are shipped at the end of every quarter, no matter when you completed the site. Haven’t gotten mine yet, because my mail has been on hold; I was out of town during the holidays. Before I cash it I will snap a pic and post it next month. Thanks I-Deal.

The first two gift cards are from MyPoints. I cashed out on $50.00 to Lane Bryant which I gave as a Christmas gift, and kept the $10.00 to CVS. The other gift card ebates sent me for qualifying for their promotion. It was for $10.00. I’m also expecting to receive 3,300 in bonus points from MyPoints for reaching my Shopping Tally goal. 3,300 points almost equals a $25.00 cash out, BUT I already have a 1,526 point balance, so I can still cash out on $25.00! And I’m going for the $25.00 CVS card, so that should give me $35.00 total when combined with my $10.00 CVS gift card. Last but not least I got a $10.00 Wal-Mart gift card from my bank’s points program.

I have switched from Paypal to Serve for donation payments. Serve is a money payment and transfer service by American Express that allows you to send and receive money and transfer funds to your bank. They also send you a prepaid American Express card, which can be used at an ATM. Their current promotion is a $10.00 bonus if you sign up by January 5, 2012. And if you play their trivia game at PlayMoneyMover.com you earn ten more dollars! My experience so far with Serve has been fantastic, and I have already spent a portion of my free money with my prepaid card and it works. However, you can only send up to $100.00 per day, and accept no more than $250.00 a month. A customer service rep told me that.

Until my Paypal is resolved, any donations can be made to my Serve account by clicking on the Serve banner under where it says ‘Donations.’ But first you must register. If you want to take advantage of their promotions, please send me in e-mail at diyfreebies@gmail.com so I can refer you.

Raise your glass to these deals…

*links ‘n such*

I-Deal–

http://www.consumerrewards.us.com/?config=6613 – 10 offers, 2 refs/$1,000.00 Visa

http://www.internetresearchsurveys.com/?session_id=e8bcedae337511e1b9933521b8df804b – 10 offers, 2 refs/$1,000.00 Visa

producttestpanel–

http://shoppingthanet.com/ruslimo/index.php?lid=ruslimo_16028_2696_155882459&add_offerid=665343&addomain=avgauge10.com&addomain_id=63&uniclk=true – offers unknown/$1,000.00 Toys R Us gc + misc. gifts

http://shoppingthanet.com/holidaygiftcards/index.php?lid=holidaygiftcards_14354_-preview&add_offerid=754164&addomain=rsgauge10.com&addomain_id=62&uniclk=true – offers unknown/$1,000.00 merchant gift card of your choice + misc. gifts

The new year for DIY is pretty active, so there will be more investigating, research and site hunting! I’m strongly considering doing another CRS site. I’d like to find another $2,000.00+, though most of their sites are now $1,000.00. There are two things I need to work on– our forum, and my blogs. One of my images disappeared, so I uploaded it again and a week later it’s gone. So I’m changing my image storage service. It’ll take me a while to upload the images to another site since there are over 60 entries, but I need to get it done. As for our forum, I know about the spam, and will try to get it fixed. Our forum needs to be updated, but I haven’t had time to do it myself.

My e-mail and PM inboxes are full, so it may take a few days for me to reply. If you have any questions, please send them to: diyfreebies@gmail.com; sometimes I respond faster to my gmail.

Take care,

wozniack

We’ll kick off our holiday blog by examining a new gift site. This is what arrived in my mailbox…

Incoming message:

Here is what it said:

I don’t believe just anything, but I had been waiting on a $1,000.00 gift card from I-Deal, so I thought it might have been about my gift. The ‘Please See this and confirm’ link directed me to the site below.

gift page:

url: http://walmart.mygiftcarddeal.com/

There is no address in the policy, and the domain is privately registered. No status or contact page on the front of the site either. So I went through the registration and survey process to get results…

registration page:

survey pages:

offer page:

Who is this? Don’t know yet? Let’s keep going…

bonus page:

The company with the famous “Bullseye Bonus” is Product Test Panel, and the Bullseye Bonus wording is clearly displayed in the browser tab’s left corner. Also, the ‘Member Support’ and ‘Gift Status’ pop-ups at the bottom of the offer page are like Product Test Panel. I will post them now.

Bottom of offer page:

Member support:

Gift status:

Review the rules for each page.

Bottom of front page:

Bottom of registration page:

Bottom of offer page:

The front page states, “(4) not cancel your participation in more than a total of 2 Reward Offers within 30 days of any Reward Offer Sign-Up Date as outlined in the Terms & Conditions (the Cancellation Limit).” — This isn’t explained anywhere in the terms and conditions. And, as long as you don’t cancel the OODs (Offers of Doom = expensive offers), you shouldn’t be in violation of their cancellation limitation. So I don’t know why it says you can’t cancel no more than 2 offers, as there will most likely be more regular offers available. Another problem is the front page states you must, “(3) complete a total of 10 Reward Offers as stated in the Terms & Conditions“, while the offer page requires 13, “(3) complete a total of 13 Reward Offers as stated in the Terms & Conditions.” The status page should have the correct offer count. The domains associated with this site are site4giftcards.com, bigbrandrewards.com, mywebrewards.com. All but one is privately registered.

whois info:

I would say this is a Product Test Panel site despite the dodgy name and e-mail in the whois: Andrzej Z jjzz7171@aol.com.

It has been said that you can only do one Product Test Panel site per lifetime, though it has also been said that you can… One member has proven just how possible it is, and delivers some important news straight from Product Test Panel’s customer support rep, Daniel. Below is their DIY earnings report and our correspondence.

Member’s earnings report:

“from xxxx@xx.com
to diyfreebies@gmail.com
date Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 6:13 PM
subject Re: Product Test Panel
mailed-by xxxx.com

Hello Woz,

I just wanted to give you a quick update on a couple of sites. First of all, I am SO happy to hear that I finally was approved for the 2freelaptops site. I still can’t believe how easy the actual verification and documentation portion went – I guess I shouldn’t count my money before I have it hand but it definitely looks very promising. About how long did you have to wait? I’m guessing they sent a check rather than 2 laptops correct? I have to give you major credit for helping me through that site (providing phone numbers, the link etc.). Also, I am VERY close to finishing my second Product Test Panel site. It is for $2,000 Apple gift card plus all those bonus things. It is actually run by the same company as PTP but I guess it is not their direct company so I was able to complete the site (even though I did a PTP site a couple years ago). I recently received an Ipad2 from a Nuitech site and just completed another Nuitech site (different DBA) for a $500 Chili’s gift card. I’m hoping they will let me exchange that gift card for something else but I guess we’ll see. Anyway, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for your website, your insight and your time that you put into this. I would definitely like to donate some more money to keep your site running and keep you motivated to find more opportunities. As soon as my “stuff” starts rolling in, I will gladly donate.

Thanks again,
member”

My questions to this member about Product Test Panel:

“from [Offline] diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to xxxx@xx.com
date Sat, Nov 19, 2011 at 4:39 PM
subject Re: Product Test Panel
mailed-by xxxx.com

hide details Nov 19 (10 days ago)

Hi member,

I am trying to gather more information on Product Test Panel’s subsidiary company that you did your site through. Do you still happen to have the link for the second Product Test Panel site you did? If it’s still around, I can start there and hopefully find the name of the sub-company, and then ask their support some questions. This information would really help my readers. I’m in the process of writing my blog, and am piecing my material together as I go. I hope to have it published by early December.

Thanks,

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

wozniack”

Member’s reply:

“from xxxx@xx.com
to diyfreebies@gmail.com
date Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 6:10 PM
subject Re: Product Test Panel
mailed-by xxxx.com
signed-by xxxx.aol.com

Hello Woz,

The site I did was http://www.giftcardrewardzone.com/ but now it says it’s “down for maintenance”. I did recently receive my gifts though!! I got a $3,500 Apple store gift card and an Ipad 2. Daniel, the main support person for Product Test Panel aka Consumer Resource Corporation is very nice to work with. He told me the company was steering away from DIY sites and was moving more into the referral process. I hope I can still do one more DIY site from them before they end it all. Let me know if you have any other questions. On another note…. I’m still waiting on my check from CRS. I just received an email from Dave that the check should have been mailed earlier this week – nothing yet. Do you know if the check was mailed just through the USPS?

Thanks,
member”

My response:

“from [Offline] diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to xxxx@xx.com
date Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 1:27 PM
subject Re: Product Test Panel
mailed-by gmail.com

member,

Thanks for the link. I will check it again to see if the site comes back. Would you happen to have their e-mail? I can’t find it. I even registered for a PTP site and never received a password, so I couldn’t log in to send them a support ticket. That is great that you were able to do more than one Product Test Panel site! I hope you’ve been enjoying your profit. Do you mind if I share your positive news with my readers regarding your success with Product Test Panel and CRS?

The check should come by USPS but it requires a signature. Its good that Dave is responsive again, hopefully that means they will continue paying out…

Thanks!

wozniack”

Member’s reply:

“from xxxx@xx.com
to diyfreebies@gmail.com
date Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 5:41 PM
subject Re: Product Test Panel
mailed-by xxxx.com
signed-by xxxx.com

Hello Woz,

AWESOME NEWS!! I just got a $3,000 check today for CRS!!!! I’m so excited – I haven’t tried to cash it yet but I hope all goes well. You can share the news on your board – would you want a picture of the check as well? The best way to contact PTP is via phone at (803) 782-0957. Let me know if you need anything else. I will be making a donation to your site again soon!!

Thanks,
member”

My reply:

“from [Offline] diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to xxxx@xx.com
date Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 9:32 PM
subject Re: Product Test Panel
mailed-by xxxx.com

Hi again,

CONGRATS!! I’m sure you won’t have any problems cashing that check, but I would do it soon as you never know with these companies. Sure! Send me a picture of your check. ) Thanks for allowing me to share your good news with my readers. They will love this bit of information, and it will restore their faith in CRS after all this time.

Thank you for your continued support of DIYfreebies! Your donations mean so much to all of us in the DIY community.

Thanks,

wozniack”

Between site maintenance and the gift site errors, I was unable to send them a support ticket. A good friend of mine tried getting through to them for me but had the same results. I don’t communicate by phone as I need my company response in writing, so I can’t call. If the site this member did was under another DBA, is that why Consumer Research Corporation, the company sponsoring Product Test Panel, let them do another? Or is it that ALL their sites are under the direct company, Consumer Research Corporation, and you can do as many as you want provided the domains are unique? There are other divisions of Consumer Research Corporation, such as ReachSmart Interactive, Inc. and SubscriberbaseHoldings, Inc., which may be used to manage more gift sites. But so far there isn’t a definite answer as to which DBAs their other gift sites belong to, if not their main corp.
The important news from Daniel was them steering away from DIY. Their gift program is now transient, and one day their gift sites will all be gone. Get in on Product Test Panel now if you’re wanting to do them…

Next is a rather dreary outcome for one Product Test Panel member. The PM below speaks for itself.

This member’s message to me:

“Hi wozniack,

I couldn’t locate your e-mail address, so I’m hopeful I can track you down through here.

I recently completed a PTP site. When I signed up, one of the gifts I was to received was the white MacBook, which was, of course, valued at $999. However, as you may know, the white MacBook was discontinued. As such, when fulfillment time came, CS told me that substituting the MacBook Air would not be a problem. When I received the MacBook Air, it was an older version – specifically, a late 2010 model that retails for $834.00, which is obviously less than the $999 item I would’ve gotten. So what, you say? It’s only a $165 difference. Normally, I would agree.

But when I called CS to inquire about receiving the older model and that not being what I expected, CS, who was otherwise great, became very snippy and condescending. He kept saying stuff like, “We never discussed the model” and “This isn’t a Best Buy; you can’t expect to receive the latest model.” Then he told me that I should be OK with it, as it will help me on taxes. Being a law student with no income, I don’t really think that an extra $165 on my taxes will kill me.

Regardless, because of that conversation, I’ve decided to fight back and file a small claims suit against PTP. Honestly, it’s more about principle than anything else. The company cut corners to fulfill my gifts when I had no reason to expect I would receive an almost year-old model.

As a law student, I’m not going to pretend that I know everything about the law. But I do know at least two or three grounds on which I know I can successfully prevail in a suit against PTP. I don’t really want to be pushed around by a freebie site, especially when I know I don’t have to take it. After travel time and everything, I know I’ll probably come out losing more than the $165, but I really don’t care. I just want to get my point across.

Unfortunately, I’m having trouble locating something that I thought you, as a freebie connoisseur, may know. At least one of the freebie sites that I’ve done has a clause in their T&C stating that gift substitutions will be for an equal or greater value. I haven’t found any T&C so far that state that and was wondering if perhaps may you knew. This isn’t the foundation of my case by any means, but I’m basically going to throw everything at them. And I figured that you would probably know where to look. Thanks for your help!

member

Nothing in PTP’s TOS says that”

Okay, here are my thoughts. First off, Product Test Panel should have pulled the Macbook site since the item was discontinued. They were right in substituting a MacBook Air for the white MacBook, however, the value of the MacBook Air fell under the amount of the advertised white MacBook. Regardless of the $165.00 difference, he was sent a laptop for a lesser amount and it was a 2010 model. What they should have done was send this member a $999.00-$1,000.00 check or gift card. Or they could have sent him a $165.00 check or gift card to make up for the loss. But no. In return he lost money, got an outdated PC, and a few snide remarks; “This isn’t a Best Buy; you can’t expect to receive the latest model.” And here comes the cherry on top: Product Test Panel to member, “Oh, you should be fine with it… It’ll help you on taxes. Haha!” Somehow that makes it all better. Consumer Research Corporation, please act on your customer support’s behavior. This isn’t how you communicate with your members, because without them you would have no business.

Anyway, I checked in on this member to see how things turned out. Below is my PM.

My PM:

“Hi member,

I was just checking in to see how your small claims suit against Product Test Panel went? I am terribly sorry that you received the 2010 Macbook Air. I still cannot believe the attitude of their customer support! I am guessing you talked to Daniel? They should have given you a laptop that was the same value of the one you signed up for, even if it wasn’t a Macbook Air. They could have done that.

I have some new information on Product Test Panel that I will discuss in December’s blog… And if you don’t mind, I’d like to share your experience with my readers in addition to what I have. The outcome of your PTP site may serve as a warning to others, as to not register for a discontinued gift so they don’t potentially receive an item of lesser value.

I really hope you won your suit to prove a point to Product Test Panel. Good luck with everything.

Thanks,

wozniack”

Member’s reply:

“Hi woz,

You’re more than welcome to share what PTP did to me on your website. It still irks me and especially how snobby Daniel acted when I called (and I did so in a non-confrontational manner).

Unfortunately, I ended up not pursuing the small claims case. The amount I ultimately got for the MBA on Amazon was made the differential inconsequential, especially taking a filing fee into account. I would have loved to pursue a small claims case on principle alone, but like I think I said before, I’m a law student who was dealing with school and interviews with full-time job interviews during August-October. So I simply just didn’t have the time to deal with it.

It’s very frustrating, just because PTP has a business model that seems conducive to making a lot of profit and Daniel simply cut corners with me to save a mere $160. It’s pathetic. Other than the end, my experience with PTP was great, but it really left a sour taste in my mouth.

If you need any other info from me about this, I’d be happy to provide it. Sorry I don’t have more exciting details to report.”

As much as I like Product Test Panel, they have disappointed me greatly. I can only hope this doesn’t carry on to their referral program. I wanted to publicize this member’s experience for Consumer Research Corporation in case they’re reading. Thanks to this member for letting me post about what happened.

Next comes an inquiry about this I-Deal tractor site:

gift page: http://www.consumergiftcenter.us.com/?session_id=d871fdce090711e18076646ba83e1350

My response to this person, and my correspondence with I-Deal, can be found below. For their protection, I have left this person anonymous.

Person’s inquiry about John Deere site:

“from anonymous xxxx@xx.com
to diyfreebies@gmail.com
date Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 12:30 AM
subject JD Tractor site with Ideal question…
mailed-by xxxx.com

hide details Nov 7

Hi. My name is anonymous, I am a long time follower of yours, a member of A4F, and I also complete DIY sites. I have found this site and I am curious what the “value” of the tractor would be??? Wondering if it is worth mine and my refs time to complete….10 offers and 2 refs, but my husband says…bare bones JD tractor is 5K…what do you think and is there a way to find out the gift amount? Thanks so much for your time.

http://www.consumergiftcenter.us.com/?session_id=d871fdce090711e18076646ba83e1350″

My reply:

“from [Busy] diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to anonymous
date Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 1:59 PM
subject Re: JD Tractor site with Ideal question…
mailed-by gmail.com

hide details Nov 7

Hi anonymous,

Many DIY companies determine the gift amount by the list price given on the manufacturer’s web site. For example. Let’s say I-Deal had the first iPad model advertised on one of their sites but they were only paying by check for that gift. Since there is now an iPad 2, the first iPad would have gone down in value, so I-Deal would determine the gift amount by the list price on Apple.com. Now, if that iPad dropped to $350.00, you would most likely received a check for $350.00 instead of one for $500.00 if you did a site for an iPad 2.

I checked the value for this particular John Deere model, and it is $3,105.75 on the John Deere web site.

I will ask I-Deal for the gift amount on this site to be sure, and will relay their response to you.

Thanks,

wozniack”

A few days later I shared my I-Deal conversation with anonymous…

“from [Busy] diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to anonymous
date Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 4:24 PM
subject Re: JD Tractor site with Ideal question…
mailed-by gmail.com
Images from this sender are always displayed. Don’t display from now on.

hide details Nov 10

Hi anonymous,

I will copy and paste my correspondence with I-Deal regarding the gift amount of the tractor. You can find it below.

My first e-mail to I-Deal:

“From: xxxx@xx.com [mailto: xxxx@xx.com]
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 3:09 PM
To: contactus@expertcustomerservice.com
Subject: John Deere tractor site… (Thread:299957)

Hi,

Could you give me the gift amount for this site? http://www.consumergiftcenter.us.com/?session_id=9f546312097811e1a55da536a83e1266 — The list price is $3,105.75 for this model as per the John Deere web site: http://www.deere.com/wps/dcom/en_US/products/equipment/riding_mowers/lawn_tractors/select_seriesx300/300-38-inch/x300_38inch_deck.page

I wasn’t sure though if you determine the gift’s value by the manufacturer’s web site or not. I assume you ship the actual tractor with a gift being this high in value, as $3,000.00 would be a lot to payout in gift cards– unless you send a check.

Thanks”

I-Deal’s reply:

“from Customer Service contactus@expertcustomerservice.com
to xxxx@xx.com
date Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 3:07 PM
subject RE: John Deere tractor site… (Thread:299957)
mailed-by expertcustomerservice.com

Dear Customer,

We have no record of your email address registered for this offer. We cannot guarantee that this gift will be fulfilled with a check or the actual tractor.

Sincerely,

Customer Service”

My reply to I-Deal:

“from [Available] xxxx@xx.com xxxx@xx.com
to Customer Service
date Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 12:42 PM
subject Re: John Deere tractor site… (Thread:299957)
mailed-by xxxx.com

hide details Nov 9

Hi,

I’m sorry, I haven’t registered for this offer yet. I was just trying to find out more about it before signing up. I know on the John Deere site that the tractor is above $2,500.00, but what has your company set as the gift amount for this offer? Could you give me an estimate of what you might payout on this offer?

Thanks!”

I-Deal’s reply:

“from Customer Service contactus@expertcustomerservice.com
to xxxx@xx.com
date Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 1:19 PM
subject RE: John Deere tractor site… (Thread:299957)
mailed-by expertcustomerservice.com

Dear Customer,

Per our terms and conditions:

B. Reward Fulfillment and Delivery

(1.) Top Notch Media, Inc. reserves the right to substitute a check for the reward.

(2.) Top Notch Media, Inc. reserves the right to substitute a gift card for the reward. The amount of the gift card and the merchant shall be determined by Top Notch Media, Inc. in its sole discretion. By accepting the gift card, you agree that you have been made whole and relinquish your rights to pursue any and all claims against this website, Top Notch Media, Inc., its parent, successors, assigns, affiliates, advertisers and employees.

(3.) Top Notch Media, Inc. reserves the right to substitute a product of comparable value for the reward. “Comparable value” shall be determined by Top Notch Media, Inc. in its sole discretion.

I cannot give you a definite answer to your question about how much we MIGHT pay via check for a person who completes this offer. However, if at the time of redemption the tractor is still valued around $2,500, it is safe to say that you would receive compensation somewhere close to that in amount if it is determined that we are going to send a check in lieu of the tractor.

Sincerely,

Customer Service”

Then I wrote this for anonymous before signing off:

What they are saying is that if the tractor is still valued around $2,500.00-$3,000.00, then you would receive compensation close to that amount if they’re sending a check. So this means that you most likely would be receiving a check instead of the tractor. However, they reserve the right to also reward you with a gift card or the tractor itself.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any further questions.

Thanks,

wozniack”

Anonymous replied:

“from anonymous xxxx@xx.com
to diyfreebies@gmail.com
date Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 2:30 PM
subject RE: JD Tractor site with Ideal question…
mailed-by xxxx.com

Thanks so much for your time and help.”

Next comes a question about I-Deal’s six-month time limit.

“QUOTE (Zags2010 @ Nov 17 2011, 08:46 AM) *
Does anyone know when the six-month time limit for up to $1,000 per DBA starts? Does it start when you sign up for the offers, when your certificate is processed, or when you receive the item?”

I figured it started at the time of registration, but to be absolutely sure I went straight to the source.

My question to I-Deal:

“From: xxxx@xx.com [mailto: xxxx@xx.com]
Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2011 5:13 PM
To: Customer Service
Subject: Question about the six-month time limit per DBA… (Thread:300847)

Do you know when the six-month time limit for up to $1,000 per DBA starts? Does it start when you sign up for the offers, when your certificate is processed, or when you receive the item?

Thanks”

I-Deal’s reply:

“from Customer Service contactus@expertcustomerservice.com
to xxxx@xx.com
date Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 1:45 PM
subject RE: Question about the six-month time limit per DBA… (Thread:300847)
mailed-by expertcustomerservice.com

hide details Nov 21 (7 days ago)

It’s from the date you register.”

Another $25.00 Target gift card from ePoll market research. Thanks ePoll!

Reach into your stocking of rewards…

*yuletide link list*

producttestpanel–

http://shoppingthanet.com/bb8holiday/index.php?lid=bb8holiday_12967_PFTEST&add_offerid=673696&addomain=rscounter10.com&addomain_id=66&uniclk=true – offers unknown/$1000.00 Best Buy gift card + misc. gifts

shoppingthanet.com/holidaygiftcards/index.php?lid=holidaygiftcards_14662_[=AFID=]&add_offerid=754164&addomain=promolnk.com&addomain_id=89&uniclk=true – offers unknown/$1,000.00 merchant gift card of your choice + misc. gifts

http://shoppingthanet.com/jcpenney/index.v1.php?lid=jcpenney_14662_[=AFID=]&add_offerid=441669&addomain=promolnk.com&addomain_id=89&uniclk=true – offers unknown/$1,000.00 JcPenney gift card of your choice + misc. gifts

http://shoppingthanet.com/macys/index.php?lid=macys_14662_[=AFID=]&add_offerid=485841&addomain=promolnk.com&addomain_id=89&uniclk=true – offers unknown/$1,000.00 Macy’s gift card of your choice + misc. gifts

http://shoppingthanet.com/costco/index.php?lid=costco_14662_[=AFID=]&add_offerid=589322&addomain=promolnk.com&addomain_id=89&uniclk=true – offers unknown/$1,000.00 Costco gift card of your choice + misc. gifts

Nuitech–

http://www.rewardingpromos.com/?c=116&s=4562&s1= – offers unknown/$1,000.00 Best Buy gift card

http://www.rewardingpromos.com/?c=113&s=1717 – offers unknown/$1,000.00 Victoria’s Secret gift card

http://www.rewardingpromos.com/?c=127&s=1717 – offers unknown/$1,000.00 JcPenney gift card

I-Deal–

http://www.myholidayshoppingspree.com/?session_id=5d371cea1bd411e1a92f42a1a68cb92e – 10 offers, 1 ref/$500.00 Kohl’s gift card

http://www.holidayrewards.us.com/?session_id=89d4f6041bd511e18a12c68c5407cece – 8 offers, no refs/$500.00 JcPenney gift card

http://www.myholidayshoppingspree.com/?session_id=82468bd81bd411e1b428cffc7f685fd3 – 10 offers, 2 refs/$1,000.00 Toys R Us gift card

http://www.myholidayshoppingspree.com/?session_id=950a696a1bd411e1b05726a05407cece – 10 offers, 2 refs/$1,000.00 Best Buy gift card

http://www.holidayrewards.us.com/?session_id=e1e6e0381bd411e1806c2e83a83e1266 – 10 offers, 1 refs/$500.00 Red Lobster gift card

http://www.holidayrewards.us.com/?session_id=f7f624f61bd411e1aa032983a83e1266 – 10 offers, 2 refs/$1,000.00 Visa gift card

http://www.holidayrewards.us.com/?session_id=088ad1a41bd511e1bbea5f05b8df804b – 10 offers, 1 refs/$1,000.00 Visa gift card

http://www.attentionshoppers.us.com/?session_id=1af448341bd511e19d873ffa7f685fd3 – 10 offers, 1 refs/$500.00 Olive Garden gift card

http://www.attentionshoppers.us.com/?session_id=36460c441bd511e1bb2eb1e53a697067 – 10 offers, 1 refs/$500.00 merchant gift card of your choice (Visa option)

http://www.attentionshoppers.us.com/?session_id=4c98d4721bd511e197124183a83e1266 – 10 offers, 1 refs/$500.00 Gap gift card

http://www.restaurantgiftcards.us.com/?session_id=bab4ee501bd511e1ab213305b8df804b – 10 offers, 1 refs/$500.00 Red Lobster gift card

This concludes the holiday edition of DIYfreebies! I’m still waiting for my I-Deal gift. It was supposed to ship last month but it never did… The holiday season may be slowing down their Fulfillment Department, as there was probably an increase of activity on their sites due to Christmas. With luck, mine should arrive before December 20th. This is my last I-Deal site as I need new offers with them, but I will do one that needs testing: WinHundread, Brightfire, Ifficient, LeaderDirect. I feel better doing Ifficient or LeaderDirect though because they are responsive. Anyway, enjoy the yuletide link list! There are many great deals right now.

Merry Christmas to all! May glad tidings and good cheer, carry on through the New Year. I leave you with this quote: “The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.” – Burton Hillis

Take care,

wozniack

We have recent payment reports from CRS, as well as proof that CRS have created a new gift site AFTER they said, “We’re not in that business anymore.” We’ll start with the strongest piece of evidence, the new domain. Let’s go…

whois:

gift site:

url: http://frame.prizesallaround.com/SplashPage.aspx?g=61b65f48accb49a9ad28407e66822c33&nm=01bgdre6kkx6as&s=[=AFID=]&x=[=SID=]&se=51&se=53

Everything looks okay, right? Well, close in on the registration date of prizesallaround.com in the whois info. The domain was registered September 22, 2011, weeks AFTER the confrontation at CRS’ office! Why is this significant? Read the date of this member’s post then compare it to the registration date of prizesallaround.com…

Click to enlarge.

The member initially posted on September 5, 2011, and again the next day with the above post. If this member said CRS stated that they were “not in that business”, how is that possible given the date of this member’s post? This date confirms without a shadow of a doubt that this incident occurred before the 22nd of September, the date that prizeallaround.com was registered. When the domain went live on September 22, 2011, that proved that CRS are STILL producing new gift sites despite them not being “in that business.”

I will say that there have been four payment reports since the confrontation at CRS’ building. The first came in on September 20, 2011, the others in mid-October. Read October’s report before moving forward.

Latest payment report from member:

“Hey Woz thanks,

I just received a check last week from Dave (Canada) for $2500 for the free Macbook Pro. I sent a return email to say thanks for the tracking and the email bounced back. When I tried to access the link for the offer, the site was down.

I’ve had friends who did the Canada offer with success in the past. Do you think the Hong Kong site is safe or should I steer clear based on what you reported happening in Canada?

Thanks,

member”

My reply:

“Congratulations on your reward! I hope you enjoy the profit.

Your payment report is the first I have heard of since September, so that makes me feel somewhat better about CRS. However, I am so perplexed by everything that has happened that I do not understand what is going on with them. At least I now know that Dave is still there, but it doesn’t explain the strange occurrences with this company.

I want to tell you to steer clear of CRS but they did pay you recently… Its never good when e-mails bounce, and you have no way of communicating with customer support. Has that happened before, or was it only when you tried to e-mail them back? The fact that they said they aren’t “in that business anymore”, but yet are paying people and have registered new domains (I have proof) tells me something is wrong somewhere because they’re still active. Perhaps they saw the opportunity to avoid paying that man who confronted them in Canada like they did with the entire Melanie Kyle/LG washer & dryer situation. Many innocent members lost their money over something–and someone–they were never associated with. Doesn’t mean everyone will get scammed though. This is just me thinking aloud. I honestly do not know what their intentions are, but they obviously are still “in that business” since they’re paying out and generating new gift sites.

We’ll have to keep our eye on CRS for a while. If you are the least bit uncertain about CRS, I suggest doing I-Deal or Nuitech until we learn more.

P.S.– Would you allow me to share your good news with my readers from my blog? It may ease their minds to know that the company didn’t just get up and leave if they’re still owed money.

Thanks.”

This member’s reply:

“Yes please share. Two offers were done at the same time by two different friends. Both received their checks the week of 10/10/2011. The check was dated September 27, 2011.

We communicated with Dave by email several times until the tracking numbers were received. What was different this time is a) He didn’t send tracking when he said he would. We contacted him again and he finally sent it but he was a week late. Once the tracking was sent, we sent an email to say thanks and the email bounced back as if the email address no longer existed.

If I decide to do an offer with them out of Hong Kong, I will post my results.

Thanks for the info!”

These payment reports tell us Dave still works there since he communicated with these members. It also means that they’re STILL “in that business”! Why would they continue to pay out if they weren’t? But what about the episode at their office? Their unusual behavior during the utility bill notifications; their ever-so-final “not in that business” quote; their gift sites flooding every inbox and spam folder and search engine known to man, made it virtually impossible to tell if they were still in business. Behind every lie there is a reason, and I believe they told the member who confronted them that to dodge payment. They saw an opening and crawled right under it not to. My advice to everyone is to just be careful if you do CRS. You never really know about them.

Heads up! There is a new I-Deal requirement called “Featured Offers.” This requirement is not on every I-Deal site but it is something you need to watch for. It can be found in the bottom paragraph on the front page next to the Silver, Gold and Platinum links. Please see below.

gift site:

url: http://consumerrewards.us.com/?session_id=4d9aa3f0fce511e08ff7107d61352346

“Featured Offers” page:

url: http://consumerrewards.us.com/?session_id=4d9aa3f0fce511e08ff7107d61352346&map=29&stage=539

The “Featured Offers” offer page states, “In order to receive your ::your gift here:: you must try one of the featured offers below.” But then I thought, “Wait a minute… Why is there a skip button?” Why were we told we must do an offer if there was a “Skip” button. I already knew the answer but I wanted confirmation from I-Deal themselves. I copied my brief exchange with them below.

My message to I-Deal:

“From: xxxx@xx.com [mailto:xxxx@xx.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2011 4:09 PM
To: contactus@expertcustomerservice.com
Subject: Question about ‘Featured Offers’… (Thread:298846)

Hi,

I was looking at this site and noticed that you had to complete a “Featured Offer” from this page: http://consumerrewards.us.com/?session_id=9762ba9accf711e0b30093d6a68cb92e&map=29&stage=539, but was wondering why there was a Skip button at the bottom of the page. It seems like we have to fulfill this requirement though since the top of the page states, “In order to receive your $1000 Visa Gift Card you must try one of the featured offers below.” The “Featured Offers” link is also on the front page of the site next to the Silver, Gold, and Platinum offer pages, which always have to be fully satisfied in order to receive your gift. I am almost certain that the “Featured Offers” page is a requirement, but I wanted to make sure as there is a Skip button on that page. The main gift site is: http://consumerrewards.us.com/?session_id=9762ba9accf711e0b30093d6a68cb92e

Thanks,

Your valued member”

Their reply:

“From: Customer Service
Date: Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 4:46 PM
Subject: RE: Question about ‘Featured Offers’… (Thread:298846)
To: xxxx@xx.com

Yes it is a requirement.”

There you go. Any site with a “Featured Offers” page will require you to complete an offer in that group. The “Skip” button’s function is to redirect you to the basic offer pages if you choose to do it later. There isn’t a button for the “Featured Offers” page anywhere on the basic offer pages: Silver, Gold and Platinum. The only way to access the “Featured Offers” page is by logging in to your status page. See below.

Taken from another I-Deal site:

Onto another I-Deal finding… I tried to register for this I-Deal site: http://www.consumerrewards.us.com/?session_id=3757176afc1b11e0b39e71efb7df804b — The reward is a $1,000.00 Best Buy gift card under the DBA 123 Click. I wasn’t eligible for this reward for the following reasons:

Then I recalled the site switch with I-Deal back in September, where a gift was moved to an entirely different domain and DBA. To refresh your memories, read this entry as it tells more about it: I-Deal customer support addresses DBA site questions… — I probably wasn’t eligible for successfully completing the $1,000.00 Visa gift card offer 4 months ago on e-researchcouncil.com, which was under Top Notch Media before it moved to consumerrewards.us.com, a 123 Click site. If that’s really why, that answers our question as to which DBA we could do after registering for the $1,000.00 Visa gift card on e-researchcouncil.com. We can do Top Notch Media, just not 123 Click for 6 months.

While on topic, I would like to go back over the 6-month DBA rule. We’ve discussed it before but its easy to forget, and it will help new members in this industry. I copied over my reply to a member’s question regarding I-Deal’s rules.

Member’s questions:

“QUOTE (jivens @ Sep 26 2011, 05:31 PM) *
Thanks for the reply!!! That helped A LOT. MY next question. Can I only do one site for the whole network per year. Or is it each site PER year?”

My reply:

“With I-Deal you have unlimited promotional gifts, but you can only do one per DBA within a 6-month period. Let me give you an example. Let’s say you signed up and successfully completed a site under I-Deal’s DBA Red Turtle Investments. You wouldn’t be able to complete another site under that DBA for 6 months. However, you could do a site under 123 Click, another I-Deal DBA, provided you haven’t done it for 6 months. I-Deal has quite a few DBAs, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find more sites. Also, I-Deal’s DBAs can be found at the bottom on their gift sites below their program rules. The gift site domain is always to the left, and the DBA name to the right.

I need to point this out though regarding the 6-month rule.

Taken from I-Deal’s terms and conditions:

“”H. In a six-month period, each household may qualify for and receive:

(1.) multiple rewards offered by Bullseye Media, Inc. with a total value of $1,000; or

(2.) one reward offered by Bullseye Media, Inc. with a value that exceeds $1,000.”

So I guess you could get two $500.00 gift cards off two Bullseye Media sites since they state that you can do multiple sites in a six-month period. But once the total amounts to $1,000.00 for Bullseye Media or any other DBA, then you must do another. And, of course, only one reward for a $1,000.00+ gift.

As for Nuitech, its one gift per DBA per household for one year after your registration date. So it is almost the same as I-Deal except that you have to wait 12 months instead of 6.

For more information, you may want to read the official T&C and DBA list: http://www.diyfreebies.com/official-tc-and-dba-list/

I hope this helps you. Please let me know if you have any further questions.”

Someone else had I-Deal questions regarding these two sites: soupofsociety.com and thefloatingfeather.com. Apparently those sites, and one or two others, sent this member 117 I-Deal advertisements via e-mail, and they want to know if those sites are affiliated with I-Deal and 123 Click. My correspondence with I-Deal can be found below.

Me to I-Deal:

“from [Available] xxxx@xx.com xxxx@xx.com
to Customer Service
date Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 2:16 PM
subject Are these sites affiliated with I-Deal and 123 Click?
mailed-by xxxx.com

hide details 2:16 PM (41 minutes ago)

Hi,

Sorry to bother you again, but a friend of mine was wanting to know if soupofsociety.com and thefloatingfeather.com are affiliated with your company, I-Deal, and your dba, 123 Click, Inc.? I will copy and paste what he sent me since he explained it so well.

“do you see these two sites: soupofsociety.com and thefloatingfeather.com ? since i signed up at ideal, these two sites and one or two others sent me 117 emails so far advertising ideal sites. now, i would not dare unsubscribe if these came from ideal, but im not sure. do you think you could ask them if they are affiliated with ideal and 123click inc? i am hoping they are being paid by ideal to advertise their links. however one of the other sites that is emailing me, has a mailing address that is shared by a DBA location, just a different PO box. but that could mean nothing. i tried calling them but it goes to voicemail or you have to enter an extension number”

Just whenever you have time you can answer this e-mail. It isn’t that urgent.

Thanks again…

I-Deal’s reply:

“from Customer Service contactus@expertcustomerservice.com
to [Available] xxxx@xx.com
date Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 1:39 PM
subject RE: Are these sites affiliated with I-Deal and 123 Click? (Thread:299190)
mailed-by expertcustomerservice.com
Important mainly because of the people in the conversation.

hide details 1:39 PM (10 minutes ago)

These are not us.”

The digital marketing company behind soupofsociety.com and thefloatingfeather.com are the same. I just have no idea who they are. Hopefully I-Deal does something about it on their end, as this company should be paying them for advertising their links!

We have a new site to check out: bigvaluegiftcard.net. Start with the whois info below…

whois:

gift site:

url: http://bigvaluegiftcard.net/

In the whois info, does AffiliateNetwork.com Marketing, LLC. under “Registrant Contact” ring a bell? If so, you read about it in Joshua Blumenfeld’s write up from April: “Easter bunny introduces…” — Joshua Blumenfeld is CEO of AffiliateNetwork.com Marketing, LLC. His gift program is WinHundred, which we talked about in April’s blog. In April’s blog, you will see that we discussed complimentarygiftcards.com, a WinHundred site. While complimentarygiftcards.com is still on Alexa, a web information company, with “WinHundred, LLC.”, “Josh Blumenfeld” and “CoverClicks, LLC.” in the contact info, not all WinHundred sites are registered with the same information. Like the whois info for bigvaluegiftcard.net, all it may have is “AffiliateNetwork.com Marketing, LLC.” and nothing else. As of now, all sites containing the following are WinHundred: WinHundred, LLC., Josh Blumenfeld, CoverClicks, LLC., AffiliateNetwork.com Marketing, LLC.

More and more companies are excluding their addresses from their policies. So for DIYs like WinHundred, we turn to whois reports and utilize web tools for a complete analysis. CRS sites with the Hong Kong and England addresses do not have an address in the policy. Only in the policies of their Canadian and U.S. sites is there an address! But, the addresses are on the contact pages of the non-Canadian/U.S. sites. We’re playing a game of hide and seek, because we’re constantly searching for hidden company information. It’s much harder now. Is a reason for the lack of information? Hmmm, I wonder…

Someone commented about DIY spam in August’s blog: “End of summer bash…” — I found one of the spam sites he told me about. I will copy and paste our exchange below in case nobody read it.

Person’s comment:

“Sean Quick August 10th, 2011 (#):

Hi Wozniack,

Not sure if this is appropriate here but do you have any sure fire way to remove my email from CRS’s lists? I gave out my email to one single website (foolish) and I get at least a dozen emails a day from various entities but with CRS’s address according to information on this blog and others. I have unsubcribed to every one over 2 months to no avail…it is maddening…I call rewardstream which seemed like it was rewards group but they deny everything. I’ve tried calling CRS but they are equally evasive and claim it is not them although the addresses provided match. Any advice please email me….thank you in advance.”

My reply:

“wozniack August 12th, 2011 (#):

Sean,

On the site you registered with there should be an “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom. Click on it, and enter your e-mail and click the ‘unsubscribe’ button. If it cannot be found on the web site, please send me the link and I will look at it. I might be able to find it just by having the link. Even though CRS says it is not them it very well might be. I found out on my own that a site they claimed wasn’t theirs actually was; Dave just didn’t recognize it.

Thanks,

wozniack”

Person’s reply:

“Sean Quick August 29th, 2011 (#):

Hi Wozniack,

I didn’t even know if you would be responding so just now checked back. Thank you so much for taking the time…apologies to use your blog to communicate as i know my concerns are quite different than yours. Anyway, yes, they all have “unsubscribe” links which i have followed diligently for nearly 4 months but still receive endless emails about subway, facebook, etc. I don’t think any say CRS – they say Investyourmedia.com, YesSurvey.com, etc. but all have the same addresses in W.4th Vancouver, Woodbridge ON, and similar…addresses that i think you’ve linked to CRS. Of course, they all have slightly different names and CRS will always says something like “no, were suite 6B not 6A. CRS Customer service emailed me back 4 months ago saying I’ve been removed from all lists – I have only given my work email twice – once Cost Plus and once to Restoration Hardware – that i can think of. Still receive tons of junk emails from them so at this point i’m trying to contact authorities in Canada and the BBB….personally, these are the exact kind of people I would love to throw on the street but they are protected by laws. Anyway, i’ve resorted to forwarding the junk emails back to svcaact@consumersrewardsolutions.com and support@consumersrewardsolutions.com because i basically have no recourse against these scumbags. I was hoping maybe you knew some names of people that work there or someone i could contact with the authority to compel these people to stop spamming me – the unsubscribe links are not being enforced and my inbox is literally filling up as I’m getting minimum 12 of these per day. Again, thank you for taking the time to even respond….very much appreciated.

Sean”

My reply:

“wozniack September 2nd, 2011 (#):

Hi Sean,

I checked out investyourmedia.com and yessurvey.com. The web site for investyourmedia strikingly resembles CRS. In September of last year we compared dedicatedsurveygroup.com to consumersrewardsolutions.com. dedicatedsurveygroup.com was in the whois info for CRS registrant, Maria Chiodo. If you look at Investyourmedia.com’s publisher page, you will see that the “brand” that “delivers to publishers”, their exact words, is DedicatedSurveyGroup. Now scroll down my entry from last year to compare the screenshots of dedicatedsurveygroup.com to investyourmedia.com: http://www.diyfreebies.com/september-surprises-with-diyfreebies-com-forum-consumers-reward-solutions-and-new-connections-acquisis-issues-new-links%E2%80%A6/ Unfortunately, dedicatedsurveygroup.com is no longer around. When you visit the site you get this message, “This Account Has Been Suspended”; the web site: dedicatedsurveygroup.com. But the screenshots will show you how it once appeared for your review. The only thing out of the ordinary would be the address on their contact page: 1, liverpool st, london, EC2M7QD, United Kingdom. It’s possible for CRS to have dealings and other operations going on in the UK, but I can’t confirm that just yet. The web site design does mimic dedicatedsurveygroup.com, and the other sites they have. The phone number on their contact page I believe is a U.S. number, I’m still looking into where that is. When you say, “but all have the same addresses in W.4th Vancouver, Woodbridge ON, and similar…”, you mean these addresses were in your spam e-mails, right? Because I couldn’t find any CRS address tied to dedicatedsurveygroup.com and investyourmedia.com. I’m guessing they were located toward the bottom of your e-mails.

Would you mind sending me a few of your spam e-mails for further investigation? If the CRS addresses are in those e-mails, then most likely the spam you’ve been receiving is from them. YesSurvey.com isn’t a working site, btw; as such, there is no whois info for that domain. Could you send me the e-mail with “YesSurvey.com”, it may help me a great deal as I look further into this matter.

I’m really sorry that you’re dealing with this. I will prepare an e-mail with the desired information and send it to the e-mail address you commented under, so please watch for it.

Let me know if there is anything else I can assist you with in the meantime.

Thanks,

wozniack”

I’m posting our exchange so Sean Quick, as well as the rest of you, can see WHO this spam is coming from in case you want to take action. My discovery will tie investyourmedia.com, as well as the address, to the company responsible for the spam. First, we’ll examine the Google search results, then we’ll see where it takes us…

Google search results:

I typed “investyourmedia.com” into Google, and this search result was on the second page. “ConsumersRewardSolutions.com” was the link, and beneath that was the url “cdninabox-java.appspot.com/support.InvestYourMedia.com” followed by this text, “ConsumersRewardSolutions.com. Enter your e-mail address: I am a new customer or I forgot my password. (You’ll be sent a password at the above email address) …” This was CRS, but where did the link take me? To a status page…

status page:

I remembered the England address I saw on investyourmedia.com 2 months ago, so I performed a site search and found this gift site…

gift site:

url: http://echo.topnotchgifts.net/SplashPage.aspx?g=fa5054a06bc34a2eb2e1f53d1d8e60a0&nm=01cjavb2jwxm&s=&se=53

I checked out the contact page, which is where I expected to find the England address, and sure enough it was there…

contact page:

no 1, Liverpool st,
London, LP EC2M7QD

Next, I clicked “Reward Status”, which took me here…

Same status page I was directed to in the Google search results. The “ConsumersRewardSolutions.com” written link makes it obvious who this is; and again, same status page exists for the Wal-Mart gift site under the England address. Not only does the Google search results connect investyourmedia.com to CRS, but the England address is tied in as well! I kinda knew that when I saw the Hong Kong and England locations, but this is our proof that investyourmedia.com belongs to CRS.

Next comes a member’s positive earnings report. You can read my exchange with them below.

From member:

“from [Offline] member xxxx@xx.com
to wozniack
date Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 11:01 PM
subject Nuitech site
mailed-by xxxx.com
signed-by xxxx.com
Important mainly because of the people in the conversation.

hide details Oct 11

In August I signed up for a $500.VISA card from Smartrewardscenter.com from a link I got from your site.
I did not have to do any make up sponsors but I did have some problems with nuitech getting them to accept proof of
all my purchases ,but they finally came through and sent my Redemption Voucher on September 30,I was delighted.I checked my account and it says that a shipping request has been issued.
I also did the link from Ebates and received a $10. gift card from Target and from mypoints I received a $25. gift card from Cracker Barrel Restaurant.While these are not as impressive as your rewards I have certainly enjoyed them.
I have emailed you before and gotten assistance and support so I wanted to thank you again.
You may use this on your blog if you like.
Thanks again
member”

My reply:

“from [Busy] xxxx@xx.com xxxx@xx.com
to member
date Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 8:27 PM
subject Re: Nuitech site
mailed-by xxxx.com

hide details Oct 12 (13 days ago)

member,

Congrats on your Nuitech gift! Please let me know once you receive it.

From the time you did the ebates link, how soon did you have your $10.00 Target card? I made a purchase to qualify for the promo but my status still shows “Approved.” I am glad you have enjoyed your rewards from ebates and MyPoints. That truly is great! How long have you been a MyPoints member? I have been with them for years now, but haven’t really shopped through them too much until now. I earn through them and market research panels in between my actual DIY payments.

Thanks for allowing me to share your good news with my readers! I really appreciate it. It is always refreshing to report something good in the midst of all the bad experiences people are having with numerous companies. This is what we needed.

Thanks again,

wozniack”

Member’s reply:

“From [Offline] member xxxx@xx.com
to “diyfreebies@gmail.com”
date Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 10:33 PM
subject Re: Nuitech site
mailed-by xxxx.com
signed-by xxxx.com
Important mainly because of the people in the conversation.

hide details Oct 12 (13 days ago)

August 17 I registered with Ebates and I placed an order through them on the same day.
August 29 I received an email from them saying my gift card was in the mail,I received it shortly after that .I was surprised at how fast it came through, the Ebates cash I took on a PayPal account.
I signed up with MyPoints on May 21,2011.I haven’t been keeping up with it much lately
but I am going to get back to it.”

Member again:

“from [Offline] member xxxx@xx.com
to wozniack
date Sun, Oct 23, 2011 at 10:43 AM
subject email I sent October 12
mailed-by xxxx.com
signed-by xxxx.com
Important mainly because of the people in the conversation.

hide details Oct 23 (9 days ago)

I wasn’t sure if you received this email,I sent it concerning nuitech.This was responding to questions you asked.”

My reply:

“from [Busy] diyfreebies@gmail.com diyfreebies@gmail.com
to member
date Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 6:24 PM
subject Re: email I sent October 12
mailed-by gmail.com

hide details Oct 24 (7 days ago)

Hi member,

Yes, I received your last e-mail. I’m sorry that I forgot to reply! The end of the month is extremely hectic for me as I am wrapping up new projects, and am up to my neck in research. )

I’ll keep watching for my $10.00 Target gift card from ebates. I haven’t made anymore purchases through them other than the one I made to get my $10.00 reward, but I will the next time I shop online. I’m sure I will do some online shopping during the holidays. The MyPoints program is so great. I have enough for a CVS gift card but I cannot cash out now as my points are still pending. I really love how easy it is to earn free money online through the DIY companies we pursue, and just for shopping online. Makes our internet experience much more fun and rewarding. *w*

Have a great night!

wozniack”

Member’s reply:

“from [Offline] member xxxx@xx.com
to “diyfreebies@gmail.com”
date Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 6:40 PM
subject Re: email I sent October 12
mailed-by xxxx.com
signed-by xxxx.com
Important mainly because of the people in the conversation.

hide details 6:40 PM (22 minutes ago)

I finally received my 500.00 VISA gift card from the nuitech offer, I mailed the voucher to them October 4, I received the gift card October 31st making for a very Happy Halloween.”

I hope this member continues to earn great awards from DIY and points programs! Congrats.

Forgot to post my virtual Visa from two months ago:

I built up enough points for a $25.00 virtual Visa gift card code. If anyone is interested in signing up for MyView, or my other marketing research panels, you may contact me here: diyfreebies@gmail.com

This year’s harvest is sure to delight everyone…

*Thanksgiving link list*

I-Deal–

http://www.saveandsmile.com/?config=7372 – 10 offers, 2 refs/$1,000.00 Visa gc

http://www.consumersavingcenter.com/?config=7630 – 10 offers, 1 ref/$500.00 supermarket gift card of your choice (Visa option)

http://www.consumersavingcenter.com/?session_id=4941324403e611e1b8826f42b8df804b – 8 offers, 2 refs/laptop of your choice

http://wwww.grandsavingscenter.com/?config=7463 – 10 offers, no refs/iPad 2 in color of your choice

http://www.grandsavingscenter.com/?config=7434 – 10 offers, 2 refs/$1,000.00 Home Depot gc

http://www.grandsavingscenter.com/?config=7437 – 10 offers, 2 refs/$1,000.00 Best Buy gc

producttestpanel–

http://familyfoodrewards.com/chilis/ – offers unknown/$500.00 Chili’s gc + misc gifts

http://shoppingthanet.com/molmaidzas/index.php?lid=molmaidzas_12967_PFTEST&add_offerid=9933975&addomain=avcounter10.com&addomain_id=67&uniclk=false – offers unknown/$500.00 Molly Maid gc + misc gifts

http://shoppingthanet.com/hdbig/index.php?lid=hdbig_14281_168&add_offerid=8843751&addomain=promolnk.com&addomain_id=89&uniclk=true – offers unknown/$500.00 Home Depot gc + misc gifts

I truly had a good time writing this. What’s important is that I got each and every bit of information out there in time. Now we have it for the month! *g* I did get approved for the I-Deal site I was working on, whew!! How trying that was! So relieved to be processed, and know that I’m getting my gift. I just can’t do anymore of their sites though until there are new offers. Maybe by then their crediting system will be functioning better. In the meantime, I’ll register with an Ifficient site to see if their offers have changed so I can test them. And again, I will try to get WinHundred talking, lol… There may be a problem with their e-mail account, and if there is, that should explain why they never answered me back. I’ve fallen behind in updating our Official company and address list, and I am so sorry about that! The Official company and address list has been modified on DIYfreebies.com, blogger (wozniack.blogspot.com), A4F (anything4free.com), and on our forum (http://diyfreebies.com/freebieforum).

I extend my condolences to the family of Steve Jobs. On October 5, 2011, we lost a remarkable man whose intelligent mind and genius inspired today’s world in so many ways. Jobs’ impact on technology and innovation will be missed.

Wishing everyone a blessed holiday… Be thankful this season, and cherish the time spent with your loved ones. Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

wozniack

Ahhhh, back on the Nick Brown/Bart Brown case. *opening up my file* Alright. There is nothing else on Bart Brown, BUT I have something to share with you all. Read the comment someone left on my blog first.

“I RECEIVE A MESSAGE ON MY PHONE THAT SAYS CONGRADULATION YOU HAVEJUST WON A 1000.00 WALMART GIFT CARD AND ALSO GAVE ME A PASSWORD,BUT I ENDED UP HERE SO WHATS THE DEAL.. I TYPED IN JUST WHAT WAS ON MY PHONE…GIFTCARD 90.COM”

giftcard90.com took me to a blank page. “giftcard90.com” wasn’t in my domain list for Nick Brown, so I investigated this further. I entered “gift90.com” into the search bar, which took me to the following gift site…

gift page:

url: http://onlinerewardsclub.com/wm2smilezas/index.php?lid=wm2smilezas_15639_GIFT90&add_offerid=641479&addomain=promolnk.com&addomain_id=89&uniclk=true

I believe this is a ProductTestPanel site, and has nothing to do with Nick Brown regardless of his domain “gift90.com” directing to it. Anyone can link a site to another, but the question is why? Why wouldn’t you link to your own? gift90.com was created on March 18, 2011. It expires March 12, 2012 according to this whois report.

whois info:

Is the gift site above even the real “gift90.com”? Did the owner tear down the original site? If so, did Nick Brown manually redirect his audience to onlinerewardsclub.com, a Product Test Panel site? I fail to understand that because he is giving his business to another company… What if DIY companies are paying textspammers to promote their sites? Now THAT sounds more like it! Next comes the name Nick Pereyra under ‘technical contact.’ I am lost again. There are two Nicks in this whois report! Two Nicks with completely different last names. We discussed the possibility of fictitious names in September’s blog. Usually the person listed as the registrant and administrative contacts are made the ‘technical contact.’ And that individual would only have one last name in his/her registrant information– unless there really are two men named Nick, and one was listed under ‘technical contact.’ Why are there two names on a whois report instead of just one person as the ‘registrant’, ‘administrative’ and ‘technical contact’?

Something else is wrong with the whois report. In the administrative and technical contact information there are two zip codes for the same address. I will copy and paste the addresses from the whois report for our review.

Administrative Contact:

Nick pereyra (support@gift90.com)
+1.6463388558
Fax: +1.5555555555
244 fifth avenue
New York, NY 11776
US

Technical Contact:

Nick pereyra (support@gift90.com)
+1.6463388558
Fax: +1.5555555555
244 fifth avenue
New York, NY 10001
US

When you Google “244 Fifth Avenue New York, NY” it pulls up the following zip codes: 10016, 10001, 10003; the numbers are in the 10000s. That sounds about right for 244 Fifth Avenue. What doesn’t sound right is the 11776 zip code, which I researched last night. The 11776 zip code is for Port Jefferson Station in Suffolk County, while zip code 10001 is in New York county…

So why two zip codes for two counties on the same street? And shouldn’t this address have an apartment, building, unit, or suite number? Manhattan’s 5th Avenue is mostly shops and apartments and condominiums, how can someone find you by the street address alone? lol. *sigh* Do I think Nick Brown/Pereyra? Maybe. I only say maybe because of the ‘contact us’ page on his businesses’ web site: www.bestworldmedia.com — On that page is a personal e-mail: nick.brown@bestworldmedia.com. Now if it wasn’t for that e-mail address, I would say “No.” From the whois report, it appears as if both names were made up to register gift90.com. That is what it looks like. I do think Nick Brown/Pereyra IS a textspammer based on my findings. If Nick Brown/Pereyra is in fact a real person, perhaps he just uses names he dreams up to register domains.

Since we know Nick Brown/Pereyra’s sites have linked to CRS in the past; and I am pretty sure that onlinerewardsclub.com is PTP; then Nick Brown/Pereyna can’t be with CRS or ProductTestPanel. The chances of a connection between two DIY companies and one man is very slim. The only way I see that happening is if DIY companies are paying textspammers to promote their sites. That would explain one man’s domains linking to multiple company sites. To be sure onlinerewardsclub.com is ProductTestPanel, I will revisit the site and scrutinize it. No stone is left unturned in my investigations. The evidence before me is examined and analyzed to it’s fullest to determine what is real, and to solve the whodunit mystery.

For our next DIY discussion… Consumer Gain. I understand some of you have experienced problems with the company, and I’d like to know exactly what those problems are. I can contact Consumer Gain directly and discuss with them the issues their members are having, and if they’ll allow me to, work with them to better service their members. Below are messages between myself and a member who sent Consumer Gain a support ticket. He/she has given me permission to post our exchange.

Member:

i am signed up at a newer consumer gain site (free samples of tide lol) just to check out the offers out there. the offers page is broken. i opened a support ticket and he did get back to me. he took a few days longer than he used to, but he responded to both of my ticket questions. seems OK to me.

Me:

Do you know why some members are having issues with Consumer Gain? Or is that why you were poking around their sites? I am just trying to figure out what happened to make people think that. Would you mind sharing your correspondence with me? It might help people to know that their customer support is actually responsive.

Member:

hold on about that correspondence, i have to login and get it. the offers page is still broken after i asked him to fix it. that is the only thing thats wrong with the site that i can see. and no i poked around on my own i never thought CG would have any problems like acquisis had. i still dont

Member to Consumer Gain:

here is my correspondence, please block out the dates and times

xxxx by Member

The page to complete more offers does not appear to be working.

Consumer Gain to member:

xxxx by Customer Support

Hello,

We are working on your account. We apologize for this inconvenience.

We hope to have this resolved within the next 24-48 hours.

Thank you,

Customer Service

Member to Consumer Gain:

xxxx by Member

It’s been a few weeks and it is still not working.

Consumer Gain to member:

xxxx by Customer Support

Hello,

We apologize for this issue. We are currently working on getting this site back up.

Thank you for your continued patience.

Thank you,

Customer Service

Me to member:

Hi again,

If you wouldn’t mind, could you check that CG site again to see if they finally got it working properly?? I am writing about Consumer Gain now, and was hoping to see a positive result on your issue with them, so I could report that, too.

Thanks!!

wozniack

Member’s reply to me:

hi,

so the offers page works now. i figured it out on my own. my profile under my account was blank. not sure if i erased it, or never filled it out, or its their error. after filling in my profile, the offers page works. the offers are dissappointing. not a lot of new offers. that is what i wanted to know. but they were not the best at updating offers either

sorry there is not much of a story here

Do what this member did above if you’re having trouble with their sites’ pages. It may be that their registration form isn’t properly storing the data. If the problem is with Consumer Gain’s customer support, or if it’s some other technical issue, please contact me: diyfreebies@gmail.com — Whatever it is, I will try to work with Consumer Gain on how to fix these bugs, and/or what they can do to improve their support.

More loot from MyPoints and two market research panels. It started with a $20.00 check from Toluna, then a $45.00 check from HCD Research… THEN! $200.00 in Target gift cards from MyPoints. So a total of $265.00 for taking surveys and shopping in between my usual freebie pursuits. Not bad I’ll say. And you can make money, too!! Drop me an e-mail if you’re interested in these marketing research panels and the MyPoints program: diyfreebies@gmail.com — I will show you the way. If you didn’t get an invite for a research company or one to MyPoints, please contact me and I’ll work on that. Toluna’s referral page had errors, but they may have fixed them.

Alrighty. This concludes our Part 2. of the Halloween blog. I hope you all enjoyed it! Please see, “A night of tricks and treats, Part 1.” for our Halloween link list, and for the rest of this month’s exciting details!

Please have a safe and enjoyable evening when/if you celebrate Halloween.

Good-bye,

wozniack

This evening we’ll start with Consumers Reward Solutions. This seemed highly important, so before anything else I must tell you that there is a confirmed report of a confrontation at Consumer Reward Solutions’ office building. What happened next may explain the company’s questionable behavior if what CRS said was true. Below is one member’s encounter with CRS. You’ll want to read this…

Member, “Well I want into the building and the people inside the building said they are no longer in that business and that I will not be getting any kind of gift. I said why is the website still up? They said they knew nothing about the website any more. I said give me my money back that I spent on offers + my gift or I will sue. They said you won’t sue that will cost you thousands of dollars. Then they told me to get out before they called the police. But I have all their words on an audio recording on my phone and they are going down! Today I am looking for a Canadian lawyer. If you have done a canadian offers site or are thinking aout doing one, you will not get any kind of gift so do not do it. You will be scammed”

Question from someone, “dang,
so this was the same people? or a different company renting the other company’s old space?

sounds like you have a tough case….”

Member, “I believe it’s the same company and they aare scamming people. I found a lawyer to take my case he says I have a good chance because I have their words recorded on my phone. Will let you know how it goes.”

This may mean two things, “are no longer in that business.” If they are “no longer in that business”, they admitted that they once were. Because of that statement, they cannot act as if they never managed a gift program. So the activities within the company can–and should be–fully investigated. Now, it also may mean that their gift program was terminated. If it was, we never knew about it. But what if it wasn’t? What if the gift program is in full swing? They said they knew nothing about the web site anymore… Yeah right! Why wouldn’t you know? Don’t you work for the company? Can’t you check the database to see what sites are active? I doubt NOBODY knows why the gift sites are still up. Not one single person in that company. This is what I think. CRS were not expecting someone to show up about their gift. Their only thought was to deny, deny, deny! They denied being “in that business”, they denied any knowledge of the gift site; ultimately, they denied this member their gift. You can always tell a person or business is guilty when they deny everything and threaten you with the police. Classic. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police save the day on horseback!! haha… C’mon, send in the mounties! This is something out of a comic book. I know where to go when I need a good laugh. CRS’ office.

CRS’ termination of the gift program would very well explain the lack of response to e-mail, telephone hang ups, and their rejections to those whose gift sites were unrelated to the Ms. Kyle matter. Even Dave was acting suspicious. I knew something wasn’t right. It all makes sense! Consumers Reward Solutions were preparing to shutdown during the utility bill notification send off. Someone would one day tell us it was all over and we wouldn’t get anything. This is also what I think. Let’s say what they said was true, that they were “no longer in that business.” What if that is just what we were told, and they’re keeping their sites running? Why are the sites even there? That is what I don’t get. Remember when XL Marketing, under Caivis, attempted to restart ARG after the assets were sold? What if Consumers Reward Solutions are like ARG by supposedly leaving this industry, and have planned to manage the gift program through some other means. They could do it under a sub-company to keep the heat off ‘Consumers Reward Solutions.’ If it has happened before, it can happen again.

There are no updates on this individual’s suit against Consumers Reward Solutions. Everyone is still waiting to hear. In all of DIY history, is this the first physical appearance made by a member to any DIY company? *applauds them for their courage!* I just hope this person got their money, and that CRS didn’t get away with it.

Let’s start our investigations. Please study the whois info and the gift site below.

whois info:

gift page:

contact page:

url: http://claim.findbestsurveydeals.com/SplashPage.aspx?g=a6e8a7528851433fb49c1869d78b73e9&nm=018jgrq2uw38&se=51

I went to the web site in the whois info, YesSurveyMedia.com, and it brought me here…

After examining this site, I noticed it had the same wording that CRS had on their homepage!

YesSurveyMedia’s wording:

“YesSurveyMedia is one of the world’s largest integrated online marketing companies. We deliver scalable solutions for advertisers to cost-effectively acquire customers and for publishers to maximize their revenue.

YesSurveyMedia industry experts can solve your most complex online marketing needs today.”

Consumers Reward Solutions’ homepage:

And that is not all. In my research, I pulled up this list of domains and businesses by the same owner…

Power Lead Media caught my eye, and so I investigated them and one of their sites, windailygadgets.com.

whois info:

gift page:

contact page:

url: http://claim.windailygadgets.com/SplashPage.aspx?g=12f2754de387478c81b2381d88b0d8b6&nm=019jgrx2juxt&se=53

Power Lead Media shares the same India address as YesSurveyMedia in their whois information. Now look at the contact page for windailygadgets.com. There is a Hong Kong location!

20/F & 33F One International Finiance Center
1 Harbour View St,
Hong Kong, HK HK

So then I Googled ‘Online Gift Shack’, the other business on the domain page. Online Gift Shack rang many bells, I had seen it before. I just couldn’t place it. Below was what I found on Online Gift Shack.

I then did a whois on freehomeupgrades.com, the first link on the above domain page.

whois info:

Same Hong Kong address as Power Lead Media!! I am beginning to unravel something…

gift page:

contact page:

url: http://score.freehomeupgrades.com/SplashPage.aspx?g=4538ed96dd154b46a936bc72a496fb6b&nm=017jgre6uwx8&se=51

So I clicked on the ‘Reward Status’ link on freehomeupgrades.com, which took me to…

Consumers Reward Solutions. *big grin* The screen capture shows the link bar which has ‘onlinegiftshack.com’ in it, and you will see ‘ConsumersRewardSolutions.com’ in the tab. And when I visited onlinegiftshack.com, it had the overall same look and feel as CRS’ other sites…

We have confirmed that YesSurveyMedia, Power Lead Media, and Online Gift Shack are CRS. But there is more…

whois info:

gift page:

contact page:

url: http://share.giftingtoday.com/SplashPage.aspx?g=c592a2d1170c406d8a0024806a5b1454&nm=01vgarc6mkxbal&se=52

Here we are with the same India address as YesSurveyMedia and Power Lead Media. Now, under ‘technical contact’ is a location in Cyprus, and that is probably the web host’s information. Revenue Path E-Consulting Pvt. Ltd. also does business in India, which could be why CRS has an India location in their registrant info. See below.

The address in CRS’ registrant info may actually belong to Revenue Path E-Consulting Pvt. Ltd. I would say it was theirs over CRS, but CRS could have gift sites now registered in India. Who knows? Maybe Dave left the island while the rest stayed in Canada… Wait. Is Dave in India? LOL. Sorry. I’m having too much fun with this. From now on, any gift site with the India address is CRS. I will add the India and Hong Kong locations to our official company and address list.

CRS addresses:

Level 6, Pentagon P-2 Magarpatta City, Hadapsar
Pune, 411013
IN

20/F & 33F One International Finiance Center
1 Harbour View St,
Hong Kong, HK HK

These deals are so sweet it’s scary! Don’t let them spook you…

*Halloween link list*

I-Deal–

http://consumerrewards.us.com/?config=1174 – 10 offers, 1 ref/$1,000.00 Visa gc

http://www.consumerrewards.us.com/?config=7288 – 10 offers, no refs/$1,000.00 Best Buy gc

Nuitech–

http://www.onlinerewardcenter.com/rd_p?p=302911&c=49349-orcgamestop500console_728_hibrand&a=PFTEST – 9 offers, no refs/$500.00 GameStop gc + gaming console of your choice

http://www.realdealgiveaway.com/rd_p?p=312715&c=txt_030&a=PFTEST – 8 offers, no refs/$500.00 UFC e-gift card

http://www.rewardingpromos.com/?c=70&s=1717 – offers unknown, no refs/$1,000.00 Visa gc

producttestpanel–

http://brandapparelrewards.com/dollarg/ – offers unknown, no refs/$500.00 Dollar General gc + misc. gifts

http://grocerystorerewards.com/groceryzas/index.php – offers unknown, no refs/$500.00 gift card for groceries

http://onlinerewardsclub.com/hdbig/index.php?lid=hdbig_14281_168&add_offerid=8843751&addomain=promolnk.com&addomain_id=89&uniclk=true – offers unknown, no refs/$500.00 Home Depot gc of your choice + misc. gifts

http://onlinerewardsclub.com/outcarbon/index.php?lid=outcarbon_12967_PFTEST&add_offerid=249518&addomain=promolnk.com&addomain_id=89&uniclk=true – – offers unknown, no refs/$500.00 restaurant gc of your choice + misc. gifts

http://www.pampermerewards.com/bathbod/flash_index.php – offers unknown, no refs/$500.00 Bath & Body Works gc + misc. gifts

http://giftcardrewardzone.com/gamestopzas/index.php – offers unknown, no refs/$500.00 GameStop gc + misc. gifts

http://onlinerewardsclub.com/sbuckzas/index.php?lid=sbuckzas_13326_[=afid=]&add_offerid=567523&addomain=sbcounter10.com&addomain_id=65&uniclk=true – offers unknown, no refs/$500.00 Starbucks gc + misc. gifts

I am STILL doing offers on my I-Deal site, and it is now over 3 weeks!! Hopefully I get it done this week so I can turn in my forms. I won’t be doing them anymore until their crediting system changes. I normally finish a site within 3-5 days, and have my paperwork printed and sent out right after that. *sigh* The next order of business is getting CRS to remove their sites since they “aren’t in that business anymore.” Their reaction is just really bizarre. Why don’t they relocate if they don’t want all the grief?? Anyway, those are my thoughts I am leaving you with… Please be patient as I work on our Halloween link list. I will try to have it fully composed within the next few days. Our Halloween link list can be found here in “A night of tricks and treats, Part 1.” Had to double blog this month, there was no way around it. Now head on over to “A night of tricks and treats, Part 2.”!

See you there…

wozniack