Apple has released a very small Mac called the Mac Mini, and it will be sold for $499 (40 GB) and $599 (80 GB). It doesn’t include a monitor, keyboard, or mouse — but you can get those anywhere.
The Mini is the lowest-priced Mac; it used to be the $799 eMac. However, it does still cost $500, which is more than some PCs.
Do you remember freeiPods.com? Even if you don’t - I got a free iPod from them. This is the same company. It works.
[Update: Complete!]
Here’s the deal. You sign up, complete an offer (like sign up for a free offer), and refer 10 friends to do the same. Please use my link - it doesn’t hurt you in any way.
Include a joke or some clever statement with your comment and link. All comments missing this will be deleted.
P.S.: If you don’t already have a Gmail account, you can get a Gmail invite here.
- Free Mini Macs
- Free Book from Zecco
- Slashdot Comments on Google Gmail
- Gmail Open To All
- Gmail invites
- Search Terms - May 2004
- New Gmail Login Box
- Google Launches Gmail
- Free File Host
- Combining small RAMs for something big
» Combining small RAMs for something big
» Free Mini Macs
» Mac mini can run on batteries
» Mac Mini in comparison to Dell
Mr. Scammed,
That really blows. I’m now at four yellow and two green at freeminimacs.com. I’m sure they’re not an outright scam but your experience is certainly disturbing.
Are you familiar with http://www.freeipodguide.com/ ? People do write of being put on hold and their referrals being rejected but I haven’t read anything like your story. FreeiPodguide has a lot of forums and you might want to register and tell your story there.
I’m very interested in the eventual outcome of your situation and I’ve bookmarked your site.
Good luck.
Well I hope you have better luck than me because all I can say is BEWARE!!! Yeah, I thought it was for real. NOT! I signed up on 1/19/05 and got 11 of my co-workers and friends to sign up and take an offer. when I got to 11 I went to get the free Mac Mini and they go through a process to verify your referrals. They say to check back in 5 days. 8 days later I check and find that they invalidated 4 of the people I referred because they were “Suspicious” . I emailed and asked why where they invalidated? They all signed up and took a offer from a program sponsor. Gratis replied that they would not discuss it with me but each of the people who were invalidated would have to contact them themselves. Each of these people were my coworkers and as legitimate as they come. They emailed Gratis Network (the people who run the freeminimacs site) and were told that they needed to fax in proof of identity.. They did, Drivers licenses with a picture and also membership information from the sponsors whose offers they signed up for. Their status remained unchanged so they emailed to find out why, as a matter of fact multiple times because Gratis ignored them at first. After a week went by, Gratis said they never received the fax so a couple of them refaxed but the two other continued to be ignored. as of now, thier status has not changed and Gratis does not reply to them. What a joke. Since I still had 7 referral credits that they allowed, I figured to heck with it and started asking friends to join again. I got 3 more friends to join. One signed up for Travelers Advantage and the second signed up for Great Fun Online. Both were credited to me right away. The third friend, signed up for the Nexiderm offer and I was waiting for that one to credit so I would be back at 10 and could put in for my free Mac Mini. I checked the status on the freeminimac site a couple times a day to see if the 10th credited and on February 25th the status of my account went to “on hold” . I emailed Gratis to find out what that meant because I was just about to hit 10 again. Theoir reply was that they suspect fraudulant activity on that account and that was the end, no more replies from them, no details end of story. All the work I put in, having my friends join their programs was all a huge waste of time because Gratis is calling me a crook. I resent that, I played by their rules and a total of 15 people joined thier program and particiapted in one of their offers (2 people joined 2 of thier offers) and when it came time to give away the Mini Mac they ripped me off. I have a website called freeminimacsscam.com . It will have specific information about my case and a message board soon. I am not afraid of Gratis because the truth is on my side. The only thing on that site will be the plain truth and only the truth. The corporate Counsel at work will help me file a notice of claim against Gratis. Clearly they have been copmpensated by the sponsors of their site for the 15 offers that were completed by me and my referrals so they are all going to get a letter outlining the fraud that gets perpetuated using their names. I hope people think twice about falling for this offer and getting their friends involved because in the end, there could be huge dissapointment in their lives. Good luck to you all and be careful. Things are not what they seem, especially in this case.
I have 2 of 10 completed. Not quite there yet, but I’m hoping!
Have you gotten your mini mac yet? How far are you?
Mr. Wraith,
These various referral plans only superficially resemble pyramid schemes. In a pyramid scheme an ever greater number of people have to join for you to be rewarded.
In these referral plans your cost of entry is to buy a product or service at its USUAL price. If not a single solitary soul ever signs up from your referral link you still have gotten value for money.
For example, I signed up for Blockbuster Online after clicking some guy’s Gratis Internet referral link.. Blockbuster’s offer is $9.95 for the first month and then their usual $15 a month rate. For that you get three DVDs out at a time (like Netflix) plus two in-store rentals. I was going to do this ANYWAY. I have seen them offer two weeks free, instead of the first month for $9.95. But this is the kind of market testing all companies do. As far as I am concerned, I’d do either.
The rationale behind a pyramid scheme is rip people off. The rationale behind these marketing plans is to enable the customer to share in some of the money these companies have to pay to acquire new customers.
I just got AOL’s most recent promo mailing. It’s a CD in hard cardboard box with a MAGNETIC closure. Even buying millions at a time it must have coast them at least $1.50 to get it made and mailed. If they get a (wildly optimistic) 2 percent response rate they’re paying $75 to acquire each new customer.
What’s a new Mac Mini cost wholesale? $375 or so assuming a 25 percent gross margin for the retailer? Add $25 for Gratis Internet’s overhead and shipping and handling costs to me and they’re in effect paying me $40 a head for my ten referrals. So they can sell those referrals to their partners (Like Blockbuster, The Wall Street Journal, BMG and Columbia House) for $50 to $60 a head and still make a nice margin for themselves.
Do you get it? If Columbia House puts an ad in a magazine for say $60,000 and they sign up 1,000 customers, guess what? They just paid $60 a head for each new customer. There’s just one difference between those customers and the ones who sign up via my referral link.
The ones who answer the ad don’t have a shot at getting back any of the money Columbia House spent to acquire them–let alone a free Mac.
– Tom
PS. If you change your mind about this “pyramid scheme” click my link:
http://movies.squarespace.com/freemac/
It’s painless. Just sign up, and then go to bed. In the morning you’ll wake up and be one of us. Join us Mr. Wraith. Join us. We mean you you no harm.