Gratis Internet is an online company that runs a pyramid scheme. The concept is simple: You join their site, freeipods.com. You then complete a "free" offer, some of which are not even free. You then get 5 friends to join under your referral number, and to complete an offer. After that, you supposedly get a free iPod.
I did this... they refuse to send me my iPod. In fact, I have 6 valid friends that I have gotten to sign up, and complete an offer. Except with no explanation whatsoever, they mark the 6th referral as invalid. I have wasted a great deal of my time, and energy, getting other people to sign up for their free offers.
Their website, and entire scheme, is deceitful, clandestine, and underhanded. Their Terms and Conditions contain numerous special rules about the nature of those whom you refer. It is, essentially, contained in their fine print. False advertising. No where on the website, during the signup process, or during the referral process, does it warn you about the ridiculous possible "violations" that you may incur should you refer the wrong person.
On top of their unethical practices mentioned above, they do not allow you to remove referrals, should you happen to become aware that they violate their Terms and Conditions. This means that, quite easily, an invalid referral could join under me, and Gratis Internet would immediately null and void any progress that I have made thus far.
Furthermore, when they make a final evaluation on your account, if you have ANY invalid referrals, regardless if after removing an invalid referral you still have the necessary 5 referrals, your ENTIRE account is placed on hold, and you have lost your chances, FOREVER. Not only on Freeipods.com, but across ANY Gratis site whatsoever. So, regardless of the fact that YOU still spent the time complete an offer, and that you still have 5 or more other people, who also complete valid offers, you ENTIRE account becomes locked, nullified, and void, because of an unwitting mistake that you may have made. There is NO chance to correct the mistake, and move forward. The beauty of it is that Gratis Internet still gets paid by the companies that your referrals signed up for, and you get NOTHING. These, are called unethical business practices.
Due to the reasons above and the unprofessional and dishonest methods that which Gratis Internet wields upon the users of its services, I am unable to obtain my honestly and rightfully earned free iPod, after fully completing their requirements to do so. Gratis Internet uses, abuses, and then discards its users in the sense that once I, or my referrals, have completed an offer, Gratis Internet is paid by their partner companies, and no longer cares about carrying out their offer for a free iPod.
Because Gratis:
- Does not allow you to remove your own referrals
- Will only evaluate your referrals after you have all 5
- Will only accept your account if ALL referrals are valid, regardless of if you still have 5 valid referrals after removing invalid ones
- And will only evaluate your referrals one time, and henceforth will then lock your account and never give you another chance
They are able to come up with whatever clandestine and unexplained reasons that they desire to deem a referral as invalid, and therefore nullify your entire account. They do this after you have completed an offer, and after your referrals have completed their offers. In other words, once they have the money that is generated by you and your referrals completing partner offers, they no longer care about you, and will do everything possible to dishonestly prevent you from getting your free iPod.
My complaints against Gratis Internet are as follows:
- Unethical and immoral business practices.
- Clandestine and ambiguous Terms and Conditions that are enforced by the random volition of Gratis Internet to suit their own desires, and to prevent users from obtaining their free iPod.
- After completing my requirements, I have not received my iPod.
Vince
Hilton, New York
U.S.A.