Head on over to my post about bpshoppingspree.com and you’ll see some amazing things:
- I’ve gotten nearly 3000 unique page views on that one article.
- I’ve received more than 70 comments.
- I’ve been in touch with the site owner.
- It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it was!
and…
- The site has been shut down by its owner.
Wow!
EDIT: It’s back online.
That is definately the cool thing about the internet. The consumer’s voice is as powerful, and much more credible than the marketer’s voice.
Reminds me of the Cluetrain Manifesto book I read a few years ago.
My co-worker brought her deal in today, Google brought your blog entry right up. I am able to access the bpshoppingspree.com website this morning however. I would imagine gift certificates to a non-existant internet business are just as bad as gift certificates that are unredemable because of excessive cost. And car dealers likely have better lawyers and cases thant disgruntled potential customers.
Thanks for your good work!
Jeff,
I already posted a comment under your original blog post, but I want to repeat that I think you shouldn’t go too soft on bpshoppingspree.com. You now say “It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought” but I’m convinced it is every bit as bad as you originally thought. Here is another example of the deals bpshoppingscam – I mean bpshoppingspree – offers: A Coby MP3 player radio model MPC741 supposedly worth $249.95, which lucky shopping spree winners can have for the “nominal” processing and delivery charge of $83.95. The same product can be purchased today at ZipZoomFly.com (a respected retailer) for $49.99 with free two-day shipping.
If this were a legitimate business the likes of Amazon or Buy.com they wouldn’t have to deceive customers like they do. They should post honest prices and charge the actual shipping costs for their products, but instead they lure customers by tricking them into thinking they won a prize, and hiding the inflated costs of their low-end merchandise in this processing fee. Despicable.
Net users should also be aware that this business also goes under the names woarewards.com freegiftsamerica.com spreeme.com freeshoppersclub.com eredeem.com freeinternetgifts.com eliteshoppingnetwork.com keshoppingspree.com myfreegifts.com and probably many more, including many travel-themed sites. Search for “welcome to the great rewards site!” (in quotes) on Google to discover some of their many aliases.