Ethics
When someone posts something for free on the Internet they are usually doing it for business reasons. They are hoping that the free sample or offer will bring visitors to their site, and of course that the same visitors will become new and repeat customers. They only have a limited number of free items available.
Here are what we feel are important ethics to be followed whrn ordering any free product or sample:
- Only order freebies that you have an interest in. don’t just send for it because it is free.
- If there is a restriction on who can order, do not try to cheat the system.
- If it says “one per household” it means “one per household“.
- If there is a place to say “thank you” in a comment field or email message, do so.
Some companies that offer free samples get a quick lesson about the Internet by the experience. Some of the companies, especially the smaller operations, are naive and think that people will enter their site “by the front door”. They want this since it provides an introduction to their product before being taken to the form where they order the free item.
Many times though, as soon as these offers are posted, the company receives hundreds and sometimes thousands of requests for free samples in a short time. You would think this is good thing wouldn’t you? However, when they realize the new visitors have not worked their way through the rest of the website, through the proper steps they had hoped, disaster has struck. They realize most of the samples have been ordered from people that have not honestly reviewed their products. They now are obligated to spend hundreds of dollars, in some cases thousands to send samples to people that may not even know what they are ordering.
This all leads me to say that I hope all freebie seekers, free stuff hunters, and free sample shoppers will try to be as ethical as possible and use sound reasoning when ordering any free products.
Thank you