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ethics and freeipods

rocadelpunk

rocadelpunk

Diamond Member
well i got my 20gig ipod yesterday and when i told my dad the story behind why a fedex package was coming. He wasn't angry as he was dissapointed..

long story short he thinks what i did was really unethical, yet every person I've asked..friend/teenager/young adult/some adults don't think so. They say you did an offer, you didn't like it, and so you got something for free big whoop.

I couldn't get a straight answer out of him, I dunno if it's an old world mentality of getting something without really working for it, or the fact that it's basically one step away from being illegal/complete pyramid scheme and are screwing out the companies, or that he feels i involved people in this thing.


So I know a computer geek forum isn't exactly the best place to ask about ethics, but there are a lot of adults here and I was curious what your thoughts about getting a freeipod for referring 5 people i knew on the internet (didn't involve close friends) and doing an offer that yes i had no intention of keeping (at the time all there really was..was aol free trial)

My mom doesn't seem to really care, but apparantly as soon as I had called my dad called my mom and said he was worried about my ethics.. :/

i'm 20yrs old and have a really close relationship with my father, his respect is worth more to me than an IPOD and I was planning on auctioning off the ipod on ebay and giving the money to charity

I guess I'd like to know what am I missing, how is what I did unethical?


Thanks,

Brian
 
You did a horrible wrong and the only way to make amends is to do a wonderful deed. You need to give away the fruits of your evil. PM me for my address and send it over. All will then be forgiven.
 
As long as you didn't spam for referrals (or whatever you need) in here, you're ok. If they make you sign up for AOL, you deserve it 😉
 
How did you approach your referrals? Technically you exploited their goodwill for your own gain, but if you were honest about what you were doing and how the plan works, I don't see anything unethical. As for signing up for an offer you didn't intend to keep, I don't see the problem with that ... the companies expect that most trials will be cancelled.

Why don't you talk to your dad about why he's upset?
 
You did nothing wrong, you fulfilled your half of the obligation & they fulfilled theirs.

Explain it to him like this:

You subjected yourself to voluntary, targeted advertising for which companies paid freeipodsdotcom enough money to buy you an ipod.

As for the pyramid scheme comparison, it's not even really similar. It's funded entirely by an outside party.

Yes, the business model forms a pyramid but the people at the bottom lose nothing.

I wouldn't waste my own time with it, but there's nothing wrong with it.

Viper GTS
 
Which part of the scheme was he unethical about? THe part wehre u signed up for things or the part that yuo got 5 others to sign up? Or both?
 
yah i didn't spam, just ask people on my aim contact list who i've known on internet for 1-2yrs.

in fact i'm a mod at a couple forums, so i was deleting these threads constantly.

yah i explained everything to the people i signed up, how to do it, what they were getting into, help on getting referrals themselves yada yada.

The people i signed up were more than happy to do it for me..

like i said i honestly don't know what he was so dissapointed about, but he said something about calling the state attourney general's office. (overexaggerating on his part) but just to prove his point that he thought it was wrong.

I don't know, the first thing he asked me was if i had asked my friends to do this and he said it in a pejorative tone.

I think it had more to do with it being a pyramid of sorts that the lifespan of the company can only go on for so long so i'm potentially screwing the people i signed up and then the fact that i signed up for the offer with no intention of ever paying for it..::shrug::

crazy old people : P.
 
I dont think it is really right to sign up for something you have no interest in. You are deceiving the company into thinking the demand for their service is higher than it really is. Sure, someone is happy becuase they added XXX subscriptions this month (and gladly pay out for the referrals), but once they realize that they are being exploited (and more trials != more profit because everyone is doing it just for the referral), that whole structure is going to collapse.

Someone is paying Apple for that IPOD, and its the companies that think they will profit by getting people hooked with on their service with a trial.
 
Technically, you exploited the companies' advertising schemes since you probably never had any intention of buying anything from any of the trials you signed up for. But business is business. The companies involved aren't giving away ipods because they're nice people, they are just in it to make a buck. You used their rationale for your own personal gain. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
 
Do you think that the companies that pay free-ipods.com for their referrals are getting legitimate referrals that result in them getting an income stream or are these referrals signing up just long enough to get credit for it?

Exploiting ANY system is always an ethics issue...
 
It's unethical, and there's a lot more to it than annoying 5 people. I'm far from a saint, and don't aspire to be one, but even I wouldn't do that.
 
Originally posted by: MailBoxHead
I agree with your dad. I wouldn't annoy 5 people so I can get a free Ipod. If I wanted one I'd go and buy one.
Click to expand...

even if they were interested about it?

I mean i didn't bug people about it, if someone said not interested i said ok and continued on with a different topic.

but yah I can see the exploitation of a system, it just never really occured to me because I can get those aol free trial disks absolutely anywhere...they're all over the place! And I guess i exploited people for my own gain, but they got ipods too heh, i guess once a person from a referrals referral doesn't get an ipod it's originally on my shoulders..:0

Anyway,
Thanks for the comments...appreciate it.


:edit: gurck can you elaborate, saying it's unethical doesn't really help me.
 
It all depends on how you got the refferals. If they WANTED it, and knew what they were getting into you didn't exploit them. You used the system from freeipods as they wanted you to. If you just signed up a bunch of people w/o letting them know what's up...
 
I haven't done the free IPOD thing, nor do I plan to, but I think if your referrals all willingly signed up, then it's ok. I'm sure these companies know that 99% of the people will likely not purchase their product, but the cost of getting even 1 subscriber out of every 100 still likely makes up for it. I mean heck, AOL mails out those CDs to everyone and their mother and I'm sure that 99% of the ppl. just chuck 'em away.
 
Your dad should let it go, its not that big of a deal unless you used him 😉.
Now you know what you should/shouldnt mention to him.
Its a gray area and you know it, thats why you posted, you could win the argument either way.
Just enjoy the ipod and repay a favor to those that you used. End of story.
 
i don't really see a problem with it if the people know what they are getting into

you are constantly bombarded with ads everyday so I dont see how taking advantage of this advertising scheme is doing anything wrong

its like test driving a car just for the GC.

alot of times the guy will ask you if you are just in it for the GC and just stamp your paper etc.

I probably wouldn't do it because it seems like a big hassle get 5 referrals and you have to wait several months

if I didn't already have an ipod i might have tried this
 
It's a business. Everyone makes money, or else it wouldn't have lasted as long as it has. Everyone wins, you get ipod, friends get ipod, AOL gets visibility~
Advertising isn't cheap, how much do you think a spot on prime-time costs? Wouldn't you rather be paid for it? 🙂
 
i'm 20yrs old and have a really close relationship with my father, his respect is worth more to me than an IPOD and I was planning on auctioning off the ipod on ebay and giving the money to charity
Click to expand...
Lieing is unethical.

 
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