When is a Freebie Not a Freebie...?
Freebies
Just looking for clarification regarding freebies; if a freebie requires payment of P&P to claim it, should it go in the Freebie section or the Deals section? I see freebies which require sometimes £5 P&P to be paid (guessing the cost of the freebie is just hidden in the P&P) so, although it's advertised as free, it's not really? When I first started posting on here I did post something which required P&P into the Freebies section and received a fair few 'This isn't free' comments, so now I post them in the Deals section - but I still see items requiring P&P payment posted in the Freebies section.... so just wondering if someone could confirm which section they should go into please, so everyone is posting them into the correct / same place! Thank you! 
Hey, thank you for your question. Generally speaking (we don’t tend to have hard rules at LD), the most important thing is that it is labelled clearly. E.G.
”Free Cookie with £10 Purchase”
”Free T-Shirt, £2.99 P&P”
This at least makes it clear you do have to pay.
As I understand it, Freebie Hunters expect posts under “Freebies” to be completely free. For example, a free sample of perfume, or a free trial of a subscription.
If it requires spending any money at all, I tend to put it as a deal.
Would be interested to hear what others have to say?
To me if you have to pap P&P then it isn't really a freebie. I would say that it is more of a deal (a really good one). If you have to spend money on it then it isn't a freebie. If I was posting it I would put it in the deal section, but it wouldn't bother me if I saw it the freebie section either, as long as it was correctly labelled.
I always pop these under the Deal section. Plus Product Tests / Surveys I expire and pop into the existing chat thread. I think they sit better there.
I have seen some freebies requiring P&P which have been posted into the freebie section and then moved into the deals section (presumably by moderators) but some which are left in the freebie section; I agree with MrsCraig that I would expect a freebie to be completely free and that a freebie with P&P is more of a very good deal!
The kind of freebies I post usually are technically free in the sense you don't have to pay anything if you already own the device itself, as is the case in most scenarios.
'Free theme for PS4' requires a PS4
'Free demo for Switch' requires a Nintendo Switch
'Free full game for Android' requires an Android
'Free soundtrack' requires a PC/Laptop/Mac/Android/iOS to download and listen
And so on.
However, when something is "Get ____ free when you spend £____" then that's not a freebie, it's a deal. Well, if it's worth it.
There's also the kind of freebies which are giveaway burgers/pizzas at certain locations which one has to walk/drive/travel so it's free to get the meal but to travel it may not (a few may luckily just have to walk while the rest don't).
I agree with you Rockman; I think if you have to spend anything to get a freebie then it's not a freebie, because it's not technically free. There are a large number of websites which offer loads of 'free' products when you pay P&P, I could post 100's of them on here but I wouldn't as the cost is hidden in the P&P and I don't like it! Posting 'Free theme for PS4' and requiring a PS4 is no different from someone posting 'Free pods for Nespresso' and needing a Nespresso machine, so definitely still a freebie in my book! There is currently a freebie posted which costs $9.99 postage - you can buy the item cheaper on Amazon, I'm surprised it's not been moved into the deals section (although not a great deal anyway). Tom - what do you think?
GirlieWhirlie I think I would be inclined to report that one and let the team decide if it should be left. It can't be a freebie if you can buy it for less on Amazon!
Tom Well I have been posting my freebies with P&P required in the 'deals' section, as from the comments above it seemed as though most people agreed this is where they should be, but there are still freebies with P&P required appearing in the 'freebies' section (without mention of P&P in the title) including by mentors - so I'm just confused. Not that I am saying the mentors are wrong, at all, as I would usually assume to follow their example. Any guidance from LD would be great please.
I would continue to post them in the deals section and maybe just report the P&P ones when you see them.
Well, that's very misleading then. If there's a shipping charge it should be posted on the Deals section not Freebies.
It's scummy to try and hide that charge on Freebies.
Rockman - I found this freebie - I don't think it will be of much interest to most people, but you seem a bit of a gamer (like me!) so thought I'd tag you and give you the link! https://crpgbook.wordpress.com/2018/02/05/update-19-crpg-book-released/ . 
I posted one today (in deals) which was claim a free gift worth £96(ish)..... with £70+ spend!!! Could you imagine if I'd posted that in Freebies! Ha ha! I'd have been shot down in flames!!! 
Completely agree with you. Hardly free when you have to cough up £70. I always think if you have to part with any Queen's English then stick it in the Deals section. 
Hey guys 
Just a quick note to say (as ever!) we're reading/watching in the most non-creepy way possible!
Freebies with just a P&P spend are in a bit of a grey area where I can see why they'd be shared as a freebie but also understand why they may more legitimately be a deal. To try and help with this we're thinking about trialing an option where you can share a freebie and specify the P&P costs (if any).
The freebie will then have an icon to show it has additional P&P costs and, in the future, we could add in options allowing people to include/exclude freebies with P&P costs as they so wish!
Does that sound like something that might work?
I would prefer if freebies had to be true freebies. It is becomes increasingly frequent that retailers are saying things are free to real people in and then they make their money on 'delivery' charges. A freebie should not involve any cost whatsoever in my opinion. Too often now that 'freebies' are being listed with high shipping costs. Please can we reconsider that unless it is a true freebie it has to be posted under deals?
Yeah, sometime P&P is soo much, like the Penhaligon's perfumes, they charge £5.50 for 2 small samples. So they make you pay for it.....And their products cost a fortune, so they should be on making money, with getting customers, but I will not pay £5.50 for samples...
If I see P&P charges I usually cancel my order and look elsewhere. I do love Amazon Prime. Takes away a lot of this nonsense...
Seems to be a lot of 'freebies' being posted where there is a charge for delivery recently. Since the practice of retailers marking things 'free' but then charging shipping fees instead is growing, I am wondering what everyone else thinks about a new rule to only allow true freebies to be posted in the freebies section. Anything where it is free but you have to pay shipping/delivery should go in the deals section. What do others think?
VoodooGirl Although I agree with you, I like to see a freebie without charges added, I can't see how it would be integrated into a deal. Deals take longer to find and more time consuming to add all the relevant information and have to be hunted for. (there are loads of those available at the moment that don't state delivery - which bugs me and devalues the bargain) Most freebies come up in our feed or websites we subscribe to. We just have to be eye-eyed. Would a freebie be worth the same amount of points as a deal? It's a tricky one.
angemski I just think that it is becoming more frequent now that retailers are trying to pull people in with so called freebies and then just covering their costs in over charging them on p&p. I guess that is reflected in the amount of posts on here under freebies that involve a cost for p&p.
If it isn't easy, or people can't be bothered to take the time to list it as a deal then is it really something that is really worth posting? Just because it is easier or quicker for them to post it in freebies doesn't make it a freebie!
As for amount of points I guess that is up to the team to decide what value they feel things bring to the site and from their stats they will know what brings people to the site. They will know how many people visit the site for the freebie pages, and it's up to them to weigh up if people are getting fed up and start visiting less because the freebie section starts moving away from being true freebies and starts becoming overpriced p&p so called freebies. I guess I'm just getting fed up with the increasing amounts of those kind of posts on the freebie page, as to me it is a simple case of something you have to make payment of any sort to receive is not a freebie!!
VoodooGirl I can't dispute anything you've said. I send for freebies that require postage but don't put them up here. Perhaps, as LittleLisaMarie suggested - clearly put it in the title or perhaps it could have a red 'P' stamped on it so that the viewer can inspect or avoid.
angemski yep be good if they weren't allowed at all, or maybe if we could have a setting so we can filter them out, so those that want only true freebies, like myself, don't have to bother with them!
VoodooGirl Have you seen the adjustment that has been made? Price ticket has been added to payable freebies - win win for everyone.
Personally I don't mind freebies with a p&p charge in the freebie section.. as long as it's clearly stated in the title!
Seeing a freebie posted with a mile long description and having the p&p charge right at the very end is quite annoying lol.
I've seen people point it out in a nice way to the poster only to receive a "So? No-one else does it.." in return lol.
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