What is Digg?152 Comments
- BugMeNot2, on 10/12/2007, -3/+33ROFL.
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Subway
(#16)
Sandwiches
No
Dear Sir or Madam:
I'm just writing to you to tell you that I hate Quiznos, and I hate that freaky sock puppet they used to have singing on their commercials. Just what I want – an ugly, mentally disturbed corporate mascot. Anyway, I eat Subway for lunch all the time. I love the roast chicken breast. Can I get some freebies? Free subs? Free chips? Free anything? If you're feeling generous, I'll take a free party sub. I don't have a ton of friends, but that won't stop me from eating it! Thanks for everything!
Tom Locke, Subway enthusiast
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Quiznos
(#17)
Sandwiches
No
Dear Sir or Madam:
I'm just writing to you to tell you that I hate Subway. I hate Jared. He annoys me. So some fat guy lost a bunch of weight. Who cares? Doesn't make their nasty, flavorless subs taste any different. Anyway, I love your Classic Italian. I put banana peppers on it to top it off. I usually get that chicken corn chowder soup, a mini chocolate bundt cake, and a bottle of water to finish the meal. Your food quite simply rocks. Can I get something free? Sandwiches, soups, coupons, shirts? Whatever you got. I love the freebies! Thanks for everything!
Tom Locke, Quiznos enthusiast - llamagod, on 10/12/2007, -4/+21http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:zFBqjHagEecJ:www.the39dollarexperiment.com/ &hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1
heres a google cache because its not working for me at about 40 diggs lol - knot, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19yub it just started Feb 24th 2006... let's wait and see what he's gonna get
"I put all 100 letters into the mail on Friday, February 24, 2006 at 9 AM. Now all that was left to do was sit back and wait for a response (or two?)"
it's interesting as is :) so it's a digg ;) - csyberblue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16I remember a few years ago, when dnL (7-Upside Down) soda was still in stores. My friends and I always drank it. One of my buddies went to the official website and filled out a comment card, saying that he loved dnL. They sent him a green clock in the mail that showed the correct time, even when you turned it upside down.
After seeing the awesome free gift my friend got, I decided to write them a note as well. I told them that I loved their soda, that I try to get all my friends to drink it, and that it tastes like an orgasm in my mouth everytime I drink it. (yea, I hyped things up quite a bit). They sent me a t-shirt with the dnL logo and a coupon for some free dnL.
My girlfriend at the time, after seeing what I had received, decided to throw in her own opinion. She hated dnL. So she wrote them a comment saying that dnL tastes horrible and wishing that their soda stop being made, like what happened to Pepsi Blue. She also commented that she much rather prefer to drink regular 7-Up. They sent her a coupon for a free liter of 7-Up.
Sometimes companies can be pretty darn cool. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+18Wouldn't be very objective if somehow exposure on digg altered the results.
- Flankk, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16Almost everything he got are the free samples you get in the mail. He got 11 samples sent to him after sending out 100 letters. That's $39 in stamps and hours of effort for a few cans of aerosol. If anything, this goes to show you that most companies value you as their customer as much as a one cent sample, or at best, a few cans of air.
- llamagod, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13yeah i know the link is down this is why i posted the google cache,
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:zFBqjHagEecJ:www.the39dollarexperiment.com/+&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1 - MrLobster, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11KFC
...Anyway, your chicken is outstanding. If I weren't afraid of being arrested, I'd go to KFC to lick other people's fingers – that's how much I like your chicken. Please send me a coupon for a free chicken, so that I do not have to resort to licking strangers' fingers. Thank you in advance,
Tom Locke, fried chicken enthusiast - prockcore, on 10/12/2007, -7/+16A guy did this 10 years ago.. and wrote a book about it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0380973545/002-9084290-4395220
It's called Letters from a Nut. He writes to companies, makes up insane stories, and asks for free stuff. - mckinnej, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9HAHA! We had a free blow-up doll sent to this guy, which of course put him on the porn mailing list from hell. He had to make sure he beat his wife to the mailbox on the days when all the junk mail arrived because she was a serious prude. It was GREAT!
- clumsyninja, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7"Dear Sir or Madam:
I'm going to be honest with you. I am a poor slob who drives a bike. Not a motorcycle – a bicycle. Please send me a Mercedes Benz keychain, so I can at least pretend to have some class when I'm around people. Thank you in advance,
Tom Locke, self-esteem enthusiast"
And they sent him one. LOL - alexdagrate, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8I used to abuse the free sample gimmick by having tampons, condoms and other feminine/sex-related stuff sent to my bullies.
- batmant, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11The letter to Mercedes is great.
- relinquish, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10Seems kinda useless but you've gotta give him credit for coming up with the whole idea and writing 100 letters...
- Lumiras, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10This is really kinda cool. The guy has recieved some nice loot from some of these companies (4 air duster cans? Those are like $5 each!)
I have a feeling that some of these companies will begin to see lots of letters from "fans" soon - Tyrekicker, on 10/12/2007, -5/+10Erm... when was the last time you had a look at this very page (or any page) on digg?
Well whadaya know - two google ads! - hardran3, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7That Benz keychain was the best loot. Would make the whole thing worth it for me.
/me fires up NeoOffice to write a letter.... - widgeon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Better option, at least for the lesser expensive products:
Go to the grocery store and find any product with the "if you're not completely satisfied..." disclaimer on the label. Jot down the product ID code on the label (usually stamped on the bottom of cans, side of bottles, etc) and call the 800 number to say you're not satisfied. If you don't want to go to the store, just rummage through your cabinets... whatever. You'll get 100% results as long as you don't contact the same company about the same product twice. Typically they'll mail you a coupon to replace the product or a check to cover your cost.
I did this for about 2 months straight while in college and I almost never had to pay for groceries. The look on the cashiers face when I handed her 30 free coupons was priceless. - VSKBadCRC, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7The coolest 'free' thing I got was when I sent a complimentary E-mail to an anti-Spyware company who makes a very effective Anti-Spyware program. Their response was a pleasent letter from one of the heads of the company who gave me 3 installation keys for the program, each was for a 1 year subscription of the program, two of which I gave out to friends.
So yeah, this stuff definately works, scores a digg with me, it's gonna be interesting to see what else he lands, heh. - Mesach, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5C'mon, if you want to get back at someone, dont send it to THEM, send it in their name to thier NEIGHBOR.
I used to play pranks on people i knew by sending "deviant" porn magazines in thier name to thier neighbors, kinda like they messed up the number on their address or apartment. Just make sure you send it "bill me", if possible - ThomasTuttle, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Hmm... this is gonna cost him a lot more than $39 once he gets his hosting bill this month.
- TheOtherGuy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Yeah they are a great series.
Interesting fact: It is rumoured that Ted Nancy is actually Jerry Seinfeld (who writes the foreword for each of the books)
http://www.lvrj.com/cgi-bin/printable.cgi?/lvrj_home/2002/Jul-15-Mon-2002/living/19177435.html - TheReport, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5why not send a letter to the post office commending them on their excellent stamps? You think they'd send him some stamps?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This reminds me of something I used to do a long time ago.
I was a decent skateboarder back in '88, and one day I decided to write to all the skate companies and beg for freebies. I vaguely remember sending out about 12 letters to all the big companies. I ended up with an assload of stickers from every one of them. Santa Cruz and SMA were the nicest, sending back handwritten letters to me (not typed _at all_). Guys that sent the letters from those companies would draw pictures on the boxes they sent back and on the letters too. That was just really cool of them especially to a young skate rat.
I doubt things have changed with some skate companies. Give it a shot. - Misos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Supposedly, if you call-up MS and claim you have a broken product (like a keyboard or sidewinder remote) and know the product ID number, they'll ship one out to you for free - highly immoral, though.
I'm going to try emailing a bunch of these companies and see what their responses are. - JesseH, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4You can't buy this kind of humor lol digg
- swizzlestick, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5This kinda reminds me of "postal experiments":
"We sent a variety of unpackaged items to U.S. destinations, appropriately stamped for weight and size, as well as a few items packaged as noted. We sent items that loosely fit into the following general categories: valuable, sentimental, unwieldy, pointless, potentially suspicious, and disgusting. We discovered that although some items were never delivered, most of the objects of even highly unusual form did get delivered, as long as the items had a definitely ample value of stamps attached."
http://www.improb.com/airchives/paperair/volume6/v6i4/postal-6-4.html - daenyth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4its only a dupe if its POSTED on the site. im sure there have been many things people have seen and not posted, which got posted later.
- cable22, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This totally works... I was in the Marines on ship and wrote Activision for some free games. As I was writing my letter I first thought, "they would probably want something in their office to hang up on the wall saying "look what we did for the troops." So I got my entire platoon to sign their name and put where they are from underneath my typed letter asking for some entertainment while on ship. A month later I got ten free games in the mail and a letter from a former navy guy who said the games were laying around the office. My advice... have some kind of gimmick going for you and stick to small companies that would never get request.
- sterbacblu, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I did this a little over ten years ago with most of the same companies, based off a book of letters from a man named Lazlo Toth...got stuff from *everybody.* Letters were mostly "Dear Pepsi, You rule, Coke sucks!" and so forth. I had a giant box with books of companies histories, coupons, free products (Kodak sent me a disposable camera), a letter from Pepsi calling me Mr. Mifsud. Sad to see they're not responding the same way anymore.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5"Al-Queda:
Dear Sir or... Sir,
Those american infedels killed my goats. Please send me some free antrax or a WMD. Lots of rogue government money would be good too.
Hope to hear from you,Thanks,
Tom Locke terror enthusiast." - alettieri, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I almost tried something like this when I was 12... pretty cool
- BxBoy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6he should have asked for a free car instead ;)
- bilton, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Isn't kind of ironic that Hormel who makes Spam sent him recipes for their chili instead of something for free? You want spam, you got it.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Thats pretty sweet, I'd love to get 4 cans of compressed air, to help "clean the fur from my husky.. :P" or cleaning my computer
- Khlept0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3HAHAHAHA
Dear Sir or Madam:
I'm going to be honest with you. I am a poor slob who drives a bike. Not a motorcycle – a bicycle. Please send me a Mercedes Benz keychain, so I can at least pretend to have some class when I'm around people. Thank you in advance,
Tom Locke, self-esteem enthusiast - oxigen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4"Dear Sir or Madam:
I'm going to be honest with you. I am a poor slob who drives a bike. Not a motorcycle – a bicycle. Please send me a Mercedes Benz keychain, so I can at least pretend to have some class when I'm around people. Thank you in advance,
Tom Locke, self-esteem enthusiast"
And they sent him one!!! LMAO! DIGG! - Ratteler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3We should start a movment to boycott the conmpanies that didn't send freebies, and buy from the companies that did.
- noneloud, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4"I know people claim that Carmex is addictive, and I know that you claim it's not. Either way, I love it. I slather virtually half of my face with it prior to bed each night (I don't wear it during the day, because I don't like feeling the least bit greasy)."
Absolutely hillarious!.....And they still sent him some! :-D - aplardi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I guess nobody sent him free bandwidth!
ZING - cryonix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Well its good to see he broke even... and is now making profit
- xelloss, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I want a pepsi pen lol
- djdigital, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Why not just go here..............
http://www.freestufftimes.com - speedmaster, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3LMAO! The best one was the letter he sent o Mercedes Benz. ;-)
- evan410, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2So now we see how a GoDaddy server responds to the digg effect. It looks like there are over 1000 other sites hosted on the same server. That is just crazy. I love GoDaddy fof domain registration but as a web host, not so much. I also love them as a diggnation sponser
- Erkan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I liked the article and the idea. I like creative ideas where someone thinks outside the box.
The way life works is that you pay money and receive a product. But can you live an alternative lifestyle and get products for free. I am not saying that mailing companies and begging for products is what one should do, but it is inspiring to read. - rhizome, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The Lazlo "Congradulations!" Toth books were written by Don "Father Guido Sarducci" Novello in the early to mid 1970s, after sending and receiving letters and responses to companies and dignitaries. It has a bit more prank praise than the consumer angle of the $39 experiment, but they are for sure related.
- BxBoy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I wonder what would happen if he wrote to either Apple or Microsoft.. ;)
- whalesalad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I've sent two letters to AMD (I had to write a letter for a school project, so why not AMD?!) asking for stickers or pens and praising them on their products with no repsonse at all...
- skydivingdutch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I've sent a letter like that once to Mars (M&M's) and got a free large bag of em.
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