Shopping Scams and Bad Deals: PayDayBuddies.com

Scam Shopping Deals: Offers You Should Refuse!
PayDayBuddies.com

There is a fine line between marketing hype and outright lies, but some "deals" are  are only good for the company selling the product and and for you!

Another example of this is www.PayDayBuddies.com, currently advertising on satellite radio, Fox News, etc.

which sends you an email that implies that you can easily get a free laptop computer by registering for 1 "offer" and referring some friends to the program.  In fact, it is simply a marketing scheme to get you to buy their sponsor's products. Whether you will ever get the "free laptop" remains to be seen.  Shoppers experiences with similar programs, like ShopperSavingCenter.com indicates that this is not likely!

Above is an image of the home page for the PayDayBuddies.com website.

In the terms and conditions on their website, they state that you must: :

  • Complete at least one offer within 90 days of a new account signup and receive credit for the offer within that timeframe.
  • Refer at least 10 unique people who signup (via the user's unique referral URL) for new accounts, and each must complete at least one offer within 90 days of referrer's new account signup date and receive credit for it within that same timeframe.
  • In order to connect these referrals to the user, PayDayBuddies issues the user a unique referral link to our site. Users of this web site may distribute their unique referral URL in anyway they may choose, including using our form located on our "Refer Friends" page of our web site.
  • The original user must then download and print his/her "Order Approval Form", fill it out in its entirety and mail it with a postmarked date that is no later than 30 days from the 90-day time period of his/her account signup date to the following address:
    PayDay Order Approval
    NetFree Direct, LLC
    P.O. Box 455
    Haverford, PA 19041
  • Once an account has been approved, a user has 60 days from the approval date to submit an order on our web site. Users failing to submit an order within this time frame will have their eligibility to receive a free product revoked.

See their home page and click on the "terms and conditions" link for their full terms and conditions.

The "Mac mini laptop" is not the only "offer" they have going.  They also run these in the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii) and U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico:

Is this a good deal? It sounds like you will need to purchase other products AND get 20 of your friends to sign up and purchase other products in order for you to get one free laptop. And of course, your friends will want their free laptop, too; so they will each need to sign up 10 MORE friends.

According to the BetterBusinessBureau, "The company has been responsive to any complaints brought to its attention by the Bureau." Click here to read the BBB's current report about PayDayBuddies's owners: http://www.dc.bbb.org/report.html?national=Y and compid=182253635

The Bottom Line:

in order for you to get your free laptop and not have 10 angry friends, together you will need 110 other people to sign up AND purchase at least 1 "offer".  Considering that you can buy a decent new laptop for as little as $600, that sounds like a terrible deal!

It appears to us that it is VERY unlikely that most people will be able to get 10 friends to sign up and buy, meaning many of the people will be left buying something they didn't really want and getting nothing free.

CFR's Recommendation:

AVOID PayDayBuddies.com! Do NOT sign up for it!

How to file a complaint against Shoppers Saving Center

To file a complaint against them, go to the BetterBusinessBureau and click on "file a complaint". For the address of the business use the information below:

NetFree Direct, LLC
P.O. Box 455
Haverford, PA 19041

They don't have a phone number listed (surprised?)

What are victims saying about PayDayBuddies?

See this page for emails and comments from victims! (being developed)

 

 

And please let us know about any suspicious calls or emails you receive.  We look for patterns so that we can alert the authorities and victims to new scams, before it is too late!

 

 

 

For a comprehensive list of national and international agencies to report scams, see this page.