The $36.42 Wii & Wii Fit Have Arrived!

Our Wii & Wii Fit arrived in a gigantic Target box today! I started the process on March 19 by completing 8 trial offers from different manufacturers (HERE).

***** NOTE: I just read somehwere that this offer has changed. There are additional requirements including a referral of someone else. I steer clear of those, because somewhere down the line, someone is going to be left without someone to refer. At this point in time, I would recommend just doing a gift card offer instead. Then you can buy a Wii!

I kept a calendar marked with the offers that I wanted to cancel, and I faithfully called and cancelled them. I'll share some organizational tips for this below.

If you want to try this project yourself, I highly recommend trying Boca Java's coffee. They were fantastic! Their coffee was wonderful, and I will definitely use them for gift-giving in the future. We found that we had too much coffee to continue regular shipments from them right now. But I will recommend them to anyone who loves coffee or who buys gifts for coffee-lovers!

I would also recommend Vista Print. I've ordered many things from them in the past, and they are a high-quality company to work with. I will continue to use them for business promo materials.

I would NOT RECOMMEND choosing Video Professor. They have charged my card without permission, not in agreement with the fine print that I printed out. They sent me an additional shipment (which I'm sure came with an additional charge), and I will be calling them tomorrow to resolve that.

I would also NOT RECOMMEND ShopDani Jewelry. Their agreement said that after my trial piece of jewelry they would send one per month. When I got my $9 trial shipment, there was a $68 regular shipment waiting at the post office with it. When I called them, they were in the middle of processing another $68 shipment. All this within 3 weeks. There were 3 charges from them on my last credit card bill! I've returned the additional shipment, and there should be two credits this month. They were not kind on the phone. The agent assured me that the fine print said "every month or more often" for the frequency of the shipments. I assured her that I had a hard copy of it in my hands and that it was nowhere to be found on my copy.

My tips for those of you who want to try this:

• Don't use your personal email address. Set up a Gmail or Yahoo free email address to use for these types of offers. They WILL sell your email address, and you will receive hundreds of spam messages weekly!
  
• Use a credit card, not a debit card. Though it pains me to type this -- I'm very ANTI credit card! -- it's wise. You don't want someone wiping out your bank account with charges that will later be reversed. Use a credit card so that the surprises are manageable. I plan to call about any charges that should not have been allowed.
  
• Print out the fine print of every offer you do. You want to play by the rules, but you want to have a copy of the rules -- just in case! (Can you say "Video Professor"!?!?)
  
• If you've done other offers like this is in the past, you may not be able to do the same deals again. They'll probably let you do the trial offer but disqualify you from the actual prize.
  
• Keep a calendar. As soon as you sign up for an offer, mark your calendar for a possible cancellation date. Don't choose exactly 30 days out. Mark your calendar for 27 or 28 days, giving you a cushion. If you choose to keep the offer, you can ignore the cancellation date. If you don't like the offer and want to cancel, you'll know when you should be making the call.
  
• If you cancel, write down the date, cancellation number, and agent's name. Don't get rid of this! Start a file, and keep these for a long, long time!
  
• Check back on the website to view the status of your deals. If they don't switch to approved within a week or so, choose other offers to replace the ones that aren't approved.
  
• When you see that your offers are all approved, there will be a link to click to view/print the forms you need to mail in. You will need to complete a prize claim form and a W-9 form from the IRS. These gifts ARE taxable!
  
• Mail your forms via Priority Mail. It adds a few dollars to the overall total, but it also allows you to track. I sent my forms with just a receipt of mailing, and I wasn't seeing any progress. I reprinted and mailed via Priority, and I saw my status change within a week.
  
• After you mail, wait a week and check the site again. You should see a message saying that your paperwork has been processed (with a date) and that you should expect your gift to arrive in 6-8 weeks. Ours came about a week and a half after that message appeared.
  

For more tips on doing offers for prizes, visit Money Saving Methods or Nicole's Nickels!