Is Online Scam by FreeShipping.com an Actual Scam?

FreeShipping.com is a membership service for people who buy goods and services online. It promises exciting rewards, like 10% cash back on all your orders with over 1,000 retailers, free shipping, and free food deliveries. All this, for the relatively low price of $20 a month.

Sounds too good to be true? That’s what many users think when they first encounter FreeShipping.com. But is it actually a scam or just a slightly sneaky service that promises more than it can actually deliver? Let’s take a closer look and find out.

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How Does FreeShipping.com Work?

First, let’s review how FreeShipping.com operates. As mentioned above, it’s a membership service. You pay a monthly subscription fee to be a member, which is currently $20 but may rise in the future (and has risen in recent years). In return, you get various membership perks.

Those perks include cash back, free shipping, free returns, and similar. However, the perks themselves aren’t automatically applied. Instead, you have to jump through a few hoops and follow some specific processes to receive your rewards.

With the 10% cash back offer, for example, it only works if you first click on the “Visit Store” button for your desired retailer from FreeShipping.com, then shop and make your purchase. After you’ve bought your items, FreeShipping.com should receive notice of that and eventually pay out your 10% cash back.

With the free shipping offer, it’s a similar issue. You don’t technically get free shipping on your order. Instead, you have to pay for your shipping like normal (with a participating retailer who is part of the FreeShipping.com program), then fill out a shipping rebate form, send proof of purchase to FreeShipping.com, and receive your rebate at a later date.

It’s these somewhat complicated processes that tend to lead people to believe FreeShipping.com is a scam, or at least isn’t entirely honest in its marketing about how it works.

Is FreeShipping.com a Scam?

In a word, no. FreeShipping.com isn’t a full-on scam in the traditional sense. It doesn’t blatantly lie to people or trick them out of their money. It’s a membership service that does offer certain rewards in exchange for your membership fee, and there are user reviews and testimonials of many people who got shipping rebates, cash back, etc. through this program.

However, it has some issues:

Issue 1. Lengthy and Complicated Processes

As explained above, actually getting the marketed rewards with FreeShipping.com isn’t always easy. You have to visit sites via specific links and make sure you buy within the same browser window for your purchases to get tracked, and you sometimes have to fill out forms and provide forms of proof before you get any money back.

Issue 2. You Won’t Always Get the Advertised Benefits

In user reviews, some people have complained that certain purchases just didn’t get logged on the FreeShipping.com system, even when the user followed the correct steps. Because of these random bugs, FreeShipping.com members sometimes miss out on perks and money that they should be entitled to. The site also sometimes denies your claims without explaining why.

Issue 3. Sneaky Sign Ups

Many users have complained that they never knew they signed up for FreeShipping.com until they saw money leave their account. This is because the site uses enticing “Cash Back” offer ads to tempt people into signing up after they make a purchase at a popular store. However, they don’t understand that they will be charged because the ad often hides the details in the small print.

Issue 4. Automatic Renewals

Like many other subscription services nowadays, FreeShipping.com uses automatic renewals, so it’ll keep on taking the membership fee from your account or linked credit card each month. If you want to cancel, you have to contact the company directly, and many people aren’t even aware that their membership is active, so they lose a lot of money without any benefits.

Issue 5. Accounts Are Sometimes Shut Down Without Warning

In reviews, many users have complained that FreeShipping.com was working fine for them and they successfully claimed various rebates and cash back, but eventually had their accounts randomly blocked or shut down. There seems to be no logical reasoning behind this, and once an account is blocked, it seems difficult to get it back.

How to Protect Yourself From Online Shopping Scams

FreeShipping.com isn’t a scam in the strictest sense but does have some questionable practices. Here are some tips to stay safe from online shopping scams in general:

Always read the small print before placing orders or signing up for services.
Check out user reviews of stores and shopping services before you buy.
Buy from trusted stores with good reputations.

Report the Scam

You can report online shopping scams to various authorities:

Report to the FTC.
Report to the FBI Internet Complaints Center.

How to Protect Yourself More

You’ll also get regular emails from the Scam Detector team to keep you up to date on scam threats, red flags, trends, and ways to protect yourself online and in real life.

Read up about other sorts of online shopping scams, like Amazon scams, to avoid becoming a scam victim when buying online.

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