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Seattle Coffee Direct: Free Grinder & Coffee?

Seattle Coffee Direct 1“Free” is one of the most powerful words in marketing. And who wouldn’t want to get a free Cuisinart coffee grinder and two bags of coffee?

Anyone who clicks on this offer on the homepage of Seattle Coffee Direct will surely be surprised to see that there is no free lunch.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Seattle Coffee $9

So the offer really is to BUY two 12-ounce bags of coffee for $9 and get a free coffee grinder. And it says you are going to get two bags of coffee MONTHLY. This sounds like the offers that Gevalia has made for years, but they offered a free or reduced price coffeemaker.

If you look at the sign-up page, you really would not have a great idea how this monthly plan works, but you would think that you are only going to pay $9 now. The fact is, you are going to pay nowhere near $9 for the free coffee grinder and two bags of coffee.

*MOUSE PRINT: To spill the beans, you have to read the last words in the above graphic that say “click here for details.” Amongst other “details”, you will find that they are going to tack on a “small” $25 “handling fee” to your order, and your pound and a half of monthly coffee in the future will cost a mere $25 plus a small (unspecified) shipping and handling fee:

Seattle Coffee $25 Shipping

So the offer has morphed from a free grinder and free coffee on this company’s homepage, to $34 for a free grinder and coffee, plus being subscribed to an expensive monthly coffee club.

Incidentally, to top it off, Seattle Coffee is in Evanston, Illinois.

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Camophoto: Low Prices, Expensive Returns

While searching for low prices on a Sony Bravia 40V2500 LCD TV a while back, a net seller called Camophoto came up as having the lowest price: $1389.99. Considering that Sony charges $2299 for this TV, that is quite a savings. Of course, we don’t know how much Camophoto charges for shipping unless you go through the entire ordering process.

That is one problem. Two others are lurking on the “policies and terms” page:

*MOUSE PRINT:

PAYMENT POLICY

At this moment we accept all payments through MoneyGram money transfer. MoneyGram is an instant money transfer service that enables individuals to send and receive cash either domestically or internationally in just 10 minutes. Our sales team will give you the exact information of where MoneyGram agencies can be found in your city.

…

RETURN POLICY

…

All merchandise should be returned to our Order Processing Department:

Camophoto
Rehhagstrasse 79
CH – 3018 Bern
Switzerland

I wonder what it would cost to send a 53-pound 40″ TV back to Switzerland?

No need to be concerned anymore, the company’s website appears to have gone bye-bye.

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Land in San Bernardino, CA: $115 an Acre?

We all know that real estate prices are falling, but this is ridiculous. Here is a land auction ad that appeared recently on eBay:

land auction ad

Actually, the auction began at $1.00, and quickly zoomed to a $1.25. A week later, the five acres of land in San Bernardino went up to $570. Still a bargain by any standard. Or is it?

*MOUSE PRINT: Tucked away in the description of what you are bidding for is this further disclosure:

land auction small 

Translation: You are only bidding on the downpayment, and then you must also pay about $300 a month for the next 15 years. That comes to $54,000 including interest at an unspecified rate.

Of course, you need to make sure the advertiser really owns the property, that it is not located next to a nuclear power plant, and you will own more than just mineral rights.

Update: The auction ended on September first with a winning bid of $1525.