3 inquiries, 626 Swag Bucks, Success!

Good Morning Swag Friends!

So tell me, how mega was your MSBD? I got two 11's... and a 7 ?!?  Ok, not terribly mega considering I've been averaging 28 - 35 a day from wins.. 29 isn't too special :-P  Never give up! Next week will be my mega! (I say that Every Week LOL)

I know I've been doing a list of offers every day. Yesterday I did a few, but my brain was on backwards and I didn't get any screenshots. I had to chase down after a couple of the offers, one in particular that a lot of folks on the Swagbucks Facebook page are talking about. But first let me update you about the Nextiva and "Win A Trip To New York" offer inquiries.

Yesterday I told you about my 3 week long effort to get Payment Wall to credit my Nextiva fax offer. This is the first time I have had a problem with Payment Wall. Which goes to show, everyone has their own individual experience with each company, because I read a lot of folks lately who have very hostile feelings towards Payment Wall. Anyhoo, yesterday I submitted a ticket to Swag Bucks via the Contact Us link on the home page. They must have worked FAST, because around 6 pm last night, the Nextiva offer credited. I received this notice on the inquiry screen.. very polite! And no warning about being banned lol.

Super, Thank you, Drive through! (uh huh huh huh huh - that's for you Kayla!)

This is the second time I have submitted a ticket to Swag Bucks about an offer wall, and both times they got right on it and made the company pay up! THANK YOU TEAM SWAG BUCKS!

There was also an offer on SuperRewards for 108 - "Win A Trip to New York City". I did this offer a couple of weeks ago and never got credit for it. I forgot to submit a ticket though, so the offer disappeared from my "Viewed" list. I saw the offer was still up a few days ago, so I tried it again. Only, the contest involved is closed, no way to submit your entry, therefore no way to complete it for swagbucks. I submitted a ticket a couple of days ago basically stating that though I had done the offer previously, and had not gotten credit for it, I was not writing for the swagbucks because they never sent a confirmation email. However could they please remove the offer from the wall because the contest was closed, no way to complete. I told them! I wasn't looking for swagbucks!

What did they reply?  "Please submit your confirmation email."

DUUHHHHhhhhhhhhhh    /drool!

I was already hot under the collar from the next offer I'm gonna write about, so that response really got my goat. I did something I don't usually do.. I got rude :P I wrote them back and said "Does anyone actually READ what we write you? If so then you look really stupid right now, sending me that response."   That's all, pressed submit. I should have controlled myself but COME ON now.. I just told them I have no confirmation email. Told them I wasn't trying to get credited. Stupid form responses ...

This morning when I woke up, they had credited me the 108 for the offer! I about fell off the couch LOL. I did *not* expect that. However, look at what they wrote back to me. They STILL didn't get the point of my ticket I guess. I mean.. Really!

Oh well, whatever, at least I got points I didn't expect! However this makes me leery of submitting any tickets anytime soon. Though I submitted one this morning for an insurance offer I did last night that never credited. *laugh* I think I will take a break from Super Rewards for a bit so I'm not put in a position of having to submit an inquiry.

Partially because I also had This experience with SuperRewards yesterday. Boy I wish I'd gotten screenshots, I'm sorry, it was so chaotic here yesterday. Always is on the weekends!

There is an offer for 300 on the free tab,  This Holiday do things differently with RightCliq. This is a Visa plug in for shopping. The thing is, the offer requirements state only that you have to sign up with accurate information. No where does it say you have to install a plug-in, or that uninstalling it will get your swagbucks revoked.

A lot of folks were talking about it on the Swagbucks Facebook page yesterday.  The consensus was that since the req's mention nothing about the download, you should be able to sign up and get your points without installing the plug in. And they are right. The spirit of the offer is that yo install the plug in but the technicality of it is you don't need to, unless they update the requirements.

The problem is, if you do not install it, you will not get your swagbucks without submitting an inquiry.

You know me, I'm always doing unwise things to be able to share my results with you *laugh* so I went ahead and installed the plug-in. Like magic, the 300 swagbucks appeared as soon as I was done. HUZZAH! Even better, it set off no warnings on my virus software. However, I'm pretty sure this plug-in is a privacy invader. Just a hunch, based on what it is. So I went ahead and uninstalled it. I was really hoping that wouldn't be a problem, but they revoked my 300 swagbucks within 10 minutes. Oo I was steamed but not nearly as much as when I went to submit an inquiry, and there was nothing about it on the list! Seems like I was shut out. It wasn't on Viewed, it wasn't on Awarded.. I was stuck and getting madder by the second.

I debated writing to Swag Bucks about it right there, but I really hate to bother them unless I absolutely have to. The offer was back on my wall so I decided to do it again, with another email. I wasn't sure if it would work, cookies, IP address, all that, but I gave it a go. Signed up, installed, and waited. And waited. After about an hour it went to "Viewed" and that was that, no swagbucks. So I opened a ticket and stared at the screen for a few minutes- did I submit the ticket from the first email I used? The second? Do I explain the whole story? I decided to behave as if this inquiry were my first attempt at the offer, and see what happened. I figured I had a good chance of being denied, in which case I would have had to write Swagbucks at the Contact Us link and explain the situation, which I didn't want to do. Technically doing the offer again from another email might be considered cheating or, whatever, so I may still have been denied.

The thing that decided me was the requirements. These companies have to be more careful about being explicit in their directions, or they leave themselves open to loopholes. We have to go by the written rules, So Do They!

So I wrote using the second email, and simply informed them of the offer requirements, that I had done the offer and installed the plug in despite not needing to, and that I wanted my swagbucks, please & thank you. Submitted the confirmation email and that was that. Left it alone and tried not to be so mad about my swagtotal moving up and down like a see saw.

Woke up to this response this morning! 300 swagbucks back in my swagtotal! HUZZAH!!!!!
I like waking up 518 swagbucks richer! In about 36 hours I went from a 0 swagtotal to 1500! Sweeeeeeet!

We had an interesting code hunt yesterday. It was in steps. First thing I noticed was all of the "Thanks TSG" posts on Facebook, which tipped me off. I started looking- first the toolbar, then the swidget, finally the blog.

The Swag Store now has its own Twitter account to follow! More information, and another place to find code hunts. I thought, Cool, I will go follow them and find me a code, I can deal with that!

Ah but the code wasn't actually on Twitter. a Clue was. I felt like I was jumping through hoops in a circus because I had only 10 minutes to find the code when I started my hunt! It was fun though. The hint on twitter said to check the MUSIC section of the Swagstakes page. Off I went to click click click through the items. Time was tick tick ticking away, but I found it just in nick of time!

Usually the code is at the end of the description, but lately they have been changing it up. I almost missed this one. The code was In the description, but if you train your eyes to look for Gobbledygook, you will find them! Remember- No Extra Spaces Before or After The Code! This one was for 11, but was supposed to be for 12. The Swag Guy posted a cryptic message on Facebook about 1 plus 1 equaling 11 when added to 1 is 12, or something equally confusing :-P  After the code hunt ended, they put another code out for 1 swagbuck with a VERY limited time to find it. I failed but I didn't mind losing the 1 swagbuck. I enjoyed having to jump through more hoops- guess he got me when I was in a good mood! *chuckle*

This morning there were videos on the Gambit tab- have you watched them yet?

With any of the offer walls, if you see the word VIDEO on the tabs, then there are, of course, videos to watch. *laugh* This morning I had 4 videos to view. Others on the Swagbucks Facebook page were getting 7 and 8. I think I get less because I check for videos a couple of times a day and watch them as soon as they are available. Anyhoo, go watch them if you haven't yet! Easy, 30 seconds long each (thereabouts) and 2 swagbucks a pop. No banner clicking, no sharing required.

Before I go I want to answer a couple of questions from the Swagbucks Facebook wall & from the comments section from Thursday's blog post.

I wasn't sure if the poster (Who are you ME, a mystery!) meant they wanted to order from a special offer, or the Swag Store. But to answer the question both ways - If you order something from the Swag Store, there is no shipping and handling. If you order something from a special offer, there is shipping and handling unless the company you are buying from provides free shipping. Each is different. As for having to sign, I have never had to sign for anything yet, but again it depends on the company you order from, and probably how valuable the item being shipped it. I've had things arrive through UPS, the post office, and Fed Ex, and haven't had to sign for anything yet, but I haven't ordered anything that required heavy shipping insurance. If you do have to sign something, it will just be a receipt of delivery, for shipment tracking purposes.

BTW- Thank you for the feedback! I must be doing something right, I must be learning! If anyone has any ideas for things they want to read, or ways I can improve the blog, Please, let me know! Layout issues, confusing language, whatever it is, let me know so I can keep making this a better, more useful, easy to read blog!

Last item before I go. A lot of people were asking about autoplay on SBTV yesterday. I even got a couple of questions in my PM box. Has to be because so many people are winning so many times.  The general gist of the questions was how to let SBTV run. Do you have to click videos? Do you have to check on it? Here is the response I put in my notes for easy reposting.

I have two browsers that I use- I downloaded Google Chrome after seeing so many people talk about how it works better with SBTV. (No toolbar for chrome though BOO.) So I just go to the SBTV page in my Chrome browser, pick a category, press play, and leave it running in that browser. (Autoplay will just keep going and going) 

I open up Firefox and do special offers, post, blog, what have you, while SBTV runs in the other browser. I keep the sound up just enough for me to hear if its still runnning. After a while, (I think it's my computer but it could be SBTV) the videos will start freezing, or have trouble loading. When that happens, I stop for a few hours. Doing it this way I've gotten at least 3 wins a day, and if I keep going back and doing the process over, up to 6. I know others are getting more wins but my computer can't really handle it.

That's it for today's SwagMelt. I'll be coming back with more special offers and various tidbits tomorrow! Until then, Swag Friends,

HAPPY SWAGSURFING!!!

If anyone reading this is not yet a member of Swagbucks, but wants to get on the swagtrain and start earning the free loot, there's no time like the present! Just go to the swidget , up top on the right there, press the Sign Up button on the bottom right. Fill out a short form, confirm your email, and get 30 swagbucks to get you rolling! Then come back here and click the Beginner Tips tab at the top of the blog. That should give you some quick pointers on how to get started!

Goose Eggs, Surveys, & One Fat Offer!

Good Afternoon Swaggernauts!

Today, and the next couple of days, the blog will be in the afternoon more likely than not. Weekends are busy busy!

I'm still on my hunt for swagbucks- check out my total on the swidget over there! As of the time I started writing this time, it was only at 94. But check THIS out!

Yes folks, That is a Real Total there. I have not seen 0 swagbucks ... Ever! I signed on with the 30 bonus sign up bucks so, this is a first for me! What Happened?

Well, you remember that I ordered 3 PayPal while they were on Black Friday sale. Nov 30, Dec 1 and 2nd I ordered more! One $50 Amazon, and four $5 Amazon cards. That brought me down to 63 swagbucks. If I hadn't gotten two of those three extra PayPals (I don't usually get 5 in a month) I would still have 1400 swagbucks, but I couldn't resist the deal!

52 of those 63 swagbucks were from partner sites. They were spread out over three sites that do not have any swagstakes, and nothing I wanted to save more partner bucks for. Once I drained my account of regular swagbucks, I had the chance to dump the partner bucks into regular Swag Bucks swagstakes, and that's just what I did. First I bought 3 entries into the $2500 Amazon gift card giveaway. They were 20 swagbucks a piece, so I had 3 stragglers.

I decided to dump the baby bucks into a 25 swagbucks giveaway. I should have chosen 5 entries but I was moving too fast and chose 3, which spent 2 swagbucks. So I had to go back and buy one more entry for that last lonely swagbuck.

When you enter a swagstakes, you have to confirm that you understand your swagbucks are NOT REFUNDABLE before it will submit your order.

Check it out. Three 25 swagbuck entries, three $2500 Amazon gift card entries, one Apple Macbook entry (I had a wild hair but still couldn't bring myself to buy more than one entry!) and a bunch of "Over The Quota" survey swagstakes (all lost, of course LOL).

This... is a Beautiful sight.. Not that I enjoy being at zero (in fact it gives me a small feeling of unease that I must correct by earning more swagbucks!) but I am Thrilled to see the Swagtotal and the Ledger Swagtotal match! Finally! Bye Bye Partner Bucks!

I didn't stay at 0 for long however. Just as I was saving the screenshots from the swagstakes purchase, TSG released a code for 10. I went to the Swagbucks Facebook wall to post a pic of my 0 total when I saw the board covered with this...

 Half of the time I get a code, it's because I went to the FB Wall to post something and saw Thanks TSG splashed all the way down. That Always means there is an active code to find. The first place I looked was the Facebook Status message at the top of the wall. (If a hint had not been there, I would have then checked my toolbar "From TSG", then the blog, then the swidget here on SwagMelt.) 

TSG posted that there was a 10 swagbuck code hidden somewhere in the Holiday MP3s in the swag store. I came just in time, only had about 20 minutes left to get the code! So I went on over and started clicking holiday MP3s until I found the right one.

I can only post this because the hunt is closed. Posting active codes is NEVER allowed, and WILL get you banned from SwagBucks. See what it looks like though? In this case, it's put in as the last "word" of a sentence, but it is a mix of letters and numbers, capitalized and lower case. This is what you are looking for when you do a code hunt. 9.9 times out of 10, it's going to be one long "word" with no spaces. When you copy it, be sure you have no extra spaces on the beginning or end of the code when you try to redeem it. The exclamation point was NOT a part of the code, by the way. So far I have only seen one exception to the "no spaces" rule- just the other day TSG threw us a curve ball with a code that had 3 sections. I wish I'd thought to screenshot it. It was something like "Rock says S8fnfg7fbFJ or whatever LOL. It took me about 5 attempts before I even TRied the extra 2 words at the front. I mean, I've never seen one like that! Just goes to show that just like raising kids, as soon as you think you know how the game is played, the rules can change.

Within minutes of hitting my 0 total, I was back up to 15, with a code for 10 and an SBTV win for 5. Still looks pretty pitiful, doesn't it? *laugh!*

This morning I decided ENOUGH was ENOUGH! My swagtotal was a meager 38 swagbucks after my daily four. I still had one large inquiry open with Payment Wall, it's been open since November 13th, and it was high time they coughed up my swagbucks! (Usually I have NO issues with Payment Wall, so it just proves that Every offer company has its moments..)

When I submitted my ticket, I received an immediate automated response requesting the confirmation emails and my zip code be sent via email to support@paymentwall.com with Inquiry ID xxxxx. I submitted the confirmation emails, my zip code, and screenshots showing me logged into Nextiva, the list of faxes I had sent, and my online credit card (gift card!) statement with all non-pertinent information blurred out. More than they asked for, enough to leave no doubt that I had completed the offer. As a new member, as the requirements stated. The last contact from Payment Wall was on November 19th, after I'd inquired if there was any action on the inquiry. They said it would take a few days and they would get back to me. That was 14 days ago, and despite writing them a couple more times (in email and from the inquiry screen), I have heard nothing back.

Time to get Team Swag Bucks involved!

I hate to have to go to Swag Bucks for help. I know they are busy! If it's a small offer I usually just let it slide- though I shouldn't! The more reports Swag Bucks gets the more pressure they can put on the offer companies to comply. I want my 218 swagbucks though! I explained the whole situation, including what proofs I'd submitted. Now to wait a few days and see what happens.

After that, it was time to swagsurf! I'd gotten a "Mega" win of 11, three SBTV wins for 5 each, but that swagtotal was NOT moving fast enough. Time to do more special offers.. YAY! (sarcasm!) I'm just tired and usually take a break from offers at the beginning of the month. I am behind on my ordering though!

I watched a couple of videos for 2 each on TrialPay, and browsed the other walls for more videos. Nothing there for me, I get on them pretty quickly. I haven't qualified for a survey of the day in a couple of weeks (and I never even get the Chance to do a survey on TapJoy- I hit START SURVEY and the very next screen is "Sorry, You do not qualify". Every Time, even after I clear my cookies and cache!) so I thought it would probably be a failure again. Not this time!

I know, it's funny, I went to Payment Wall for special offers today after submitting that report to Swag Bucks. Well, I was already on that wall! Why not try the survey?

After many qualification questions, I was sent to a survey about electric / electric hybrid vehicles. The estimated time was 20 minutes, with the boy climbing all over me it took about 35. The screenshot above was number 2 of about 20 questions that look almost exactly the same. They shuffle the options around and make you answer over and over and over to get a refined idea of what factors are important in buying the car. Most surveys do this, it's SOOOO annoying *laugh*.

At about 50% in I started "holding my breath". This is where I usually get tossed off a cliff and told "Sorry, You did not qualify!" or "Sorry, this survey has reached its maximum number of participants". Right around 70%, the browser "flipped out" and started rapid-fire loading pages. I saw onthe title bar something about "Sorry" and thought "Oh no.. What a waste!" Then the browser settled down and I saw the above message. Now I was really confused.. I didn't reach 100% of the survey, I saw survey, but now I see success? The swagbucks didn't show up right away so I had to wait to find out *chuckle* but not for too long. 30 minutes later the swagbucks appeared, bringing my total up to 94. Getting there!

I probably would have gone to another offer wall at this point to hunt for more swagbucks, but something caught my eye.

This offer for Clark Photos, for 374 swagbucks, had a 5 star rating. 321 people had successfully completed it, and though there were only 3 reviews, I took that as a good sign. People are more likely to post a review when they are unhappy than when they are satisfied. So I took a look-see.

Well, THIS looks promising! Before I decided to give it a try, I had a close look at the offer requirements. Purchase required, but no minimum. Free prints & the shipping / taxes on those free prints do not count, but, No Minimum! That means if I order just one thing I should be able to get my swagbucks. The three reviews seemed to back up that idea. Quick Note: Why would I spend money to make swagbucks? My total is greater than the swagbucks earned by Amazon gift card conversions. Because I needed the pictures for family for Christmas. My husband and mother in law wanted wallet photos of the kids, and the collage is a gift to myself! I was going to spend this money anyway, but would have spent more elsewhere, without the free prints, and would not have earned any swagbucks for it!

Once I signed up, the next stop was that Upload Photo button. I had 40 free prints coming to me! So I  uploaded about 20 pictures and popped them in my cart.

I chose one of the photos and ordered one set of 4 wallets. That was $0.99. Just to be on the safe side, and cause I love them, I added a 5x7 collage print for $0.79. That brought my purchase total to $1.78- no minimum right? That should qualify. Together with shipping, the 4 wallets, 1 collage, and 40 prints came to $4.73.

I love these photo offers. I get all these free prints and the bonus bits for much cheaper than I would at Walgreens, and I get swagbucks too!

Between the time I finished the offer and now, wrapping up the blog, the offer credited. About 45 minutes. SWEET! That's enough now to get my last $5 AGC for the month- but I think I will wait a few days... I want to beef up my total first. I don't want to see 0 again so soon!

That's it for today folks! I will be doing more offers later I'm sure, but for now, it's lunch time! I hope you are all having a great Mega Swag Bucks Day!

Until tomorrow,

HAPPY SWAGSURFING!!!


If anyone reading this is not yet a member of Swagbucks, but wants to get on the swagtrain and start earning the free loot, there's no time like the present! Just go to the swidget , up top on the right there, press the Sign Up button on the bottom right. Fill out a short form, confirm your email, and get 30 swagbucks to get you rolling! Then come back here and click the Beginner Tips tab at the top of the blog. That should give you some quick pointers on how to get started!

5 Good Offers, NO FAILS! Amazing!!!

Good Morning Swaggernauts!


I'm sure you guessed by the title up there just what this post is going to be about. Don't worry, this isn't going to turn into an "all offers all the time" blog. I'm just on a push to get enough to order my five $5 Amazon cards so I'm doing offers right now. (I thought I'd have enough swagbucks but PaymentWall STILL has not credited my Nextiva trial! 13 days later!)

First thing I did this morning (after my Daily Four) was turn on SBTV to run while I went offer hunting. I thought for sure I'd end up with a few bad offers, and if I was lucky, a couple of good ones to report. To my shock and delight, all five I attempted credited! Even bigger shock? Three were from TapJoy! *faints*

I may be a glutton for punishment even trying TapJoy special offers, but I figured, if they worked, Fantastic! If they failed, no surprise, and I'd be able to help you avoid the bad offers anyway. I got pretty lucky I guess!

I'm pretty much out of free trial special offers I can do at the moment, so I went looking for smaller free offers. TapJoy loaded up first so that's where I started. For once I didn't click the FREE tab, I just went looking, but I'm sure all the offers I list today are on the free tab as well as all.  All of them were on the first page of "All" though!

The first offer I tried was FriendMatcher for 27 swagbucks. "Login to FriendMatcher to receive your swagbucks." It doesn't say in the offer listing that this is an IMVU app, but I saw those letters in the linkage as it was loading. Which made me groan. I do not do any IMVU offers, no matter how tempting, because the software is full of adware, spyware, etc.

However, when the offer loaded up, I saw that it is an app that doesn't require you to download any software. You just have to allow IMVU FriendMatcher to connect to your Facebook account. Then it pulls the list of your Facebook friends. It will show you a piece of land, and three Facebook friends, and you are supposed to pick which friend would match the property. It also might show a Facebook friend (if they have an IMVU account it will show their avatar, otherwise it shows their Facebook profile pic) and give you 3 options of a "relationship match" to choose for your friend.

Look! Marge is on TV!

In either case, once you select a friend (or match), it asks if you want to post the match on your friends Facebook wall. All of this took about 1 minute. I did not post on anyone's wall, but as soon as I'd "picked a match" I checked my swag total- SUPERDUPER! It credited Fast.

So I kept moving down the list...

Earn Cash Just By Sharing Your Opinions! for 23 swagbucks. "Swag Bucks will be awarded after you register with your valid email address." This is for the OnDemand research panel. Typical sign up form with name, address, email, & password. Then it loads up a "survey" page- in reality an information phishing page so they can select a bunch of offers to show you.

After this survey page it takes you through an "offer path" - you skip, no thanks, pass offer after offer trying to get to the OnDemand main page. About 4 offers in to the clickfest I checked my swagtotal. Sure enough! Swagbucks were there. Good thing to. Out of curiosity I kept going through the offer path. About 20 skips later, I landed on one of those (Annoying!) iPad consumer survey pages. You know the ones, I've blogged about them enough. You can't get the iPad without completing a gaggle of offers. I would have been pretty ticked if my swagbucks hadn't arrived yet. Would have gone on the warpath of "bogus free offers" and "incorrect requirement listings' and such. *laugh*

Meet singles in your area. 90 Day Free Trial with full access to Jazzed!  for 34 swagbucks.  Swagbucks awarded when you create a profile and upload an approved photo of yourself. Must be a new member in the USA. (Sorry Canada and UK that Sucks!)

I've tried this one before and never got credit, so I was pretty skeptical. Last time I tried, I couldn't get the photo uploader to work. This time I ran into the same problem When you try to upload a photo from your computer, after you find the pic you want and press UPLOAD, you are taken to an "URL UNKNOWN" type screen. This time I decided to try uploading photos from Facebook, so I created a SwagTester account and uploaded a dozen pics. Used the Jazzed FB photo uploader to grab them all. There were glitches with that uploader too! It kept dumping my 10th photo, and would Not let me out of the uploader screen. I was starting to think this was a fail offer, but I wasn't ready to give up yet. (I wish I'd taken screenshots but you will figure it out!)

I went up to the address bar and chopped off everything in the URL after www.jazzed.com/. Hit enter, and I got taken back to the "dashboard", and was instructed to finish entering my basic profile information. Once you've entered all that basic profile information (get to the end of the "Progress" bar) you will get an email stating you have completed your profile. That is when to check for your swagbucks. Mine came as soon as I got that email. You don't have to continue filling out any more information on Jazzed beyond that basic profile, don't pay attention to the Profile Page. It will say you are like, 76% done with your profile, but once you've gotten that email you don't have to do anything else. That is just trying to get you to fill out extended information to refine your matches.

Of course.. I'm married and sure as heck not interested in meeting someone online, so I will be closing that out soon. I don't know why it says 90 day full trial- it never asked me for credit card or billing / payment information. I guess after 90 days it will cut you off unless you set up payment? I don't plan on waiting to find out.

At this point I figured it was better not to push my luck with TapJoy. They don't exactly have a stellar record of offers crediting, and an even worse track record for answering / completing inquiries. Three successes was enough for now! So I moved on to SuperRewards.

Free Love Compatability Readings  for 15 swagbucks. The offer requirements are written in poor English, something that usually steers me away from the offer. If they can't even write the requirements right, who knows what the req's really are? But what the hey, I did it. Must register to complete offer. Ok let's try.

Moonit is a horoscope based matching app. You choose what kind of relationship you want to analyze; Romance, Friendship, and Business. You input the persons name and date of birth, and it gives you a compatability rating, and a breakdown of what they dynamics of your relationship are supposed to be. You can also receive email alerts when the stars / planets align in such a way as to change the dynamics of your relationship. Sounds.. detailed?

My swag bucks didn't credit immediately so I tooled around the site for a bit. There is a "things to do " box on the right, I figured if I finished the items on that list, maybe Then I would get my swag bucks. Easy stuff, like input three relationships (I made them all up and what do you know, I'm compatible with all of them LOL) or asking a question on "the couch". (Got me folks, I didn't care enough to find out hah! I just asked "What is this couch stuff?" hehehe)

After I finished the stuff in the "things to do" list, my swagbucks still weren't there. It's SuperRewards though, their offers really do usually credit about 15 minutes later, so I took a deep breath and checked back 5 minutes later. HUZZAH! They were in my swagtotal.

At this point, I kind of can't believe I've done so well. Not big swagbucks earnings with each offer, but they all credited with no fuss- that's doing well in my book! I decided to try just one more. One that I'd tried before but never gotten credit for, because no confirmation email ever came. I figured either I'd have 2 time proof of an offer that didn't work, so you could avoid it too, or it would credit and I'd have a full house!

Play Fragoria Online! for 13 swagbucks. In order to receive swagbucks, you must complete sign up for a new account. You MUST create a character and play also.

It's a typical sign up form there. If you have registered for any Suba Games before, it will autofill your email- just change it to a new email (or you won't get swagbucks. Must be a New user.) Once you hit confirm, you have to wait on the confirmation email before you can log in and play. This is where I started to think I'd finally hit the wall. It took 10 minutes for that confirmation email to show up!

When it finally shows up, click the activation link, log in, and create your character in 3 easy steps; Gender, Name, and Avatar. Then it puts you right into the gameplay, in your web browser.

Linara vs the Walking Dead!

My swagbucks didn't show up right after creating the character, so I played a bit. Again, being SuperRewards, it could just be a matter of time- or I might need to play a little bit first! So I did oh, 3 quick tutorial quests, and checked my swag total again. HUZZAH! ANOTHER CREDIT!

You know what? I think I've pushed my luck enough for the morning! *laugh!* I decided to stop right there and come share all of this with you. I can't wait until I hit my goal, so I can find something else to talk about again :P

I really hope all these offers credit for you as well. If you run into any problems, let me know what they are, I can note them here for other users, so they can know what else might happen when they try.

For now, I'm off to clean the kitchen - I'm slackin'!  Until tomorrow swag friends..

HAPPY SWAGSURFING!!!

Good Offers, Bad Offers, & Offer Tips!

Good Afternoon Swaggernauts!

Last night I ordered a $50 Amazon card, this morning two $5 Amazon cards.

I have enough swagbucks for one and a half more $5s so I have to earn a few hundred swagbucks today!  I bet you know what that means for the blog..

Yep! Special Offers! Not just bad ones this time, but a couple of good ones too!  First let me show you something that made me chuckle on last nights Swag hunt.

One right after the other, offers for Equifax credit check / credit monitoring. Two different swagbuck payouts. The obvious 1st question is, Why would anyone choose the lesser payout? Sometimes there are similar offers on several walls, and while Payout is usually my first criteria, I look at each offer because they are not always exactly the same.

In this case, the 1,088 offer has 3 - in - 1 monitoring, identity check protection and offers a 30 day free trial. The 1,020 offer doesn't mention identity protection, and says it includes "Credit Watch Gold" and also has 3 - in - 1 monitoring. It's only a 7 day trial however.

I'd say do the 1,088 one, especially since I've seen posts on Facebook about it crediting quickly today. 

(Oh my Gosh I'd say try these cookies I just made too. NOM NOM NOM they are good! Oatmeal Craisin cookies - with cherry infused cranberries instead of raisins. WoW, YUMMY!)

The bad Super Rewards offer I posted about on Monday came to a quick resolution this morning. They credited me 17 swagbucks because I fulfilled the requirements, but of course made no mention of contacting the advertiser to pull / fix the offer. One can only hope! I'd still say avoid it unless you want to have to do screenshots and an inquiry. Then again, if enough of us do it and inquiry the same offer, maybe they will do something about it!

In Positive TapJoy News (so rare, I know)  I found two easy insurance offers last night that don't require you to input anything other than your state or zip code. One is for 25, and the other for 34.

Save Over $500 a Year on Car Insurance for 25    Select your state from the drop down menu. A tab and a new window will open with a list of companies and "Get Quote' buttons to the right. I'm not sure if the TAB or the WINDOW has the tracking cookies so I did the following for both pages - I clicked on two different insurance companies. A new tab opened for each. One of them had another State Selection button so I did that and left both quote screens up for about 5 minutes. Closed them all out because I get impatient. About an hour later the 25 credited.

You Could Save Hundreds of Dollars a Year On Car Insurance for 34    Input your zip code / state (can't remember now sorry) and do the same as you did for the offer above. Click, open pages, let them sit a bit, and check back for swagbucks later. This one also took about an hour to credit.

GO TAPJOY! You finally did Something right!

I found another good offer on Gambit. They are number 2 on my poodoo list right now, but I have pretty much emptied everything BUT insurance offers from the other walls.

I did the Gamehouse Fun Pass 7 day free trial. This is the second time I've done it. The first time I believe I found it on PaymentWall, but I can't remember for how much. That time, I had issues with the downloader for games and couldn't even USE the Fun Pass, so it was logical to cancel.

This offer is currently on a couple of offer walls. Gambit has it for 900. TapJoy has it for only 510. It Pays To Shop The Walls!

By the way, some of these free trials, like the one above, Can be done more than once. Often, if you use the same credit card (or in my case, prepaid Visa gift card), you may get your free trial but not your swagbucks. You may not even get the free trial, being a previous customer. I happen to have two different Visa gift cards, so I just used my second one, and had no problems. The swagbucks rolled in about 20 minutes after completing the sign up.

This time I can download and play games- but so far the games I've tried all end up being STUCK- as in, I can't exit them without alt-tabbing out, starting the task manager, and ending task. Not so good. Probably going to cancel again... *GRIN* I love it when they give me a perfectly plausible reason to cancel. Then I don't feel like I'm somehow cheating the system LOL.

Now on to a couple of quick BAD offers. You know it was coming- I can't do a serious swagbuck hunt without running across at least one.

This isn't a BAD offer so to speak, it's just a DEAD offer. Waste of time. You are supposed to enter a contest and submit a phrase "What if ...."  for a chance to win a trip to New York City. I completed this offer before but never got my swagbucks. My bad, I forgot to inquiry it, and it fell off the Viewed Offers list. Too late now! So I decided to try it again.

Well, The contest is closed, no more submissions accepted, therefore no way to complete the offer for swagbucks. I wrote them asking them to remove it as a dead offer, but until they do, don't waste your time. 108 swagbucks would have been nice though...

The last item is a 680 swagbucks offer from TapJoy for eMusic. You sign up for a 30 day free trial and get 50 free MP3 downloads.

This is one of those times I am really glad I use a prepaid gift card instead of a regular credit card. I filled out the sign up information, inputted my card information and clicked SIGN UP. Instead of being taken to a confirmation screen, or a further information screen, or even a denial screen, I was sent to a "Thank You! Please enjoy this Special Offer as our way of thanking you for joining,"

It was an offer to sign up for a 2 month free trial to 2 magazines, either People, Time, Sports Illustrated, or Entertainment Weekly. I recognized this offer as one I'd done for several hundred swagbucks a couple of months ago- but this wasn't through the special offers screen, I would get no swagbucks for signing up.

I could find no way to get off that page. No skip, No Thanks, pass buttons. No mention of eMusic by name anywhere on the page. Trapped. Dead end.

I tried to log into eMusic but could not, as I was never taken to a "create a password" screen. I checked my Visa gift card statement and sure enough, there was a pending charge.

PANIC! Started feeling a little sketchy there. Thank GOODNESS I use the gift card, no matter what it will not effect my credit if some scam has occured. That's what it felt like. A scam using the eMusic sign up as a front to get your credit card information.

First thing this morning I called eMusic to find out what was up. The customer service rep knew nothing about TapJoy, nothing about the magazine offer, stated that it couldn't have had anything to do with them. I explained (won't go into it now) how it must be embedded in the sign up form. Anyhoo, point is, apparently it was a valid attempt to authorize my credit card but was for some reason declined. It wasn't a matter of insufficient funds, they could not explain why it cancelled, but implied it was a glitch and would I like to try again.

No Thank You. Not on the phone, not for no swagbucks, and not with this kind of sketchy, shady stuff going on. The lady said she would forward the complaint to corporate to see what might be happening with TapJoy and the magazine offer.

I suppose this may or may not be a bad offer. I would suggest you stay away from it, despite the tempting 680 swagbucks. Something is not right. For one thing, whether I completed the offer or not with a successful sign up, there was NO RECORD of me even attempting the offer on TapJoy. No way for me to report any offer problems to them. eMusic couldn't even explain why I was denied, they have no explanation why I would be trapped in a magazine offer, and I still don't feel 100% sure some third party didn't grab the credit card number.  

Gift card. Gift card.

I keep saying credit card but it's such an important difference. If you are using a real credit card for these offers, you really should switch to something like the Visa Go-Tag. It Covers Your A$$.

That's it for today's offer meltdown. I'm sure I will have more good and bad in the coming couple of days, as I have about 600 swagbucks to earn.

One last tidbit and I'll be signing off for the day-

Last night we got a typical frustrated question about special offers on the Swagbucks Facebook wall. The poster was asking what the heck to do when they ask for a confirmation email, and you can't find it. Well, my answer is FIRST : Don't let it get lost!

As soon as you do the offer, check the email used for the offer. Look in spam IMMEDIATELY so it doesn't get bogged down and lost. Create a folder in your email for confirmations- if you want to be Very organized you can have a folder for each offer wall, but a simple "Confirmations" folder should be enough. Whether the confirmation is in your inbox or spam, move it to the confirmations folder immediately. That way if you have to do an inquiry, you know right where to look.

If you do open an inquiry, and  they want a confirmation email, this is what you need to do. Open the confirmation email, and "FORWARD" it. You are not going to hit SEND, you just want to see the entire email, including the "header" which shows what date / time the email was sent To You. Instead of sending it, just highlight and COPY it all, top to bottom. Paste that into the inquiry comment box.

Sometimes you Will forward the email. You will know because the inquiry page over on the special offer wall will say "Please forward the confirmation email to support@whateverCo.com with Inquiry #XXXXX in the Subject line."  PaymentWall is one of those that asks you to send screenshots and confirmations by email. Most of the others do not.

If an offer requires you to get to the "end of an offer path" and see a quiz result, or confirmation code, Take A Screenshot when you get there! There's a 50 / 50 chance you will need to submit a ticket, and you can't go back after the fact to get the screenshot. Pay CLOSE ATTENTION to the offer requirements. That's where you get the offer companies by the proverbial gonads. If they ask you for a confirmation email and the requirements don't mention needing one, If you have screenshots to back up your claim, point out to them clearly and politely that the requirements do not state a confirmation email is needed, nor was one sent, but you have screenshot proof that you met the requirements.

If they still deny you, report the Inquiry ID and Offer Company to Swag Bucks via the Contact Us link on the home page. Send them the same proofs. They will take care of you, as long as you are using valid information for the offers! :-D

Lastly, don't submit an inquiry as soon as you are done, even if you have a feeling it won't credit *chuckle* Even if the offer states it reports on a 15 minute delay, or receive swagbucks in minutes, sometimes it takes a while for them to come through. I've done so darn many of them that I can kind of tell when I need to inquiry, depending on the type of offer, and the company, but that's not really a guideline I can give you. Each users experience is different. I will wait anywhere from an hour, to a day, before submitting an inquiry. In the case of PaymentWall, I will look at the feedback / reviews and see what others say about how long the offer takes to credit. That gives me an idea of how long to wait.

That's it for today! I hope those two insurance offers credit you. I hope you have better luck than I am having today!

Until Tomorrow Swag Friends..

HAPPY SWAGSURFING!!!

The Day After! :D

Good Afternoon Swag Friends!

I'm sorry the blog is so late today- I had to take my son to the doctor! He's had 5 bloody noses since 10pm last night. Every time he starts to cry, it starts flowing! Ugh! He's ok, just very irritated sinuses. 

Did you all have a good Monday back at work? Did you hit any Cyber Monday sales? (other than Swag Bucks I mean!) I admit I couldn't keep money in my Amazon account long enough to wait for Cyber Monday.

I saw the perfect gift for my stepson a couple of weeks ago and there was only one left in stock. It's a racing game, with customizable cars, online play and rankings. It comes with a card swiper which plugs into the USB port, and 5 cards to get you started. These cards are upgrades to your vehicle, body, engine, tweaks, paint, etc.  I went ahead and bought it, along with 2 booster card packs from Amazon, 1 from ebay. Using Swagbucks funded PayPal deposits, of course! I figure this, for him, will be a good reward system. He gets the game and first set of cards, and gets to open another present with the 3 booster packs. Instead of opening the three booster packs, he'll get one upgrade on Fridays if he's had a good week. Two if he really accomplished something good, like a major homework assignment on time with legible handwriting and minimal complaining on his part. *laugh* Apparently that's a LOT to ask!

Then I had to buy some earplugs for myself. I can Not sleep without them and my last pair were pretty much done for. So my account was pretty much drained to about $5 for Cyber Monday *chuckle*.

Gotta love having fund to buy the things you need though, don't ya? I <3 Swag Bucks!

Even though Amazon Gift Cards never went on sale at Swag Bucks, It's ok that I didn't order my $25 AGC yet. Gave me time to look at a nice, fat swagtotal! I've decided to buy a $50 card today, so I can hopefully wrap up my Christmas shopping in time. I'll get the five $5s when December rolls over too.

I decided I could afford to do that when the Gamehouse FunPass offer on Gambit credited for 900 swagbucks. Once again the prepaid, reloadable Visa gift card comes in handy! I only have $5 on it, but that's enough to cover the $1 or $1.50 pending charge most of the companies use to check the card. Plus I get a week of free gaming! So far I've played Wheel of Fortune- not much time to game today *chuckle*

The Cyber Monday sales at Swag Bucks were, mm, they were OK. There was a laser pointer. *chuckle* All of the Holiday 2-for-1 Swagstakes went on double entry, That's pretty cool! The Holiday section of the swagstore, as well as the video games & sports trading cards all went on sale. Shop & Earn is at double payout- 2 swagbucks for every 1 dollar spent. I think it's cool they put the video games on sale, but I wonder how well they did with sports card sales. Collectible cards are not a giant market right now. I wish they had some wrapping paper in the Holiday section, but no.

As I mentioned before, Amazon cards did not go on sale. However, any cards ordered before Tuesday, the 23rd of November shipped out and arrived yesterday. Extra spending money for Cyber Monday! Now, that IS pretty cool!

There were a couple of mini contests, on the Swagbucks Facebook page and on Twitter, for 150 swagbucks each. 3 codes for 5, 9, and 5.

And... that's about it! It was a pretty fun day, chasing down the sales, codes, and contests.Not much else to say about Cyber Monday!

I just wanna share one thing with you before I go. Tomorrow we'll get back to more tips and such :)

Yep! That's me on TV again!

Google Translate is an excellent tool for swaggernauts who may not speak English as a first language. If you have questions to ask on the Swagbucks Facebook page but can't quite word it right in your head, you can go to Google Translate, type in your question in your own language. Google Translate detects your language. Choose English from the language drop down box, and your question will be translated as you type it.

Google Translate isn't just useful, it's fun as well! Sometimes some of us will have swag conversations on the Facbeook wall in and number of random languages.

That's about it for today. Tomorrow I will return to tips, offers, etc. I hope your week is going well. Don't worry, you'll get another holiday SOON!

Until Tomorrow Swag Nuts..

HAPPY SWAGSURFING!!!

Cyber Monday All Day! BAD OFFER ALERT!

Good Morning! It's CYBER MONDAY!



I've been here pressing refresh on the blog and the swag store since 5 am PST. That's when the Black Friday blog posted, and when the items went on sale last week.

Finally! It's TIME! Oh my gosh I thought I would first die of excitement, then of anxiousness, finally of boredom, waiting so long! *laugh!*  And DOH! It's in Pieces! I mean, it's not all on sale at once.. here, let's take a look at the blog.

Apparently they are keeping the Black Friday sales of PayPal, Starbucks, and iTunes cards going for one more day. Sweet!

They have also discounted the entire Holiday section, and all of the Holiday 2 for 1 Swagstakes are double entry.

That's it, but only for now. The Swag Guy says he will be putting more items, and whole categories of items, on sale throughout the day. So I will be keeping my eyes peeled and updating SwagMelt as new sales are announced!

Keep YOUR eyes peeled too! He says there will be three codes today, and mini contests throughout the day, so keep checking the Swagbucks Blog and the Swagbucks Facebook page! If you have a Twitter account, be sure you keep your eyes on that too!

In fact, RIGHT NOW there is a code in the blog for 5 swagbucks, it's good until 9:30 am PST, 12:30 am Eastern. Hurry Hurry! It says it is a warm up code, so I expect there will three more throughout the day. YAY!

UPDATES SECTION!

CODES


The third code is out right now, for a limited time, and can be found in the Swagbucks Facebook daily discussion thread.


There was the warm up code this morning, and right now (3:20 Eastern) there is a code hunt on! If you area reading this before 4 Eastern / 1 Pacific, hurry! Go to the swag blog and read the details on the Sports Cards that are on Cyber Monday sale. At the end of the blog it gives you a hint where to find a code worth 9 swagbucks. Pay attention to the two new categories of cards! That's as much help as I can give you as to where to find it. Rules are rules. However when you DO find the code, (you are looking for something that is letters and numbers and makes no sense) there's a trick. Watch the spaces. That is all I can say. HURRY!


SALES

Check out the blog for details on the Cyber Monday Sports Card Sale!

Cyber Monday Video Game Sale in the latest Swag Blog!

Come on Swag Guy, don't let us down! Give us Amazon Gift Cards on sale! Please?

The Swag Guy put out a blog rehashing the holiday sale.

CONTESTS

A second contest was held on Twitter. He asked a question and the first three people to answer correctly won 150 swagbucks.

The Swag Guy held the first contest on the Swagbucks Facebook page. 

These contests appear out of nowhere, and are over in seconds flat! You have to be quick! Remember the Get Ready For Cyber Monday blog? Ya I dropped the ball and didn't post it but if you look to the right, the last 5 posts from the Swagbucks Blog are listed. So keep an eye on that! :)

Anyhooooo, I believe what TSG said was..

In order to be properly prepared for everything, be sure to stretch out your wrists and typing fingers and practice your high speed mouse clicking!

I had a feeling he meant contests, or contests on Twitter. Mini contests usually means on Facebook because they go SO fast. I mean dang, the Twitter ones are lightning speed but Wow. *laugh!*

If you are a newer swaggernaut, take a look at this before we go on. This is how to find posts from The Swag Guy whenever you are looking for code hints, etc. VERY USEFUL! 

Below the post box is the word Filters. Click that and you have three filter options for the wall. 

Look! Katie's on TV!

If you choose Just Swagbucks you get only his posts- a Tremendous help when looking for his code hints. 

Until more sales are announced, keep reading on for yet another Bad Offer Alert!


 Last nights find was on the SuperRewards wall, for 17.

Not that I wanted to download anything but hey, I'm hard up at the moment. Besides I love hunting out viruses and nasty things so YOU don't have to experience them!

This one isn't a bad offer due to virus. It's a bad offer because the requirements are NOT CORRECT. It's similar to the Gambit offers I keep spotlighting, except instead of entering your email "for swagbucks" you download the toolbar. That's it, that's all the requirements say. Download and install toolbar, reports on a 15 minute delay. Free tab.

I opened Internet Explorer for this one. It downloaded fine, checked out OK with my uber virus software. All seemed like a GO until I got to this....

Last Step? Complete the offer below? Are you kidding? Hey, this looks Awfully Familiar...

If you read the other posts with Gambit offers that require things like Submitting Email but in reality are "Silver, Gold, Platinum Offer" deals, then this Does look familiar to you, and it should. It's the same deal.

These offers say FREE. They list requirements that do NOT include doing other offers- and I can pretty much promise without going through the steps that in the end, after the 12 offers you have to complete, you WILL end up spending money.

I gave it 24 hours to see if it would credit but of course, it has not. I downloaded and installed the toolbar, but did not complete the 12 offers. So *sigh* another inquiry to start. At least it's not Gambit. I haven't had to chew SR out for a while, maybe they will respond positively.

I give this offer a big ole "MEH!" rating. Don't bother doing it, it won't work without inquiry.

That's it for today Swag Friends! I'm going to GO SHOPPING!:D

If anyone reading this is not yet a member of Swagbucks, but wants to get on the swagtrain and start earning the free loot, there's no time like the present! Just go to the swidget , up top on the right there, press the Sign Up button on the bottom right. Fill out a short form, confirm your email, and get 30 swagbucks to get you rolling! Then come back here and click the Beginner Tips tab at the top of the blog. That should give you some quick pointers on how to get started!


Until Tomorrow - HAPPY SWAGSURFING!!!