...from April and May that I already earned :-(

Ok, when I first heard about this program back in April 2000 it immediately intrigued me. I thought, listen to the radio while I'm surfing, doing laundry, writing emails, cleaning my kitchen, chasing down my toddler and get paid? I don't have to download and install anything and I don't even have to WATCH the banners while I'm listening and occasionally once they launch the pay program I might have to click a sponsors ad to let them know I'm still listening? I can minimize the radio bar and continue doing whatever I want? That's too simple but I'm a rewards surfer, I'd give it a try!!

I signed up in the beginning stages of development with this program when they were offering 1 Free CD for every 10 hours of listening and I emailed a few friends about it who also signed up trying to build up that referral base as I knew this would be a good one for doing such!

While in the infancy stages of developing their new radio bar they were offering 1 FREE CD for every 10 hours you were listening. I earned 2 CD's, one for April one for May.

They were supposed to launch the new radio bar in mid July which was going to replace the FREE CD's and start earning me .20/hour for every hour I listened and .08/hour for every direct referral's listening time and .04/hour for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th level of referred listeners.

I was frequently visiting their site, checking up on them because I really wanted to get started making some $$$. Things weren't going as scheduled. As I visited in June to check up I noticed they had stated:

*February CDs were distributed via Amazon.com Gift Certificates ($15 credit per each CD) and emailed on May 3

February CD's were distributed in May?? That's 3 months after they were earned. I earned 2 cd's for April and May so I figured I'd have them by July and August. Towards the end of June I figured I'd shoot them an email to check on the progress of the free cd's from April and May. Here's their reply to that email dated 6/27/00:


Thank you for listening to radiofreecash!

To date, we have only distributed CDs for the months of January and February (we launched in late January). We will be distributing CDs for the months of March, April, May, etc. at some point in the future, though we haven't announced the dates yet.

We originally promised to send out the CDs 45 days after the
pay-to-listen program began. But since we have been forced to move this date to July 15th, we decided we should reward our earliest customers immediately. Therefore, we recently e-mailed a huge number of gift certificates to our loyal listeners who joined us in January and February.

When we have the distribution dates for the additional CDs, we will post them to the site immediately.

We don't have a date in which we will start sending out the $25. We will post a date after the listening bar in complete.

Thank you once again for listening to radiofreecash!

Your friends @ radiofreecash

Well, July 15th has come and gone and they still hadn't launched the new radio bar and I still haven't gotten my FREE CD's and have no idea from their email just when I might expect them either. Oh yeah, and I asked them about the $25 bonus because all that says is "YES" in my account as being eligible for it in the future. What's up with that? WHAT is the *future* to them? Is it this year, next year? A ball park figure would be better than "in the future". Well, I decided I'd just cut down my listening time because how was I to know if I would EVER receive these free cd's at all or if this program was just going to go "belly up" making money from their advertisers but never rewarding their loyal listeners?

About a week ago, on or about 8/6/00 I checked up on their site to see if there was any progress and I did notice they had totally revamped the site and the new radio bar was now working! Yeeehaw! I had to check it out. It's pretty cool and it seems to work a lot better than the previous version and they had built in a nice new feature that I was glad to see. The old bar would freeze up from time to time when I was listening and I'd lose my listening time because if I didn't close down the player from the window it was running in then my time wasn't recorded. I lost quite a few hours because on several occasions my pc would just freeze and POOF, there went my listening time. With the new bar, even if you don't shut it down properly (the windows blue screen of death happens upon you), when you relogin to their site it'll recover your listening time that you lost from the previous listening session. That's cool!

Ok, so now the new bar is working and they still aren't paying $$$ but still say they are rewarding listeners with FREE CD's yet, I STILL haven't gotten my CD's I earned back in April and May (3-4 months previously, it's now 8/13/00).

You'd think I'd give up on them but for some reason, I can't! I'm sure they're probably making their money right now because the sponsors ads are running now yet Radio Free Cash isn't paying out anything, not rewarding loyal listeners their FREE CD's from 3-4 months previous and certainly haven't started the $$$ program. What in the WORLD are they doing?

I haven't received any indication WHEN they will be making good on the CD's nor have I received any indication as to when they will start paying out now that the new radio bar is launched.

I must be a glutton for punishment or something but I still listen to music with their radio bar because quite frankly, they do have a large selection of music for my listening pleasure and it's easy to run it when I'm online AND I can do other household chores while I'm listening. It's the same thing as listening to the radio in your car. If you listen to the same stations long enough you start getting the same songs repeated. Same concept. No big deal! Change the channel for a little while if you wish.

I do have a high speed internet connection so I don't get a lot of skips while I'm listening and running 6-10 other applications but I cannot comment on how it works for those of you who'll be using dial up connections. I am impressed with the looks of their new website and hopefully, if I'm patient enough, LONG enough, I might just even get my FREE CD's and an opportunity to actually EARN SOME $$$$ from this program.

Don't get me wrong. I hope this program comes through like it says it plans to because I do think this is a real turn in the right direction of Paid to Surf/View/Listen programs. If they ever get their ducks in a row and pull this off as planned I'm sure they'll be extremely successful but they're going to slowly lose face if they don't start taking care of those of us who've been sitting here waiting for some kind of reward for listening for the past 4 months.

I'm going to give them 2 stars because I've noticed they are slowly getting to where they want to be but I'm not giving them anything more until I at LEAST get my FREE CD gift certificates and I'm only going to listen enough hours (10) to earn 1 CD gift certificate until I start seeing the two I've already earned! If they're running sponsor ads now like they have been since I checked the site and have been running the radio bar on 8/6/00 then they have revenues coming in. Now it's time to start giving back to those who've been hanging in there for the past 4 months or more.

***************************UPDATE********************************

10/21/00

I felt it was time AGAIN to update this opinion of Radio Free Cash AND to change my recommendation to my fellow internet surfers to NO, I DO NOT RECOMMEND Radiofreecash.com. Why waste your time and bandwidth on something that doesn't PAY?? Here's the newest email I sent to them today, 10/21/00...

Dear Radio Free Cash

Back in June of this year, I sent you an email asking why I have not received ANY of the gift certificates for the CD's I earned for April and May of 2000. You sent me a reply email stating the following:

Thank you for listening to radiofreecash!

To date, we have only distributed CDs for the months of January and February (we launched in late January). We will be distributing CDs for the months of March, April, May, etc. at some point in the future, though we haven't announced the dates yet.

We originally promised to send out the CDs 45 days after the
pay-to-listen program began. But since we have been forced to move this date to July 15th, we decided we should reward our earliest customers immediately. Therefore, we recently e-mailed a huge number of gift certificates to our loyal listeners who joined us in January and February.

When we have the distribution dates for the additional CDs, we will post them to the site immediately.

We don't have a date in which we will start sending out the $25. We will post a date after the listening bar in complete.

Thank you once again for listening to radiofreecash!

Your friends @ radiofreecash


My question STILL REMAINS....WHEN IF EVER, will I receive the gift certificates for the CD's I earned back in April and May of this year. If you check my account, you will see that I have hardly used Radio Free Cash the past few months for JUST THIS REASON...you have not made GOOD on your offer.

Additionally, the 12 referrals I have are also not using the bar because you have not made GOOD on your promises. I think this is very unprofessional of Radiofreecash to advertise like this, waste our TIME in getting a referral base setup and then not pay out as you claim. I am sure you are aware there are numerous sites out there on the web to write complaints about different websites such as Radiofreecash. I already (back in June) listed your site as a good concept IF YOU ONLY MADE GOOD ON YOUR REWARDS FOR LISTENING on one of those sites and STILL I've received nothing from you. I guess it's time for me to go ahead and update that opinion to include that I STILL have NOT received a THING from Radiofreecash nearly 6 months later!!! There are many more sites just like the one that I already posted to about Radiofreecash and I'm obviously not left with many other options other than to write opinions on those sites as well. Tell me...what is it that I have to do to get my CD gift certificates??? BEG MORE? Email you each and every single day??? I gave you the benefit of the doubt back in June with the "We will be distributing CDs for the months of March, April, May, etc. at some point in the future, though we haven't announced the dates yet" EXTREMELY VAGUE email of a specific DATE/TIME with which to expect the gift certificates, but my question then and NOW STILL IS... WHEN???? Will it be sometime in THIS millenium or the next?

A very disgruntled, no longer a listener, bandwidth waster OR revenue generator for Radiofreecash.com....







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