Too Much Free Time

Too Much Free Time

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
arbitrage, cash back, search

Companies:
microsoft



Would You Buy $630 For $715? Thanks To Microsoft, You Can Make Money Doing So

from the loopholes dept

Just last month, Microsoft announced its desperation plan of bribing users to use Microsoft's search. Basically, if you bought certain products via a Microsoft search, Microsoft would pay you cash back. And, of course, as soon as the cash got involved, it didn't take long for people to find loopholes. Various messages boards are highlighting how this works, but the end result is that people are buying $630 in cash for $715 (via Whitney McNamara), knowing that Microsoft will pay them "cash back" that more than makes up the difference -- in some cases up to $250. So, in that case, the seller of the "cash" ends up making $85, and the "buyer" makes $165. Microsoft, of course, is out the $250. Talk about arbitrage.

22 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments

(Flattened / Threaded)

  • Jun 18th, 2008 @ 2:19pm

    aw man

    by some old guy

    If only I was a bit sleazier, I'd be making myself slightly richer while writhing in glee.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 18th, 2008 @ 3:03pm

    What's the old joke??

    by GeneralEmergency

    Ohhh yea.

    It's OK. Microsoft is going to make it up in -volume-.

    Buhhh Dump Bump, Chhhhhh.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 18th, 2008 @ 3:03pm
    by Captain Insano

    Sleazy? Hell where I come from that is called business smarts!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    • Jun 18th, 2008 @ 3:19pm

      Re:

      by some old guy

      Where I come from, that's called a sleazy business. To each their own I guess.

      (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

      • Jun 18th, 2008 @ 5:27pm

        Re: Re:

        by Anonymous Coward

        Where I come from, that's called a sleazy business. To each their own I guess.
        The sleazy ones are the ones that get rich.

        (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    • Jun 18th, 2008 @ 3:31pm

      Re:

      by Anonymous Coward

      business smarts... k

      MSFT could always invest the money into making their search and software better, instead of buying silly gimmicks to entice people into using their sub-par services. But hey, they can't all be google.

      (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 18th, 2008 @ 3:23pm
    by Anonymous Coward

    jsut because you can doesnt mean you should

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 18th, 2008 @ 3:32pm
    by Anonymous Coward

    I hope this article gets removed from techdirt, it may just be enough to put me out on the streets- this is how I've been paying the rent, Mike Masnick. You're a jerk.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 18th, 2008 @ 3:46pm

    On The Other Hand...

    by Jake

    When you consider all the extra traffic this must be generating for Microsoft's search engine, which has been somewhat overshadowed by its competitors of late, you have to wonder if they're actually losing money on this.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 18th, 2008 @ 4:27pm

    Reminds Me

    by Streaker

    This reminds me of the 'Long Distance Wars' of the 1990s, where the long distance companies would constantly send you checks to switch to their service.

    I knew quite a few people who made a few hundred bucks doing that.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    • Jun 18th, 2008 @ 6:11pm

      Re: Reminds Me

      by Mischa

      How did they manage to do that? Most of the time the checks were only large enough to cover the switching fee the local phone company charged you.

      (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 18th, 2008 @ 4:33pm
    by Hoeppner

    That's a small price to pay to get every tech blog or so talking about live search. Microsoft is only going to lose as much money as it was going to in the most likely events.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 18th, 2008 @ 4:36pm
    by Anonymous Coward

    I knew someone would figure out a way to exploit M$ for this. When you have to pay people to use your product you've already failed.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 18th, 2008 @ 4:39pm
    by Ravi

    Microsoft logic makes my head spin almost as bad as female logic...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 18th, 2008 @ 5:24pm

    Only two ways

    by Microwho?

    Microsoft only knows how to attack problems in two ways:

    1. Throw Widows at the problem, or
    2. Throw money at the problem.

    Evidently they chose the latter route to attack the "our search sucks" problem.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    • Jun 19th, 2008 @ 2:09am

      Re: Only two ways

      by Net_Lurker

      Dang! While I admit that the latter route might have been exploited by some to make good money, the former would have made for much better YouTube moments! Can you imagine Ballmer throwing chairs, only to change his mind and start throwing widows left, right and centre? I wonder where they manage to source so many from? Hmm... maybe once they ran out of a natural source, they started creating their own? Cripes! Be afraid men, be very afraid... :O

      (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 18th, 2008 @ 6:28pm

    Look at it this way...

    by Fubar4Fun

    Had Yahoo not been so homophobic and stepped away from the plate, they may've got some of that phat cash too. Then both companies be rich with mega hits and more $$$ and google just drown in their simplistic narcissism.

    Excellent strategy though.

    Beautiful plumage....

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    • Jun 18th, 2008 @ 10:40pm

      Re: Look at it this way...

      by BlatantDisregard

      Strange choices of words you have there. Calling Yahoo homophobic for backing down just doesn't make sense, for one, and google's adherence to simplicity doesn't call for the term narcissism, if anything, it's the opposite.

      (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 18th, 2008 @ 7:14pm

    Yahoo homophobic ???

    by Amaethon

    How can you call yahoo homophobic for stepping away from the plate? Yahoo isn't exactly a new start-up, and its search is far superior to any MS product. MS has a tendency to ruin and twist things to their alterior motives. I admire Yahoo for taking a stand against the big boy and keeping their independance. If yahoo had a startup page that loaded as fast as googles, their stand would have caused me to switch back to their search engine!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 19th, 2008 @ 10:51am

    MS is a Freak!!!

    by Abdul koroma

    I really don't understand how desperate people resort to desperate measures that are always doom to fail from the start.Giving users incentive for using a product that's trailing a disatnce third shows MS has reach a dead end: Microsoft On Yahoo Reboud, Buys Users ( http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=466&doc_id=154593&F_src=flftwo)

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 19th, 2008 @ 12:33pm

    the good news

    by another mike

    At least they're looking into new business models?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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