Free Book every day! Just pay p+p

InfamyInfamy

I have sent for the fairy book so will let you know how I get on!
:j

Naye

DaveAshton wrote: »

Corrected your post :cool:

Excuse me, I don't work for them, I am one of their thousands of happy customers.

InfamyInfamy

Lovely hardback book today on making tassels but I don't know anyone to give it to!

lauraj87

I had my Trinny and Suzannah book delivered and luckily it was for me as it was in such a poor state, marks all over the cover and the sleeve had been bent all inside of it, looks like it's the luck of the draw with this company depending how old their stock is, I would use again but only for myself, not to give as gifts

DaveAshton

Naye wrote: »

Excuse me, I don't work for them, I am one of their thousands of happy customers.

If they had "thousands of happy customers" they wouldn't need to give out free books to bring in new customers. Calling the book free is also quite deceitful, and makes me wonder what else they're lying about (we already know the books are in crap condition, so that's one thing).

Also, regarding previous naive posts (not neccesarily by you, Naye) about "you can't make money on free stuff...". Pick a random playing card. I'll let you have that card for free, but you have to give me 50p postage to receive it. I could post it to you for 30p, plus a 5p envelope.
My outlay, 35p. You give me 50p. So I make 15p per card sent out. A deck of 52 cards would therefore make me £3.45ish in profit, just on postage. I know the cards would never sell, so I don't need to factor the profit against the original item cost, it's dead stock.

OK, now replace playing card for a paperback book with approx. 200 pages. It'd cost me about 50-75p to post it. You pay me £2.45 (same as Bangzo are charging). I'm therefore making at least £1.70 in profit per book.

For every 1,000 people taking up this "free" offer, I'd be making at least £1,700, amd maybe nearer £2,000 just on the p+p cost.

Naye

You do seem to be forgetting that they have overheads as well to consider, more than likely staff to pay so where as I agree they are offering books to people to get more people in the door, I don't necessarily agree that they are making money on it, sending playing cards out doesn't have an overhead to consider, sending thousands of books a week surely does.

At the end of the day, the book is for free, I don't understand why so many people are having a go about it. If you don't like the offer, don't use it, it's as simple as that. I know I will continue to use it :beer:

lisyloo

I'm therefore making at least £1.70 in profit per book.

I think you are forgetting quite a few business overheads here.
If you are doing this personally and don't mind stuffing envelopes and going to the post office in your free time then yes.
But if you are a business you need premises, storage, insurance, staff wages, tax, national insurance, benefits (sick pay, holidays), fire extiguishers, toilets etc etc.
I can't imagine anyone would make money on this.
Free advertising and goodwill - yes.
Profit after overheads - I have my doubts.

Naye

lisyloo wrote: »

I think you are forgetting quite a few business overheads here.
If you are doing this personally and don't mind stuffing envelopes and going to the post office in your free time then yes.
But if you are a business you need premises, storage, insurance, staff wages, tax, national insurance, benefits (sick pay, holidays), fire extiguishers, toilets etc etc.
I can't imagine anyone would make money on this.
Free advertising and goodwill - yes.
Profit after overheads - I have my doubts.

My point exactly, thanks lisyloo :beer:

asile21

Hi,
Just wanted to add that in the last week i have receievd 4 of thier 'free' books, that were ordered on several different days since last week.
ALL of the books that i have had so far have been in excellent condition - so it seems that the condition of the book you get is luck of the draw.

I would also like to add how very efficient this company are - with one of the books arriving the next day and all professionally packed (in custom-made, printed boxes or envelopes - which cost at least 50p each)
Also one of the books i had was a large hard back book and the postage alone would have cost the company the £2.45, so on that one they were probably losing some money.

I think that yes they probably do get these books very very cheaply (or even free), and on some they probably do make a very small amount of profit, and on others they probably lose money - but they are getting there website noticed by LOTS of people, some of which may return and buy books in the future or buy extras at the time of ordering.
Basically if you like the look of the book and you are happy to spend £2.45 to get it, then go for it - if not don't bother.

Personally i have been very happy and will keep on ordering any books that are of interest to me or someone i know and i probably will order more books from them for christmas as they seem to be quite fairly priced.
Thanks

StaffsSW

lisyloo wrote: »

Profit after overheads - I have my doubts.

Maybe not profit, but certainly contributory value to costs, and a clever marketing strategy. I wonder how big their mailshot distribution list is at the moment? I wonder how many recipients of "free" books will go on to purchase more and more books, at a full line margin as well.

There is very little for "free" in this world - It may not be upfront or obvious, but somewhere along the line, somebody is making money from every "free" offer.

Back to the point in hand though, the book is not "free", there is cost of obtaining. Which is why I love "free" postage on ebay. I build it into the cost of the item, and many people genuinely do believe that i am funding it out of my own pocket. And long may that continue....