This is a free sample of coffee with enough for you and two friends to share in a plunger!
Available in Australia only.
Mod: Edited Title to reflect postage charge
Free Ethica Coffee Sample (70 Grams), Pay Postage of $1.10
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OzChick on 04/02/2010 - 21:04 ethicacoffee.com (2384 clicks)
Last edited 06/02/2010 - 15:36 by 1 other user
Last edited 06/02/2010 - 15:36 by 1 other user
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I've received tons of free things. Just keep trying (or work out what you're doing wrong), and watch out for those that ask too many personal questions.
Update: I submitted for this. They only ask for name, address, email and phone number.
Sorry to hear you had no luck, but I have got a couple of free instant coffee samples, and an Artliner pen from such offers. Maybe you were just unlucky and they ran out before they got to you. As far as I know such offers are genuine, but they do want to collect your address and email details to send more advertising. I'm sure you know how to deal with those.
Hi, I'm the Webmaster. This is free, and we will send you a sample. Just complete checkout and pay for the postage.
Is there any postage charge? I didn't see anything about this without having to register on the site. If they are the same ones that I see in fair trade cafes around the place, it's good coffee and I'm happy to buy a cuppa whenever I pass a shop and feel a coffee craving coming on. :)
No postage charge.
The postage is $1.10
Sorry just to confirm - if you placed your order before there was a postage charge, will the order still be put through? It's a bit poor if those orders aren't honoured! It's still nice to offers samples all the same.
@sev snape: Yes, orders requesting 1 sample will be processed. The system automatically deletes orders requesting more than one sample.
how many can u get??lol cuz i added 25 and still 0?
Really, they let u order 25? Hmmmz u would think they wouldnt actually send it out but who knows?
I would think the website would be fixed to allow only one sample. It is obviously due to the multiple orders and the deal going viral (thanks to OzBargain) that a postage charge was later introduced. On the brighter side, it is good publicity for the company IF they can conduct themselves professionally.
Thanks :) - I ordered 10.. hopefully they send 'em out and I can share it around.
It lets you order more than once with the same account too…. i had 35 in my cart at one point lol.. i didnt try to order that many tho - i just went for 10.. i mean there are limits even on my greed ;)
Surely they aren't going to honour more than 1 sample? The P&H costs would be too prohibitive.
700g would cost over $10 to send, not to mention the actual cost of the coffee.
Yea i agree but who knows ay? : )
I really hate it when people abuse freebies (or even bargains by order 100 of an item on special), as it's hard enough to find a genuine offer to something you actually want to try.
absolutely agree!
Sounds good - ordered my sample.
Are you sure shipping is free? I paid $1.10 for shipping. Regardless, its cheap since the product is cheap but just a heads up to those who don't know about any charges :)
Well it was free when I ordered, I just checked the email I received :
SubTotal : AUD0.00
Shipping and Handling Fee : AUD0.00
Tax Total : AUD0.00
Total: AUD0.00I guess that has now changed.
Hi, it's Adam here, the Webmaster of Ethica Coffee. The postage is $1.10 and you will receive some beautiful award winning coffee in the mail.
Please order just 1 sample. We have had orders for 10, 25 and even 10,000,000. The offer is there so you can sample our product and hopefully become a customer, so please respect it.
We will send a free sample of coffee to anyone who is willing to cover the cost for the postage.
ROFL @ 10,000,000 !
I just ordered a sample and was charged $1.10.
Will be interesting to try their coffee.Hi Adam. How long will it take to get my sample? I live in Sydney.
Hi Bob
There has been an overwhelming response to the free sample, with over 3,000 orders in the last 2 days.
We need to go through each one and we'll be sending out samples to legitimate requests, such as your request, and others which have requested just 1 sample.
It may be a little slower than we would have expected, but you will get something soon. This is the problem when something goes viral on the internet!
Any questions, please feel free to contact us here: http://www.ethicacoffee.com/contact-us.html
Regards
Adam
Pay postage for a free SAMPLE? No thanks!
Companies send a free samples in the hope of gaining new customers who like the product. Companies DO NOT send free samples just because you want something free. What would be the point.
If you are genuinely interested in trialling a product, then why would you have a problem with paying for postage?
I'm okay with paying for postage to try something, when the postage charge is clearly defined at time of order.
Unfortunately in this case the postage was added after the order was completed and I had received a confirmation email! Perhaps a better approach would have been to honour the orders already placed, and charge new orders the postage fee.
I'm going to pay $1.10, because that is still cheap for 75gms of coffee and I like the principals with regards to how the coffee is sourced.
precisely
Actually, the postage is stated at checkout.
Where exactly did I state I wasn't genuinely interested in trialling a product? Rather presumptuous of you.
This deal is like going to a supermarket and requested to try something by a sales rep, and when they get your interest you're told you'll need to pay them for it.
You're not at a supermarket. You're online in a shopping cart. We need to get it to you. Australia Post still charges us to get you a free sample, so why should we not ask you to pay Australia Post for the charge to get it to you.
You are welcome to come and collect the free sample from us at one of our locations, or send a courier of your own to collect it for you. The sample of the coffee will still be free.
@adamwydeman: You once again fail to see my point of view. I have ordered samples online on various occasions in the past but NEVER EVER had to pay a cost, postage or otherwise, for sampling a product. You are the first mob I've ever come across who wants to charge for the privilege of trialling your product.
As for whether I may or may not be genuinely interested in your product, I am the sort of person who would rather not waste his time filling out order forms, and then possibly having my personal details misused by rogue companies for marketing purposes. If I order a product online, it is only because I trust them AND have a genuine interest in the product/s.
Had the coffee been delivered free as was offered initially, it would have represented a bargain to me. If I lived next to your shop, I would've voted positive. Once the postage costs were introduced in the middle of the ordering process, it was no longer a bargain to me, hence my negative vote. Had I been believed that your product had a good chance of making my taste buds happy, I would've been happy to even pay double the cost of postage for your sample. Had your coffee sample turned out good, I would've regularly ordering your coffee, even if it meant paying for postage costs.
This is OzBargain, a site dedicated for bargain providers and bargain hunters. OzBargainers have a right to vote, positive or negative, so long as this is done with sound rationale. I voted negative because the $1.10 coffee no longer represents a bargain to me.
Your attitude as a seller/representative upsets me. If my negative vote upsets you like it seems to have, I'd be happy to retract it, but only if you can start treating your prospective customers with some respect.
Oh, and I didn't say that you weren't genuinely interested in trialling a product. It does seem that your interest waned when you had to pay for the delivery cost.
@adamwydeman: Yeah, that's because your product may turn out to be rubbish, and I'd hate to think I paid for trialling rubbish…..
@adamwydeman: Sure you didn't explicitly say that I wasn't genuinely interested in trialling a product, but when you said "Companies send a free samples in the hope of gaining new customers who like the product. Companies DO NOT send free samples just because you want something free. What would be the point.", what exactly did you mean?
@McMerc: We put a postage price on the offer due to more than 1,000 people ordering more than 1 sample.
We are a small business and cannot give samples for the sake of a sample, we're looking for customers, like any business.
A small postage fee will help us to not only offset the price of the postage, but also make people, looking to get a free sample for nothing more than just because its free, think twice about ordering, while people who are genuinely interested in sampling our product can receive a sample and trial it.
We simply do not have the marketing funding to send hundreds of kilograms of coffee out without a return.
We know our coffee is outstanding. We're very proud of it. And we're sure anyone who samples it will think so too. We did not post this on this website, but thousands of people have flocked to our site from here for the free sample.
Many of these people were looking for one thing - free. They were not after coffee, if it was a free pen, they'd probably have clicked the link too!
I apologise if I have mistaken you for one of these people, and I'd be happy to send you a free sample without the postage cost. Simply complete the checkout, but make no payment and tell me your order number and I'll have it sent to you.
@adamwydeman: Thanks Adam. Appreciate your response. My negative vote has been retracted and respecting the costs you are incurring with the promotion, I will humbly forego your offer. See you at the cafe!!!
Hi Adam,
I ordered when there was no postage charge. There was also no mention on the website of a limit of one per customer, or anything like that. So I ordered 10. I often make coffees for friends, so it would have been a good way for me to share some around.
it would have made sense to at least state on the site that there is a limit, even if your website software was unable to limit the amount put in to a cart.
it would also have been nice if instead of your back-end system just deleting orders for more than one, to just re-set them to one.
And even better would have been an option to order whole beans. everyone knows gridning at home makes for fresher (and thus better) coffee. :)
I'm not going to vote negative on this, as I understand you never posted it here and had no idea what kind of response you'd get. But at the very least I hope it opens your eyes to some of the issues facing online retaillers today.
Hi Salem
Ordering 10 samples would mean that we had to send you 700 grams of coffee at no charge. Imagine if 1,000 people all ordered 10. We would have to send out 700 kilograms of coffee at no charge.
70 grams is a fair sample size, considering the instant coffee sachets in hotels is a 15 gram size.
The product does say "Please Order just one (1) sample, as orders over one (1) will not be accepted."
Not everyone has a grinder, we might consider bringing out a grind sample later.
If you still want a sample, I'm happy to send you one, please make an order and don't pay for postage, but do send me the order number so I can approve it.
Regards
Ethica Coffee
Done. cheers.
(note: at the time I ordered there was no mention of the order limit that I could see. It seems to have been added more recently, along with the mention of the postage charge)
Hi everyone!
I think in fairness to all other Freebies that do not require P&H charges, this offer would probably be better re-posted as a "Deal" rather than "Freebies". The reason is because by the rate of $36/kg (excl postage) from the Ethica website, this 70gm sachet would equate to around $2.52 (if you were able to buy it without paying P&H) - so given that you will need to pay $1.10 P&H, it is technically not a free sample, but rather a 56% discount of the product.
Sorry to be so pedantic, but I do believe entries listed under "Freebies" should be just that, plain and simply free with no strings attached (even if it's clearly spelt out).
LOL. I didn't post this offer. This was picked up by one of your members, so you'd have to ask them to do it.
As for the calculation, if you are including postage in one, the other must also contain postage for a correct calculation.
wow my order is probably canceled with out a warning
although i made the order way before the postage scam was added
and received the invoice with $0.00How many samples did you order?
let's just say that 25 that you metiond above is my order
i dont want to disclose the exact number or my personal informationOk, you ordered 1.75 kilograms of coffee as a sample? Just so I understand, how is it that us adding postage is a scam?
Some people on here astound me. You all feel like you are entitled to everything. This is a small business asking for a nominal charge to get his product to you. Like he said, he is only asking for postage because people like you abuse the system.
Then there's people who complain saying "I never get charged for a sample…" or "why should I pay for a sample" etc.
Can you go to Woolies and say "I have never tried this product before, can I get a free sample?"!And like the owner said, a satchet is apparently normally 15g, so you are getting about 5 serves from this sample.
The people complaining about having to pay a measly $1.10 for a sample are probably the same ones who tried to order 50 pcs for free!
Thank you Mick.
"Like he said, he is only asking for postage because people like you abuse the system."
Yes abusers annoy me too because they wreck it for everyone else, and they do not act within the spirit of the promotion. I completely support Adam and Ethica Coffee in the introduction of the postage charge as it deters abusers, but I also expect Adam and Ethica Coffee to honour their commitment to those people who ordered one sample and were promised free postage. From everything I've seen in this post, Adam and Ethica Coffee seem to have honoured that commitment.
"Then there’s people who complain saying “I never get charged for a sample…” or “why should I pay for a sample” etc. Can you go to Woolies and say “I have never tried this product before, can I get a free sample?”!"
If I go to Woolies or wherever and samples are available for trial purposes, then yes I expect it to be free. I'd have no issues if they told upfront that there is a cost, but I'd absolutely get the shits if I get told upfront its free and just as I'm about to walk away with the sample, I'm then told there is a charge.
"The people complaining about having to pay a measly $1.10 for a sample are probably the same ones who tried to order 50 pcs for free!"
You'd be probably right for the majority but not everyone. Like I said before, my gripe was a principled one and even though Adam was kind enough to honour his commitment for a free coffee sample delivered, I chose not to take it up.
And for your kind information, yes I eventually got one delivered and paid for the postage…..
As you can see from the post below from 2cats. We have delivered all samples to people who have requested just one sample, whether they have paid for postage or not. We believe that if you truly wanted to sample a product, you would order just one sample.
We want an honest relationship with honest people and we have honored our commitment for a free sample (see how there is a singular notion in this comment, it is not a plural) for anyone who has requested a free sample.
…and I congratulate you for that! Good on ya!
So is all the order with quantity of more than 1 has been canceled?
If not, they should be, OR only sent one!
I received my sample today. Postage was free:)
Got my free (and postage free) sample yesterday. Had a cup this morning. Was ground a bit too coarse for espresso, which I won't hold against them as they need to cater to the larger potential customer base with the sample, which I assume is plungerites. But it tasted OK anyway. Certainly beats the hell out of supermarket ground coffee, no matter which supermarket brand you buy. Thanks Ethica. :)
I don't believe free stuff on this forum anymore because I never receive anything from them.