Gimmick. No earnings during trial period. Cancel during trial period, you get nothing and company keeps affiliate rewards that you had generated.

Review from the web:

FreeShipping.com is a newer program that a lot of bloggers are promoting. As a former eBay seller, I thought the idea of “Free Shipping” sounded pretty good and decided to do a little research –

If you Google search “FreeShipping.com” you’ll likely find close to 2 million results – and if you start reading those results you’ll be persuaded to think that FreeShipping.com is an excellent program. But deeper digging may prove otherwise -

WHAT IS FREESHIPPING.COM?
FreeShipping.com is a company that is like BigCrumbs in a way – they offer “Cash Back” for online purchases you make – BUT, instead of giving you the cash they give you “bonuses” that turn into “free shipping rewards” . The overall idea *seems* as if it may be beneficial to those who do a ton of shipping, but there is a lot of “glitches” in the program that are making FreeShipping.com seem more like FreeScamming.com.

PROBLEM #1 – The membership cost. If you do a Google Search for “FreeShipping.com Scam” you will find numerous reports being made by people that state their credit cards were billed between $79 - $89 “for no reason”. Let me clarify; there is indeed a reason why the credit cards are being billed this amount; it’s the membership fee. FreeShipping.com charges approximately $80 a year to be a member. Many times, like with MyLifeStylePerks.com, you are auto-enrolled into the program through another merchant (with MyLifeStylePerks the most common merchant is Victoria’s Secret). There are many companies that are promoting FreeShipping.com, including some very popular online florists. The florist will ask you when you are making your purchase if you are interested in getting “free shipping”. If you agree to get it you are agreeing to be enrolled in the FreeShipping.com program, which will be billed to your same credit card which you ordered the flowers through.

PROBLEM #2 – “Free Trial Membership”. FreeShipping.com has a big promotion for it’s “free trial membership” which leads you to believe that for 30 days straight you will have full access to 100% of the membership benefits without being charged a penny. The TRUTH is that while you do have “access” to the membership benefits during the 30 day period, you are unable to “qualify” for any rebates. If you do not extend your free 30-day trial to a full membership and pay the yearly membership fee, your shipping costs accumulated during the free trial are invalid for rebates; meaning you can use the program as much as you’d like but unless you pay the $80 you won’t get a penny back!

PROBLEM #3 – FINANCIAL GAIN AT YOUR LOSS. As mentioned above, during the 30 day free trial you will be using the links provided by FreeShipping.com to do your shopping and accumulate your “free shipping bonuses”. Every link provided to you is an affiliate company that FreeShipping.com works with. FreeShiipping.com is able to provide you with “earnings” because each time you use their links to make a purchase the company pays them a percentage of the purchase you make. So lets say during your 30 day “free trial” you place three orders and accumulate $15 in “free shipping bonuses” – at this point FreeShipping.com has made $45 in cash and although you may *think* you have earned $15, you have actually earned $0 since you have not yet extended your membership and paid the $80 membership fee. Now, if you decide to cancel your “free trial” as to avoid the membership fee, FreeShipping.com has walked away with a free $45 in affiliate income and you’re left with nothing. So while you’re attempting to save a few bucks FreeShipping.com is cashing in!

PROBLEM #4 – Redeeming “Rebates”. If you DO decide to stick out the program and pay the $80 membership fee and you DO decide to earn “free shipping” by shopping using FreeShipping.com affiliate links you will eventually earn enough points to get your free shipping rebate. Here comes the hassle –

When you want to redeem you will need to do the following:

a.) Photocopy your original receipt or invoice
b.) Download the rebates form
c.) Print rebate form
d.) Fill out rebate form
e.) Get an envelope
f.) Place all required items in the envelope (be sure to double check and see if any UPC / Barcodes are needed)
g.) Address Envelope
h.) Stamp Envelope
i.) Ship Envelope
j.) Wait for rebate

So requesting a single rebate is going to cost you a minimum of 2 pieces of paper, an envelope, a stamp, ink required to print said materials and about 15 minutes of your time. That may not sound like a lot, but the cost adds up! If you’re spending $2.00 to request a $10 rebate, you’re losing 20% of your earnings right out the gate!
PROBLEM #5 – The amount of “Free Shipping” you can get is not “limitless”. You can only earn a max of $500 per year. Take into consideration that you have to deduct the $80 you spend on you membership, which knocks your total “profit” down to $420.

If you really do a lot of shipping and you want to give FreeShipping.com a try, you can check it out here. However, I would suggest using a program like Mr.Rebates instead. Mr.Rebates allows you to earn cash money for your purchase. You can then spend your cash on shipping costs or whatever you'd like. BigCrumbs is also a great site for Cash Back shopping. I use them both on a regular basis. You can use my search box to find all of my articles about both companies as well as screenshots of my payments.

blueoregon said:...Has anyone actually became a member and received the rebates?

I joined FS.com several times, several years ago, and was able to get several claims fulfilled during the the free trial period. They paid kinda slow I recall, and I had to keep track of all my claims and payouts. I eventually quit and never id get a full,
paid membership -- seemed too much bother.

I would suggest you carefully read their rules about claims, eg if they'll pay off on several claims on the same vendor in the same month.

I had the free membership with them ~ 7-8 month ago , after I got flowers from proflowrs.com with $15 shipping , sign up for freeship.com, right away submited all docs by email , but they told me to send it via regular mail as well.
I did so as well on the same day, they got it and it was processed within 5 weeks.
As soon as i get a check i cashed it and cancel the memebership.
Nothing was billed to my credit card.

Oh I also used virtual credit card N from Citibank and set the amount of $1 and exp in 2 month.

So they could not even bill me for the membership

atlanticfisherman thanks for all the input. I got suckered in by ProFlowers around xmas last year. I forgot to cancel the membership during the trial so I was out the $80 or $90. Seems to me I joined up and submitted for the ProFlowers rebate. I then forgot about it and it was a long time before I got the rebate check. Then it was too late to cancel the trial.

I used ProFlowers again in the middle of the year so I remembered the freeshipping.com. I filled out the rebate on-line but I can't say for sure that I actually mailed in the paperwork. I didn't receive a check so I mailed the form along with a note and I eventually received a check. I was suprised because the rules say something about 30 day time limit.

I just ordered a few things on-line so I am about to submit more.

There are two types of rebates and both are limited to $10.00.
The first is from the list of associate merchants on their site. You select the merchant and click through like FW ca$hback or BING ca$hback. On the website you can see your click through history.
The second type is for other merchants not listed on their site or if you forget to click through for one of their associate merchants.

Either way, you have to fill out the form on-line, then print the form, attach reciepts, mail it, wait for check.
Also, you have to submit within 30 days.

Blueoregon wants to use for the shipping costs for the used books on Amazon.com. I think the shipping charge is set at $2.99.
This seems like a lot of trouble for $2.99. Even if you buy several books in one transaction, Amazon will give a seperate invoice for each one of the actual sellers.

I will try to post all the fine print concerning the two different rebates after this
Hope this helps.

Oh, I don't think freeshipping.com is a scam.
But, In my opinion its NOT a good deal. I don't think its worth the trouble.

$50 in Bonus Free Shipping Rebates

Your membership includes $50 in Bonus Rebates you can use for ANY online purchase. These are in addition to the $500 in members-only Exclusive Free Shipping rebates you get when you shop through our directory of over 1,000 merchants!

To make a claim, complete the form below, and follow the instructions provided:

Valid for the ProFlowers.com purchase made the day you joined- Get up to $15 CASH-BACK on your delivery charges
Good at ANY online merchant, not just those in our directory!
Claim up to $50 during your first year of membership ($12.50 can be claimed each membership quarter after your first four months)
Claims must be made within 30 days of the purchase date