Ryan McFarland

In my pseudo junk mail today was a message from TripAdvisor that said:

Hats Off to You for Contributing!

You posted on TripAdvisor and we’d like to send you a FREE hat as a token of our appreciation.

It’s our way of saying thanks for your wise words, candid comments and priceless photos.

Hurry to get your hat, but please don’t forward this email to friends. Instead, tell them to write a review so we can send them free stuff next year!

So i clicked on the link and filled out my membership details (couldn’t be phishing - there isn’t any points, money, miles or anything of value to steal from my profile there). Then i get this message:

I’m a little bummed because if the hat turns out like pictured i might actually wear it. So i sent an email to the address shown and i will just cross my fingers that it works out. Free is free. Hrm… speaking of, i never received my free luggage tags from Trip Advisor.

Update:

Received an email that seems to have gone out to many people…

Earlier today, you received an email offering you a free TripAdvisor hat to thank you for sharing your travel opinions this year. Sadly, we had a technical glitch that kept some of you from requesting your hats.

We’re very sorry for the inconvenience and wanted to let you know that the problem has now been resolved. We hope you’ll try again.