Is a FREE Glass Pipe, Really Free?
TL;DR
- Why we are dissecting the “free glass pipe” offers.
- Who are the players in the game?
- How much does this free glass bowl really cost?
- Which one is the worst deal?
- Which one is the best deal?
- Our recommendation for the best free weed pipe.
Like most of you, I have a personal Facebook account. People have been inviting me for years to like their business pages, show support to their causes and to join their private and secret groups. I was added to a Facebook group called the Free Pipe Frenzy about 6 months ago, and then I got added to a new group last week called Free Pipe Fridays. Yesterday, a friend of mine showed me another glass pipe group on Facebook called the Glass Pipe Giveaway.
As a veteran of the cannabis industry, I said to myself…this can’t be real because free is never truly free. There is always some catch and I can’t stand to see the stereotypical “stoner” falling for some ploy. As stated, I am a cannabis industry veteran for the past 8 years, and part of our role as a media outlet is to help advance the legalization and normalization movements.
When we start seeing these types of advertisements that have gone “viral on social media” per se, as a media outlet we thought it was worth a deep dive to see if there were hidden costs associated with getting a free glass pipe.
Without any more delays, here is what we found out.
The Players
There are 3 main players that we took a look at here, to judge their transparency and costs.
Me Time Box Products
URL: metimebox.com
Free Pipe Location: https://metimebox.com/pages/free-smoke-pipe
Free Pipe Friday
URL: freepipefriday.net
Free Pipe Location: http://www.freepipefriday.net/FREE-TOBACCO-PIPES-OF-ALL-KINDS-000-no-code-needed_c_1.html
Free Pipe Frenzy
URL: freepipefrenzy.com
Free Pipe Location: https://mwnglobal.clickfunnels.com/order-8540631338323
The Test
Our test was pretty simple. Go through the checkout process and see if there were any hidden costs or anything else that would make us think twice about it being too good to be true.
We spent time looking on the website, not only for the free glass pipe, but also scanning the entire functionality, ease of use and rating the site with our TNMNews trust factor.
The TNMNews trust factor is a simple 5 star rating, based on the overall consensus of our staff and cannabis industry friends.
Me Time Box Products
Website Overview
This smoke shop website was pretty cut and dry and easy to use. The site MeTimeBox.com is promoting the purchase of a monthly weed smoking subscription box. The smoking subscription box is available to purchase for $45 if you want to receive it monthly and $55 if you want to buy a single box, one time. To us, it seems like a good deal if you consistently get high quality glass delivered to you every month, but we didn’t order it.
- The website itself has an SSL (https). We felt safe entering our credit card on this site.
- Website loads fast on our cell phones.
- There is a clear contact us page with phone number.
- Terms and conditions seemed transparent.
- Blog page is regularly updated.
- The brand has a social media presence
- Not many products to choose from
Glass Pipe Giveaway Overview
The page for the free weed pipe is hidden from the home page and menus, but there is a floating blue bar at the top of the website that allowed us to access the page for the Glass Pipe Giveaway.
Overall, the free glass pipe page performed like the rest of the website. It was fast and loaded clearly on both on my Chromebook and my cell phone.
The text on the page was a little gimmicky and full of sales hype and it almost seems obvious they are trying to “sell” you something beyond this free glass pipe. Also, I don’t think we have ever paid $30 for a pipe that “looks” like the ones pictured, but we are Vegas locals and just might be spoiled with cheaper glass, coupled with an abundance of weed ✌🏼
We liked the whimsical design with pictures of the glass pipes next to a donut, at the beach, out in nature and just feeling more mainstream, in general. It’s really the way that we have looked at normalization of cannabis since we started TNMNews in 2014. There is nothing wrong with taking your glass pipe on a hike with you and getting a little stoney on a mountain.
Nitty Gritty Small Print in the FAQ Section
Okay okay. We actually chuckled a little bit at this, because we knew we would have to pay SOMETHING, but we also know that there are plenty of people out there that expect something for nothing.
We added the free glass pipe to the cart, entered in our shipping details and continued to billing.
No surprises here. There was the standard $6.95 shipping cost with the ability to “upgrade” to faster 2 day priority shipping for $9.21.
Rating the Glass Pipe Giveaway from Me Time Box Products
A transparent, secure website, coupled with good social media presence and a no-strings-attached free weed pipe, we really liked it. One of our staff members really disliked the lack of more products.
[box type=”success” align=”alignleft” class=”” width=”100%”]TNMNews Website Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars[/box]
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FreePipeFriday.net – Free Pipe Friday
Website Overview
When we arrived at the FreePipeFriday website, the first thing we noticed is that we got a Chrome browser warning that the website were visiting, was not safe to visit and we should be weary of submitting any of our information over a non-secure page.
What does this warning mean exactly? Having a website that sends you to “HTTPS” versus “HTTP” in the browser. It is the universal internet sign for trust. Web hosting companies and domain registrars issue an SSL certificate to a website that collect data. It is critically important for e-commerce sites, because your credit card information gets encrypted. It doesn’t cost much either to protect your website visitors.
For our TNMNews readers, we push forward.
The FreePipeFriday.net website seemed like it was an attempt at a smoke shop website, but just poorly designed. There are grinders, chillums and a variety of links to other products.
- The website itself did not have an SSL.
- The website was a .net, which seems shady.
- Website was not mobile friendly.
- There is a contact form and a personal Gmail address.
- Terms and conditions were confusing and full of typos.
- Lots of broken or missing links on the website.
- The website has no social media presence, or all links are broken.
FreePipeFriday Free Pipe Offer
It was broken when we got to the page, so we clicked on something else which was a “Two Free Chillum” offer.
This is almost exactly what we were expecting from the Me Time Box offer, but this is user flow is just messy. Not only is it sloppy, but you can’t see what you are getting for the add-on product. While the prices *may* be good, googling some of the product descriptions turned up that most of these items could just be overpriced add-ons.
We added a “Kookie Monster Tobacco Pipe” for $20 to see if it showed up in the cart page, but it didn’t. We were hopeful that the shopping cart page would have an SSL, but it didn’t. Because FreePipeFriday did not have an SSL, we did not put our information into their site and just left the website.
Sorry TNMNews fans. We just wouldn’t risk a stolen identity.
For those of you fans who are curious, click the BBB link to FreePipeFriday on their website. It will definitely take you down a whole rabbit hole that leads to, what appears to be, a traditional smoke shop in the Dallas TX area that “sells CBD oil” and is no longer in business.
Rating Free Pipe Friday from FreePipeFriday.net
Summarizing our experience on FreePipeFriday, we would say it was pretty awful, and we do not recommend spending any time on this site, until the site is secure. Too many shady people out there on the dark web, to risk putting your credit card into a non-secure page.
[box type=”error” align=”alignleft” class=”” width=”100%”]TNMNews Website Rating: 1 out of 5 stars[/box]
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FreePipeFrenzy.com – Free Pipe Frenzy from Michael Dulaney
Overview
We had to switch formats on covering this one, because the Free Pipe Frenzy offer originated on Facebook, not a website. We had to opt-in to receive text messages and emails in order to find out if we “won” a free pipe.
One Friday morning, I woke up and had a text message from a random short number. The text message said that we had WON a free pipe 🥳 and I couldn’t be more excited.
Before clicking the link, I checked my email from bed and saw I had an email telling me that I won too. What a great start to a Friday.
Here is a copy of that email from Michael Dulaney (we have no clue who he is):
The FreePipeFenzy.com email stated that I needed to “add AT LEAST ONE add-on” to qualify for a bigger prize. I didn’t remember the other prizes, so I went back to the FreePipeFrenzy FB group and saw a bunch of things that made me think Mr. Michael Dulaney was trying to take advantage of people and overcharge them (more on that below).
We continued on to see what we won, but similar to Free Pipe Friday, we were stopped by the lack of an SSL on the Free Pipe Frenzy website, then his page redirected to a whole new website at clickfunnels.com.
Quick research note: Clickfunnels is an e-commerce program designed to make customers pay more using marketing psychology. Nice one FreePipeFrenzy.com. Now we all know the goal here.
[Skepticism Increases Rapidly]
Notice the different website URL and also notice that a regular glass pipe costs $40. Really? $40 for that? No thank you.
Here’s what we noticed:
- The website itself did not have an SSL.
- The website redirected to a marketing program.
- Contact Us and About Us pages go to the same place.
- Terms of use state the site is owned by a marketing firm.
- Very high pricing for regular smoke shop glass pipes.
- The website has no social media presence listed.
FreePipeFrenzy Winning Pipe Offer
This one definitely had us going down the rabbit hole, so we won’t bore you with all the details, especially because it seems like the people running the free weed pipe offer from Me Time Box figured it out. They wrote a very comprehensive blog post about Michael Dulaney, and the FreePipeFrenzy Pipe winners and what they really pay 😂
They went deep into the rabbit hole. It was more than we were willing to go, but it looks like they came up with the same cost that we did, after adding everything to the cart.
$37 for your free pipe that you won, for a chance to win something big.
No thanks. That same pipe will cost us $20 at a retail shop and we can just pick out the one we like.
Rating Free Pipe Frenzy from Michael Dulaey
Inherently, there is nothing wrong with the way that Michael Dulaney is promoting his business. It’s the same old song and dance, when it comes to head shops and smoke shop merchants overcharging for glass and weed smoking accessories.
Because of the poor transparency and wildly overpriced glass, we can’t recommend shopping at FreePipeFrenzy.com.
Michael Dulaney seems to make people happy in his FB group, unless you break one of the 30+ rules to being a member.
Here is just a sampling of his FB rules:
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First and foremost, NEVER QUESTION AN ADMIN. If your post was removed or your comments were turned off it was simply for the betterment of the group.
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Absolutely NO whining, complaining OR complaining about complaining!
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NO DEBATES. Do not start a debate and do not participate in a debate if you see one started.
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No posts of glass that arrives broken.
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Members found to be involved in any copycat groups in ANY capacity are not welcomed to be part of this group.
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Using items that you did not pay for or win from personally from this group to complete “set completion challenges” is considered THEFT and you will be instantly removed from the group without question.
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If you do decide to shop there and try to “win” a bigger prize, just make sure you are entering your credit card information on a secure site.
[box type=”warning” align=”alignleft” class=”” width=”100%”]TNMNews Website Rating: 2 out of 5 stars[/box]
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TNMNews.com Recommendations
Look, there are plenty of places to go and get a glass pipe. We imagine that there will be more of these types of smoke shop owners trying to get online and take advantage of naive people, so at least do your research on a company before deciding to do business with them.
Our clear cut winner of the Free Weed Pipe offer is Me Time Box Products, but it still will cost you $7, which isn’t really free after all.
But look on the bright side, getting a new glass pipe delivered to you for $7 is way cheaper than buying from your local dispensary or buying from an online smoke shop. The problem with all glass pipes is you don’t typically need a new one, until you drop your favorite one and it smashes into pieces.
Remember: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
