Is the red star 500 gift card a scam?

Answer 1

NO, It is not a scam although you still have to pay for the glasses to a shipping company which processes the, separate of Red-star. But when considering prices nowadays and how often one loses glasses they are a good value, probably up there with glasses like Smith if you get the right ones. Th polarization seems to be fine and does not rub off but this is subjective and dependent on what glass and wether there has been any damage to the lens. Overall a good value if you want cheap glasses that work pretty well.

Not really as the gift card is definitely a market strategy that works because for the price of one pair of Oakleys that you could lose, the price is like the same if not better for more glasses. A good deal if you want cheap but cool glasses other than random crappy Walmart stuff.

This gift card is not necessarily a scam. The gift card pays for the product but you are responsible for the PP&H (postage, packaging, and handling) costs which varies depending on the price of the items that you are purchasing and each item has it's own PP&H cost associated with it.

This company also has a promotion for free sunglasses of their 2010 styles. However, in doing some research, I've learned that these are lower quality sunglasses that you must take care with because the polarization film tends to rub off easily when you're cleaning them. So be extra gentle with the free sunglasses. And you are still responsible for the PP&H on these as well, so really since they are lower quality sunglasses you really end up paying for them in the end anyway. But they are decent.

Hope this helps someone out there.

Just to put some hard numbers for an example: I had a similar $500 gift card for this site. I ordered 4 pairs of sunglasses, and was offered a free watch to boot. My total order came out to about $475 (completely covered by the card) but I was still charged $81 for shipping, handling, and their "service fee." In addition, I was auto-enrolled in their monthly program, sending me 2 pairs for about $20. Getting un-enrolled was a pain, involving a 30 minute phone call to their 1-800 number.

The shades and watch were decent quality... but nothing great. (point of reference, I usually wear Natives) I'd say that $81 for the set was a pretty reasonable deal, but hardly $500 worth of savings.