It would be nice to win a lifetime supply of groceries, fuel, or round-trip tickets to Hawaii. However, these giveaways don’t always turn out exactly as advertised.
To get a firsthand account of what it’s like to win these promos, we’ve collected these responses to a Reddit thread from a while back. A user asked, “Anyone who won a ‘lifetime supply’ of something, what did you win, and are they still supplying it to you?”
Many expressed disappointment, while there were a handful of satisfied customers. Either way, these answers should make you reevaluate your decisions about participating in such promos in the future.
#1
My friend won a year supply of gourmet wood fired pizza, one per week for a year. She's a mom with 8 kids (5 bio, 3 step) and so she made it a weekly outing for just herself or sometimes her and a friend to just sit in the restaurant and have free pizza in silence :).
Image credits: Sillysallyplainjane
#2
Had a customer when I worked at a Toyota dealership who had won a “new Toyota for life” promotion years earlier. They had tried to buy her out several times but she refused and showed up faithfully every 2 years for her new base model Toyota. I did the paperwork for her 2-year $0.00/month lease on a 5-speed Yaris with no AC.
Image credits: THE_BARCODE_GUY
#3
I won a computer in 1985 when I was 8 years old.
I've been programming ever since, so I won a lifetime's supply of being a complete f*****g geek.
#4
I have a “lifetime” supply to amazon prime...but have no idea why. A couple years ago everyone was telling me to get amazon prime. I finally decided to go ahead and get it, only to find out I already had it. I have never signed up, and no one else has access to my email. Ever since then I’ve been using it and it keeps renewing without me doing anything or paying anything. It’s weird, but I’m not complaining to amazon!
Image credits: voguebaby77
#5
When I bought my car, they threw in the "free oil changes and car washes for life" option for free. Cool. Now, every 3 months, I take the car in, get a free oil change, get it vacuumed and washed and usually they "recommend" certain extra services which I end up doing myself for a fraction of the cost.
It's been a pretty good deal for the past 5 years. Nice clean car, fresh oil and free diagnosis'.
#6
My sister once subscribed to the magazine ‘seventeen’. She canceled after a year... she’s still getting them. We’ve moved out of state twice and different cities countless times. They find her EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. It’s been 20 years.
Image credits: micah0991
#7
My dad bought a lifetime subscription to the New England Journal of Medicine in 1977 at age 30. It's issued weekly. He's still receiving it (and he still practices medicine). I don't know how much it cost him at the time but it's currently priced at $189 / year for physicians. They've asked him several times if he'd be willing to switch to an online subscription but he's refused. He does actually still read a lot of it and tears out articles of interest and sticks them in other textbooks on related issues. My mother wants to choke him because he will often have a dozen or two piled up around the kitchen.
Image credits: farhadd2
#8
Not me, but a story from a long time friend who was an attorney. A famous Ft Worth oil and gas law attorney defended a startup BBQ restaurant owner from a nuisance lawsuit for no cost because the young entrepreneur had limited funds. (My friend worked for the law firm in question here.) They were able to get the suit dismissed and the young man asked what was the fee? The attorney said he wanted a BBQ dinner delivered every Friday at his office for life. The last I heard this had continued for over 35 years...
#9
It's not food or fuel or any of that outrageous stuff but I won a lifetime VPN. Still getting the service after 2 years.
Image credits: AnHonestCanadian
#10
A friend of my dad won a lifetime subscription to a magazine. He was quick to point out that "lifetime" referred to the lifetime of the magazine, not him. He's outlived the publication by a few decades and counting.
Image credits: Russtopher617
#11
My mom won a year supply of free burritos from chipotle. They did a promotion where they hid these large fake burritos around local parks and such and my mom found one while walking in the park. Those who found the burrito were entered into a photo contest, where they had to go around town and take pictures with the burrito on their adventures. My mom won, and she got the burritos. They gave us 52 cards for free burritos. Since we had them as a family, we used multiple cards each visit. It still lasted us about a year though because we didn't visit every week.
Image credits: ctoldcereal
#12
Not a lifetime supply, but my wife won a year's supply of Pringles. She had 3 or 4 cases delivered in one go. The problem was that 75% was Chicken...
EDIT: since people were asking, they were Roast Chicken flavour.
EDIT 2: I am an Aussie and Chicken is a common flavour of chips/Pringles/crisps here. Possible unpopular opinion but they are only sorta ok if you have nothing else, but they are pretty terrible in comparison to Sour Cream and Chives, Salt and Vinegar and normal.
Image credits: IwatchGoats
#13
A friend of mine won free haircuts from sportsclips by making a half-court shot at the halftime of a basketball game, underrated prize for sure as haircuts there are $20-$25.
Image credits: Nickeagles21
#14
My girlfriend won a lifetime supply of fruit roll ups back when she was young and they delivered them all in one lump sum. She said that she went through the "lifetime supply" in about a month and they never gave her anymore fruit roll ups. Needless to say, her "lifetime supply" of fruit roll ups isn't doing much for her today.
Image credits: GatorGuy5
#15
Not a lifetime supply, but when I was about twenty I won a whole esky (cooler for you non-Australians) of iced coffee. It was supposed to be a month’s supply and contained 30 litres!
The problem was, being milk and being issued all at once it only had an expiry date about 14 days out so I had to either live on the stuff or waste it.
So me and my friends lived on baileys and iced coffee for a couple of weeks, any time of the day.
It was a rough few weeks.
Image credits: sharkieclarkie
#16
A loooong time ago, I won a lifetime subscription to an online dating website (I was hoping to win some money prize at the original free subscription). It became popular and expensive with the years, I used it intermitently with mediocre success until 6 years ago, when I decided to see if my account was still alive. It was, I did a search, found that guy, decided he was the one, sent him a message... and married the sh*t out of him.
I tried to check my account again a few years ago to check on a friend's date that she found on the same website, and my account has turned on me and is now asking me to pay.
I would say it served perfectly well!
Image credits: Kenova22
#17
How about a Christmas present from my to-be-wife of a case of toothpicks.
48 boxes of 250 toothpicks = 12,000 toothpicks
I just checked and there are 6 unopened boxes left. We've been married 27 years so ruffly 4 years left. So not quite a life time.
#18
I have a lifetime VIP membership to Zappos which gives me free next day shipping. Normally I get my order in less than 24 hours. They gave it to me because I had to call in after using the app to change the size shoe I ordered because I neglected to change it from the default option.
I’ve had it for about 9 years I think.
Edit: also when I log in on the app a bunch of VIP icons come raining down the screen.
Image credits: ___cats___
#19
My dad bought a price guaranteed phone contract back when the network was new and very few people had smart phones. He pays £8 per month for unlimited texts, unlimited calls, and 50GB of data.
They have called him relentlessly trying to get him to switch deals.
Edit: so I text my dad and he said it was for unlimited data, but it was 3G. He eventually switched to 4G and got a really good deal still because they had to give him incentive to switch from the amazing one.
Image credits: leafnood
#20
Mate got a lifetime blackcard for kfc. I dont know where He won it. Every weekend squad gathers and get some hot wings for free.
Image credits: deS0SA
#21
Not a lifetime supply, but knew a family that won a year supply of soda (I think it was Dr. Pepper). They got a 24 pack a week for a year but it was delivered in a few shipments. IIRC, they grumbled because they ran out between shipments. This was over 20 years ago, but I think that's what happened. I was 9 or 10.
Image credits: ThisFlippinStopLight
#22
My mum won a year supply of McDonalds when I was about 10. We got a book filled with 365 medium combo vouchers, all of which expired in a year. We had McDonalds for everything - birthday parties, sports team celebrations, family dinners. It was actually hard to get through them all. If I remember correctly, we still had a couple of pages to go by the end of the year. Sometimes my mum would get tipsy and just hand a full page of vouchers to whoever was near by.
Image credits: mintyugie
#23
In 1995 I won a life-time supply of Kentucky fried chicken. Every month I'm able to get a 20 piece bucket two large fries two large salad two large gravy and two 2 l bottles of pop/soda for free. And it's still going.
#24
I won a lifetime supply of essential oils so ofc I get high every night (by sniffing them) after my 9-to-5 and chill in the bath tub with some bath salts and a Chardonnay bc that’s just the typical 29 year old that I am.
Image credits: zerbs47
#25
I had purchased a membership at a local brewery/tavern in 2014 for $350 (Was half of the original price cause black Friday) this entitled me to a free beer a day for life. 40oz beer. The brewery closed late last year. In a way I'm kinda glad. Although I did get my money's worth within the first few months. My liver rejoices.
#26
Not a lifetime supply but when I was young my family went on a trip to the east coast. Tropicana Twist had some sort of contest going on so my parents bought me and my brother one each. We both won’t free drink. So at our next stop we cashed in on our free drink, and won a free drink. In total me and my brother won 57 free drinks which lasted the whole three week trip.
#27
Not sure if this counts, but a number of years ago I won a lifetime membership to my local golf course. It's probably been the worst thing to happen to my game.
Image credits: anon
#28
Not a life time supply, but a years supply of cookie time cookies. They called out my raffle number, but me being a drunk idiot, I read it upside down so decided to eat my ticket instead of claiming the prize.
Image credits: wasting-time-on-here
#29
Not a lifetime supply, but my best friend and I won “free burgers for a year”.
What that actually ended up being was 1 burger per week for a year, excluding the week leading up to Christmas Day.
And we didn’t even get the good burgers - this place had hand made patties, cheese stuffed, bacon stuffed... but we got thin a*s shingles.
We were so excited at first because we were broke a*s college kids... but by mid-year, we were going out of spite, not because we wanted it.
Image credits: CanuckNewsCameraGuy
#30
I won a Big Mac card that gave me 1 free Big Mac a week for a full year. Used it 52 times and it was electric.
#31
I won a free order of fried chicken from a chicken and donut shop local to my city. Still honoring it!
Won it by donating money to their kickstarter- they were originally going to use the funds to create a soup kitchen using their leftover chicken pieces. I decided to donate to help out locally and cause I live near the church that was helping to cofund it. Turns out they made it a contest due to popularity and switched from a non profit kitchen to a full blown restaurant which donates 100% of their profits instead.
Won’t lie though - when I got my email confirming I won, I totally thought I was being scammed. Also thank god they have multiple flavors of chicken and that this is a once a week deal cause I love fried chicken.
#32
I got a lifetime supply of toothbrushes, i got a new toothbrush every two weeks, but in like 1 month they stopped. I got really mad and I started calling them, and yelling at them. Later I learned that the factory they were making the toothbrushes in burned down.
Image credits: SkulzGamez
#33
Not me or someone I know but Dominos has a prompt within the last 2 years where if you got s tattoo of their logo you got lifetime pizza. They shut down the promo because of how many people were doing it.
#34
My brother was part of a mobile phone demo program where they were collecting usage habits, stuff like that. After a year they were supposed to disable the phones but they just... never did for his. Had free minutes, texts, and data for like 10 years before the phone was so obsolete it was unusable. Plus, free phone!
He buried it for fear they'd come after him with some crazy bill one day...
#35
A friend of mine won a year supply of chewing gum. She got a large sports bag with the companys logo on it that was filled to the edge with small packages each containing two pieces of gum. This was many years ago and I don't remember exactly how long it lasted but I do remember that she had it for a pretty long time and that she was sick and tired of it by the end lol.
#36
My grandma bought a board game that came with a CD version of the game too to play against a computer. Supposed to be 40 hours of free play, but her disc came with 400,000 hours on it.
#37
Not a lifetime supply, but I once opened a Snapple bottle at work and the cap said "Make no car payments for a year." This was soon after the time Snapple had started putiing cheesy jokes in the caps.
I read it and thought, " Very funny, and have my car repo-ed." Tossed the cap in the trash, and later heard it was a serious giveaway. That the cap would get me some $300+ for 12 months. Went running back to check the trash can, but it had been emptied.
Image credits: Tootlies
#38
The s****y local Pizza joint in my college town had a contest to pick a slogan for their restaurant during welcome weekend. I put in a joke slogan that I kid you not was "I know you wanna taste my Italian sausage..." Turns out I got runner up and won a year supply of pizza. In their mind a year supply means 1 free pizza a month for a year. The funny part is, I didn't even realize I had won until like 3 months in i missed out on 3 pizzas already. I actually never ended getting a single free pizza because I didn't like their food. The place went out of business a year or two later.
Image credits: pops992
#39
I won 200x Mars bars 2 months ago.
I had to give 50 away to colleagues and 50 to my older sis. I've nearly eaten one box (munching on one now) and I've still got another box sealed.
I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I got a 'lifetime supply' of these things?!
Image credits: thekingsman123
#40
I won either a lifetime supply or a year's supply of Original Source shower gel. They gave me the mint, lemon, and dragonflower. From what I remember there were two very large boxes full of it. I ended up giving away almost all of it as presents - funnily enough you get sick of it after a while. It smells very strong. There were a LOT of them.
#41
I used to work for a... a breakdown company in the UK that shall remain nameless, I quit after a year and they sent through a years membership the month I left, which is a reward you get when you still work there. I assumed it was a one-off mistake, but it's been three years and I still get memberships every year. I can't drive. It's completely useless.
#42
I won a lifetime worth of oil changes from a car dealership. I could only pick one vehicle and it couldn't be transferred after that vehicle was sold or died Luckily I had a nearly brand new vehicle. A year later, the dealership closed down in 2009 during the crash.
Story of my life.
#43
My mom won a lifetime supply of girl scout cookies and they did the same thing where they gave like 60 boxed to us all at once. And my family ate through them in about 3 months. It was pretty nice.
#44
I have a lifetime subscription to winRAR. Normally a paid app but I have it for free until I die.
Image credits: tagqc
#45
I 'won' a years supply at my local Starbucks, but so did 99 other people after standing in a line waiting for the store to open on its first day.
Basically got 1 drink a week for a year, whatever drink I wanted.
Ironically, this is how I found out I was a little too sensitive to caffiene and that lactose doesnt like me. Win?
#46
I won a 'years supply' of red bull.
They delivered it all in one go. 116, 250ml cans. No I don't know how they decided on that number.
I'm not a big fan of red bull but I don't mind vodka and red bull. So I (with my frat) hosted a vodka redbull party to use them up. I drank so much red bull I could hear my heart beating :D :D :D
I only entered the competition as the red bull car was going door to door asking did you want to enter the competition. So I said may as well.
#47
I have a lifetime Wow Account but now it says it expires in 2035. Haven't played in a while tho. I also had a lifetime sprint account but they took away like 10 years in. The ATT one is still going tho. (I worked on building both of their networks back in the 90s so it was part of my deal).
#48
Not a lifetime, but a year’s worth of Chick-Fil-A, which was maybe my highlight of 2017.
EDIT: I won a business proposal writing competition through my chamber of commerce and they gave me 52 cards good for either a sandwich meal or a nugget meal. One of the founders of the program was a store owner and thus had the power to get the cards.
Image credits: its-emmaj
#49
While I was an infant, my dad bought a lifetime family membership to a gym. It was a local gym which was bought out by a major brand, and then they were bought out by LA Fitness. The membership transferred over each time.
I never go to the gym. I like to run outside instead. I count this as "winning" because I've never been drawn though I enter a crapton of drawings.
Image credits: creepymimesmile2
#50
Won a lifetime supply of individual serving yogurts, within a year they had moved all the well selling flavors to larger packaging for more yogurt and less waste and wouldn't honor the spirit of the prize with the equivalent number of larger packages. We asked them to just stop sending it we couldn't even give away the amount we were getting of the few flavors left.
'Won' all the vouchers for chips I wanted from a brand I had never tried before after cutting my mouth on a mineral contaminate, the original bag had been pretty mediocre and I could only get more at a store far out of the way so after trying most other flavors and finding them equally mediocre stopped asking for more vouchers.
Image credits: IAMEPSIL0N
#51
Not really a life time supply but I the music app I use on my phone had a little problem with the easy to access controller (pause, skip, back) that was in the notifications, where it wouldn't close if I tapped the X AFTER unplugging my headphones WITHOUT pausing first. So, really specific, small problem. I sent an email, and they gave me the code to permanently unlock the ads-free version, which was literally just a small banner ad as you browse your playlist. Still nice tho.
#52
I know someone who won a life time of money by getting injured, they got a s**t load of compensation and decided to take it in monthly payments so they never have to worry about work again.
#53
I have Malewarebytes Pro, from before it had the set up it does, now. I get all the updates, same everything..I just don't have to pay.
#54
I stood outside of chick fil a over night in like 2007 for a years supply of free Chick-fil-A. It turned out to be 1 free number 1 a week for a year. Honestly only went maybe 10ish Times throughout that year and gave a s**t ton away.
