a free IBM compatable computer."
So, anyone know what the scam is here? While I’m not completly cynical yet, but if I was going to trust someone, it wouldn’t be unsolicited phone calls. They left a number, and an operator number.
Are they going to want me to sign away my soul to MSN or AOL, in exchange for a 286 with no moniter? Is this some kind of bait&switch thing? A phone bill scam? Anyone heard of this one?
–
“Oh, no, some of my bees are dead!”
My guess, based on the little info you have,
is that you’ll have to go to a three-hour
sales pitch for vacation property and walk
away with a PC old enough that GoodWill won’t
take it (which was the case with my 486/66 -
wouldn’t even accept it for free!).
bup, you must have been to the wrong Goodwill. My girlfriend’s brother is a Goodwill manager and his store has loads of old computer equipment, including a genuine Hayes 1200 modem and a complete Commodore 64 system!
BTW: MSN & Best Buy have what sounds like a good deal; sign up for 3 years of MSN at Best Buy, and get a $400 rebate.
[BTW: MSN & Best Buy have what sounds like a good deal; sign up for 3 years of MSN at Best Buy, and get a $400 rebate.]
no offense, but that deal blows
3 years is way too long to be locked into a dialup isp - locked at a monthly rate of probally $20 - 22 /month
1 good quality isp’s can be had for about 13/month if you know where to look.
2 dialup is slowly being overcome by high speed solutions such as cable and dsl- and more are likely down the pike (wireless, powerline) - the cost will probally come down to what you have to pay for dialup (cable is as low as $29.99/month - just $8 more per month then the dialup lockin price of 22.99 (.95?) for aol and about 50x as fast.
3 as more people get a high speed connection the web will eventually require it
**Ura-Maru wrote:
So, anyone know what the scam is here? While I’m not completly cynical yet, but if I was going to trust someone, it wouldn’t be unsolicited phone calls. They left a number, and an operator number.**
My recommendation; take a pen and slip of paper and find a local pay phone. Call 'em and find out. If after 3 mins they haven’t answered your question, hang up.
I’d definitely call up and ask SPECIFICS about the magical computer they are giving you including the terms of whatever sales pitch you are going to.
I’d bet serious money that it is a time share/ resort scam where you will have to go listen to a 3 hour spiel on the place, and maybe even STAY there as part of the deal which is always NEARLY free (less a $20-$30 per person ‘processing fee’).
We literally got a call for one of these ourselves just the other day. The offer was 2-hours of your time for a timeshare called the ‘Dolphin Resort’ up in Anaheim, CA that comes with a weekend stay at the Radisson and tickets to Disneyland. We’re still considering it because that ALSO sounds like a pretty good deal for only two hours of a spiel and a 1 hour drive to get there.
Incidentally, you have to be careful with the trip offers, and yes, I already discounted their ‘other trips’ as bullshit. Typical scams involve:
I have to say I am impressed that the physical items they are now offering have been upgraded to a computer (albeit a no-doubt piece of crap with no monitor). The best we’ve been offered thus far was an off-brand boom-box stereo ~$50 value)
I saw one of those “free PC” ads, and looked at the fine print.
First, the PC’s they were selling were “refurbished.” I imagine that they did not cost very much.
Second, you were locked into an ISP for two or three years, at $20-30 per month. As someone above pointed out, this is not a terrific deal.
But here’s the kicker: The PC was warranted by a “third-party” servicer, unrelated to the free-PC company. And you can bet that the agreement with the ISP contains a “hell or high water” clause.
What does this mean? Your “free-PC” breaks down. You try to get warranty service. You wait on “hold” for hours. The people are rude and unhelpful. Finally they tell you to ship your PC to North Dakota (at your expense). If you send it, it sits there for a month, and then they send it back with the same problem, apparently untouched. Meanwhile, you have to keep paying $25 a month for Internet Service that you can’t use. Think you can take them to court? Think again, buddy - your contract contains a clause that requires arbitration in Vladivostok. And by the way, your Internet Service was never very good anyway - slow, busy signals, etc.
Ok, so I got a little carried away, and maybe the deal you mentioned is better than the one I saw, but I would suggest that you be very careful. Imagine what you will do if you are unhappy with your free PC or internet service.
And take a look at the “terms and conditions.” You may discover that they are carefully drafted to make sure that you have no way out if there is a problem.
Even if everything seems fine now, things can change very quickly in computers, and you are “locked in.” Not a good thing, IMHO.