Free laptop ?

While waiting outside in the car for my wife come out of a store I heard over the radio an ad for Freelaptopnation.com. It reminded me of the ordeal I went through this past summer for one of those "free" laptops. I did cover this in a previous post several months back but I thought it was worth another look. I believe it's even the same website. I remember hearing it on the radio thinking well maybe because I heard this on the radio it has some legitimacy to the claim. Being an experienced internet surfer and computer user for several years I thought I was going in at least with some smarts. Boy was I wrong on both parts.

It began innocent enough going into the website. On the first level are some free or almost free trials or subscriptions you must sign up for. I remember trying to pick ones that would be easy to cancel or the least expensive. Then your on to the next level. Again I try to do the same thing and it gradually gets harder to do. You have to sign up for so many for each level. When you finish one there is no hint that another level is coming so when you click done they give you another level to go through which gradually gets more expensive and harder to find good deals. Many of them have you signing up for memberships or trials for things you really don't need. To be honest I got kind of wrapped up in what I was doing and didn't keep track of everything I signed up for. They even name levels like the "Gold" or "Platinum" to almost tease you into thinking your almost done. I think I spent at least two hours filling out forms and signing up for stuff and I think I got to about the third or fourth level before calling it quits. I finally said to myself what the heck is free about this? Along with a few other choice words my mother wouldn't be proud of. I wish that was the end of the story. I tried to cancel what I could remember I signed up for before I got charged for them. Unfortunately I missed a few and almost a month later I noticed some extra charges being drafted from my bank account. It happened at least two or three times. I usually called them up and tried to sound ticked off and asked as civilly but firmly that I cancel whatever service or membership I signed up for. It wasn't really there fault after all. In all cases charges were reversed and I did eventually get my money back.

Are these laptops really free? Not in my opinion. Though I didn't add up all expenses I'm sure it wasn't a super deal and if your paying for other items or memberships to get the laptop how is that free. I could save my money not buying into those things and buy a laptop for less hassle. Also I believe if you go in thinking you'll just cancel everything after signing up for stuff you might get burned . Many of the items require you to at least complete the free trial period or at least one pay period. So if you cancel something before meeting the requirement you get no laptop.

My suggestion is to avoid these if at all possible. They are not free. Should you try it write down every offer you sign up for and make note of the terms and requirements needed. Don't make my mistake and forget about them a month later when they start bouncing checks in your account. Though I don't think they are a total scam they do tend to leave some details out or at least make them hard to find. I just wanted to share my experience and perhaps help others avoid the same mistakes I did. There is a lot of truth to the saying "Let the buyer beware".

Free Laptop?

I'm sure many of us have seen these either in our email or advertisement. The usual line is that you'll receive a new laptop(doesn't matter brand) all you have to do complete the sponsors deals. In my case I heard of one advertised on the radio I can't remember the name of it now but there are many of them around that do same thing. I'm usually pretty skeptical about stuff like this but, for some reason I thought maybe this would be different since it was on the radio maybe it legit or different in some way. Boy was I wrong. At first you go to the given website and it says all you had to do was fill out or sign up for some deals from there sponsors. The items are usually from reputable advertisers so it doesn't seem like such a risk. They seem to do this in steps. At first they seem cheap and no big deal. Some are free or only cost a couple of dollars. Then you go to the next page and there are more things to sign up for. If you notice the initial costs are slightly more. Fill out a few more things and then go to the next page. More sponsor pages requiring filling out and more memberships. Like before the prices go up. You get to the point that you lose track of who and what you've signed up for. It was late at night and my defense were down so some how I probably got through at least three pages or so before I decided I had enough. At that point I thought what about this is free? If you add up all the memberships(all have monthly fees) you'd probably be paying more than if you went out and bought a laptop elsewhere. As much as you try and remember what you signed up for your bound have a couple slip by. I did a couple of weeks later I noticed an extra charge in my account. I quickly gave a call and they did eventually refund my money. Just this past week(little over a month later) a $69.95 charge was taken out of my account. Unfortunately not aware this was coming out my account had insufficient fund it at first refused then they did it again the next day(still insufficient funds) and now I get socked for $25 from my bank. So now my account's down $94.95 before I even know it. When I did see I called them (furious trying to hold my temper) they say they are going to refund my money. I'm currently still waiting for that to happen. I'm still out $25 from the bank though. Thankfully this was just a secondary account not our main house account where the damage could have been worse.Worst thing is I've got no one to blame but myself for falling for this stupid marketing scheme. A word of advise is that if you see something like this advertised delete it or ignore it.