FREE PHONE DEALS - LEGITIMATE OR SCAM?

[Admin]

These "free" phone deals going around, are they legitimate or a scam? I've done some research on the Internet, and some seem to be in both categories. What's your experience and views on this one?

Happy hunting!

Preston

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[Admin]

CINTEX WIRELESS - IS THIS FREE PHONE DEAL A SCAM?

I received this mailing saying “you have been pre-selected” with a return address of Link Up America. Sounds like insurance to me, or perhaps another “great” investment opportunity, or a local used car dealer, or some similar offer, or perhaps a scam! When I opened it up, it was from Centex Wireless, offering me “Free Phone and Free Service - Act Now - Limited Supply.” Now when I see something that says “Free” or “Limited Supply,” I figure it is a scam!

So, I read a little more, and it says that I must be on Medicaid (which I’m not), Supplemental Security Income - SSI (which I’m not), Federal Public Housing Assistance - Section 8 (which I’m not), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - SNAP - Food Stamps (which I’m not), National School Lunch Program - Free Program Only (which I’m not - shucks, my kids are GROWN, and my grandkids aren’t on any of these free programs either, as my kids WORK), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families - TANF (which I’m not, although I would like to get on Obama’s Dole, as I’m pretty needy at times), Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program - LIHEAP (which I’m not, but I did call about this one time, and I’m barely over the line on income - I sure could use some home energy assistance each month, as my electric bill keeps going HIGHER AND HIGHER, which is why I’ve been reading up on energy scams and legitimate offers which might help out); then it went on to say that I might qualify if my income level is 135% of the Federal Guidelines for poverty, but again, I’m just a little bit over the limit! So, I guess I’m screwed again! Boy, no wonder the government in Washington is broke - I didn’t know they had ALL THOSE DOLE HAND-OUT PROGRAMS! Jeez!

I had the phone company take out my land-line phone a year or so ago when I filed for bankruptcy, as AT&T is a MONOPOLY AGAIN, and they are sure acting like it - what started out to be around $15 a month finally creeped up to around $50 a month, so I just called ‘em and told ‘em to take it out. THEY PITCHED A FIT, just like a little 2-year old who has been told that he can’t have any candy! But they DID finally disconnect me, after I kept calling them a few times.

I had been using an ElCheapo TracFone for emergency use only for a coupla years, in case my car took out and needed towing, which it did a coupla times. So, I began giving out the number of the TracFone and using it as my primary phone. I did keep the Internet part of the AT&T deal, which was $14.95 a month, but I expect them to try to go up on this soon! The TracFone costs me $19.95 for 100 minutes, which is about what I use in a coupla months; then they came out with a Double-Minutes Phone, which I BOUGHT (nope, nobody GAVE it to me) for $19.95 (and they’re NOW selling for $9.95)! So, every few months, I get a card at one of the local stores that costs me $19.95 and gives me 200 minutes on my ElCheapo! It’s sure a lot cheaper than AT&T.

I had been playing with Skype and some of their competitors on long-distance usage, and I found that their 2.3¢ per minute SURE BEAT AT&T’s rate of 39¢ per minute, especially on a 30-45 minute call!

Then I got to thinking that, perhaps I should “Google” this Link Up America outfit and their related Cintex Wireless outfit and see if they were for real. What really got me to thinking about it, was that they wanted me to send in some kind of proof of my income, like my last year’s tax return (which would have my Sociable Security Number on it, along with a lot of other private information that’s nobody’s business)! Nosy bunch, that’s for sure! Anyway, I did run a search on the Internet, and so far, it looks like they’re legit! Cintex had some comments that were written by people who said they got lousy service or no service at all, but the deal looked OK, overall! Not a scam, in other words, but I wanted to make sure, as they could take my Sociable Security Number and some of the other info on my tax return and do me in with it, with the Identify Theft Scam and a whole bunch of other “stuff!” Jeez, again!

I don’t know how they “pre-selected” me, other than the fact that I don’t have a regular land-line phone listed in my name, and I dropped out of the local phone book, which is OK with me, as all it did was lead to a lot of extra unnecessary junk mail from local car dealers, local hearing aid dealers, and such! Never anything of any value! I know a lot of people, one of my children included, who don’t have a land-line phone, but who use a cell phone only. In fact, my church doesn’t have a land-line phone, and neither does my preacher, unless they just put one in recently (which I doubt). According to something I read on the Internet recently, MANY people have been unable to afford their (increasingly higher-priced) land-line phones, and have opted for a cell phone instead, which has caused the big fat-cat phone companies a loss of revenue (oh, poor things, don’t you feel sorry for them?) - in fact, some people have NO PHONE OF ANY KIND, which is probably why this Link Up America Program got started by good-old Uncle Sucker! He’s paying the difference, so the fat-cat phone companies can continue to make their required profits, so again, no wonder he’s broke!

This child of mine who has the cell phone only, called me a few years ago and told me that they had not had regular phone service for a few days because some “good-old-boy” had jumped on his tractor\back-hoe and cut a cable, and they had been going “round and round” with their phone company (which was at that time a division of AT&T and has now been gobbled up by the monster, like most other phone companies in America), trying to get the phone put back in. Since they live in a city a few hundred miles from here, which is much larger than any city we have in the Great State of Arkansas, this child (now grown and in the 40-ish age range) mentioned that their phone company didn’t seem to care whether or not they re-connected them. I told my child that, if one would go downtown, one would find that it was filled with a lot of folks who would have a phone put in, using the name of their dog or their deceased grandma, or some such, since their own credit was messed up so bad that the phone company wouldn’t put a phone in under their name, so I didn’t doubt that the phone company was hesitant about putting ANY phones in! My child said that they thought they would just have the phone taken out and use their cell phone, which was OK with me. Later, the spouse said they liked it a lot better, as the land-line had been ringing about 20 times, once while I was visiting them for dinner. I found that my house also became a lot quieter, as the telemarketers quit calling, at least for a while.

So, I think I’ll just put all their mailing back in one of the postage-paid envelopes provided by Link Up America\Cintex and enclose a note that I’ve already checked on it (which I did a year or so ago with the land-line) through Human Services and some other places, and that I’m barely over the line, so I don’t qualify. I’ll probably include a note asking them to take me off their list, which they may or may not do. My experience has been that, if I put that this is the “Third Request,” someone usually pays attention to that, especially if they’re paying the postage to get all their mail back, including the original envelope (this runs the postage up a bit, as will an extra sheet of paper for the note).

While you’re at it, why don’t you look up my posting about the telemarketers calling my cell phone, trying to sell me a “male enhancement product,” some “girlie” magazines, and such! It’s hilarious! And, it’s all true, just like this posting! Happy hunting!

Stanislaus