Why are they companies giving.. - Democratic Underground

butterfly77

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Fri May-21-10 01:02 PM
Original message

Why are they companies giving..

people free phones? and who are these companies? What are they up to..

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HiFructosePronSyrup

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Fri May-21-10 01:03 PM
Response to Original message

1. Because it's on the condition that you buy a service plan.

Phones are dirt cheap. The service plans are where the money is.

It's like getting a toaster for opening a new bank account, or some beef for buying a set of new tires.

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ellenfl

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Fri May-21-10 01:11 PM
Response to Reply #1

2. or buying printers cheap . . . it's the ink that costs

diabetes blood testers are free . . . the strips a diabetic needs for the test are very expensive.

ellen fl

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damntexdem

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Fri May-21-10 02:04 PM
Response to Reply #1

6. Except, it would be like getting a toaster for buying an expensive bread account.

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Liberal_in_LA

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Fri May-21-10 02:22 PM
Response to Reply #6

10. lol. Good analogy. Or like getting a free printer with a mandatory ink cartridge account

Edited on Fri May-21-10 02:22 PM by Liberal_in_LA

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liberal N proud

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Fri May-21-10 01:26 PM
Response to Original message

3. Read the fine print

1 year, 2 years, 3 years and more. You are trapped by their plan, paying, paying and if you are over the plan minutes BAM!

The free phone is just the hook!

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butterfly77

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Fri May-21-10 01:32 PM
Response to Reply #3

4. Are you talking about the phones..

where they give low income people free phones if they are on food stamps or receive some other subsidy they said the gov has nothing to do with it so, what's in it for them..

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proudohioan

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Fri May-21-10 02:11 PM
Response to Reply #4

7. What tkmorris says........

and don't knock it; you may be in a position to need these kind of services yourself someday.

Trust me, you don't want to find out what that kind of life is like, or how quickly it can happen to you.

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butterfly77

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Fri May-21-10 02:17 PM
Response to Reply #7

8. I am not knocking it..

I am trying to find out why and how they are doing it..and trust me I know what its like.

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proudohioan

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Fri May-21-10 02:27 PM
Response to Reply #8

11. Sorry, my bad....

I can get a little touchy sometimes.

There are a certain states that participate; will give you either a low-cost (around $9 per month) basic land-line OR a Safelink wireless phone. The wireless phone is pretty basic; no frills, and you get 68 minutes per month free. You can buy more minutes if you like.

Here is there website:

www.safelinkwireless.com

Hope that helps.

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butterfly77

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Fri May-21-10 02:33 PM
Response to Reply #11

12. I was asking because ..

someone informed me about a company called assurance who were passing out flyers so I wanted to know how it works..

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proudohioan

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Fri May-21-10 02:36 PM
Response to Reply #12

13. I don't know about Assurance....

just that Safelink is actually legit.

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tkmorris

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Fri May-21-10 01:45 PM
Response to Original message

5. Read this

https://www.safelinkwireless.com/EnrollmentPublic/benefits.aspx

"The federal "Lifeline" program was created during the Reagan Administration. Lifeline is a federal program created by the Reagan era Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1984. The program was enhanced under Telecommunications Act of 1996, which was supported on a broadly bipartisan basis in Congress. The FCC’s Low Income Program of the Universal Service Fund, which is administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), is designed to ensure that quality telecommunications services are available to low-income customers at just, reasonable, and affordable rates. Lifeline support reduces eligible low-income consumers' monthly charges for basic telephone service.

Thanks to SafeLink, Lifeline support is now available for wireless phones. Traditionally, the Lifeline program was only available as a discount on a consumer’s landline telephone bill. SafeLink Wireless was created by TracFone Wireless, Inc. when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently approved the company to offer Lifeline -- a public assistance program that ensures telephone service is available and affordable for low-income subscribers. SafeLink Wireless applies the Universal Service Fund subsidy to an allotment of free airtime minutes and TracFone provides the wireless handset at the company’s expense. Instead of receiving a subsidized monthly telephone bill for Lifeline service, SafeLink converts the total amount of discounted service into minutes each month for one year. The cell phone offers in-demand features: voicemail, text, three-way calling, call waiting, caller ID and access to 911."

There is a Federal Program, but it's been around for some time now. This is just wireless companies getting in on the program that was designed for traditional home phones. The phones they provide are therefore subsidized by the program, plus they are dirt cheap to begin with, and the companies end up making plenty of money through pre-paid minutes which customers routinely purchase to add to the minimum provided for free. Throw in extra services (customer pays) like messaging and data at exorbitant rates and the companies make out fine.

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butterfly77

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Fri May-21-10 02:20 PM
Response to Reply #5

9. Now that is what i wanted to..

know about. I have also heard about a new company recently who are doing it also,so I wondered what was going on..

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