- Saturday, 21 November 2009
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People under the age of 25 are too young to be able to afford cynicism - Diogenes the Pseudo Pesky Cynic
Free laptop broadband offers are a con
CONSUMER WATCHDOG WHICH has set its finest mathematical minds to task on one of the new millennium's thorniest problems. Does free really mean free?
And after many weeks stuck in a dark bunker, with nothing but an abacus and a box of out-of-date Crunchy Nut Cornflakes form last year's Sugary Cereal Megatest for sustenance, the researchers have emerged blinking into the sunlight to announce to the world that, the Free Laptop offers touted by most of the UK's top mobile phone companies are... well, a bit rubbish.
Using some complicated maths voodoo (or just adding up the cost of buying a new laptop and the monthly cost of the airtime over the length of the contract) Which has discovered that it's usually cheaper to just buy the two products separately.
For example, 3's £40 a month 5GB-capped service has a minimum 2 year tie-in and comes with a 'free' HP dv5-111ea lappie. So that'll be £960 over 24 months thank you very much.
But if you go for the same company's standard £15 a month 5GB service, and buy your own identical laptop online for £510, you can get the whole kit and kaboodle for £870. That's 90 quid in beer vouchers right there.
What Which doesn't seem to realise is that a lot of people don't have £500 or more kicking about in their other trousers, and the credit checks used by mobile operators tend to be, let's say a little less stringent, than some high street retailers.
Which is why the likes of Vodafone and O2 are raking in the cash with these Free (but not really free actually) Laptop offers.
On a brighter note, the kindly folks at Orange are the only ones to offer a deal where you actually come out on top, albeit ever so slightly. Their bundle, which comes with an EeePC 901, will actually save you a fabulous £26 over the full term of the contract. That's more than a pound a month!
Don't all rush at once, now. µ
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The sky is blue and the grass is green...
Comeo on, someone was paid to work this out? Isn't it common knowledge?
A friend of mine got a 'free' laptop on Three with a 2 year mobile broadband contract. I think he's paying something like £35 a month for it and the laptop quite frankly is a piece of crap. To make things worse where he lives he can't get Three. I made a point of laughing at him for buying it.
I can't see what's wrong with saving money up and buying something outright. I guess it's the 'I want it now' thing (I must admit, I have fallen for this myself in the past).
Personally I spent £350 on my laptop and recently bought a Vodafone PAYG mobile broadband dongle for when I'm out and about and I don't have to worry about paying over the odds for something I'm not going to use much (I use the laptop all the time but hardly use the modem, only when I really need to when I'm out).
Rob
16.1% APR over two years for such a small amount isn't outrageous.
As if the proletariats would ever be smart enough to realise that free does not always mean free.
How stupid do people have to be to believe that companies would be offering a "free" laptop if they weren't making a profit from the deal? Is this the kind of common sense "research" these "watchdogs" are paid to perform?
All UMTS Internet services in Germany now come with a 5 GB cap per month (one with 10 GB). If we believe the proclaimed transfer rate of 7.2 Mbit/s (in telcos we trust), then that amounts to a total of just 1.5 hours per MONTH. After that, the transfer rate is throttled to 64 kbit/s. CON ARTISTS
I thought any 10 year old could work that out.
The HP Mini 701 with HSDPA/3G/blah modem retails for.. uhm... not availiable. But separate it would be like 400 euro + 100 euro + a mod trick and a cross-your-fingers-BIOSflash. Then go search for a limitless wireless broadband account. Oopss... 20e p/m katchjiing ! a nice 1000 euriii; totaled!
Or; you buy the package from T-Mobile for a cool 35 Euros p/m bundled with a LIMITLESS 3G subscription. Which I did. totals to 840 eurii. Inflation also in the package spread over 24 months....
Buuut; if you want 'just' a small lowbudget non-3G lappie, you BETTER buy it @ your local HW geek site ! Or better; second hand.
I'm an exOrange customer, maybe that's it ?
You work it out like this the total of it all per month so for example £25 x 24 = £600 then you would work out what it would cost to get 1 on on say a finance deal from curries. You'll probably end up buying a laptop thats better than what these mobile comps offer.
I've seen £350 Lappys with better tech than what Orange, 3, O2 & Vodafone laptops. Buy a PAYG Mobile kit and you'll save a couple of £'s usually a £300-350 finance deal at around say £10 per month add's only extra £100 on it depends on what you pay per month.
3 offer the Compaq 700 mini laptop with 1GB of data and a free modem for £20 a month.
That's 1GB for £10 a month, a dongle worth £30 and a laptop worth £329 = £599 all for the total cost of £480. Sounds reasonable to me.
How ironic. More people are whinging about the post than there are people wondering why said companies are using the word 'Free', where it is not so.
How are they allowed to get away with it?
I've just got the 3 £40 UNLIMITED mobile broadband + free laptop offer from Pc World (as advertised in thier showroom next to the laptop I chose). They say Unlimited but you only get 3GB or 5Gb depending on the provider you've gone with, whats more you don't get the laptop for free. The most annoying thig was, Pc World didn't even explain the fair trade policy, so i went home used the internet, downloaded some music, played some online games etc and after just 4 days i had used my usage. How can you put a limit on something that says UNLIMITED? I really feel like taking this to the office of fair trading.