Young viewers on VH1 and MTV have been bombarded with entertaining commercials for Amp’d Mobile, a cellphone service with entertainment features. What really catches the bargainhunter’s ear is the promise of “unlimited anytime minutes forever for only $99 a month when you sign up for Amp’d Overload.” [VH1 commercial, April 30, 2006]
It is not clear at all what Amp’d Overload is. For the uninitiated, one might conclude that it is the name of their unlimited calling plan.
*MOUSE PRINT: Amp’d Overload and Amp’d Overdose are actually the names of television streaming services offering 20 to 30 channels of programming, for an extra $15 and $20 per month. Subscription to these services is required to obtain the advertised $99 calling plan. So, the actual price of the service is $114 to $119 a month. This price information is not disclosed in the commercial.
Also unclear is the meaning of “forever” in their claim. Is the $99 rate guaranteed forever? Is their offering an unlimited minutes plan guaranteed forever? Their terms and conditions don’t say, except:
“UNLESS OTHERWISE PROHIBITED BY LAW, WE CAN ALSO CHANGE FEES AND ANY OTHER CONDITIONS IN THIS AGREEMENT AT ANY TIME BY SENDING YOU WRITTEN NOTICE PRIOR TO THE BILLING PERIOD IN WHICH THE CHANGES WOULD GO INTO EFFECT.” [Amp’d website, May 1, 2006]
To their credit, Amp’d says if any changes have a materially adverse affect on you, you can cancel your contract without termination penalties applying.
Just saw your blog reviewed on the news, CTV. I’ve bookmarked it to read when I’ve got more time.
This reminds me of FreeCreditReportsInstantly.com, which promises you a “Free 3-in-1 Credit Report†plus $25,000 identity theft insurance – for free.
But when you check the fine print you learn that to get your free credit report,you have to sign up for their “Privacy Matters 1-2-3,” which costs $29.95 per month and is charged to your credit card.
Before assuming that “free” really means free, check the fine print.
To top it off, around here you can get unlimited local calling blah blah blah for $50 a month without signing up for anything extra.
Pay more, get less!
For the REAL free credit report, the one authorized by the Federal Trade Comission,
go to https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp. You can spread them out
for 1 every 4 months, so that way you can monitor your credit on a regular basis.
One thing people have learned from the Sprint text messaging increase is that using any feature of your phone, including making a call, after the terms have changed is considered by the company to be acceptance of the new terms.
It looks like a way to rook unsophisticated people into an expensive calling plan, to me.