Year: 2006

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Ford: $0 for Gas Until 2007*

Ford Free Gas until 2007Are you sick of seeing Taylor Hicks singing in those Ford commercials yet? The company is using him to entice you to buy their brand by promising  “we’ll pay for your gas until 2007.”  Sounds like a generous offer. Or is it?

*MOUSE PRINT: “Receive maximum $1,100 debit card for gas. Amount varies by model.” [Commercial airing June 2006]

According to their website, you only receive the maximum $1,100 if you buy an SUV or select truck. You get less (only $1000) if purchasing other vehicles.

With today’s gasoline prices at $3 or higher a gallon, many drivers say they are paying $50, $60, $70 or more weekly to tank up. At that rate, gas for half a year (from now until January) would run $1300 to $1820 — way more than Ford will pay for.

“$0 for gas” may be true for those who purchase fuel efficient vehicles, drive average or less amounts, and spend less than $39 a week for gas. For everyone else, Ford’s $0 for gas promise is running on fumes. MrConsumer says no tanks.

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AOL: High Speed*, Low Price

AOL high speedHistorically, people have complained that AOL is slow and expensive. Now they have formed a partnership with Verizon [disclosure: Verizon is a financial contributor to Mouse Print’s parent, Consumer World] to offer a combination package including Verizon DSL and AOL for $25.90 a month. That price is marginally more than AOL charges for dial-up service. (Unbundling that price, $17.99 is the Verizon DSL charge, and $7.91 goes to AOL. That is a real bargain for unlimited AOL.)

AOL also promises “high speed” and “true broadband” with this package, but what they consider “high speed” may not be what you consider fast.

*MOUSE PRINT: “Fast high-speed DSL: Up to 768 Kbps connection speed.” [Insert in SuperCoups envelope, newspaper supplement, April 2006.]

Standard dial-up speed is 56Kbps, so 768Kbps is about 14 times faster. But that is not a fast broadband connection compared to other DSL speeds offered by Verizon, competitors, and by cable companies. It is actually one of the slowest broadband speeds offered to home consumers. Verizon’s “regular” speed is 3000Kbps (or 3Mbps), by comparison, for $29.95.  AT&T just announced it was raising its DSL Internet speed to 6000Kbps (or 6Mbps), and Comcast is already at that speed. RCN (a regional provider) even offers 20000Kbps (or 20Mbps).

So, what you consider fast, what competitors consider fast, and what AOL considers fast may be very different things.

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Internet Corp. Listing Service: $35 Invoice*

Internet Corp. bill largeDomain names come up for renewal every year, and if you own one or more of them, you might receive what looks like a renewal notice via snail mail like the one on the right.

As it turns out, the notice is not quite what it appears.

*MOUSE PRINT: In all caps, “This is a solicitation for the order of goods or services, or both, and not a bill, invoice, or statement of account due. You are under no obligation to make any payments on account of this offer unless you accept this offer.” [From mailing dated May 31, 2006]

The mailing is actually trying to sell you a $35 service to submit your domain to various search engines, and it is apparently sent to domain owners at about the time their domain is up for renewal. The service does not include domain renewal however.

The disclosure is in the middle of the document in type similar to other type being used on it.  The question is, does it overcome the general impression created by the mailing that it is a bill?

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is looking into companies that use similar tactics.  See story.