No Such Thing As a Free Lunch

There are many 'fantastic deals' advertised on the internet although some may not be as 'fantastic' as they first appear. You will see sales letters which are miles long, giving numerous good reasons to buy the product. Maybe they are offering a substantial discount if you buy before a certain time. It is always good practice to take a few extra minutes to read all the small print before you press that button.

I came across an advertisement for a teleseminar which I was very keen to listen to. It was being held in the US at such a time that meant it would be the middle of the night in the UK. This would not be a problem as it was going to recorded and released at a later date. If I paid just $20 rather than the usual price of $97, I would have access to the recording. This sounded too good to be true, so I paid my $20 and looked forward to the email after the event directing me to the link where I could listen later at my convenience. After all, I had done this before with other reputable American organisations with no trouble whatsoever, and recorded links to seminars were an agreeable perk to us disadvantaged British citizens across the pond and therefore in a different time-zone.

When the email arrived with the desired link I quickly discovered that I would have to pay an additional $60 per month to join a membership scheme before I had any chance of hearing the recording. There was not only the inconvenience of paying the $60 to listen to the teleseminar, but once listened to I would have had to de-activate my membership if I didn't want to continue. And in my experience de-activating membership schemes once you've obtained what you really wanted in the first place has only led to trouble and bad feelings. It makes you look like a cheap-skate information-grabbing annoyance with no regard for the reputation of either party.

This story highlights how important it is to read everything very carefully before 'jumping in'. Don't fall for 'too good to be true' massive discounts on internet based products, especially if you cannot listen to them in real time. Relying on getting access to a promised recording (without prior experience of the seller) cannot be guaranteed, especially if you didn't read the small print, which may have explained that to have access to this recording you will need to join his membership first. Result = greed makes you lose your money for nothing.

-Alice Designs