The other day I received yet another AOL disk in the mail. They’re now up to offering “1099 FREE HOURS!” in big print. As usual, I tossed the disk and kept the case for my own use. But for once I read the terms spelled out on the back.
The 1099 free hours must be used within 50 days.
Now, let’s do some math:
50 days X 24 hours each = 1200 hours.
1099 hours / 50 days = 22 hours/day.
1099 hours total / 24 hours in a day = 45.8 days.
That’s right. The only possible way you can use all your “free” hours is if you a) spend all but 2 hours a day online, or b) spend over 6.5 weeks doing nothing but using AOL.
A few years ago I heard lotteries as “taxes on people who can’t do math.” Now it appears they have their own online service, too.
J.
AOL is very slick to put it nicely. They’re famous for taking your money away with scams like these. Almost always, they get some money from you – even if you want to cancel the “free” trial.
hey you can’t win the lottery if you don’t play, and what else do you have to do but surf?
I’ve long ago calculated results such as this Jay. AOL just figures that you’ll never use up the time (unless you spend the time downloading a ton of crap so you leave your computer online all the time).
As if you’d use AOL anyway.
AOL is like a MAC. they do everything for you 😉
I’d prefer to set up my own shit (which is why at home we have a broadband connection setup with our cable company, wireless router and stuff.) I’d prefer to set up my own firewall/popup blockers/antivirus software. That and I’d like that the company providing me with service NOT assume that I’m just your average idiot, which is the case with all those companies nowadays.
Wow. Goes to show you what you miss when you don’t really think about certain things, doesn’t it?
AOHell CD’s nevertheless make great coasters!
Coasters?
Hell… Try frisbees!!!
Eh? Oh, Hell!
I’ve tried to get my sister to get off that thing for years when she was on dial-up. There are ISP’s that charge less, or NetZero charges about the same (and has as many access numbers, for road warriors) – and those options don’t include overwriting chunks of MS’s code! But she wanted to stay with “the big-name” company and said she liked their “nanny” site blocker (which would not allow access to Ziff-Davis/CNet!!!).
Then the cable company offered broadband – and when she heard about the differences from AOL’s she switched immediately. Go figure.