The GripeWiki Live Gripes Columns Issues ... About Us Hidden Costs Lurk Behind "Free" Freeware CD By Ed Foster , Section The Gripelog Posted on Mon Nov 22nd, 2004 at 09:37:23 AM PDT In case you didn't already know that free stuff on the Internet can be expensive, here's another cautionary tale. As one reader recently discovered, a "free" freeware CD could possibly cost you more than just hefty shipping charges. "It appears that Manay Software is a gotcha' web retailer charging high shipping fees for free software," the reader wrote. "They say on their order form that you'll get $20 rebated back to cover the shipping cost, but it doesn't actually work that way. It's all classic bait-and-switch and smoke-and-mirrors." The reader had been interested in Manay's offer for four "free" software CDs because it included a suite of OpenOffice applications. Of course, the CDs weren't really free, and the reader was momentarily taken aback by the shipping charges of $19.92, which seemed rather steep. But the order form promised that he'd get that money back: Seeing that Manay was a Yahoo Store, the reader thought nothing could go too wrong with the deal, so he went ahead and ordered the four-CD set with his credit card. "It arrived, and the two $10 'cash-back' vouchers, rebate checks, coupons or whatever were nowhere to be seen," the reader wrote. "I wrote to Manay, and they finally e-mailed me a link they said I must have missed on the confirmation page." | |
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