Free Internet Service for Your Home Business - or Not?
A Home Business Article Contributed by Sharon Hill
Is It Free Internet Home Business Service - or is It Not?
As a new entrepreneur looking for Internet service for your home business you may run across offers for free Internet service. You may even receive a CD in the mail or pick one up at a retail location. Look closely. Free is not always free. Before you sign up your home business for the Internet service offered make sure you do adequate investigating. Quite often you will find that important and costly conditions or restrictions are part of the package but not clearly disclosed.
Common Restrictions on Free Internet Home Business Service
Most offers for free Internet home business service are good for 30 days only. Typically they will have taken your credit card information at the beginning of the sign up and will, at the end of the free month, automatically charge your card. You may not be made aware of this until it happens. Typically, the pitch is that if, at the end of the 30 day trial period you want to continue you may do so. What is not made clear up front is that if you do NOT wish to continue you have to notify the service provider that you wish to cancel. Sometimes this must be in writing.
Other costs can be incurred which they don't mention as well. Sometimes, for instance, the service is free but there is no local or toll free number. You must dial long distance for access each time. There are even times when you are given an allegedly toll free number (800, 888 or 877) and the charge for the use of the number turns out to exorbitant - some home business owners have ended up with bills in excess of five or six dollars an hour for their "toll free" Internet service calls.
What You Should Ask the Internet Provider before Signing up Your Home Business
Before you sign on the dotted line for this "free" Internet service you will want to ask several question. The most important is:
Does the free Internet access last longer than one month? If so, just how long and under what conditions? America Online is one good example of the deception of this issue. They mail out or give away disks by the thousands that offer new users 1000 hours free. But this is truly not the case, because if you look closely at the conditions it states that the offer is good for up to 45 days. In other words, you'd have to use 1000 hours in 45 or fewer days to get all 1000 hours free.
This would mean using it 22 22 hours each day. Not very likely! What they probably hope is that you will give them your credit card, or checking account information (which you must do right up front) and that you will not be aware of, or forget about, the 45 day expiration. On that 46th day you will see a charge to your credit card. And, good luck getting it back when yo realize what happened.
