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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that 'free' should mean 'free'?

37 replies

WhyCantIuseTheNameIWant · 16/07/2015 00:07

We got accosted by broadband sellers in town today.
Do you have broadband, love?
No.
Would you consider ours? It's free for a year if sign up by the end of July
And how much is the phone line I would need to run it?
£16:45 a month
So, your free broadband will cost me £16:45 a month then?
No, it's free as you already pay for a phone.
No, I don't. I gave up my landline 3 years ago, as I was paying £17 a month for a dust collector.

I know the poor man is only doing his job, but £16:45 every month isn't free!

OP posts:
RealityCheque · 16/07/2015 00:49

Weird.

The broadband is free. But there are prerequisites such as line rental and a device to connect to it.

Would you expect the broadband supplier to provide a laptop / tablet also?

YABVU

CassieBearRawr · 16/07/2015 01:01

YABU. The broadband is free. The line rental isn't. Most people do have a phone line to be able to get their internet so assuming you already pay for line rental isn't exactly out there.

snowglobemouse · 16/07/2015 01:13

Yabu

ZacharyQuack · 16/07/2015 01:24

YABU. Why didn't you just say "No thank you" instead of subjecting the poor bloke to your smartarsery? Is that you, FIL?

LovelyFriend · 16/07/2015 01:52

IKWYM OP.

The only reason many people have a land line these days is because they need it for broadband. For me, line rental is just another part of my broadband cost. If I didn't need it for broadband I'd have given up the landline many years ago.

CloserToFiftyThanTwenty · 16/07/2015 04:11

I agree with you OP. If they were offering broadband free through any landline provider that would be different. Instead they are using the cost of the line rental to subsidize the broadband for a certain period and playing with the numbers to pretend it is free.

youareallbonkers · 16/07/2015 05:34

So if someone gave you a free car you'd whine about the running costs? But the petrol...

Spartans · 16/07/2015 05:52

Yabu because the broadband is free however you need a phone line for it. As pp said if you won/ was given a free car you would still need to pay running a costs.

Although I don't have landline either so we have mobile wifi box thingy

Stanky · 16/07/2015 06:06

Free never means free. I once won a competition and the prize was a free family photo session and print. I suspected that this wouldn't be the case, and explained to the woman over the phone that I had no money, and I would only be able to take the free print. She thanked me for my honesty, but said that unless I spent over £200 on prints, then I wasn't worth their time claiming the "prize".

youareallbonkers · 16/07/2015 06:16

Everyone "wins" those competitions

Original poster
WhyCantIuseTheNameIWant · 16/07/2015 08:01

Not smart-arsery, honest.
I repeatedly said no 'thank-you, I can't afford it.'
Explained that I was on baby-leave with the toddler in the pram.
He kept going on about 'of course you can afford it, it's free!'

OP posts:
Original poster
WhyCantIuseTheNameIWant · 16/07/2015 08:03

We also won a free photo thing.
We went and had our free picture and they kept trying to upgrade us to a £960 one or two... Even though they knew my financial situation. The nice helpful salesman even suggested a loan.

OP posts:
pourmeanotherglass · 16/07/2015 08:10

Give her a break people, its really annoying being accosted in the street by pushy sales people.

FurtherSupport · 16/07/2015 08:24

I agree with you OP. The cost of having broadband would be £16.44. It's like saying the milk is free but you've got to pay for the bottle.

Although, obviously, you know when anyone offers you something free in the street, it's not going to be free.

You should have said "none of your business" at his first question Grin That would have ben far more reasonable

Original poster
WhyCantIuseTheNameIWant · 16/07/2015 08:42

I will use that one later, thanks further.
As the same people will be there all week and stop the same ones walking past more than once a day.
I was obviously BU for stopping and being polite and saying no thank you, instead of walking past and ignoring him.

OP posts:
TestingTestingWonTooFree · 16/07/2015 08:45

I keep my land line for calls about PPI and any accidents I might have had.

PoorNeglectedBike · 16/07/2015 08:52

So how do you get broadband without a landline? We don't even have a phone plugged into ours

sparechange · 16/07/2015 09:20

But it is free Confused

If you are offered a free mobile, do you want them to pay for your electricity to charge it?

SoupDragon · 16/07/2015 09:27

You were being a smart are because you could have simply said "I don't have land line so this won't work for me."

The broadband itself is free.

It's like getting free petrol - you still need to pay for a car to put it in.

WorraLiberty · 16/07/2015 09:32

I was obviously BU for stopping and being polite and saying no thank you, instead of walking past and ignoring him.

I just walk and talk at the same time.

I never actually stop to say no thank you.

howabout · 16/07/2015 09:44

YANBU

Nothing is ever "free". I think all contractual arrangements should have to be presented with all package costs over the lifetime up front (similar to APR for credit arrangements).

My Mum had some overenthusiastic young sharp suit trying to push her "free" solar panels when she was cutting her grass last week. Wee old lady ended up with 3 pressurising young men in her garden uninvited. Something should be done about all of this - not just pushy charity workers!

Unfortunately people only realise how much of a problem all this is when they are not at work but are trying to go about their life in peace.

Your mistake was in doing anything other than looking straight through the salesman - I know he is "just doing his job" but I am "just trying not to get ripped off".

Original poster
WhyCantIuseTheNameIWant · 16/07/2015 10:10

Soup dragon, I did say that. Several times.
The man has no comprehension of somebody not wanting a land line!

OP posts:
Chunkymonkey79 · 16/07/2015 10:16

Yabu

Line rental £16.46

Broadband fee on top of that figure

They are offering broadband for free.

WorktoLive · 16/07/2015 11:02

If line rental was £100 a month would people still be saying that the OP is being unreasonable?

Many people don't really need landlines due to also paying for thousands of mobile minutes that they don't use either but keep them for broadband because it is difficult/expensive to find a suitable alternative way of having home broadband. And BT etc exploit this by whacking up the cost of landlines. So broadband isn't really free.

Yes, we could use our mobile broadband, but how many people have a mobile contract with sufficient allowance to watch many Gb of streaming TV, even if they do have a signal good enough to do so?

But what I don't know is that if you have fibre broadband, or Virgin Media cable broadband, does that still need a landline?

Surely not for fibre broadband as the data comes through the fibre? This is something I must look into if we could ditch the landline and use the money to pay for/towards a better broadband connection.

Metacentric · 16/07/2015 11:06

But what I don't know is that if you have fibre broadband, or Virgin Media cable broadband, does that still need a landline?

Yes and No, respectively.

Surely not for fibre broadband as the data comes through the fibre?

It's only fibre as far as the street cabinet. The data comes to your house over a landline ("VDSL", which is faster than ADSL provided the lengths are shorter).