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If you still have a landline phone, then it's likely you're getting phone calls from telemarketers. By my estimate, about 95% of the telemarketing calls I receive are from scammers. (Any caller who doesn't provide a verifiable way of identifying their business is considered a scammer, as well as all "lead generation" calls, such as those that provide "live transfer" services.)

So when I get a telemarketing call, I can pretty much expect that they're lying to me, because after all, if there weren't any kind of deception, then it wouldn't be a scam, so I know not to believe anything they say.

On the other hand, when I get a solicitation from a legitimate business, and in particular one that I have a relationship with, then I expect them to abide by a higher standard of truth in their statements.

So when I got an email from U.S. Airlines, promising me 25,000 airlines miles (which, at least under some circumstance is enough for a free flight, various fees notwithstanding), I was interested. Here's what the subject of their email stated:

Get 25,000 bonus miles & free home security

Here's the headline from the email:

Protect your home and family for free
Plus, get 25,000 bonus miles

Taking this at face value, it's a very good offer, but not incredible, since I have been the recipient of numerous offers that provided 10,000 or more airline miles for opening up a credit card account, with the first year's annual fee waived.

To be sure, there was an asterisk at the bottom of the offer, with a footnote saying "terms and conditions apply". But that asterisk doesn't give them permission to negate the offer as stated.

In fact, the asterisk does negate the offer. While the offer includes 30 days of free monitoring with a 30-day "money back guarantee", you don't get the miles if you cancel within that 30-day period. And if you don't cancel, then you're required to pay a $49.99 "activation fee" and $34.99 per month for the remaining 35 months. Total price, before taxes and any other charges they dream up, for your free airline miles and "free" home security: $1274.64.

In the U.S., you may want to contact U.S. Airlines to offer them your opinion about this offer. The phone number for the corporate headquarters is 480-693-0800. You can call Monday through Friday between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Pacific Time. Ask for their marketing department.

Topic USAirlinesPromisesFreeFlightAndFreeHomeSecurity . { Edit | Ref-By | Attach | Diffs | r1.1 }
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Revision r1.1 - 17 Apr 2011 - 18:32 by EliMantel web search for EliMantel
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