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I've done this a few times. I'll sign up for a free (or low-cost) trial of X with full intention of taking whatever teaser offer they have at the time, and then canceling.

Last night I signed up with an internet fax service. It has a 7-day free trial. I sent a 36-page fax out with it. Even though the service is only $7.99 per month (for ten times the fax pages I sent out) I still can cancel and not pay a dime, even though their tech support worked with me for about a half-hour to ensure that my fax got sent correctly. My other option would have been to drive out to Kinko's and pay $1 per page to get this thing out the door.

So I really do feel that I owe them at least a month's service.

Should this be an issue? Or am I just one of the smart ones that got something of substantial value for free, and everyone else is a sucker?

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2 Answers

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I do this frequently. And sometimes I've kept the service. They offer the teaser in hopes that you will like the service. They know a lot will cancel and that's built into their business plan. I don't think it is an ethical issue. You don't owe them anything. They offered you something to try. You tried it. If you need a service to use in the future, you will go back to them.

I have tried free subscriptions to just about every credit reporting service out there and I don't like any as much as the free ones. No guilt about canceling any of them.

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Kind of what I was thinking. I suppose they could just refuse me another free trial later. – mbhunter Feb 5 at 15:12
You can't usually get a second free trial. I've tried that. They don't like it. – Frugallawyer Feb 5 at 18:40
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I kinda disagree. If someone has worked long and hard to help you, the least you can do is support their job a wee bit. The whole "the workman is worthy of his wages" thing. In this case, I'd keep the service maybe a month or two, consider the $7.99 or $15 a "tip," and then cancel (unless you find yourself actually using the service). Yes, I know tech support won't get any of that money (unlike wait-staff or housekeeping, who you can tip directly), but the company may keep records of who helped which customers, and whether that customer stayed the the company for any length of time, so the techies might get brownie points or something like that.

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