Don’t Say It’s Free Unless It Is

We have had an uptick of break-ins in our neighborhood.  Apparently the security companies are aware of this, and one of them and paid us a visit over the weekend to sell us a new security system.  When they came to the door, they started their pitch with “You just need to put our sign in your yard and the installation is 100% free.  You only pay monthly monitoring charges.”

I was so excited ( OK, not really, but I was interested ).  They went on with their pitch and explained that the standard “free” install would not include a few things because of the size of our house.  I was fine with paying for a few more pieces of equipment.  I asked a few times to confirm that I would only have to pay the monthly monitoring fees, and they continued to confirm that, yes, this was the case.  Then came the item that I had been waiting for.

They explained that they would need to charge me a one-time “activation charge” to “upload all of my information into their systems.”  They made it sound like someone would have to punch holes in a punch card and schedule it for processing time on the mainframe back at headquarters.  At that point I said “I am going to check out your competitors” and sent them on their way.

It’s amazing that companies still try to get away with things like this, especially when the competition is so easy to find.  The competition may or may not have a better price or plan, but heavily shading the truth just seems like a bad idea.

Imagine if they had said “We know you have had break-ins in the area, and we think we have a great plan that can give you peace of mind.  You don’t have to pay installation, but we will have to charge you some other minimal up-front fees to get you set up.”  It’s still the same message, but it’s all true.

Seems like a better plan to me.