Imagine this scenario. You are walking through a popular shopping mall and this sign catches your eye, "Buy one, get one free". Now there is a deal which you cannot pass up. The catch however, is this, after purchasing your item the store clerk then informs you that the free item is yours to keep but must be returned after two days. "What madness!" you exclaim, "whoever heard of such a thing?"
Yet that is exactly the deal that one popular mobile phone provider is offering. Imagine my joy upon topping up my cheap phone with a $50 phone card last Friday night. Seconds later I receive a text informing me that I have received an additional $100 credit free. Oh joy of Joys, a three for one deal. But then joy turns to shock when the text informs me that I have 48 hours in which to use my $100 of free credit. How in heaven's name can this be fair or ethical? Where is the Telecommunication Authority in this? How can they allow this?
How can you give someone a free gift and then tell them that they have two days in which to use it or it will expire. Please, have a heart. It is either you are giving a free gift or you are not. But you cannot give the gift and then take it back in two days. That is just highway robbery.
OSWALD FITZPATRICK,
TRINCITY