[SLUG] WiFI Ripoff

From: Chuck Hast (wchast@gmail.com)
Date: Thu Mar 30 2006 - 00:08:54 EST


Fellow sluggers, I am again on the road after a long several sedate years
in Tampa. I have found somethat that to me is a rip-off, that is the paid WiFi
sites, do not get me wrong I am not against them charging something but
the $7-9 they get for 24 hours of access is a rep, so far I have found these
ripoffs in places where they have you by the short hairs, i.e. there is no other
solution (for obvious reasons of course).

One that really burned me was the Memphis airport, they have (Wi)(Fi)
logos all over the place, and you fire up and get hit by the Sprint Vampire
wanting you to give them a CC so they can extract $9 for the time you
are going to be setting in the airport.

Now today while driving from Cleveland, OH to Detroit, I stopped at one
of the rest stops to rest, and to get some junk food (ahh a triple decker
BK Whopper, I can feel the blood thicken) I see the WiFi stuff but did not
pay attention to the fact that it was the (Wi)(Fi) logo, and again when I
get the old browser open there is a hand coming out of the screen of
my machine asking for $7.95 in order to be able to check e-mail and a
few other things for a few minutes. Again I shut it down and walked off.

Seems everyone else is going the other direction (my hat is off to all of
the hotels where I have stayed, they all have free internet access, some
ask you to register some sort of key that they give you at the front desk
but beyond that it is free) oh yes and TPA airport also has free access
so all is not lost, but again, I would not be against paying them say $3-5
for access, but what they are asking is in my view highway robbery.

I am learning that where ever I see the (Wi)(Fi) logo, I think it is blue under
the (Wi) side and white under the (Fi) side not even to worry about it as
they are going to ask for some exorbitant price for a few minutes of access.

--
Chuck Hast  -- KP4DJT --
To paraphrase my flight instructor;
"the only dumb question is the one you DID NOT ask resulting in my going
out and having to identify your bits and pieces in the midst of torn
and twisted metal."

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