Tempting Deal

By Anita Hamilton

I've never been a sucker for freebies, knowing all too well that they're usually more hassle than they're worth. So when I heard about all the new free-PC offers, I couldn't help wincing. Companies like Gobi, Intersquid and ePCdirect require you to pay up to $30 a month for Net access and are rife with hidden fees for basics like a monitor, tech support and one-time "start-up" charges. And then there's the nagging fear that these newcomers will vanish into cyberspace long before your three-year contract is up. Would you really want to do business with a company called Enchilada? Actually, you can't anymore, since it stopped taking orders in early July, less than three months after it was rolled out.

Yet one deal tempted even cynical me. Free-PC is offering 333-MHz Compaq PCs with full Internet and e-mail access to anyone willing to fill out a questionnaire, watch ads onscreen and use the computer for 10 hrs. a month. No hidden fees, everything included--even speakers and a fancy Internet keyboard. But hold on: Who in her right mind would suffer through a barrage of onscreen ads just to get a free computer? Or submit to all sorts of prying personal questions, down to your income? Next thing you know, these "free" computers might be coming with built-in video cameras to monitor your off-line activities. It would be an Orwellian nightmare, downright evil.

But when my test computer arrived, I was pleasantly surprised that the blinking ads that filled the bottom and right side of my screen hardly bothered me. Sure, they reduced the usable area of the screen to the size of a large laptop's, but I barely noticed them. There was still plenty of room left to browse websites and use the included word-processing software. What's more, when I had trouble getting online, I got through to tech support in just 3 min. And since I'm not a gamer, I wasn't worried that my new PC lacked a 3-D graphics accelerator or top-of-the-line processor. Compared with my poky, four- year-old 75-MHz Pentium home PC, even this low-end model (by today's standards) is a screamer.

But what about my principles? Had I gone soft when presented with a gleaming new PC? Not quite. The company had no idea I don't drive a BMW or own a cell phone or make $150,000 per annum, contrary to my claims on the application. And I decided I didn't really care if Free-PC knew which websites I frequented, so long as it kept its promise never to tell a marketer that I log on to cnn.com three times a week and check my stock portfolio every day. I even found a simple way to make the ads disappear: I taped paper over them.

The biggest drawback: it's hard to get a Free-PC. More than 1 million people applied for the first 10,000, which were awarded by a secret formula the company refuses to divulge. (The company did lend me a unit to test, and I was asked to complete the application form.) Another 20,000 will go out by year's end, but odds are you won't win one. My advice: if you can't wait for the next Free-PC lottery, buy a $1,000 system from Gateway or Dell instead. You'll get a 400-MHz system with monitor, a year of prepaid Net access and a one- to three-year warranty. Financing plans can cut the up-front cost to just $36 a month. It's not free, but it's likely to be headache-free.

Apply for a free PC at free-pc.com or get Web links to other offers at time.com/personal E-mail Anita at hamilton@time.com