The Best Ringtones Are Free Ringtones

Just 'how free' are free ringtones? Well, it really depends on your definition of the word 'free'.

For most people it means ‘no charge' for the ringtone. and there are few exceptions to the definition. However, there are so many 'free ringtones' websites out there that just plain are not free, yet no one seems to be doing anything about it. Oh I know that the cell phone companies say they are doing their best to combat this cell phone download site type of scam, but some of these phone companies are collecting a fee from these firms, sometimes as much as 40%! Considering that the average person who is taken by one of these so-called free ringtone sites just lets it slide, this just encourages these bogus sites.

How does the Free Ringtone problem work?

Well, you do an internet search for a particular song you'd like to have a ringtone for and lo and behold there's a special ringtone site that has just that song. Sure, you realize that you'll have to pay a few bucks to download and use the ringtone, so you start to follow the directions. You're asked to input your cell number to verify where the ringtone will be sent to. That seems reasonable, right? This is where they get you (and why Google Ads such as the ones to the left no longer allow advertising from such scam artists).

As soon as you input your cell number and receive the texted code word, you input the code word on the ringtone site. You scan through the fine print agreement, or perhaps there's only a link to the legalese, select the 'I agree' box and on you go. But as it turns out, the agreement you e-signed includes a clause for ongoing membership to the ringtone site, for which you will be charged a recurring fee of $9.95-$14.99 (depending on which site caught you). A CBS documentary on the "free ringtone" problem ( see Ringing Up Big Charges for the full story) shows that having an updated ring-tone sent to your phone can be a very expensive proposition.

In our experience most of these sites don't even deliver a working ringtone. A person jumps through all those hoops just to get an error page when the actual download portion is supposed to happen. I wasn't even aware of the recurring charge until I received my next cell phone bill. That's when I discovered that my free ringtone wasn't truly free at all.

VISIT THESE SITES FOR TRULY FREE RINGTONES=>   

Your cell phone service provider will try to get you to contact the fallacious site and have the service discontinued, but if the one that you end up at is anything like my experience the procedures for unsubscribing are all bogus too and the recurring charge will keep showing up until you demand (friendly now, those customer service people are people too!) that the recurring charge be removed from your bills. AS demonstrated on the CBS ringtone story, often times these companies dont have an incentive to stop the charges if they receive a fee as long as you continue paying them.

For the most part cell phone companies are willing to work with people taken by these free ringtones sites. When I talked with Nextel they assured me that this is one of the number one problems and complaints of customers. But you just can't be sure they'll work with you, so the best thing is to avoid downloading ringtones from anywhere other than your provider's site.