Don't you hate it when free is not really free?

One of my pet hates is things that are advertised as free when they aren't free at all. They are just con tricks trying to get you to try stuff before hitting you with a bill. It is not that I don't like paying for stuff or that I expect stuff to be free, the problem I have is being told something it is clearly not.

It often happens with software on the internet and it could be Windows or Apple Mac software, it happens with both. One way in which people try to deceive you is by describing software as a 'Free download!' You can make anything a free download and you are rarely charged to download anything.  When you see this phrase it usually means 'we won't charge you to download it, but if you actually want to run it you'll have to pay $123.99 or whatever.' I usually avoid software described as 'Free Download!' because it means it is most definitely not free.

I was browsing the Mac App Store today and was looking at the Top Free charts. I looked at one app, Billings Pro, but it could have been any one of a number of apps. It is in the Top Free Business section. The buy/download button says Free, the price in the information box on the right says Free, but guess what? It's not free. Well, technically the app is free, but it relies on a subscription to an online service. To be fair, it does say this in the description, so you are warned, but some developers don't even do this nd you don't discover that something isn't free until after you have downloaded it and installed it.

The Newsstand app on the iPhone/iPad is particularly bad and every single app is listed as free. Of course they aren't free. Well, yes it is true that the apps are free, but they are just a shell with no content. If you actually want to read any of the newspapers or magazines you have to pay, either for single issues or a subscription.

I don't have a problem with paying, it is just the description and the word 'Free' in everything when nothing is free. It would be much better if instead of Free it had the price of an issue, or perhaps the app instead of being free was the price of an issue of the magazine or newspaper. So when you buy a Newsstand app you get one download issue of your choice. More issues or a subscription could be purchased in the app as before.

It's not just an Apple issue and many Windows downloads as described as free when they are actually 30-day limited trials. You don't discover this until after you have downloaded and installed the software. I like 30-day trials of software because you can try it before you buy it, but I don't like being told something is free when it's not.