Digital Player for Free?

Many on-hold companies offer packages in which they include the player for free. How can they do that? Is it really free? Well…often times, it’s not. Many times, there’s a start-up fee ranging anywhere from $199 to $399 and even higher. This start-up fee covers the company’s cost for the player, but calling it a start-up fee allows them to say that the player is free. Hey – you’re not paying for the player – it’s free. But there is a $299 start-up fee. There’s nothing terribly wrong with clever marketing…but let’s compare apples to apples.

Some companies lease the player, and the lease price is built into the monthly on-hold price. For example, you’d pay $79 per month for 3 recordings, and maybe $29 of that is the hardware lease portion. Again, this is perfectly legal and ethical – but beware. Unless your contract states that this is a “lease to own,” if you ever wish to terminate service, you will have to return the digital player to the on-hold company. After years of paying for your on-hold messages, how’d you like to find out that you don’t own the equipment?!

That’s my biggest issue with these “digital players” free deals – you never own the equipment. Hopefully you’ll be happy with their service and be a life-long customer – but if you ever want to leave, you can’t even keep using your current recording because you won’t have a player.

At Watt Media, we take a more sensible approach. We sell our digital player upfront, and you own it outright. No leasing, where you pay 3 or 4 times the value of the unit, no having to give the hardware back in the event of cancellation – clients really resent having to do that. So, when it comes to digital players, as the cliché goes, make sure you always read the fine print!