SMSVW Misleading texts regarding service - I never agreed to pay $9.99/month to dial 1-800 numbers. cranston, Rhode Island

You know those stupid ads they have on TV for these sorts of services? The ones that blow hype and sunshine up your butt about how you can get unlimited ringtones, wallpapers and text alerts? Usually put on in the later afternoon to catch the brainless eMpTV generation sheep?

Yeah, those ones.

Next time ignore the hype flashing across the screen about how cool and hip you'll be, just like the kiddies who are walking around irradiating their brains and growing healthy, bouncing, baby tumors on mommy and daddy's Platinum AmEx cards, gobbling up ungodly amounts of cell minutes with their phones duct taped to their ossified skulls and watch the bottom of the screen closely... Don't blink now....

See that "stuff"? That's called "fine print". It's your enemy and the merchant's best friend. You'll see that with these services, what it boils down to, is that if you accept any manner of commerce with the outfit in question, be it just wanting one ringtone or that really pretty wallpaper, you've entered into a contractual agreement with them to pay a monthly fee (usually around $9.95/mo.) for access to content that's deliverable to your mobile device.

If you answered in the positive to any unsolicited text to your cell phone (cell phone spam, yay!), you've likely just "subscribed" to such a service and will continue to rack up charges until such time as you text "STOP" to the originating number.

For most of us, such a service is nothing more than a serious pain in our collective recta mucosa, for others, not so much, since usually getting a single rigtone or wallpaper can cost about $2 a pop from our cell service providers alone, and some people change such features more often than an Alzheimer patient has their Depends changed, so it actually makes better financial sense. However....

Bottom line of it, is that if you made any "Y" reply to a text from whom you didn't recognize the number, or you decided to just "try out a ringtone" that you couldn't resist, etc., even if you thought it was a one time thing, you've automatically signed into the service for the monthly fee as advertised in that fine print. They don't even need your bank info, they just charge directly to your cell company who then passes the charge on to you.

Plus, as far as your cell provider is concerned, the transaction and any mishaps, shenanigans or slap fights that arise out of the mess are a problem between you and that content provider. I can guarantee you that your provider wants absolutely nothing to do with the fiasco.

Isn't the technological age a wonderful thing?

Those idiotic ads on TV are flashy and distracting for a reason.