She received a gift that keeps her spending
Posted
Mar 25 2008, 11:16 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
"Fox" at Squawkfox isn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but this time she can't help it. Her brother-in-law and his wife gave her a Sirius satellite radio receiver and four months of free service for the holidays. Now she's got to pay $12 a month if she wants that gift to keep on giving.
"I'm just wondering, should we give gifts that keep costing the recipient?" she asks. "Here are reasons to Sirius(ly) reconsider giving gifts like satellite radio, and to start looking certain gift horses in the mouth."
Gifts like satellite radio, cell phones and puppies force recipients to spend money they may not have or want to part with. As she notes, if she doesn't pay, the gift doesn't play and loses all of its value.
She hasn't decided what to do. She loves the service but realizes that all of those little fees in life add up.
She also knows this: "Gifts only holding value when tightly coupled with an ongoing service fee are not really gifts, I think. Sticking your gift recipient with a fee-sucking space-occupying useless thing kinda sucks."
