[D&Lsunfun]

Have you received the "free" phone offer from the VA/American Legion Post?
Also, the letter that mailed to the recipients within the last couple weeks?
Has anyone actually talked to someone about the offer and if the Veterans are entitled to the free phone with 500 minutes per month? At the American Legion
(Tuesday evening) no information was available about the phones.
Does anyone have any information?

[vinricci]

VA phone is free for vets. 500 minutes for first three months then 250. Must make at least one call per month to keep account active.

[Carla B]

My husband got the "free" phone earlier this year. He didn't ask for it, it was offered by someone when he was enrolling at the VA Clinic. When he got the phone in the mail it took many hours talking to SafeLink to get it to work, since it is GSM system, as in T-Mobile, which doesn't work at our house. No problem other than it doesn't work at home.

He got the letter from SafeLink dated July 28 requesting proof of eligibility and went to see the liaison at the American Legion yesterday. Result: there is no more "VA" program (if it ever was legit), so unless a person qualifies under another government aid program, there will be no further airtime provided. I get the feeling that the so-called agent was enrolling veterans without qualifying them.

[KeepingItReal]

Originally Posted by D&Lsunfun

Have you received the "free" phone offer from the VA/American Legion Post?
Also, the letter that mailed to the recipients within the last couple weeks?
Has anyone actually talked to someone about the offer and if the Veterans are entitled to the free phone with 500 minutes per month? At the American Legion
(Tuesday evening) no information was available about the phones.
Does anyone have any information?

There are no free phones, it may be free to someone but someone else is paying for it. Everything given to someone free is taken from another someone. It would be hard to believe anyone living in the Villages paying an amenity fee every month and a maintenance fee every year (plus a $30 yearly membership fee to the American Legion) would even want a free phone when other's have to pay extra for them to have it.. And I am a veteran.

Do taxpayers pay for free government cell phones?

[Jima64]

Sounds like someone is doing another scam playing on the sympathies of. veterans. I too am a vet and when I go to my yearly clinic visit this week I am going to look around and see what else is offered.

[D&Lsunfun]

This free phone was suppose to be given to Veterans due to the fact:
everyone pays for these phones as a service charge on their wireless phone bill.
100's of people signed up for these phones at the VA and also American Legion.
It is a basic trac phone with 500 free minutes. The salesperson was in the lobby each week
offering these phones to members. Actually WE all have paid for the use of these phones. The phone offer is also for: low income/food stamp recipients/school free lunch program/medicaid/section 8

[KeepingItReal]

Originally Posted by D&Lsunfun

This free phone was suppose to be given to Veterans due to the fact:
everyone pays for these phones as a service charge on their wireless phone bill.
100's of people signed up for these phones at the VA and also American Legion.
It is a basic trac phone with 500 free minutes. The salesperson was in the lobby each week
offering these phones to members. Actually WE all have paid for the use of these phones. The phone offer is also for: low income/food stamp recipients/school free lunch program/medicaid/section 8

The charge is levied on land lines too as I just paid it today. I do not see veterans or American Legion members on any of the eligibility lists below taken from 3 different sources...

https://www.fcc.gov/guides/lifeline-...ible-consumers

How to Report Lifeline Assistance Fraud, Abuse and Waste

Lifeline is a government benefit program that provides discounts on monthly telephone service for eligible low-income subscribers to help ensure they can connect to the nation's communications networks, find jobs, access health care services, connect with family and their children's schools, and call for help in an emergency. Lifeline is supported by the federal Universal Service Fund (USF).

Who actually gets the money?
Beneficiaries of the USF include schools, libraries, low-income consumers, rural healthcare providers and consumers in rural areas.

The federal universal service fund was established and is maintained to ensure that all consumers, regardless of location, have access to essentially the same telecommunications services at affordable prices. The fund also assists schools, libraries, low-income consumers and rural health care consumers with assistance in obtaining telecommunications services.

[outlaw]

Originally Posted by KeepingItReal

There are no free phones, it may be free to someone but someone else is paying for it. Everything given to someone free is taken from another someone. It would be hard to believe anyone living in the Villages paying an amenity fee every month and a maintenance fee every year (plus a $30 yearly membership fee to the American Legion) would even want a free phone when other's have to pay extra for them to have it.. And I am a veteran.

Do taxpayers pay for free government cell phones?

This is the new America. "Free things" with OPM.

[Carla B]

What is "OPM?"

[outlaw]

Originally Posted by Carla B

What is "OPM?"

other people's money

[Justus]

Originally Posted by outlaw

This is the new America. "Free things" with OPM.

Amen!

[Justus]

Originally Posted by KeepingItReal

There are no free phones, it may be free to someone but someone else is paying for it. Everything given to someone free is taken from another someone. It would be hard to believe anyone living in the Villages paying an amenity fee every month and a maintenance fee every year (plus a $30 yearly membership fee to the American Legion) would even want a free phone when other's have to pay extra for them to have it.. And I am a veteran.

Do taxpayers pay for free government cell phones?

[blyarbrough]

If anyone in the usa should get a free cell phone........it should be a vet. !!!!!

[D&Lsunfun]

This phone program was offered to anyone that was a member of the Legion and at the VA. Misinformed and the phone service will be terminated on August 7.
For years everyone has paid these charges on their land line and wireless bill to supply phones for the needy. But Vets are not included, as we found out recently.
Another example of: if it sounds too good to be true, it isn't.

[spk7951]

I had picked up a phone at the Legion back in June for my Dad and had nothing but trouble with it. Difficult to reach service to help us and now I received the following email from our local Congressman:


Dear Friends,

There isn’t a whole lot of news to report this week that you all don’t already know about. I did want to make you aware of one thing that’s been a growing issue here recently. As many of you know, a portion of your monthly cell phone bill goes toward the so-called “Universal Service Fund”. That fund, among other things, provides cell phones to low-income families. When people talk about “Obamaphones”, that’s specifically what they are referring to.

To make a long story short, we’ve had a growing issue with the vendors who sell / provide these phones targeting veterans with a very misleading pitch. Outside one of our local VA outpatient clinics, a vendor sets up a booth. As veterans come in for appointments, they get roped into to signing up for what they think is a free phone for veterans. To be clear – there is no free phone for veterans program. In order for a veteran to qualify, he or she must be below the income threshold like everybody else.

So after these vets hand over their personal information and numbers, etc. they get a phone. Three months later, they get something in the mail saying they need to verify their income eligibility. The veteran tells the company, “but I make more than that” and the company says, “well you’ll have to pay up in that case or we’re going to disconnect your phone.”

When this happens, either the veteran has gotten used to this new phone and gotten rid of an old one, in which case they’ve been duped into purchasing a new phone. Or more likely, the phone is simply disconnected and discarded. The company who is compensated by the Universal Service Fund is making money coming and going. At least that’s our strong suspicion. Some company in the industry ran a very misleading campaign last year urging veterans (many of whose information they probably got at booths like the one I just described) to call and urge their representatives not to cut phone service for veterans. Our immediate reaction was, there is no such program. Low income veterans may well qualify for this program, but it’s very misleading to suggest to people this is a veteran-specific thing.

Over the next week, I’m going to be digging into this quite a bit and I will be reaching out to some of my colleagues to try to get a number of us working on a solution. The bottom line is, if you know any local veterans, please give them a heads up that this is happening. It ends up being a situation where some slick talking sales person misleads them into turning over important personal information for what ends up being nothing.

In any case, I don’t want to take up any more of your time this morning. I should have some more specifics to report on in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, if you have a minute, please feel free to drop me a line and let me know what’s on your mind.

Thanks again.

Sincerely,
Rich Nugent
Member of Congress