Sign up for a GOLD Card Membership at Shopss.com and receive the following PC for FREE:

BRAND NEW system includes,
Nice ATX Case
250W Power Supply
AOpen AX6BC EZ <a href="http://english.aopen.com/products/mb/ax6bcez.htm]http://english.aopen.com/products/mb/ax6bcez.htm">Motherboard</a>
Pentium III 500 Mhz Processor OEM with a nice big Heat Sink and Fan
Afreey 50X CDROM
Panasonic Zip Drive 100Meg Type
Mitsumi Floppy
13 Gig Seagate Hard Drive
64 Meg Memory
ATI Rage Pro 8 Meg Video Card
56k V.90 LT/Winmodem
16 Bit Soundcard ESS - Solo-1 Chipset (ES1938S) w/Gameport, Audio In,Out and Mic
Battery Powered Speakers
Keyboard
Mouse

Here are the known catches:
1) After one year you will be notified twice via e-mail regarding the renewl of your $299 annual membership. If you do not respond to either of the two e-mails your credit card will be charged the $299 annual membership fee. It would be a good idea to mark down the last week of February 2001 in your calendar so next year you will be very alert to receive these renewal e-mail notices. After one year simply cancel your Shopss.com Gold Card Membership and keep the $299 Pentium III 500 computer system.
2) You will be signed up for one month of their long distance service, which you may promptly cancel the following month. Here is an interesting <a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/000223/ny_shopss__1.html">story</a> regarding their proposed $9.99 all you can talk long distance service (for the first 200 members).
3) $72 shipping fee is in addition to $299, no monitor is bundled with the PC and no OS (Operating System). CostCo offers a nice <a href="http://204.250.253.2/f76.htm">Sylvania F76 17inch monitor</a> for only $169 (after $20 mail in rebate). You can pay an extra $98 for a copy of Windows98: Second Edition or download <a href="http://www.linux.org/dist/ftp.html">Linux for FREE</a>
4) You will receive at least 2 pieces of SPAM e-mail per day (I receive an average of 4 per day).
5) A similiarly configured PC from Dell or Gateway is at least $1,200
6) Hurry, offer expires Tuesday 29FEB00.

Unlike other "FREE PC" offers there is no required software or banner ads. The computer's hard drive comes BARE with nothing pre-installed. The PC is yours to do with as you please. The CPU alone is worth $299.

Estimated costs:
$299 Pentium III 500 system
$72 Shipping
$169 Monitor
----
$540 or $638 with their Windows98: SE

Someone was kind enough to <a href="http://www.up-link.net/~shawn/299%20System/">offer pictures</a> of this system.

<a href="http://www.shopss.com/clubcards-details.tmpl">GOLD Card Membership details</a>

Their telephone number for questions and tech support 516-454-1577

MacDeals!

I may be reading this wrong, but I think that when you get this computer you are committing to spend at least $30 per month at shopps.com for the next 2 years! If you cancel before 2 years, you will owe them another $450. If you do not spend $30 per month there, your credit card will automatically be charged $20 per month. Check the FAQs. That's where I got this info.

This doesn't sound like a very good deal to me.

I called about the last post indicating that the deal was less than desirable. I was told that the offer listed in the FAQ on their web site was a previous one and not this one. After reading the contract, it truly is only $299 + $72 S/H. You only agree to accept 1 daily email from the company to your primary email address.

[gmsmith]

I called them as well...I am still a bit hesitant...but I think I am going to order it. They take American Express (which makes me feel a bit more comfortable, since AMEX takes care of its customers so well). It will make a great linux box

Peace,
G

[This message has been edited by gmsmith (edited 02-24-2000).]

WebGuyCS - If you'll notice the <a href="http://www.SHOPSS.com/faq.tmpl">FAQ</a> you're referring to is titled, "FAQ's for Celeron 400 Members" which is not at all a great MacDeals! bargain for a slow computer and even at the required $20 per month for 24 months that equals $480 which is a far cry from $299 for a Pentium III 500 as opposed to a $480 Celeron 400.

Please refer to the following links for additional information or call Shopss.com at 516-454-1577:
<a href="http://www.shopss.com/goldcard.tmpl">Gold Card Membership offer</a>

<a href="http://www.shopss.com/faq.tmpl#specification">FAQ</a> (scroll down a little to where it says "PENTIUM II/III COMPUTERS") these computer specs may differ slightly from past/present PCs they are shipping. For up to the minute specs I highly encourage you to <a href="http://www.SHOPSS.com/contactus.tmpl">contact</a> them.

Gold Card Membership <a href="http://www.shopss.com/clubcards-details.tmpl">Terms and Conditions</a>

Gold Card Membership <a href="http://www.shopss.com/join/goldmemberagreement.htm">Agreement</a> which you will need to complete, providing your personal information including credit card account information then sign and fax to 516-454-4842. This step comes after you have completed the <a href="http://www.shopss.com/join/placeamgold.tmpl">Join Us</a> screen. $299 for a Pentium III 500 is really a bargain not to pass up, I intend to use mine as a Linux box and to network with my iMac revB.

GregDiel - Thank You for providing that information. It can get a little confusing when they put two separate FAQ's for a Celeron 400 and a Pentium III 500. If you have ordered this computer I hope you enjoy it.

gmsmith - Just make sure that you sign up for the Gold Card Membership which charges you only $372 ($299 Pentium III 500, $72 shipping) and possibly an additional $98 if you decide to order Windows98. Also remember to watch your e-mail account very closely approximately 12 months from now for their "renewal" e-mails.

Hope this better answers some questions you may have had.

MacDeals!

I also see a reference to a mandatory (1 month) switch to their long distance service....there may be a fee involved with this switch (not to mention any potentially higher long distance costs...I don't know anything about their plan). This still sounds like a good deal....I'm going to sign up for it and will post the results back here.

is it just me, or did this change:

"5. Get one month of free unlimited long distance phone services within the United States via Shopss.com Phone-Ominal. Pay only $9.95 per month for this service for the rest of the year."

I could have swore that it said this before:

"5. Get one month of free unlimited long distance phone services within the United States"

or something like that, did they change the terms?

Bumping this up to the top, offer expires today Tuesday 02/29/2000.

If you have any questions please call Shopss.com at 516-454-1577.

Signed up over the weekend, and called them today to confirm that everything went through. They said they had a big backlog of orders and were processing them; our order was in the process of being approved, but that we had made it in before the deadline. I asked when we could expect delivery of the PC and was told normally it takes about 3 weeks after the membership is approved, but that due to their current backlog, it would probably take somewhat longer than that. They wouldn't say exactly how much longer. I'm guessing it'll be about a month, which is OK with me I guess.

Closing thread, since this offer should be over in 45 minutes.

MacDeals!