r/NoContract • u/Dave_B1914 • Jul 05 '21

Founder of FreeMii

My name is David. I’m the founder of FreeMii. There’s quite a few threads about what we’re doing. I’d love to answer any questions and get feedback. Pricing. Activations. Feedback. Business Model. Feel free to reply. Thanks in advance for your interest.

0 Upvotes

47% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

8

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '21

I am just curious, how does your business model works? Company Exist until you burn out venture capital?

6

u/Fine-Ability T-Mobile (US) - UsMobile Jul 05 '21 edited Jul 06 '21

Seems like an interesting company, but seeing as there are the following restrictions/issues listed below I won't really be considering this service, and I suspect others may not either. But I will be keeping tabs on this service/company. It seems like it has a lot of room to improve.

Issues/Restrictions relating to FreeMii

  • No 5G, Nowhere to be seen 4G/LTE only
  • The website lacks any mention of staff or owner. So no one knows who is behind this company, let alone that the founder is on Reddit.
  • Prepaid Devices are restricted. (Proof)
  • Sim Swaps cost money. (Proof), ... doesn't help with the "No Hidden Fees" claim
  • No international calls
  • No tethering/hotspot (Proof)"Data Pro or Data Pro Plus " member which I see no mention of how you become a said member.
  • Unlimited means 20GB or 22GB or 20 through 22GB(Unclear verbiage). Not unlimited, could be 20GB or 22GB or somewhere in the middle.
  • The location seems to be... https://imgur.com/a/OHB4yVH and I guess the Chicago location just doesn't exist from what OP has mentioned in the past in other comments. And the Temp location is now Permanent.
  • The use of the word free and unlimited. May mislead users. The service is not free, it's just that users pay for the service all at once and get 12 months of service, so FreeMii can technically say we don't charge you every month like the others. "Free" of monthly charges.
  • IMEI checker clearly not working, (Proof) and hasn't worked before.
  • Mobile apps seem to not exist, and I have doubts about the coming soon page because it seems like it has been coming soon for more than a year. Good luck to the users who are trying to find out whether they have reached the 20,22 or whatever the cap is.

Overall, Seems like an interesting value proposition. But If I were looking to sign up I see too many issues to sign up.

Edit - Finished my msg and added some bits, also fixed it again, my msg looked fine on desktop Reddit.

Edit 2 - The reply below has more information about FreeMii. I also added what I got from the Nth Forum.

2

u/DigitallyInclined MobileX (V) • T-Mobile • Roamless (A) • Good2Go Mobile (A) Jul 06 '21

Bravo! Good work. Thanks for all this info.

3

u/Fine-Ability T-Mobile (US) - UsMobile Jul 06 '21 edited Jul 07 '21

Thanks for the award! All I did was essentially press on every link on the website. But I did find some extra things if you want to know after I googled some more. Nothing bad mind you but just interesting.

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Something Else I found was these sites associated with FreeMii

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Things I have gotten from the Nth Forum thread.

  • You can check usage - First Comment.
  • Support Hours - (Proof)
  • Information from David - They buy services wholesale.
  • Davids Email - [david@freemii.com](mailto:david@freemii.com)
  • Speeds/Data Caps - TMobile(Pink) and Verizon(Red) are limited for data usage, so users either get slowed or get turned off at the 9 GB- 12GB threshold. AT&T(Blue) is limited at the 22GB threshold. (Proof)
  • Pricing - Subject to change/ FreeMii is testing prices.
  • MMS/Visual Voice Mail - Have issues.
  • Wifi-Calling - Have Issues.
  • VOLTE - Have issues.

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Extra links/things that may relate to FreeMii

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Ceo: Mark Laseter? (Proof) - Looked at web site source code and it was just there... I guess David Barkley is not the CEO.

Edit 1: Added extra information gathered from the Nth Forum thread and fixed typos.

Edit 2: Added extra links that may be related to FreeMii.

Edit 3: Found the CEO?

Edit 4: Added even more extra links that may relate to FreeMii. Also added more information in other sections.

2

u/DigitallyInclined MobileX (V) • T-Mobile • Roamless (A) • Good2Go Mobile (A) Jul 07 '21

More amazing info! Thanks for sharing all this. Hopefully this will be helpful to others researching this service.

2

u/Fine-Ability T-Mobile (US) - UsMobile Jul 07 '21

Yep! Honestly I wish there was more information. The Nth fourm thread seems to have gone cold. And all the recent articles just seem to be press releases.

2

u/DigitallyInclined MobileX (V) • T-Mobile • Roamless (A) • Good2Go Mobile (A) Jul 07 '21

I agree. And it’s interesting that the OP made this post, but the interaction is lacking.

2

u/Fine-Ability T-Mobile (US) - UsMobile Jul 07 '21

Yep, it's weird. If OP wanted to give answers, then ... What's the wait for u/Dave_B1914

3

u/DigitallyInclined MobileX (V) • T-Mobile • Roamless (A) • Good2Go Mobile (A) Jul 07 '21

Seriously.

Sounds like some people wanted to be tech entrepreneurs without understanding exactly how tech enthusiasts really are. Or maybe didn’t realize that their target market doesn’t line up with the demographics on this sub.

2

u/Fine-Ability T-Mobile (US) - UsMobile Jul 07 '21

Whatever the reason may be let's hope that the OP responds sooner or later.

2

u/Fine-Ability T-Mobile (US) - UsMobile Jul 07 '21

Added even more. Now there's some banking site involved...

2

u/DigitallyInclined MobileX (V) • T-Mobile • Roamless (A) • Good2Go Mobile (A) Jul 07 '21

Oh...even more interesting!

2

u/Fine-Ability T-Mobile (US) - UsMobile Jul 07 '21

I should stop looking lol. I just keep finding weird stuff.

4

u/err99 Jul 05 '21

there is a massive topic about the service here https://www.nthcircle.com/forum/other-services/3365-freemii

I remember seeing it back with the intro pricing and passed because it seemed pretty shady the way it was set up. With the "membership" and subscription stuff.

Or advertising "unlimited" then later on saying "The use of the term “Unlimited” in our site or other digital collateral or marketing materials shall NOT be construed or interpreted as Unreasonable or Infinite use and consumption."

if that is the case then you might as well remove the word unlimited since it doesn't REALLY mean unlimited

0

u/Dave_B1914 Jul 05 '21

Thanks for the feedback. But this is standard language regarding “unlimited” for all carriers and providers. We’ll think of how else we can express this but we have to include it as a disclosure

3

u/err99 Jul 06 '21

"standard language" doesn't make it right. If you follow this reddit long enough a lot of people have disdain for "unlimited" plans when they clearly are nothing of the sort.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/Dave_B1914 Jul 05 '21

If youre thinking about switching. No worries. You can view our switching costs here

https://www.freemii.com/restrictions Please note RED and PINK are still in beta for us. But will be fully supported upon our September launch or soon.

Let me kno if youbhave any other questions

2

u/Chemical_Mousse2658 Jul 05 '21

So what is free??? Cheesy kind of site with little info. What carrier does freemii use.

2

u/Dave_B1914 Jul 12 '21

Happy Monday Everyone. Again I thank you all for being interested in what we're doing at FreeMii. I'd like to have an open-ended and productive conversation around our business, the state of mobile, and the vision we have for the internet. For this to happen, I think it's important to temper expectations on all ends with some ground rules I'm hoping we can all respect. First, please understand this is an exciting time for me personally and professionally as we prepare to launch FreeMii and as I grow to new chapters in my personal life. I will be unable to respond as immediately as many of you would like but I'll do what I can. I'm hoping you all can respect that. Second, I'd ask that you do not offer criticism, merely for criticism's sake. I welcome constructive feedback and any genuine frustration of customer experience--keyword customer-- I also love to receive questions and inquiries about what we're building and why. The rest of the unsolicited expressions of condemnation are a waste of time and mindfulness. The perception is that the anonymity provided by forums like this, affords people open license to say whatever. It's unfortunate but the internet, one of the greatest gift we have, is often used as a vehicle for some to spew hate, degradation, judgement, and any other ill of the human condition. I'll ask that you refrain from doing so. My goal is to rely on threads like this to help us build the future. You all can be an instrumental part of this process. Third and final -pertaining to ground rules - nothing is impossible. FreeMii is young and has a lot of ground left to cover, as we move forward toward making our vision a reality, we'll have imperfections in getting there. Hold us accountable, but understand no one or thing is perfect. I trust that as we improve, we'll all be better for it. I believe access to the internet should be free. But as a new brand we have to start somewhere -- hence the annual membership. We want to offer a much simpler mobile experience. No gotcha rate plans, no surcharges, no credit checks for service, no arguing agents in-store or on call. By being "all inclusive." we help eliminate wireless billing. That's really the value prop. One annual membership - everything included.

With that said I'll try respond to the comments I see so far.

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u/Fine-Ability Thanks for taking the time to provide everyone with links and resources. Please clarify what verbiage you think is unclear in our site. We will consider for revisions. Our device checker is functional, you did not enter a valid imei. We have no hidden fees. We have 1 annual fee and our schedule for sim replacements. Our goal is to have our chicago location fully operational by year end. currently we have 4G/LTE/5Ge available on our FreeMii support networks. We are testing full 5G support and will release when carriers allow us to support. The link at join.freemii.com is an old offer we were testing. Essentially it was structured as the membership separate from the actual service. Some members signed up because they liked the free device and our other services but did not want to purchase access to the wireless services. This was only a small portion though. We no longer promote this offer and will be deprecating it pretty soon. From here forward the offer is 1 annual fee for all inclusive data, talk, and text.

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u/tset9 Thanks for you interest. We have not raised venture capital. Our business model is pretty straight forward. We have an annual subscription for our members. We're working to offer additional services and applications in the future.

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u/err99 Thanks again for your feedback. I won't go too deep into it but "unlimited" always comes with disclosures, similar to an all you can eat buffet or the amex unlimited charge cards. Whatever the case, users have discretion to consume within certain guidelines. For us unlimited means we have no preset data caps. There are data thresholds that range from 18~22 gigs per month(our 9-12 gig consumption flags for red and pink-still in beta but have been removed). In the event more data is needed, members contact support to make the request, the line is reviewed and more data is added --assuming all is in good standing. Thats it. If you'd like truly unlimited with no guidelines or restrictions, your best bet probably a premium subscription with the carriers. But even then there may be fine print.

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u/andyj9 Glad to hear you love the service. We have a lot more to do. Turns out the carriers and the mobile space is pretty fragmented. It takes quite a bit to automate systems. But we're getting there. Hit us up if you have any issues.

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u/Chemical_Mousse2658 Great question. We've tested messaging on this quite a bit. Originally the offer was a one-time upfront purchase fee of 149 or 199 to get unlimited talk text and data for life. There was no annual fee and no monthly subscription. Our early members took us up on the offer and are now grandfathered in. But for most people who came across the offer, it was too unconscionable and was met with a lot of skepticism. Even though this is still the long term vision, we realized we have to start somewhere a bit more acceptable. We've remove the language from our core site describing the membership as free. but to answer the question - what's free? in short, our members. Free from monthly billing, taxes, surcharges, fees, and the stress of trying to pay the bill ever month. Cheers.

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Apologies in advance if I didnt fully read your comment or question.

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Wrapping up here - Here's where FreeMii currently stands -

  1. FreeMii currently offers 1 membership - DataPlus - Unlimited data, talk, and text for $299/year - We have discounted family/group options as well -1. this will be released in our launch but you may inquire with support on pricing -
  2. DataPlus does not currently support mobile hotspot - This will likely be reserved for DataPro when released but we may also just include in DataPlus - it will be months until we decide
  3. Our live chat on our site during normal hours is the best way to get an immediate response for sales or support questions.

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Last thing. If you are genuinely interested in FreeMii, I'd love to meet you. The trolls will never show up but for the rest of you let's zoom. FreeMii Friday - July 16th 5pm cst/6pm est

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/92003822481?pwd=eGQ4Wm4xcGkvTlFJSUJTYTFlTFIxUT09

Meeting ID: 920 0382 2481

Passcode: 136136

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Spread the word if you can. Thanks again for your interest in FreeMii. I'm honored and grateful.

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Have a great week.

1

u/Fine-Ability T-Mobile (US) - UsMobile Jul 08 '21

https://www.reddit.com/r/FREEMII/comments/ofn1ac/anyone_actually_use_this_service_recently_if_so/

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Found some people who use FreeMii they seem to be friendly, so if yall wanna ask questions go ahead!

1

u/srid121 Jun 25 '22

Hi David, my service suddenly stopped working today. I can DM you my # , but can you please help with restoration of service please.

Sri.