That’s when I thought of the artist I’d like to have as my ringtone. I decided that if I could even find a Skinny Puppy ringtone I would pay to download that. I thought it was quite unlikely that I’d be able to find a ring tone by this group amongst all the more popular err culture songs that are hot right now. But alas I was able to find not just spam websites with ’skinny puppy’ links but a cell phone ring tone site that had samples and download links for three different Skinny Puppy songs.

I was so excited to find the ring tone I’d been in search of that I quickly click-clicked and was on my way to downloading the ring tone to my T-Mobile cell phone -or so I thought. When I went to complete the final download portion I got an error page. After trying several more times with no luck I finally gave up. I resolutely decided I’d get my $2 back some other time and worst case scenario: was just out $2.

Then I got my cell phone bill. Not only had I been charged for the ring tone that never worked, but there was a $10 recurring charge -set to occur each and every month. It turns out that in the fine print of the ringtone site I’d visited there is a clause stipulating that downloading the ringtone automatically subscribes the user to this ongoing service and charges.

The way they get away with this at all is by having you enter your cell number at the site. The site sends you a text message with a code word. Once you input the code word on the site you’re then taken to the download page -at which point you’ve jumped through so many hoops you’re less likely to read the tiny print.

Luckily T-Mobile was very understanding and I didn’t have to pay the $10 fee and I never had to see that charge again either. Be wary of cell ringtone websites. If you can’t find it at the provider’s site then you probably don’t want it. Even though T-Mobile was understanding, I still had to talk with them several times to verify that I’d done my best to contact the offending third party website. Heed my advice so you don’t have to learn the same lesson.

How does it work?

Well, you do an internet search for a particular song you’d like to have a ringtone for and lo and behold there’s a special ringtone site that has just that song. Sure, you realize that you’ll have to pay a few bucks to download and use the ringtone, so you start to follow the directions. You’re asked to input your cell number to verify where the ringtone will be sent to. That seems reasonable, right? This is where they get you.

As soon as you input your cell number and receive the texted code word, you input the code word on the ringtone site. You scan through the fine print agreement, or perhaps there’s only a link to the legalese, select the ‘I agree’ box and on you go. But as it turns out, the agreement you e-signed includes a clause for ongoing membership to the ringtone site, for which you will be charged a recurring fee of $9.95-$14.99 (depending on which site caught you).

In my experience most of these sites don’t even deliver a working ringtone. A person jumps through all those hoops just to get an error page when the actual download portion is supposed to happen. I wasn’t even aware of the recurring charge until I received my next cell phone bill. Your cell phone service provider will try to get you to contact the fallacious site and have the service discontinued, but if the one that you end up at is anything like my experience the procedures for unsubscribing are all bogus too and the recurring charge will keep showing up until you demand (friendly now, those customer service people are people too!) that the recurring charge be removed from your bills.

For the most part cell phone companies are willing to work with people taken by these free ringtones sites. When I talked with Nextel they assured me that this is one of the number one problems and complaints of customers. But you just can’t be sure they’ll work with you, so the best thing is to avoid downloading ringtones from anywhere other than your provider’s site.

She had gone to an Internet website that offered her a free ringtone that she thought would be perfect for her to utilize on her phone, but little did she know that it was just a sham, one that led to her needing to call her service provider because there was a charge that had appeared on her next bill even though there was no ringtone added to those that she already had. Even though she had the charge taken off after contacting a service representative directly, the situation left her very weary to the kind of hassle that follows trying to find the most appropriate ringtones that suit your personality, and scams like that are fairly common unless you stay a most informed or cautious person toward those kind of deals.

By researching adequately the service provider that may have the most to offer you as a customer, you can be confident that every need you have will be met to the satisfaction that is readily available from one that knows that they have chosen their cell phone carrier wisely, but you need to be weary of loopholes in deals and plans that may lead you to trouble later on and most certainly ask questions wherever you happen to be confused about your plan. Cingular has been known to offer some of the better plans on the market today, but don’t trust the advertising that you see all around you, go with an informed intuition to get the best bargain.

Before being allowed to access your account online you’ll have to register with the Verizon website. It seems like cell phone companies would have their stuff together by now so that with any new cell phone account you also already have an online account and password. You could access this info in your phone and visit the website or not, without having to register and go through all the confirmation hoops and emails.

Registering at the Verizon site will help you download additional content like Verizon ringtones, wallpaper and more, but it will also allow you to view your cell phone bill online. This can be really nice for keeping up to date about your minutes used and things like that. Plus, making a payment online is so much more convenient than dealing with paper, pen, checkbook and stamps. I’ve used paperless billing ever since it was introduced and it’s wonderful to never receive that evil looking wad of paper in the mail.

If you don’t find the ringtone you want at the Verizon site you may be tempted to use a third party ringtones website, but I strongly caution you against doing so. Many of these sites are gateways to recurring charges on your cell phone account. If you feel you must, be sure to read every bit of small print to see what all you’re signing up for.

No matter what the carrier of your cell phone service, though, there is always a question of features that you may choose to enjoy or that you could enjoy. Some of these accents and accessories to your phone can be integrated right away or over the time you utilize their particular service, there are times when you might want to choose to understand all the interesting functions to yourself, and there are many things that the companies can do online as well. Motorola is one of these companies, and they are certainly quite adept at supplying ringtones through the Internet, the array they already have in stock along with newest ones there are.

Many specific ringtones and sounds can be acquired through the Internet, but there is another function that the service center can do for you if you happen to have no access to an Internet connection, where people can aid you with your specific changes in cost and ability. However the direction that you would choose to go into to further understand that which your service provider can allow you access to for the money that you pay, such as Internet access through your phone itself, you must understand what it is that your particular plan can give to you that are willing to utilize for your personal use.

It really is a much better idea to first check with your cell phone service provider to see if they have a song that you’d like for your next cell phone ringtone. This is really the only way to ensure that you won’t end up paying more than the buck or two for your new ringtone.

Many of the independent download ringtones websites offer tunes to all kinds of cell phone provider customers. In addition these large ringtone downloading websites tend to have a huge variety of songs from which to choose. This makes them very attractive to many people.

If you simply must download a ringtone from one of the popular download sites be sure to read ALL of the fine print. At many such sites this means actually following the little link to the real agreement terms and conditions. Too many of these sites have clauses for membership and recurring charges built into the agreement.

Before you can download a ringtone you’ll be asked to provide your cell phone number at which point the website will text you with a code number. When users insert the code number on the website they are then taken through the agreement page (or past the tiny link to the agreement) at which point they may or may not receive the ringtone. There is no uncertainty that they will receive a hefty and recurring charge on their cell phone bill however.

If you fall prey to this type of scam, be forewarned that your cell phone company will try to put the burden on you and ask you to track down the company and have the membership and charges discontinued. The problem is that most of these shady companies may have an 800 number, but there’s nothing to listen to except a recording.

The download ringtones website that got me had a text code I could text to the site to discontinue their ’service’, but it never worked and I received a couple months’ worth of bogus charges, not to mention the fact that I never did receive the ringtone that had originally brought me to the website. Do what you can to discontinue service, but be prepared to be firm with your cell phone provider in order to get the charges removed the first time you call rather than the third or fourth time.

Did you know that Nextel was the first cell phone company to come out with polyphonic ringtones? Yep, back in 2002 Nextel ringtones were the first to go truly polyphonic, thus changing the way we think of cell phone ringtones, as well as our awareness of just how terrible our friends’ tastes in music can be.

It wasn’t until 2003 that the polyphonic ring tones first innovated by the Nextel cell phone company really took off and fully saturated the cell phone market, becoming all the rage in tech trends for sure. After Nextel came out with polyphonic ringtones in 2002 the other cell phone manufacturers and service providers scrambled to offer the same technology to their customers.

Various cell phone companies came up with their own proprietary polyphonic ringtone lines with catchy names like ‘Nokia True Tones’ and ring tone websites began springing up all over the place.

Of course nowadays the burning ringtone technology is MP3 ringtones. These are the clearest ring tones because they are songs exactly as they would be heard if played form a stereo. Users can transfer MP3 ring tones to their phones using Bluetooth technology or downloading them from the cell phone company website. I strongly advise against using one of the third party ringtone websites, as many of these are fraught with hidden recurring charges that will be put on your cell phone bill.

The very first ringtones, of course, were monophonic meaning that only one note at a time is heard. These ring tones tend to sound like elevator music, but worse. Then again, the novelty of being able to set our cell phones to ring with a recognizable tune was innovative enough to hold the attention of most of us.

Around the early years of ringtone technology there were built in ring tone composer programs that allowed users to create and input custom tunes to their cell phones. This, however, did not take off and was soon discarded.

In 2002 the first polyphonic ringtones came out and represented a major milestone for cell phone ringtone technology. This feat was first accomplished by Nokia. The Nokia 3510 was the very first phone capable of playing polyphonic ring tones. Very soon thereafter, the other major cell phone companies came out with their own versions of this polyphonic technology.

The year 2003 was really the big year for polyphonic ringtones, as all the cell phone companies were offering MIDI polyphonic technology to their customers and everyone was swarming to experience the new sound technology for themselves.

Around this time is when websites began offering ringtone downloads and all that jazz. To this day you can download every top 40 song and many other celebrity outpourings from these websites as well as from the cell phone manufacturers.

Of course things keep evolving and now MP3 music and ringtones are all the rage. Users with Bluetooth technology can transfer music files to and from their PC and cell phone to enjoy MP3 ringtones.

Now it’s a completely different story when it comes to a song I really like and respect. I suppose then it is a question of proper reverence. It just doesn’t sound right to hear Beethoven in midi format. I mean how many times can you hear ‘Ode to Joy’ with only a fraction of the orchestral magic that the tune requires intact?

So maybe MP3 ring tones have a place in today’s fast paced and thoroughly wired world. If nothing else it sure makes using custom rings (what people hear that call your number) that much more fun. After all, half the fun of choosing special call tones for each person that calls you to hear is being able to meta-say something with the lyrics of the chosen song.

There are simply tons of MP3 ringtones websites from which you can download songs, but many of these are scam sites that will be padding your cell phone bill with recurring membership charges that you never knew you were signing up for. If you have the hardware to connect your cell phone to your PC why not make your own ringtone?

First, search your cell phone service provider’s website for the MP3 ringtone that you want. If you can’t find it there I recommend the method mentioned above. If you must use a third party ringtone site just be very careful and read everything -including agreements that are only linked to-before agreeing to download anything.

My efforts for new and exciting ringtones was quickly rewarded with a plethora of websites claiming to have all kinds of Nokia ringtones for free. And many of these sites had song ring tones I hadn’t ever seen listed on the Nokia site. I was happy with my find but wanted to do some comparison shopping before committing to a purchase…

And I got to wondering just how it works that a third party website could offer a ringtone and it could be downloaded to my phone. I mean it would be one thing to physically link the phone to the PC and get the new ringtone installed that way, but I always opt for the free phone and surely didn’t have all that hardware and net savvy working for me.

I’m convinced that just tat question arises at the same point in deciding to use one of these ringtone sites and the bastards know the average human thought pattern there and use this knowledge to lure users like this: You’re asked to input your cell phone number so that they can verify to where the ring tone will be sent. See what I mean? ‘Ahhhh, okay, so that’s how it’s done’, feeling all assured that it must be legit if there’s a way to verify that you actually own the phone it’s easier to let go of the original query about the logistics.

The problem with these ringtone sites is that once you input the code word they text to you, your account is billed recurrently for membership to the ringtone site. It doesn’t matter if the terms you agreed to was a link to a 5,000 word document, somewhere in that document it declares the sorry truth about the recurring fee. Good luck getting it removed from your account too. In summation, don’t download ringtones for your Nokia phone from anyone but Nokia.