"Free Smart Phone or Tablet from Sprint" Offer

I had occasion to contact the Sprint 800 number recently. While waiting for a customer service rep, a recording advised me that "You are eligible for a free smart phone or tablet" and to ask about it after my business was concluded.

A customer service rep answered my call.
My business was concluded.
I asked.
I was placed on hold.

Someone else-- with a thick accent-- picked up my call. The tablet was indeed free and she would be happy to write down my address. I had to ASK about how this would affect the cell phone bill. I was told something like the "easy payment no contract plan for data" was ten dollars a month. Did the tablet hook up to wifi? I asked. Well, yes. But I would still be required to pay the ten bucks a month for data. [There are other legal ways to do this]. 

"Then the tablet is not really free," I postulated.
The accented voice informed me that the tablet worth three hundred dollars was indeed free but in order to use it, I had to [my words here] cough up an extra ten bucks a month for "data."

If I wanted the smart phone instead, the same extra ten bucks a month for "data" would apply.

"I understand what you are saying," the voice told me, continuing to insist that either item was free, as long as [my words] was willing to give them ten more bucks a month.

I declined the offer.

sapphoq reviews says: A free tablet is not really "free" if I am required to pay for "data." Free ought to mean free with no strings. Free with no added charges. Free for my use with a dongle or off-line or as fodder for a campfire if I wish to. Free to give away. Obviously, the word free has been corrupted. Bad enough that most of the public telephones and telephone booths have gone by the wayside. Bad enough that cell phones have become almost necessary. Bad enough that some number of people cannot stand to be disconnected from their wireless communication devices for the length of a meeting or a movie.
So no thanks, Sprint. Not interested.
And no thanks to any cell phone company with the same come-on. 
It may not meet the criterion for false advertising. But it ought to.