- Anything Else -

Gotta read those things closely

Posted by: Hugh Morris ( Reach Out And Screw Someone ) on August 27, 1999 at 11:05:43:

In Reply to: Phone Card Scams posted by Deep Dad Nine on August 26, 1999 at 12:56:58:

Daddio: Example: Last weekend I bought a 90 minute phone card at a convenience store. I walked straight to a payphone and dialed all the necessary numbers. A recording confirmed that I had "One hour and 30 minutes" left on this card. I made a 30 second phone call to a friend 28 miles away. I hung up the phone. I picked up the phone again and dialed all of the necessary numbers. This time the recording told me "You have 1 hour and 5 minutes left on this card"!!! What the hell happened to my 24 minutes?! At this rate my card won't last two minutes total. the card cost $5 so that's about $2.50 per minute. But the front of the card says 5 cents per minute anywhere in the continental US! What a freakin' lie! Is this legal? Someone MUST be raising a stink about this, right?

Morris: Often, those things are sold by meaningless "units", not minutes. That way, the price can be easily changed by changing the value of a "unit." Also, since most public telephones are connected to copanies nobody has ever heard of, there are several companies (the public phone's owner, the local service provider, the interlata provider) with their hands in the till, causing more "units" to evaporate. Of course, the only reason someone would purchase such a card is to make calls from a public phone, so you can probably kiss your money goodbye.

Hugh Morris


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