ken@cup.portal.com (11/26/89)
A couple of interesting items appeared in the mail this week: I received a yellow postcard with the words "Gift Notice" in bold letters apparently from a firm called Gift Hot Line in Irving, Texas. The card stated that I was eligible to receive two of the following: $5000 in cash, $2500 in cash, or a $1000 Discount Coupon. All I had to do was call 1-900-988-7654! At least there was fine print: The odds of getting actual cash was 1 in a million. The prizes were not mutually exclusive, so I could expect 2 coupons. The discount coupon had to be used on items in their catalog and each item had a discount limit. If I wanted to use that $1000 coupon towards a single item, I'd have to come up with a bunch of cash. Oh. The phone call cost $3.98. I could _mail_ the card in, but that might take up to 12 weeks before I could get my gift. The second item was a lot less sleazy, but curious just the same. In my United Airlines Mileage Plus statement, their was a small catalog from AT&T. In this catalog were things like coffee pots, musical keyboards, calculators, watches and oh yes, a couple of telephones. The attached note said that AT&T had selected these items out of their Consumer Direct catalog as excellent values. My question is, "What is AT&T doing hawking mail order merchandise?" Me thinks they ought to be thinking about their basic business. Ken Jongsma ken@cup.portal.com