The Mall part of the meeting was a general chat session about the hobby, and where it was going. Everyone brought a couple of cards with them to be placed in a pile in the middle of the table, then randomly drawn by those in attendance. Additionally, door prizes were provided by Jim Moran of Illinois, Steve Schwartz of Florida, Ulf Helmke of Germany, and myself - Everyone walked away with more phonecards than they came with.
The evening session took place at the local TGI Friday’s restaurant. After arriving, Fred King had noticed a free giveaway on the back of the menu - It must have been fate that brought us to that restaurant. The manager, Andrew Lovett, inquired about getting us free cards, but the best he could do was give us a printed sheet advertising the card. It took 500 Friday bonus points to get a free card - We assumed that meant $500 dollars spent, but it only took $50. A drawing was held to see who won the right to the card, as the check was more than $50 - Del Daniel won. Upon filling out the application, we noticed that everyone received 500 bonus points just for becoming a member (Fred King had left by then, so if Fred is reading this, get down to Friday’s and join the club) Considering that it takes 1250 points to get an appetizer, 500 points for a 5 minute phonecard seems like a good deal. I encourage everyone to head down to Friday’s to join, and get a free card.
It was decided that meetings would be held on a bi-monthly basis, so look for the next meeting in October or November. If more collectors express interest in joining the group, we may look for a more formal atmosphere.
The competitively bid contract was awarded to STS for one year, with an option for up to four more years upon the mutual agreement of the parties. Providing carrier service for the campus cards under contract to STS will be Zenex Corporation of Oklahoma City.
"We're excited about the chance to work with UT to establish its first prepaid card program. Students are an ideal market for prepaid cards. We plan to market them aggressively on campus to educate students and parents on the advantages of using prepaid calling cards instead of traditional means of reaching out to their family and friends," said Tom Solomon, manager of prepaid card services for STS.
Solomon noted that prepaid cards, which offer the purchaser a set number of minutes of long distance calling time, will be sold in increments of $5, $10 and $20 through 18 vending machines located in residence halls and university apartment complexes.
For further information, contact: Ken Renner
STS Corporate Spokesman
Phone: (615) 783-1800 Fax: (615) 292-9296
We will also be giving away free cards for the September promotion. Most will be 5 minute cards. Every pack of 100 cards a dealer of the company store has will have one 100 minute card, and several 20 minutes cards. I ordered 500 cards to be given away at my store. The Sprint and Radio Shack deal sounds like a neat concept of marketing. We will see. Most of the dealer store people present at that Midwest meeting plan on spending some money to do some remodeling and advertising."
Thanks to Tom Inman for sharing this story
The card shows butterflies, their bodies being replaced by cellular phones.
The card is intended for mobile customers who do not want to register their cellular phone as well as for casual users (probably also for tourists who want to save the roaming charges and just buy a card for calls during their stay in Austria).
After twelve months the card expires if not reloaded, however, incoming calls can still be answered. A similar type of card is available in Italy from STET.
Source: DER STANDARD, http://www.derstandard.at/, Aug 26, 1997
From: Andrea Reischl
From: David Crane
From: Eddie Willeford
From: Maria Rublee
At Office Max, a 40 minute phone card is yours with the purchase of selected graphing calculators.
At Office Max, a 25 minute phone card is yours with the purchase of a selected Uniden cordless phone.
At Best Buy, a 15 minute phone card is yours with the purchase of the Star Wars Triology (get your kids to do good in school with this one). Only 45 cards per store, so hurry.
From: Lenny Rapp
Until Next Week,
Alan
2) Direct e-mail. Send a message to: phoneline@cardmall.com
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