188 lines
8.5 KiB
Plaintext
188 lines
8.5 KiB
Plaintext
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Are you jobless? Need a little extra cash for the weekend? Have a
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girlfriend that spends all of your money? Well, AT&T operators
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are always more than happy to mail you a check or two for a good
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five bucks each. If you've ever called up the operator and tried
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to convince her that you lost your quarter then you know that
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they hardly ever put the call through for you. They'll always
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send you a check in the mail for 25 cents.
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Well, this method also works on long distance and international
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calls just as well. A long distance call can run you up to $2.75
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and I think the most expensive international call I've found is
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$9.65. If you tell the operator you lost all this money, she'll
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happily refund your money. Here's how the conversation usually
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goes with me:
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You go to a pay phone. It HAS to be a pay phone, they're not THAT
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stupid. I dial the numbers 102880 which gives me the AT&T
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operator. (For those of you with short memories, dial 10ATT0.)
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THEM: "AT&T, this is Mrs. Papshmeer, how may I help you?"
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YOU: "Yeah, I was making an international call using my spare
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pocket change
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that I stole by breaking open a Pepsi machine on 86th
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Street and the
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phone went dead and kept all my money. Could you try the
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call for me?" THEM: "I'm really sorry about that, sir. Our
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policy won't let me put the
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call through for you but I can refund the money to you in
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the mail."
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YOU: "Okay, I guess I can do that, then." THEM: "Alright how
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much money did you lose?"
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YOU: "Um...$5.65." THEM: "What happened when you placed this
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call?"
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YOU: "Well, I dialed the number and the operator had me deposit
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$3.00 of my
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money. Then my party answered and she had me deposit the
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other $2.65.
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As soon as I put in the rest of my money the phone went
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completely
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dead." THEM: "Alright, what number were you dialing?"
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YOU: "Country code 61, city code 2 and the number was 667-3603."
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THEM: "Okay, I need your name, address and zip code."
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YOU: "(I give her my name address and zip code.)" THEM: "We'll
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have that to you in the mail in about two weeks. Sorry about
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your trouble."
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YOU: "Thank you. You have a hell of a day now!"
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We hang up. About two weeks later I recieve a letter from AT&T's
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office in Jacksonville, Florida with a letter of apology and a
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check for $5.65. Simple as that. Of course, I usually do 2 to 3
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calls a week so my checks add up to about $10 to $15 a week.
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Some Important Notes: -------------------- First of all, you HAVE
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to know how much your international call is going to cost. If
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you give them a wrong amount you're in for some extra hassel and
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they sometimes won't give you your refund.
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Also, I described in the conversation AT&T's method of completing
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an international call using coins and this is how it's always
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done. If you don't know how a call is made, the operator will
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know something's fishy. The phone will only hold $3.00 at a
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time.
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Third, you don't want to keep using the same international
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numbers over and over again. Call me crazy, but I just don't
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think it's a good idea. Below, I'll tell how to do all this:
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The (Dramatic Pause...) Letter I Got:
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------------------------------------ For awhile in Indianapolis,
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Indiana I was doing pretty well with AT&T cash. I was actually
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considering it my second source of income because I was pulling
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in around $70 a week with it. Then in October of 1993 I got a
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letter from AT&T which read:
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Dear (My real name):
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Our records indicate a large number of coin refund requests. In
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light of this history, we cannot provide a refund until AT&T
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investigates and verifies this claim. As part of this
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investigation, please provide us with the written detail of the
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call and circumstances in which you lost your money. Please mail
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your explanation to: Coin Refund Investigation Unit
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P. O. Box 561615
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Charlotte, NC 28256-1615
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It's been over a year now and I never really heard from them
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again. Their "investigation" probably consisted of sitting on
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their asses and waiting for my reply. Of course I didn't send
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them one and since then I've moved out of state and continue to
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recieve a moderate amount of AT&T money.
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Divirting Addresses: ------------------- After the AT&T Letter
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incident, I aquired a check cashing card at the super- market
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under a false name and then sent in a post office "Change Of
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Address" card to Baton Rouge and diverted the mail at a certain
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address under my fake name to my post office box in
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Indianapolis. When AT&T asked for the address to send the check
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to, I gave them the address in Baton Rouge and it was forwarded
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to me in Indianapolis. So I still got my AT&T cash. They just
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didn't know it.
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Getting An International Number: -------------------------------
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You can get a number a few ways. One is to look in the front of
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your phone book and find the page on completing international
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calls. All the major country and city codes are in there. You
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can just make up a number of random using a country and city
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code and then a bunch of numbers. Keep in mind, though, that
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foriegn countries numbers aren't all 7 digits like ours are.
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Look up Airlines in your yellow pages. Call the 800 number for
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any airline you want and say you want a time table for Egypt or
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any country you choose. They'll take your name & address and
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send you some useless flight schedule junk. Somewhere in this
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little booklet is a whole page of international numbers. Use
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them, one by one...
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Call up a phone book ordering office like Ameritech or Dontech
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and order a phone book from a far away place like Australia or
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Belgium. You can have them send you a bill with it which you
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will ignore or you can charge it to somebody else's phone
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number. Never give them your real name or phone number unless
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you actually want to pay for it. (You honest person, you...)
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The last way is to choose from the below list that I have
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provided for you. The first few numbers are the country code,
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second numbers are the city code and the last few are the phone
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number. Use these to start your new hobby.
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London, England 44 071 633-9293 Paris, France 33 1
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4359-0034
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Frankfort, Germany 49 69 291-001 Nice, France 33 93
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82-5284
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Barcelona, Spain 34 3 318-8443 Madrid, Spain 34 1
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559-5620
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Rome, Italy 39 6 321-0822 Stockholm, Sweden 46 8
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113613
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Tel Aviv, Israel 972 3 528-9660 Zurich, Switzerland 41 1
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261-1800
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Brussels, Belgium 32 2 640-1900 Bangkok, Thailand 66 2
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231-0113
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Finding Out How Much Your Call Costs:
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------------------------------------ Let's say that you picked a
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number in England. The country code is 44 and the city code is
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462 which is Letchworth Hertz. The phone number is 682-734. Go
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to your pay fone and dial: 011-44-462-682-734.
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An operator will come on and ask how you're paying for your call.
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Tell her with coins. (Or, to piss her off, nickels.) She'll tell
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you your call will come to $4.65 for the first minute. That's
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all you need out of her so tell her to go to hell and hang up.
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You now know that your call is worth $4.65 and that's how much
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you tell the AT&T operator for your refund.
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How They Complete International Calls:
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------------------------------------- So let's say that you were
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really going to make that call. She would tell you the call
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costs $4.65 and for you to deposit $3.00 now. You put in three
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bucks worth of quarters and you hear the phone start ringing
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over there in England. (Real funky ring, too!) As soon as the
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dude in England answers, the operator says to him, "This is
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AT&T, I have an international call. Please hold..." Then she
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tells you to put in the other $1.65. After you do that, she gets
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off the line and you're connected to England for a whole three
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minutes until a recording pops back up on the line and asks you
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for four more bucks.
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The reason you put the three in first is because the phone can
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only handle three bucks at a time. The refund operator knows
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this and tries to throw you off by asking what happened when you
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tried to complete your call. NOW you know what to tell her.
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I guess that's about all you need to know to get lots and lots of
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money from AT&T. Since the amount of the check is so small you
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can usually convince the bank or a supermarket to cash it for
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you with no I.D. so sometimes you don't even have to use your
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real name on the check. I always do, though. Hope you find this
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as helpful as I do when I'm real low on cash. If nothing, it
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should piss your parents off. Cactus.
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email: real@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca
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