3 Blackstone products
fail
Just got word that Poncho, Destination Asia and Destination American are
no longer working. Blackstone indicates that they are taking back dead
cards for two weeks.
Clarity fails.
Econophone fails.
Treasure cards fail.
ISP, Inc. cards fails.
Readers are advised to visit Coolboard for lots
of interesting dialog from distributors. Beware, most comments are
unsubstantiated, but collectively, a sort of truth can be surmised.
POSTERS UPDATED
It continues to be a challenge to keep current the posters on both cards we
sell at Phone Card Hotline, as well as maintaining posters on popular cards
such as OTC, and Reliant that we do not sell. We will continue to do
the best we can. Issuers should email current posters to
bob@phonecardhotline.com.
We will continue to be the leader in providing distributors and consumers
with a single source for updated rate posters and related supporting
information.
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Lead With Quality
In this troubled time for the phone card industry, we are urging
are customers to go with quality and reduce risk as much as possible by
staying with the familiar. This means we are giving the cold shoulder
to suppliers with whom we have not dealt before.
For quality and reliability our strongest recommendation goes to any card
made by SmarTalk. While I still have not been able to confirm that ATT
actually owns SmarTalk, the quality have been the equivalent of land lines,
and quoted minutes include calls to wireless destinations. We still have not
gotten one back for any reason.PCH offers SmartChoice good for Vietnam
and India; SmartCard good for (Yemen, Lebanon and Palestine); Royal good for
Jordan, and OblioTel good for UAE. The issuer of these cards is
OblioTel. Oblio also has several cards with network services by
Worldcom. These also seem to do a good job.
USA GOLD
USA Gold is still our best selling domestic card. The market wanted a
1.9 cent per minute card with no gimmicks or hidden charges and this is it. The
connection charge is 45 cents per call. The weekly maintenance fee of 49 cents is
applied 7 days after first use. The discounts are great, and the quality is
excellent. Network services are provided by Axistel. Available nationwide
through master distributors. Some territories still available.
Phone Card Distributors TRADE ASSOCIATION?
Still needed...still lacking. Its still true that noone can
serve two masters. Every year thousands of phone card distributors
flock to the industry trade shows. While they are very valuable shows
with lots of product available from the people who exhibit, the shows still
represent the supply side of the business and not the distributor side of
the business. They do an excellent point, but the distributors
interests are much different.
Lately, distributors have been taking it on the chin. Every time an
Econophone goes out of business, distributors come up looking ugly.
Phone Card Hotline is a strong advocate of establishing a smaller trade
association for the benefit of thousands of distributors of phone cards who
share common problems. This association would not be run by promoters,
or attorneys or carriers. It would be run by and for distributors.
Let me know if you would be interested. I have set a tentative date of
July 15th, for a conference call with those who might be interested in
forming such an association. For more information contact Bob Collett
216-524-9292.
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