EarthVision Newsletter Archive
Back to Archive Home PageSent: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 12:56 AM
Subject: EarthVision Cellular Consumer News! Issue #12 Vol. 2Another issue of the EarthVision Cellular Consumer Newsletter. This newsletter is for the soon to be educated cellular phone user community. If you know of anyone else that may have an interest in our newsletter, make sure to forward them a copy. Now we move forward at Mach II speed!
[Note: This newsletter is delivered Bi Weekly on Wednesday.]
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EDITORIAL COMMENTS FROM EARTHVISION CELLULAR
INTRODUCING THE PERSONAL WIRELESS ADVISOR SERVICE
MAGNAVOX 911 EMERGENCY PHONE - WORTH THE $200 OR NOT
DONATE YOUR USED CELLULAR PHONES TO THE COMMUNITY
CELLULAR PHONE COMPANIES AND AFFILIATES TAKE ANOTHER BEATING
SHOTS FIRED (LITERALLY) OVER A CELLULAR PHONE TOWER PLACEMENT
AUCTION SITE IS NEARLY READY FOR BIDDING AND SELLING
CREDIT LINE REQUEST FORM FOR EARTHVISION CELLULAR TO BE ONLINE
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EarthVision Cellular Consumer News Issue # 12 Volume 2
EDITORIAL COMMENTS FROM EARTHVISION CELLULAR
We would like to begin by thanking the individual who mentioned to us that we should list the volume and issue in the subject line of our newsletter. We have to make an anonymous reference because were were not given permission to mention this person by name. [We forgot to ask for permission.]
Next on our list is to thank all of you that have been so very loyal and contributory not only to the growth of our company but in improving the company overall. Many of you are very active in providing feedback and referrals too. You have heard the saying that what goes around comes around. We have a surprise that will be forthcoming in the future for those of you who have been so supportive. I can't tell you when it will happen because I do not know that. I will tell you that I am very excited about it and many of you will be truly shocked that a company would express their appreciation in the form that it will take.
We have been getting overwhelmed with doing specials every two weeks. To allow us to continue providing quality service, we will be providing the special offers in one of the two newsletters for our subscribers. Soon we will send out a short survey of about 5 to 7 questions to our subscribers. We ask that you complete the survey so we know what items will interest the majority of our subscribers and it will help us determine what needs to be placed on special. Our manufacturers often run monthly specials on different models and these can be offered to you at remarkable discounts. Even if you can't take advantage of a particular special offer, you may know someone who can and they will probably be very appreciative.
Regarding the customer loyalty and bonus program. You will see that we will be making a change to that program. We will be outsourcing it to a third party who can maintain it for us and make sure that everyone can get information almost in real time. We apologize to those who have signed up but you may need to sign up again once we have it implemented. We think that you will like the new look and feel of the program though.
To avoid surprising everyone, there will be a minor name change to the company name in the future. Soon the company will be called EarthVision Cellular International or ECI for short. The reason why we will be adding this addendum is because we are progressing more into the international market than we had anticipated. It is good to know that our hard work, sleepless nights, and nail biting has not been in vain.
Finally, our fearless leader has been working on building another company that is totally unrelated to telecom but is family oriented. He has teamed up with Gini Scott, a nationally recognized expert and author of over 30 books, guest on CNN, O' Reilly Factor, Oprah, and others. It is still in the start up stage but it is unique and looks promising. As details become available, we will keep you updated as to what is going on.
INTRODUCING THE PERSONAL WIRELESS ADVISOR SERVICE
Thanks to our parent company, EarthVision Communications Inc., we are now able to provide more services to both customers and businesses. The PWA service is unique. Obviously, we can run all over the internet trying to find information plans and cellular phones. But that doesn't prepare us for when we hit the retail store only to find that they do not have what you were looking for or a plan has been changed. And many of us just don't have the time to do something like that.
Wouldn't it be nice to tell the sales rep that you need a phone to contact your personal advisor? That's right, now you can shop and have us right there with you to assist you in selecting the right plan and cellular phone. It is very easy, when you get inside the store and what you are being told just seems much too confusing or overwhelming, who can you call.
EarthVision Cellular, that's who. We will provide you with a toll free number and you can let us know when you are on location. We will return your call within a matter of 15 minutes to assist you and help you ask the right questions to make sure you are getting what you need. You can break it down into 15 minute increments if you would like. You would need to contact us in advance by at least 48 hours to let us know which day and approximate time you would need our services to ensure we are readily available. It isn't a conflict of interest to us since we do not offer carrier services. But we do have our own direct access to carrier plans and to a variety of information related to cellular phones.
We are also offering other business related services, however, they will be maintained and billed through the EarthVision Communications Inc. rather than EarthVision Cellular. To find out more about the services we will be offering, please visit our website and click the "business services" button.
MAGNAVOX 911 EMERGENCY PHONE - WORTH THE $200 OR NOT
This one has to take the cake and the icing too. For a whopping $199, you get a cellular phone with a big red 911 button and a siren.
The ad goes on to compare this phone with having no monthly service fee to those that do and even a guard dog. However, the ad is incorrect in stating that the guard dog can be obtained from the pound for free. Try and pick up an animal from the pound for free. You will leave empty handed.
And the warranty on the phone is something to create confidence. A whole 90 day warranty on the phone is really worth your time. The last time I checked, a new cellular phone and sometimes a used cellular phone offers a 1 year warranty. A quality product should have a long warranty I would think.
By the way, the ad is referring to the Magnavox Mobile 911 cellular phone. As with any ad, it was extremely misleading to those that just have no clue about cellular phones.
They made it look like your having this phone would only cost you $199 for 3 years not including the replacement of batteries each year. Having a standard cellular phone would cost you $1362 over 3 years (based on the national average cellular phone bill). Let's step back to if you are using a cellular phone for emergencies only, the national average of a cellular phone bill would not apply. So how is that a valid comparison?
It also boasts there are no activation fees and the 95db siren will scare off people and call for attention. The promotion is to purchase it for the elderly out of simplicity and teenagers so they don't run up massive bills.
Well I have a better idea. How about we grab up a used cellular phone that someone decided they didn't need and call 911 with it. No activation or service fee there either. The siren can easily be replaced with a air horn can. Costs about $5 or $10 for one of those.
I just can't see spending $200 for a phone that has a siren and a large red button for emergencies. If you felt the desire to throw down $200 for a phone, you should check out our executive prepaid cellular package. Then make a comparison as to what was being offered for that amount of money. My impression is that some wool would be lifted pretty quick.
And there are other companies out there like this one that will play on your fear and attempt to get you to buy. And the most likely case is that the warranty will remain at 90 days. Can you check the phone to ensure that it works? You can if you want to get in trouble for dialing a false 911 call. So that 90 day window is pretty short especially if you don't have an emergency in that time. How is that for a gotcha tactic?
This has to have been one of the most incredible ads I have ever read. Is it just me or are more and more companies playing a game called "insult the intelligence of the American consumer as many ways as you can" in the past two years?
DONATE YOUR USED CELLULAR PHONES TO THE COMMUNITY
Here is something that we may not have thought about. We pay taxes for everything under the sun. One of those expenses that out taxes pay for is the services of emergency response personnel. They purchase equipment based on a budget provided from our taxes.
Did you know there is even a government trust fund that people can pay into for "guilt" reasons. For example, someone cheated the government of $50 on their taxes in 1958. To absolve themselves of this guilt, they can pay into this fund with no questions asked.
I got off track here. We will take this a step further. We are always looking for lower taxes to be paid to the government. There is a way that you can make this happen but it won't be overnight. Gradually, you may see a difference but our children may benefit more than we will at least financially.
What do our emergency personnel rely and depend on heavily for communication? Two way Radios. Something you may not be aware of is emergency personnel can flood the airwaves with radio transmissions to a point of saturation that emergency calls are not dispatched right away. They can't be dispatched because the airwaves are too overloaded.
How can this affect all of us. Let us look at the situation of Central Park in New York. Officers didn't have radios to communicate with one another. Young women were being harassed and robbed and officers may not have been aware of the situation.
We move on to Philadelphia. Teenagers were running around the streets with ball bats destroying property and menacing citizens. In one case, a teenage boy was severely beaten by the bat wielding teenagers and officers didn't know about it and were only minutes away. Why? Radio waves were too saturated with inquiries for routine traffic stops that the call didn't make it out in time to save this young man's life.
Philadelphia's solution to the problem. They installed laptops with cellular phones capable of transmitting and receiving information wirelessly. Where does this equipment come from? They pay for it out of a budget created from our taxes.
How about our local fire departments? When we have special community events that require them to be available at all times. 4th of July is coming up. That will keep our fire departments fairly busy. Airplane shows, and parades too. The list could go on and on.
So we would highly encourage you to look around for those used cellular phones that you find are no longer of interest to you and contact your local police or fire department. Ask them if they would have a need for your donation of a cellular phone. It may be a tax write off for you. And if your local departments turn down the offer, you can always send them to us. We will get them out to a department that will want them. You have our word of honor that they will not be rebuilt or sold by us to the general public. The less they have to buy with our tax money, the more they can spend on more important equipment or training and possibly save more lives and protect the citizens.
CELLULAR PHONE COMPANIES AND AFFILIATES TAKE ANOTHER BEATING
It is a good thing that nobody took our statement about the wireless stocks being hot back in April and acted on it. What did it take but 3 weeks for the stocks to go from blazing hot to being absolute losers. The exceptions being Motorola and Nextel who are both going for stock splits. Motorola is looking at an impressive 3 to 1 stock split.
Carriers and their affiliates took the hardest hit. Affiliates of both AT&T and Sprint PCS took a serious dive with Sprint PCS affiliates taking a major lump on falling stock prices. For some reason, these stocks were included in the internet technology sell off.
Internet retailers in the wireless industry are also feeling the pressure from the pull back. Private investors are doing a serious withdrawal because they are no longer as wealthy on paper as they used to be. Others are closing their doors and some are directing their focus into other markets entirely. It appears that for some of these companies, expansion plans have been stopped or even eliminated.
With Amazon now trading at 20% of its original stock price at the start of the year, it is no wonder that these companies are running scared. We can only offer our congratulations to those who won and our sympathies to those who lost. You can't win them all.
SHOTS FIRED (LITERALLY) OVER A CELLULAR PHONE TOWER PLACEMENT
Now this is an interesting story. The first of its kind in fact. A landowner decided he was going to place a 250 foot tower on his property. It appears as if an individual in the neighborhood decided that having the tower in the community was enough to leave a death threat.
When that failed to deter the landowner from putting up the tower, they then riddled his house and vehicle with bullets. Although nobody was injured, the family now has weapons in the home for protection and keeps a lookout while working in the field.
One neighbor claimed the landowner was doing it out of pure greed. Maybe they were but it would offer them a fairly good sized monthly income and since he was a raspberry farmer, it may have been a necessary supplemental income. Opponents to the placement stated health concerns and property value issues while proponents stated that the very same people who oppose the tower are complaining that the wireless coverage is inadequate.
The outcome to the tower placement. The landowner decided that being bullied had just made them more determined to have the cellular phone tower put on their property. Maybe the individual really wanted them to put up the tower and used reverse psychology?
This foolish individual that fired the shots obviously had no concern if someone would have been seriously injured or killed. His punishment should be having to stand in front of the court house with a sign that says "I'm sorry for not thinking" and have him apologize to each person who walks by him.
AUCTION SITE IS NEARLY READY FOR BIDDING AND SELLING
We are about the be finished with the new auction site for visitors and our current patrons to our website to be able to list and sell wireless phone products. The company who has built the site for us has done a superb job and we are very impressed. We hope you will be too.
Registration will be very easy and painless. The auction site will be broken down into specific categories so you can find what you are looking for without having to run through a barrage of irrelevant items that you have no interest in bidding on.
We are hoping to have it up and running right after the 4th of July timeframe. We have had more than a few inquiries from visitors asking how and where they could place items for auction. At the time we had nothing to offer but we will have now.
If you find something that could use improvement just let us know. We think that you will be impressed with what we will roll out but there is always room for improvement.
CREDIT LINE REQUEST FORM FOR EARTHVISION CELLULAR TO BE ONLINE
We will soon be offering credit lines to our customers as individuals. We already offer credit lines to businesses but we didn't want to alienate our individual customers. One suggestion that was made to us was to create an online form for people to fill in the requested information and have it transmitted directly to us.
In response to that suggestion, we will be doing exactly that. Give us a short time to develop the necessary design for the form and we will get it up and running. You will need to complete the form in full to be granted a credit line.
Our intention is to help out those of you who would like to do some Christmas shopping when the time comes around without having to fork over all your spending money up front. It will work very easily in that you would enter your credit account number rather than your credit card information.
PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, AND ASSOCIATES ABOUT OUR NEWSLETTER. WE APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT AND ASSISTANCE IN MAKING OUR NEWSLETTER A SUCCESS.If you want your name to vanish from our list because our newsletter is just too boring or someone else signed you up, let us know. We will reluctantly take you off of our newsletter list. And we still reserve the right to make faces at you when you aren't looking.