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From: claris!netcom!ergo@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Isaac Rabinovitch)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: PollenTrak
Message-ID: <10028@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 22 Jul 90 23:08:19 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 507, Message 4 of 11


In <9891@accuvax.nwu.edu> cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail) writes:

>john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes:

>> An OTC pharmacutical company is sponsoring something called "Pollen
>> Trak" (with the same announcer on the machine that did "Weather
>> Trak").  You call the number and you get a pollen report for your
>> area. Based on the ANI data obtained in real time you are given,
>> supposedly, the correct report. It gives me a Sacramento area report;
>> that's hardly useful since San Jose is somewhat outside Sacramento's
>> geographic sphere of influence.

>I just had to try it. The recorded voice asked me to punch in my area
>code and phone number. (So much for ANI!) Then, it was kind enough to
>give _me_ the Sacramento pollen report, too!

This is interesting.  My experience is slightly different.  It may be
that there are two Pollen Trak numbers, since the one I've seen on TV
lately is not the one I use.

Anyway, the first few times I called, I got the report for my area,
without my having to enter anything.  I also got a coupon offer (you
leave voice mail with your name and address), which I ignored.
Subsequent calls got the pollen report and a brief commercial, but not
the coupon offer.  This piqued my curiousity: could they possibly be
keeping a database of phone numbers?  So I tried calling from various
pay phones.  Usually a pay phone gets the Sacramento report
(especially if it's long distance carrier isn't ATT), but not always.
Sometimes (but no more often than on a private phone), I'm asked to
enter my phone number.  The coupon offer is repeated at what seem to
be random intervals.

I never get the Sacramento report from my home phone.  And yes, I'm
one of those wimps who stuck with ATT!


ergo@netcom.uucp			Isaac Rabinovitch
atina!pyramid!apple!netcom!ergo		Silicon Valley, CA
uunet!mimsy!ames!claris!netcom!ergo