Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!hybrid!scifi!bywater!uunet!bu.edu!telecom-request
From: gauthier@ug.cs.dal.ca (Paul Gauthier)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: 'Free' Check in the Mail (was: MCI Pays to Switch)
Message-ID: <74427@bu.edu.bu.edu>
Date: 10 Feb 91 16:08:28 GMT
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In article <16678@accuvax.nwu.edu> GUYDOSRM@splava.cc.plattsburgh.edu
(Ray Guydosh) writes:

>> I received a mail promotion for MCI Primetime accompanied by a gift --
>> a Twenty Dollar check in my name.

>> From the promotional literature: "Don't forget to endorse your check
>> before depositing or cashing it.  With your signature, you authorize
>> MCI to notify your local telephone company to switch your primary long
>> distance service to MCI PrimeTime (SM)."

Wouldn't this kind of thing fall under the law regarding unsolicited
gifts?  If a company puts a toaster on my doorstep and then asks for
some compensation, I'm allowed to keep the toaster as a gift unless I
in some way solicited it. Is there a parallel here?


Paul Gauthier                                     | gauthier@ug.cs.dal.ca
President, Cerebral Computer Technologies         | tyrant@dalac.bitnet
Phone: (902)462-8217    Fax: (send email first)   | tyrant@ac.dal.ca


[Moderator's Note: No, it would not be an unsolicited gift because it
has no value until after you sign the contract which accompanies it.
If the check had no conditions attached to its encashment and was
offered to you specifically as a gift from MCI in exchange for your
consideration of their offer then it would be an 'unsolicited gift'.  PAT]