Great Article About Phone Cards and MLB

An Interesting article I found on AOL from the New York Times which I thought would be a good read for those in the Prepaid Phone Card Business:

"For millions of foreign visitors and immigrants in New York, it has long been a lifeline to home: the prepaid phone card, costing as little as $2 at the corner bodega, good for bargain-rate international calls that are charged by the minute.

Now, in a case involving bodega owners, Major League Baseball and some of its most celebrated Hispanic players, the phone cards are the focus of charges including false advertising, overcharging and fraud.

Yesterday, at a sidewalk news conference in front of Major League Baseball's Park Avenue headquarters, the Bodega Association of the United States, a trade group, described what it called a huge swindle aimed at low-income Spanish-speaking people. The cards, which bear the photographs of baseball stars like the Mets pitcher Pedro Martínez, either do not work at all or provide far less calling time than advertised, the bodega owners say.

"The important thing for bodegas is to maintain the trust of people in our community," said Jose Fernandez, president of the association, which says it represents 7,000 bodega owners in the city and suburbs. He said the bodega owners, many of them immigrants with limited English skills, are being duped into buying the faulty cards, just as their customers are.

Besides Martínez, Mets general manager Omar Minaya; Baltimore Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada; Los Angeles Angels outfielder Vladimir Guerrero; Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz; and Oakland Athletics pitcher Octavio Dotel have appeared on the cards, all in uniform, and typically captured in action on the ball field, as they might appear on a box of Wheaties.

Carmine Tiso, a spokesman for Major League Baseball, said it had not known that photos of the players, or of Minaya, had been used to promote phone cards until this week. He said the league had not approved the use of their images, which is required because league uniforms appear in the pictures. He also said the league had begun its own investigation that could lead to disciplinary action against the players.

Norman Siegel, a lawyer for the bodega owners, said an investigation into who was responsible for making and distributing the cards had not been completed. He said that tracing the production, distribution and sales of the cards might be difficult.
Spanish-speaking customers have encountered similar swindles for years, the bodega owners said, but the complaints have multiplied in recent months as the faulty phone cards with the ballplayers' pictures have begun circulating under the brand name Grandes Ligas, or big leagues.

"These ballplayers are the heroes of our community," said Anthony Miranda, chairman of the National Latino Officers Association of America, a police group, who joined the news conference.
Richard Lipsky, a spokesman for the bodega owners' group, said it was considering a lawsuit against the phone card manufacturers and distributors, perhaps also naming Major League Baseball, Mr. Minaya and the players whose photographs are on the cards as defendants. The threat of a lawsuit was reported on Monday by The New York Post.

But Mr. Siegel said yesterday that the lawsuit had been put off until the phone card problem was explored further, and in the hope that Major League Baseball would join forces with the bodega owners, providing public and financial support for the suit.
Mr. Tiso, of Major League Baseball, declined to say whether the league would aid the bodega owners. "We would prefer to have a discussion with them directly, not through the media," he said.

Mr. Siegel said his group would also urge the state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department to investigate.
Christine Pritchard, a spokeswoman for Mr. Spitzer, said his office would review the complaint. She said customers who thought they had been bilked by faulty phone cards should contact Mr. Spitzer's office to help it build a legal case."

Copyright © 2005 The New York Times Company written by THOMAS J. LUECK