Finding a TELEGRAMSTOP in my mailbox yesterday sure was a fun surprise and put a smile on my face.
The telegram has a long, proud and important history in the development of person to person communications. It’s development enabled people to quickly send news around the globe, messages of congratulations, messages of sadness or messages that marked important events.
The TELEGRAMSTOP Team realized that these important messages became records that the recipient would keep as treasured memories and wanted to recreate something special that you, your family and friends would appreciate as a historical record.
Their telegrams are made to look and feel like a classic telegram from the original days when telegrams were one of the only forms of national and international communications, they’ve taken great care to ensure the experience to the recipient is one that garners surprise and a sense of warmth.
PS: For all those wondering why “STOP” was inserted in the old fashioned telegrams at the end of sentences, punctuation used to cost extra whereas letters were free (up to a certain character limit). So users would craft their telegrams to fully make use of this limitation.
Consider me a fan.
I’ve used them before, a great quirky thing to send to a friend.
I always thought “Stop” was inserted simply to properly punctuate the text. Dictating the passage may leave some ambiguities, but if you tell the operator precisely where to put periods, this may help avoid some confusing, run-on sentences. Also, in Britain, they still call periods ‘full stops’, which I suspect is a reference to this era of communication.
So yes, I’m a fan too.
Sep 7th, 2010 / 12:13 pm
I have been looking for a telegram-like service for months! Thank you so much for sharing this link. It’s too bad there are no places left (at least here in Toronto) that let you send an actual classic telegram, but this will do quite nicely.
You just made my day. =)
Sep 7th, 2010 / 4:26 pm
Ah! I love this!
Sep 7th, 2010 / 5:38 pm
Really, really wish they hadn’t turned this into an advertisement by adding the, “telegramstop.com”.
Otherwise, I’d use it.
Sep 7th, 2010 / 10:43 pm
I had no idea they still had telegrams out there anymore! What a cool thing to find in your mailbox. :) I figured that was what stop for for, punctuation. I didn’t realize that punctuation cost extra though. Good little tidbit to file away.
Sep 7th, 2010 / 11:49 pm
I used them for my ‘Save the Date’ wedding cards and everyone loved them! I now use them as special greeting card+gift voucher option for my online shop. They’re great to work with and a really special product for my customers.
Sep 10th, 2010 / 2:16 am
Except at the very end! (goodness I’m a geek sometimes). Apparently you did not include a full stop OR a ‘STOP’ at the very end of the telegram, because it was obvious the message was finished and it would be a waste of money.
So there you have it. Crawling back under my rock now…
Sep 10th, 2010 / 4:22 am
This brought back memories! When I was a kid, my aunt and uncle used to send us birthday telegrams. They replicated official canadian telegraph stationery, and used a telegraph machine that my uncle had restored to type them out. Don’t tell my parents, but I looked forward to the birthday telegrams more than anything else when my birthday came around each year.
Sep 12th, 2010 / 12:30 am
You’re right, they still do these?? I want one!!! hehe
Sep 12th, 2010 / 11:28 am
I just received one – they must’ve recently changed the envelope design as it just has “telegram” boldly written on it – looks awesome, like an old stamped envelope. Plus they’ve downplayed the name of their business name to make which looks a lot more subtle.
Sep 16th, 2010 / 2:32 am
My telegramstop.com wasn’t delivered — it’s been 10 days since I ordered it delivered to a local address. There is no customer service number of follow up through.
The only “contact” is via a web form at their website — primarily for suggestions. There is no acknowledgement of your query. Perhaps they’ll write me in days to come.
Use telegramstop.com only if you don’t care about losing your money without recourse.
Other services have phone numbers you can call, try them instead.
Sep 21st, 2010 / 3:08 pm
Retrogram were doing this a few years ago.
http://www.retro-gram.com
They seem to have stopped thir delivery option though and just send pdf telegrams by e-mail.
Sep 22nd, 2010 / 8:48 am
Following up on my earlier complaint that “My telegramstop.com wasn’t delivered” …
I did get an email after using their web contact form. They asked me to wait several days more before emailing them back at [email protected] to request a re-send.
Their website says delivery within “4-8 business days”, so that’s actually two weeks. Rather slow I’d say — so expect only the look and feel of a telegram, certainly not the speed of one — which I wasn’t expecting, but two weeks is rather slow!
Sep 22nd, 2010 / 11:00 am
No, I don’t think that’s true about [STOP] being cheaper than punctuation. The messages were sent electrically (over a wire) using morse code. Hence, there was no punctuation available and telegrams *were* charged by the letter. Minimum charge was for ten words. For clarity, not only was the word “stop,” to indicate a period, but ppl also adopted the practice of spelling out “comma,” “colon,” and “semi-colon.” The word “query” often was used to indicate a question mark.
Oct 9th, 2010 / 4:36 pm
hi mr. Harry brindley, were your telegram ever delivered to you? Mine hasn’t been received yet by the receipient and its almost 13 business days.. :(
Nov 10th, 2010 / 2:15 am
Kris: My daughter’s telegram arrived pretty much 3 weeks after I ordered it. Unreasonably long, snail mail, very unlike a telegram. Harry
Nov 10th, 2010 / 9:00 pm
thanks harry..
I also sent an email to them and they responded stating to give it a few more days. I’m just worried losing it coz i included a picture of us.. :( and its been 3 weeks already..
Hopefully it arrive soon..
Nov 11th, 2010 / 12:05 am
Kris: Try this link next time, it’s quick (by email), funny and FREE! Harry
http://slapphappe.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/form-letters-you-can-email-for-every-occasion/
If they blank out the link search for “Form letters you can email for every occasion at my blog, slappHappe (dot com). Enjoy!
Nov 11th, 2010 / 12:29 am
Thanks.. I’ll try it one of this day.. :)
Nov 11th, 2010 / 10:52 am
This is great.. although it doesn’t work in IE8 so I have to use firefox… :)
Thanks a lot..
Nov 11th, 2010 / 2:48 pm
2 1/2 weeks to deliver a ‘telegram’ which looked really cheesy badly printed etc stop indeed thinking about sending one? stop!
Dec 21st, 2010 / 5:55 pm
There are still many companies offer Telegram service nowadays.
Why dont u try “www.telegramsonline.co.uk”, its a professional and nice telegram service company.
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