This feature allows you to find discounts in your immediate area for a specific category/subcategory. Whether you use a saved location, enter a new location, or let your cell phone/PDA pinpoint your location for you, you can quickly find discounts in your immediate area.

The features listed below will allow you to search for discounts just as you do on the Three Winners' home page. As long as you have your cell phone/PDA available, you'll never be without your discount!

Here are the steps needed to search for discounts with your wireless device starting from the 3W Menu:

1. Find Discounts

Choose the Find Discounts link from the 3W Menu to begin the processing of searching with your wireless device.

2. Pick Location

This feature will allow you to use locations that you have previously saved on our home page. You may also enter a new location when needed.

Find Discounts Nearby: Three Winners is waiting for local wireless service providers (i.e. Sprint, AT&T, etc.)  to complete the needed functionality that will allow your physical phone location to be automatically determined so you don't have to enter a location. We expect this feature to be available in the coming years.

Furthermore, this feature is dependent on your wireless service provider and may not be available for all customers. Check with your wireless service provider to determine if they support Location Based Services (LBS) at this time.. 

3. Pick Category 

After choosing a location, you will be prompted to choose a category or to list merchants for all categories.

4. Pick Subcategory 

If you chose a specific category, you will be prompted to choose a subcategory or to list all merchants regardless of subcategory.

5. Pick Merchant

You will now be prompted to choose a merchant. The merchants will be sorted by distance away from the location you specified.

6. Pick Discount 

A merchant can have one or more discounts that you will need to choose. Choose the discount by pressing the appropriate number on your keypad or press Ok while the link is highlighted.

NOTE: You can choose to save the list of discounts for to the 3W Menu by choosing "7 Add to 3W Menu".

7. Redeem the Discount

After the discount is displayed, you will need to show the discount to the merchant before pressing "3 Merchant Accept". You will also be prompted to confirm the acceptance and should do so by pressing 1 on your key pad. 

Before redeeming the discount, there are also other options that may be of interest to you like restrictions, address, phone number, driving directions, and the ability to add the discount to the 3W Menu .

Removing Discounts from Device Back to Contents

From time to time you may have a need to remove discounts that you added to your phone. This can easily be accomplished by selecting the discount link from the 3W Menu and then selecting the "Remove from Menu" link. You can also delete the 3W Menu entries from the internet by referring to My Discounts .

Using Multiple Cell Phones Back to Contents

Three Winners does not discourage sharing your membership access with immediate family members such as your spouse and/or children. However, allowing friends and co-workers to share your membership is prohibited and is a disservice to your community because additional members produce additional revenue for local charities.

Because you may have other family members that have a cell phone, your Three Winners' membership allows you to use multiple cell phones on a single membership. Here are some things to consider when other cell phones are used:

• Refer to My Devices for details on removing a phone from your membership incase of theft or to prevent friends from additional use of your membership.
• All cell phones using your membership will display the same discounts.
• Even though both phones show the same discounts, the discounts cannot be used simultaneously.
• Update your Member Profile to specify your family members' first name along with your own name in the First Name field (i.e. John, Betty, or Dave).

Purchasing a Phone Back to Contents

When purchasing a new phone and you are considering using it for Three Winners', any web-enabled phone will work. However, here are some things to consider before purchasing...

1. Our experience is that the free or very inexpensive phones work as well or better sometimes than some of the expensive phones. The performance is usually dictated on the type of network (3G or 2.5G) that the wireless service provider is using. Do not assume that a 3G network always gives better performance. In 2003, we have found newer expensive phones on 3G networks to be slightly slower than inexpensive phones on older 2.5G networks when using "text mode only" sites such as Three Winners. The performance of the 3G network may improve in the future for "text mode only" sites. If you plan on accessing lots of wireless sites on your phone with rich content and graphics, you are probably best off with a 3G phone since 3G networks are much faster when transferring rich content and graphics.
2. The display size on the phone can be a determining factor for your decision on purchasing a phone. Your personal preference will have to decide whether you want a larger display on the phone to show more information or a smaller display which costs less (or free). The Three Winners' wireless site will work with small or large displays but larger displays are better for displaying discounts.
3. Style is another factor in your decision but has very little or no impact on using a Three Winners' membership.
4. The final determining factor is whether the wireless service provider assigns a unique ID to your phone. When a unique ID is provided, Three Winners will automatically store the unique ID so that you never have to login again after the initial login. Some newer 3G wireless networks do not currently provide a unique ID but older networks like 2.5G do. The unique ID for your device is referred to as your Subscription ID.

If you want to determine whether a phone has this feature, you can try asking the person that is selling the phone but they most likely won't know. The other option is to ask the sales person for a demo of the web browser and then connect to http://wap.3winners.com/ on the phone and login with your username and PIN. When you get home, refer to My Devices to determine if the device ID was registered. If the device ID exists in the list of devices on the page, the phone service comes with a unique ID. Note: Be sure to delete the device ID that was created so the sales person cannot continue to access your membership!

The unique ID feature is nice to have but not required. See the Eliminating Logon Step section above for reasons you may want this feature. Phones with a unique ID never get prompted to login again. Phones without a unique ID will need to use a bookmark to bypass the login step.

Poor Signal Strength  Back to Contents

Verify that your wireless service provider provides a strong enough signal in your immediate area and from within the merchant's building before attempting to redeem a discount with your cell phone. Some buildings will prevent your wireless device from obtaining service from your wireless service provider.

If you have continued problems with your cell phone/PDA establishing a connection, you might want to try a different service provider and/or cell phone/PDA. We have witnessed continued problems with some carriers/phones and great success with others so don't settle for consistantly poor service.

NOTE: As of late 2003, you will be able to take your cell phone number with you when changing to a new wireless service provider!

Copyright Three Winners, Inc. 2002-2009