Granted, the "nickel and diming" of hotline numbers (1900, 0900, etc) was nowhere as bad as today's cash shops, but a lot of us simply forgot they were always hungry for all our money
Here's a bunch other hotline ads for you to peruse - https://www.retromags.com/gallery/category/1729-telephone-hotlines/
PS: I never understood these american numbers that used letters, how were you supposed to know what was the actual number?
StarTropics for NES had a "letter from your uncle" in the manual, that you had to soak in water to reveal the submarine's activation code when you reached Chapter 4. I think that was the only time we used the Nintendo tip line, because of a lost manual!
I meant to keep the note since it said to, but lost the damn thing before I got to the point where you need the code. Luckily, I tried "747" out of desperation, thinking of the airplane. Boy, was that a relief!
That is psychotic