On my recent trip to Philadelphia to see my family, an airline gave me a discount coupon for a car rental. When I tried to make a reservation using the coupon, I was informed it was not valid for the period I would be in Philadelphia.

While there, I tried using a 10-minute prepaid calling card the telephone company sent me in response to something that had happened with my service. When I tried calling back to Maine with it, I was told it was not good for long distance calls. So I attempted to call a friend in the Poconos and was told it was not good for out of district calls. It was only good for local calls. Since I pay for and have unlimited local service.

My wife had just bought a new computer from a direct market manufacturer. Part of the reason for using this company was that its ad implies free technical support. Being new to computers, she soon ran into a problem and called the company. Its reply was that there would be no problem helping her, all she had to do was call their 900 number and for only $4.95 a minute they would be glad to “walk her through the problem.”

An attorney friend later told me the ad that we all thought implied free technical help was actually an ambiguous statement that didn’t really promise free support.

And the politicians wonder why the public treats President Clinton’s tiptoeing around the truth as just more of the same. Dr. Hal Goodman Eastport