[ghaff]

Somewhat different thing but it was also very common in college to make a person to person call through an operator and the person (typically parents) on the other end would refuse the call and call you back because it could be much cheaper for them.

[doubled112]

I've never heard of anybody using a collect call for any other purpose.

[ghaff]

I think collect calls were relatively common when people simply didn't have the coins and needed to call someone.