every time a user logged into prestel, a mailbox banner on their welcome page, usually flashing, would alert them if they had any new messages waiting. similarly, upon the user's request to sign off the system via *90#, a warning would appear if any new messages had arrived, with an option to read them, before the user was allowed to disconnect. messages were retrieved from page *930#, where they were presented to the recipient in chronological order. after reading a new message, the user had to choose between deleting the message, or saving it, before the next message was presented. initially only three messages could be saved at any one time, and these stored messages were accessible via page *931#.