Exploring the World

Qwest Pay Phone Ripoff

I was at the Spokane International Airport last month trying to get a hold of the person picking me up. I don’t own a cell phone, so I decided to use a payphone. I should have known better not to insert my credit card into the machine, but I didn’t have any coins with me to pay for the call. I was pretty sure that the phone said it would charge 50 cents per minute for a long distance call. It is possible I read the sign wrong, I am sure it was meant to be confusing.

I couldn’t reach the person I needed to, and didn’t have any alternate numbers for them. After a while, I began to get worried that maybe they forgot and that no one was coming to pick me up. So I decided to call the only numbers that I knew by heart, my home which was on the other side of the country. I hoped that they would be able to help me find a number that I needed. No one answered, so I was out of luck there also. I tried several other numbers, all with no answer. I think I made 10 calls total.

Eventually I was picked up and made it back to the camp I am working at. However, after looking at my credit card statement I saw I had been charged an arm and leg for all the calls I made. Even from the same payphone, I had charged totaling $180 from two different companies. These companies were NCIC and Qwest. Each charge was no less than $15 even for a call that lasted less than 2 minutes. The highest charge was for $19.72 for a call that lasted less than 4 minutes. This is very different than the rates posted on the machine.

I called up the numbers on my credit card, 877-7937728 and 800-5959694 to ask for a refund. One of the companies, NCIC, actually refunded almost all of their charges. They gave me $50 back from their total of $55 charges. It only took one call and they were very nice about it. Qwest, however, was a different story.

I have called Qwest a total of 3 times and have not gotten any of the charges rescinded. The person I talked to told me that they would submit a ticket to another department and let me know within 30 days what their decision was. Now I guess I have to play a waiting game to see what they end up doing. I certainly hope that Qwest doesn’t rip me off of that much money. They have ridiculously high phone charges for pay phone usage.

Life Lessons:
Never put your credit card into a pay phone.
Get backup numbers for people you need to reach via phone.