Princedietrich
Retired Starchecker
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2004
- Posts
- 1,437
I know that in this day and age of everyone having a cell phone or a crackberry that the pay phone is becoming a relic. But there are still occasions when one may have to make use of one. Here is my warning to you about using them.
I was travelling through CVG last Monday, and after I'd gone through the security checkpoint I discovered that I'd forgotten my cell phone at home. I needed to let wifeypoo know so that she wouldn't freak out and be worried about being out of contact with me during my trip. I head up to the B concourse in Terminal 3 and find the bank of payphones there, one of which had a credit card slot in it. I didn't have any change on me so I swiped and dialed. The phone had a placard on it stating that local calls were 50 cents, but another tag stating that credit card calls may be more expensive.
The first call didn't even connect properly, I could hear her but she couldn't hear me. So I did it again, and this time the call went through and we talked for just under 3 minutes (167 seconds to be exact). Then I hopped on the plane and was on my merry way. Once I got to the hotel at my destination I could link up to the free highspeed internet and communicate with email, and found a message from wifeypoo wonder what that pair of $36 dollar charges was on the account.
I log into the bank account and, indeed, there were two $36 dollar charges pending there AND THEY WERE FOR THE PAYPHONE! I started making phone calls to the necessary toll free numbers at my bank to figure out what was going on and eventually got the contact information for the company responsible for the charges, some telecom outfit in Texas. I call them up, at their 800 number, and as what the heck was going on. The girl looks it all up and decides to refund me the entire first charge because the call indeed did not connect. Then "as a courtesy" she refunds half of the second charge. I ask her to break it down for me:
Calls are billed for a minimum of 3 minutes, and I talked for 167 seconds. Charge is $1.29 per minute (so multiply that by 3) but there was a laundry list of fees and other charges like a $11 operator fee and a $6 non-subscriber fee and a $5 location fee and $5 tax (can't remember all of them off the top of my head).
she tells me that I should have gotten a rate quote before I made the call. Ok, fine, but where on the phone did it say I should do that? She tells me that the phone lists the instructions for calling the operator. ok, fine, but where on the phone did it say I should call the operator for a rate quote? I realized I wasn't going to get anywhere with this argument so I just took the refunds she was giving. Then out of curiosity I asked her if this kind of thing happens often. She paused for a while, sighed, and said "yes...." To me, that would be a sign that there is something wrong with your system and it should be fixed.
So the moral of this story is: don't be so worried about remembering to pack your cell phone charger that you forget to pack your cell phone!
I was travelling through CVG last Monday, and after I'd gone through the security checkpoint I discovered that I'd forgotten my cell phone at home. I needed to let wifeypoo know so that she wouldn't freak out and be worried about being out of contact with me during my trip. I head up to the B concourse in Terminal 3 and find the bank of payphones there, one of which had a credit card slot in it. I didn't have any change on me so I swiped and dialed. The phone had a placard on it stating that local calls were 50 cents, but another tag stating that credit card calls may be more expensive.
The first call didn't even connect properly, I could hear her but she couldn't hear me. So I did it again, and this time the call went through and we talked for just under 3 minutes (167 seconds to be exact). Then I hopped on the plane and was on my merry way. Once I got to the hotel at my destination I could link up to the free highspeed internet and communicate with email, and found a message from wifeypoo wonder what that pair of $36 dollar charges was on the account.
I log into the bank account and, indeed, there were two $36 dollar charges pending there AND THEY WERE FOR THE PAYPHONE! I started making phone calls to the necessary toll free numbers at my bank to figure out what was going on and eventually got the contact information for the company responsible for the charges, some telecom outfit in Texas. I call them up, at their 800 number, and as what the heck was going on. The girl looks it all up and decides to refund me the entire first charge because the call indeed did not connect. Then "as a courtesy" she refunds half of the second charge. I ask her to break it down for me:
Calls are billed for a minimum of 3 minutes, and I talked for 167 seconds. Charge is $1.29 per minute (so multiply that by 3) but there was a laundry list of fees and other charges like a $11 operator fee and a $6 non-subscriber fee and a $5 location fee and $5 tax (can't remember all of them off the top of my head).
she tells me that I should have gotten a rate quote before I made the call. Ok, fine, but where on the phone did it say I should do that? She tells me that the phone lists the instructions for calling the operator. ok, fine, but where on the phone did it say I should call the operator for a rate quote? I realized I wasn't going to get anywhere with this argument so I just took the refunds she was giving. Then out of curiosity I asked her if this kind of thing happens often. She paused for a while, sighed, and said "yes...." To me, that would be a sign that there is something wrong with your system and it should be fixed.
So the moral of this story is: don't be so worried about remembering to pack your cell phone charger that you forget to pack your cell phone!
