Custom TeleConnect

Kimberly of Pomona, CA March 20, 2010

We have been receiving collect calls from an inmate at an California Correctional Facility. There has been countless calls made to my home from this individual. My family and I have made it a point to just let the call go to voicemail so we don't have to incure the charges. Of the 10 calls that are presently on our bill, I have excepted one only to let the individual know not to call my house and, because the automated voice explanined that the maximum charge for the call would total 3.00. That one call actually totalled 21.75.

The other nine calls that went to voice mail were still billed to our telephone number at 20.60 per call, even though we never excepted the calls. There is also a option to have the inmate calls blocked by dailing 7 on the phone and then calling 877-650-4249. But when you call the number it says they are experience unually high call volume and can not take the call. This has been repeated everytime we've called. They've offered to reduce the bill from 207.17 to 79.49. The call that was supposed to be 3.00 and ended up being 21.75 I don't feel I should have to pay so why would I have to pay a reduced bill. The 207.75 is on our current bill and we are terrifed at thought of what our upcoming bill has store for us knowing he called and gone to voice mail in excess of 5 times daily on most days.

Rolando of Los Angeles, CA February 23, 2010

I was in Highland, CA and used the pay phone on an emergency call. I entered my credit card number and a couple of times the call did not go through until the last call. I was surprised when I checked online that my bank account was overdraft because I was charged a total of 103.01 for a call that did not even last for 5 minutes! I called the Custom Teleconnect and complained about it and the representative told me that I had three calls and they were charged 27.67 each. Even if i really connected 3 calls, the rate is ridiculously high and there was no information on the rates whatsoever during the call or neither were they posted on the phone booth! I asked the representative how I can lodge a complaint about it and he said that the amount was pegged by the owners of the telephone and not them, so they cannot do anything about it. He just asked for my email address so that he can email me the details of the owners of the phone whom I can complain about. That is, if he ever emails me about it.

Patty of Coalport, PA February 13, 2010

A charge was put on my mother's phone bill by Custom Teleconnect. This was listed as a collect call from Portland, Oregon. The call was placed on the evening of 12-31-09. The charge was 31.51 Not only does she not even know anyone from there, she wasn't even home. She was at a New Year's Eve party at the church when this call was posted. She called our phone company, Windstream, and explained and they told her that the FCC prohibits them from getting involved with fraudulent charges and that she would have to call Custom Teleconnect to resolve the issue.

I then called Windstream and they told me the same thing and gave me Custom Teleconnect's phone number. Then I called this company. They said that someone at this house had to have accepted the call. I explained that no one else was there and after going round and round with them, they said that they would credit her account in one to two billing cycles. I believe that this company is scamming people. And I don't believe the FCC prohibits phone companies from protecting their customers from being scammed. How sad that these companies are getting away with scamming our senior citizens. They're on fixed incomes and shouldn't have this kind of aggrivation. This incedent was a deliberate scam and this company needs to be investigated.

Eric of Moss Beach, CA January 29, 2010

This company placed bogus charges on my phone bill, almost 200 for alleged collect calls"zero-plus" dialing which I have never used. In fact this phone is just an outgoing message for a Church and I have placed less than 10 calls, mostly local, in the last year. The phone serves as my DSL connection.

In fact I was provably not at home when many of the alleged collect calls arrived. I have NEVER, in my life, accepted a collect call from anyone for any reason. AT&T will not process the charges so I am safe, but I want to see these criminals charged and convcited for their crimes. I called both At&T, who took care of things quickly, and Custom Teleconnect (Google will bring up many other cases of their fraud), who refused to give me any information and just repeated over and over that I had to "call 611". AT&T said that was nonsense.

I suspect this fraud has affected enough people for class action. I caught this in time so will suffer no ill effects. But my phone would have been cut off, losing my Internet as well, had I not noticed and contacted AT&T right away. My interest in this action is not for monetary gains, but to see fraudsters punished. I have worked with Wells Fargo Bank in a previous case resulting in shutting down bank accounts used by fraudsters. You can count on my cooperation in any action taken against these criminals.

Marcia of Crestline, CA January 23, 2010

The lower control arm and steering knuckle broke on my boyfriends truck. He called me collect from a pay phone, which was automated saying it was a collect call from Doug; "to accept this call enter a debit or credit card #; or to ignore hangup." I knew something was wrong for him to be calling me in the first place. I entered in my debit card #. Our call was connected. Doug told his truck broke down and where he was. I was very familiar with the area., so there was no need for directions. We hung up. I left to pick him up.

One day later I was making a small deposit after hours at my l banks ATM machine. I was shocked at the balance knowing the only thing it could have been was that call. Yet still could not believe it. I came home and checked on line my bank statement. IT WAS the call!

Before i could even get to the bank the next morning it had cleared. This was not a long distance call, nor was it a toll call. There was absolutely no animated voice giving any notification of per minute charges either: especially 10.00 a minute or 16.5 cents a second. A 31.54 Charge for a "3" minute phone call

chaka of killeen, TX December 29, 2009

This company charged me 22.00 for my son to call outside a local family dollar to say come get me. There is no phone numnber listed and I am very upset. I am speaking with an attorney concerning this issue.

Rhennay of Fontana, CA December 20, 2009

My son made a collect call to me from Arrowhead hospital in San Bernardino, CA. I was charged 22.00 just for him to say come and pick me up. Two days after that this company made another 26.00 charge to my card.

Lauren of Plantation, FL December 12, 2009

I received an emergency collect call from a family member that was in route from Atlanta, GA on 11-25-09 @11:01PM. I was not informed of the charges, just the name of the party that was calling.I was charged for 3min, although I'm not sure if we even spoke that long. The reason for the pay phone was there was no cell service in Tifton GA.

I received my At&T bill to discover I was charged a base fee of 22.82 w/surcharges & other fees the total for a 3min collect call from one state away was 30.11 That comes out to 10.00 a min. After reading the other complaints I see I'm not the only one. This company needs to be investigated for predatory practices in my opinion. I have filed a complaint with the FCC.

Franklin of Ft. lauderdale, FL November 24, 2009

I received a collect call from a person in a public phone at the same area code and same zip code. They didn't inform the amount to be charged. The machine only asked if I accept the call. For 1 minute conversation they charged my credit card 22.24. How can this be allowed?

Nakee of Signal Hill, CA September 30, 2009

On August 28, 2009, I used a pay phone owned by Custom TeleConnect. The pay phone only accepts credit cards. Also, the pay phone does not have any rates on listed on the pay phone. Also, you cannot dial the telephone number, the pay prompts you for your credit card number. I also tried to call 0, however I an operator did not pick up the call.

I used my credit card. I looked at my credit card statement and it had a charge of 20.60. I called Custom Tele Connect and was told that the 20.00 would be credited to my account. However, I just finished speaking to another representative, Cynthia, who stated that the company charges 20. She also stated that the rates are not listed on the telephone, you have to dial 0 to find out the amount. I did call 0 that day, however an operator did not answer the phone.

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