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Opticom works hand-in-glove with ZPDI and other cram enablers to rip off unsuspecting consumers across the land. The third leg of the triangle? It's the hospitals, hotels, schools, airports, prisons and other institutions who contract with these companies to hijack long-distance calls made from their room phones and pay phones.
Neisha of Texarkana, TX (05/22/06)
This service has placed a charge on my regular phone bill for $28.52. I have tried on 4 occasions to reach Opticom and have been on hold each time for almost twenty minutes until the line goes dead. I do not feel that this company is justified in charging me long distance for a local call.
I refuse to pay this charge without any opportunity to discuss it
Sharon of Soperton, GA (05/05/06)
My sister-in-law called me collect from MS and when I received my phone bill, I was charged $52.01 for an 8-minute call. When I called Opticom, a man told me that the rates are satisfactory with the FCC and there was nothing they would do for me.
Rebecca of Fairhope, AL (05/05/06)
My daughter, traveling to Alabama from Texas, called me collect from a Days Inn in Vicksburg, MS. The conversation lasted approximately 2-3 minutes maximum. Opticom charged my phone statement $50.82 for an 8 min. collect call.
The charge for the collect call is EXCESSIVE and the length of the phone conversation is disputed. I advised Opticom by letter but have not gotten a reply.
Kristen of Kingston, TN (04/16/06)
I have been falsely charged amounting to $500 for phone calls by Opticom. They need to be removed.
Selene of Lake Worth, FL (04/11/06)
My son called me collect three times from Ft Leonard Wood Missouri (Army Base) for a total of 30 minutes. The bill was $150.00!
Linda of Wellsboro, PA (03/29/06)
I received a collect call from a person with the exact same name as a client of mine. After a few seconds, I realized I had accepted a call from someone I did not know and the call ended within a minute.
I received a bill from my local phone company with additional charges totally $36.56 for that collect call. I called Opticom and explained that the call was a wrong number. The FLOOR SUPERVISOR said that before I accepted the charges I should have asked how much it would cost.
He also said that the minimum is a 4 minute, $33.54 charge (plus taxes).
Robert of Memphis, TN (03/14/06)
I used a pay phone in Charlottesville, VA to call my wife collect. At no time was I told the rate per minute.
I talked 8 minutes and the Opticom bill was $50.14! That is $6.00 per minute!!!
Johnny of Woodstock, GA (03/09/06)
I received a statement from Bellsouth stating: "The following Service Provider(s) have notified Bellsouth that they are billing new services on your bill this month: The newly added Service Provider is OPTICOM showing Direct Dialed Calls and Collect Calls" for my second phone line. It showed calls that I did not make and all were on Febuary 26, 2006 (total of 15 calls).
Total minutes were 217 for a total charge of $313.73. Opticom stated that these were collect calls "from our house and to our house"!!!!!
I have never had OPTICOM as a Service Provider and do not understand how they were added to my service.
Irving of San Rafael, CA (8/29/05)
While my sister was in southern Oregon I told her to call me each day so I would know she was all right. Since she did not have a calling card she called collect from a pay phone. My SBC phone bill is over $300.00!
An 8-minute call cost $36.80; a 12-minute call cost $43.16; a 15-minute call cost $48.07 and so on until the end of the week cost a total of $298.37. My sister tried to contact OPTICOM on my behalf and was told that all the charges were correct. They told her that the resort "picked the telephone package" and it was not their problem.
I am a retired schoolteacher and this bill is a direct deduction from my checking account! My sister is a widow living off a pension. Neither one of us can afford this.
Scott of North Palm Beach FL writes (6/10/03):
In late May my family and I were in Maine at Camp Sunshine, a camp for families with children who suffer from cancer. My wife, daughter and I were there to attend a bereavement camp. We lost our five year old son, Seth, to leukemia in November 2002. While we were there we suffered another loss.
My wife's father passed away a day before we were to return to Florida. My wife's sister left her a message on our cell phone. We tried to call back on the cell, but the reception there was pretty bad. We went back to our room so we could make calls on my credit card. In these situations I normally dial 1-800-CALL ATT (800-225-5288). I misdailed and instead called 800-255-5288, which just happens to be Opticom's phone number.
I thought I was dealing with AT&T so I never bothered to check the rates. We had made one call from Maine via 1 800 CALL ATT and it cost me about $5 for a twenty minute call. The call to Florida that was accidentally placed through Opticom also lasted about 20 minutes, but the bill on my credit card was $62.
I called Opticom, but they don't care. They didn't offer to reduce or refund the charge. They know they are ripping people off, but they don't care. My credit card company says it will try to appeal the billing, but I don't know if anything can be done.
John of Moss Beach CA (4/21/03):
While on a trip to Zepher Cove Nevada recently, I stay at a motel called the Pine Cone Resort. I needed to check my e-mail and made several credit card calls through the motel phone and my laptop computer to my internet service provider in San Mateo California. I had to make several attempts because my connection was disconnecting before I could access my e-mail. I believe I connected successfully 2 to 3 times in approximately 9 attempts. Most of the failed attempts had to be in 3 minute or less duration, I do not have the exact times.
I received my credit card statement and there were 9 charges to Opticom for a total of $440.32. The total time on the phone I would guess to be under 60 minutes. At least 6 calls were cut short because of phone line connections that Opticom was billing me for and responsible for. I would expect a higher long distance rate from a motel, but these charges far exceed what a reasonable charge would be expected. These charges are criminal and predatory and I feel that I was not informed of how far out of bounds these charges were as compared to what most people would consider within reason.
Katherine of New Orleans (4/21/03):
I will attach a copy of my e-mail to my Senator Mary Landrieu.
I have recently called your office about the outrageous phone bill that I received from a company call Zero Plus Dialing/Opticom. As you can see, they are charging me $87.16 for a collect call from my daughter in Florida. We had a family member in the hospital and my daughter placed a collect to advise us of the situation. The call to us was on Sunday morning March 23rd at about 9:30 in the morning.
I had expected the cost to be high because we spoke for 34 minutes, but this is outright extortion. The bill shows that they are charging me for the call for Saturday Evening which is possibly a higher rate time. I spoke with the people at Zero Plus Dialing/Opticom and they can only advise you of the price of a call per minute when you place the call. No one there has a price list to send me a copy.
Too many times, deregulation means the right for a company to gouge the public because there is a lack of regulatory agencies controlling them. There should be some limit or – at the very least – some indication of the cost of the call before the person accepts the charges, although I probably would have accepted the charges in order to find out the status of my family member.
It seems to me that Congress has a responsibility to balance the interest of both business and the public. Too often the public interest part of the equation is ignored. I have attached a copy of my bill as requested and I hope that something can be done to resolve this outrageous situation on behalf of the consumer and not the business.
Kara of Mobile AL (4/1/03):
My husband unknowingly accepted a long distance phone call from my sister in NEW YORK. A four-minute call was billed at 17.05 or 4.26 a minute. My sister was trying to use ATT collect whose number is 1-800-225-5288, but instead she called 1-800-225-5228(ZPDI/Opticom/One Call Communications). Now I'm sure it's no coincidence that the numbers are one digit off and my sister obviously did not hear the Opticom intro, she may have had the phone away from her ear? I have been given the runaround and I thought this was an interesting coincidence.
William of Escondido CA (3/27/03):
Two collect telephone calls were made from my grandson from 45 miles away and a charge of $22.22 was imposed for a 8.0 minute day rate call on the first one and a charge of 24.37 was imposed for a 8.0 minute evening rate call on the second one. This is the most ridiculous charge I have ever heard of for a telephone call. I can't imagine the State of California allowing this unscrupulous practice to take place in our state.
Steve of Wausau WI (3/26/03):
We were in Louisiana and used a pay phone to call home which was billed to our credit card. The calls were 4 min and 7 min. Total charges were $72.93 billed by Opticom. I called the 800 number I got from my phone carrier and Opticom said they would credit my account $19.45. They assured me the charges were approved by the FCC. How does the FCC allow such carges to be made?
Terry of Harrison TN (3/19/03):
I used a Bellsouth calling card as directed on back of the card. I am being billed by a third party service provider without my knowledge. I talked for less than 2 minutes and was billed $31.94 for 4 minutes. We were never informed of any third party providers or aware that Bellsouth was not who we would be dealing with. It is a Bellsouth card. These charges are crazy.
John of Philadelphia (3/12/03):
This call was from the lobby of the Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia. A one minute local call cost $6.00 plus tax (total of $6.60). I dialed my regular Verizon calling card number, was put through to Zero Plus, who I assumed to be a sub-contractor of Verizon, and made my call exactly as I would have done through the Verizon calling card network. At no point was I informed of their rates. This seems unethical to say the least.
Sandy of Marietta GA (2/26/03):
Accepted a collect call from my young son calling me from his HOME phone. Spoke to him apx 40 seconds at most to tell him I'd call him back. Today I received a bill for $31.96 for a 4-minute call. I called ZPDI/Opticom and was told they charge a 4-minute minimum. I asked lots of questions and demanded some answers. I was informed they provide services for pay phones and hotels etc.
When I informed her the call was made from my sons HOME phone she said me he probably had some sort of a long distance access code but "misdialed". Ha, I asked her if this so-called misdialing was an automatic connect to the biggest rip off scam ever. I could hear her snickering. I told her I'd do my research and learn what I could about Opticom. I called my sons father and told him all the facts, so now he is on to this as well.
Linda of Richton MS (2/22/03):
Billed an unreal amount on long distance. My husband called from Hogansville GA and we spoke 14 min which cost $45.42. I think the FCC should put this company out of business. My total phone bill for long distance with only 6 calls was $292.68.
Debbie of Stronghurst IL (2/3/03):
Was billed $24.38 for a 1 minute collect call. They bill a minimum of 4 minutes for each call.
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