ANGRY doesn't even BEGIN to describe it

So yesterday I checked our (horrifically low) bank balance to find the following unexpected charges:

                                                           

7/31/2006	LEGACY TO 10833 VALLEY VI 800-6700015 CA	($11.92)
7/31/2006	LEGACY TO 10833 VALLEY VI 800-6700015 CA	($11.92)
7/31/2006	NCIC 40 606 E MAGRILL 800-5959694 TX	($16.78)
7/31/2006	NCIC 40 606 E MAGRILL 800-5959694 TX	($13.76)
7/31/2006	NCIC 65 606 E MAGRILL 800-5959694 TX	($15.03)
7/31/2006	NCIC 65 606 E MAGRILL 800-5959694 TX	($10.43)
7/31/2006	NCIC 65 606 E MAGRILL 800-5959694 TX	($10.43)
7/31/2006	NCIC 65 606 E MAGRILL 800-5959694 TX	($10.43)
7/31/2006	PARAGON HO 818 112 AVE NE BELLEVUE WA	($161.31)
	TOTAL	($262.01)

The first 8 charges, totalling $100.70 were PHONE CALLS.  Dave forgot to bring his cell phone on his trip to Washington last week and called me twice from the hotel and apparently SIX TIMES from the pay phone at the airport.  The last three times he called, he got my voicemail, at a cost of $10.43 each.  Remind me to shorten my outgoing message! 

I IMMEDIATELY had him call them to figure out who in the HELL charges so much for a ONE MINUTE CALL?!?!??  They do, apparently and the way it works is that they put their sticker on the pay phone at the airport.  When you call them, you get a phone tree, the second option of which is to make a phone call with your credit card.  It isn't until you get all the way through the phone tree that they tell you they charge a TEN DOLLAR connection fee.  And who would ever sit through all nine options on a phone tree when they already pushed number two to make a credit card call?   THAT'S HOW THEY GET YOU.

LIVID.  I tell you.  I am LIVID.  This is highway robbery. 

The Paragon Hotel also charged us $161.  Which was interesting for two reasons, 1) we booked the trip through Expedia and paid them for it over a month ago and 2) the amount we paid Expedia was $219, $58 MORE than what the hotel charged us.  Isn't Expedia supposed to have some kind of low-price guarantee?  I'm about to call them to insist a refund.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Comments

[BeLinda]

I am sitting here being mad for you! How AWFUL and there are few things worse than checking the account and discovering everything has somehow shot straight to hell while you weren't looking. Thank you for sharing your experience so that when we have husbands out traveling we can explain what will happen to them if they forget the cell phone.

[Kristen]

That makes me ill.

[Kari]

That is plain sick.

[rachael]

ARRG. i look forward to hearing whose butt(s) you kicked to get some or all of those charges reduced or removed.

how absolutely MADDENING.

[jessica fantastica]

Not sure if Dave's aware, but you can get prepaid calling cards at most convenience stores, drug stores and I'm sure grocery stores, etc. Not that it would help if he was stuck somewhere, but it might not hurt to have one safely in his wallet? Anyway that totally does SUCK. Kick some ass. :o)

[Mary Tsao]

That would make me really mad. I'm mad just reading about it!

[Bunny]

Arrrg. Yuck. I HATE things like that!

[Linda]

I found this post while researching three similar charges on our visa.

Were you able to get them reversed? Do you have any advice?

[Linda]

I found this post while researching three similar charges on our visa.

Were you able to get them reversed? Do you have any advice?

[Beth]

I'm researching a similar charge on my mastercard. And I'm pissed beyond belief! Were you able to figure anything out? Do you have any advice?

[Krishna Tulasi]

Hi, Same thing happened to me. Thanx for posting this...otherwise I was so surprised at what these charges meant !!! Please let us know if you were able to reverse these charges. It will help me a lot.

[Chris Dent]

Same thing just happened to me, except in this case I'm the husband who forgot his phone :) Just checked my (also very low) bank balance and saw that suspicious charge, so i copied and pasted it into google and this page came up. Then I remembered, last week I needed my wife to pick me up from the resturant I was at, left my cell phone at home so I figured I'll just use my check card to make a call. I dialed a number stickered on the phone (and I thought it was AT&T, I guess not), called my wife's local number, told her where I was, now there's a $15 dollar charge from Legacy on my account. Next time I'll just take a cab home, would have been cheaper!

[Robert Herzog]

I guess a similar thing happened to me as well in San Francisco airport. I was lost my mobile phone in a rented car and was trying to phone the car rental company with my credit card. It was just a few minutes talk basically waiting for connection. But now I see that these bloody bastards charged me 45 bugs for that call. I do not understand where does this come from.

[michelle]

my husband was really sick and called me from a pay phone, it costed us 75.00 and made my checking account go in the whole. when i gave them my account info they didn't even tell me how much it would cost a minute. i think they need to shut that agency down now for ripping people off.

[wtf]

x2

[Will]

*raises hand* me too! Anybody know what NCIC stands for? Anyone filed complaints with the bbb yet? I'm also reporting this deceptive practice to the owner which provided the pay phone, I don't want others to get hit by this insane trap.

[remo]

I was on a 36 hour trip to USA and my cell phone's charge had dropped completely by the time I reached newark airport. So I used the payphone in the airport to call my husband. I made two seperate calls to him located in Kansas. The payphone had advertised .50 for local and $1 for long distance for 5 minutes. I used my credit c ard to make those calls as I was no t carrying any dollars. When I checked my bank account a week later I was shocked to find two charges of 13.54 each by legacy. I consider this as a cheating on part of that phone company. I would like to file a report.

[Ami]

Same thing happened to me. I missed my train from Chicago to Grand Rapids Michigan after my flight was delayed from Brussels (after spending 3 months in Europe). A real warm welcome back to the US. $119 for 5 phone calls made. 2 of which never connected to anyone, the other three totaling under 5 minutes.

[Scolaí]

I happened across your website after discovering a mystery charge on my (horrifically low) bank statement. Once my wife pointed out that the last 10 digits of the account number of the company making the charge looked like an 800 number, I punched it into google and arrived here.

While my financial pain wasn't nearly as large as your own, I did end up paying $5.00 for a 42-second phone call that my wife made to me from a pay phone.

Suffice it to say that whomever is responsible for these outrageous charges are still going strong a full 2 years after your ripoff occurred.

[Charlotte]

Same thing happened to me. My cell phone battery died when I was at Seattle airport and I needed my boyfriend to pick me up, so I called this sticker number on the pay phone in the airport terminal. I got to his voicemail and it was less than 30 second message that I left on his voicemail telling him the flight is on time. Now I see the bill showing up on my credit card bill: $12.78.

I can't believe this kind of things exist in America.

[Lydia]

I was charged 17.05 plus a NSF fee since I was overdrawn at the time. My husband called me since his cell phone died. He called from a motel room and didn't enter my atm card number. I guess they got it from my cell phone?? So, no one knows how to get rid of it??

[Breeze]

Well I just recently had the same problem. I called my bank and they gave me the direct number to call 800 595 9694. I talked to the lady and she told me that its a validation fee and all this other crap. I was already pissed off so I told her that either I need to speak to a supervisor or report you guys to a better business burea. She kept saying no refunds and then she decided to negoitate for half of the amount charged. I told her that this was highway robbery because there is no signs or anything that tell you anything. Besides who in the hell will make a call for 20 bucks? Then she told me that the sign on the phone was for people using coins. Seriously do people walk around with 20 dollars worth of change....hell no!

[Dave Johnson]

Lydia wrote:

"Same thing happened to me. [..]30 second message[..]Now I see the bill[..]$12.78."

"I can't believe this kind of things exist in America"

Can't believe this happens in America? Where else would you *expect* it to happen?!

America, the land where competition is king, where the great god of the limited company brings goodness to all ;-)

The best example I've yet to hear of (from the USA of course) is how internet providers have bullied the govt representatives in several states into passing bills outlawing (yes banning) anything resembling community owned network provision. Google it if you like because I don't remember the details, but at least one city got its own provision together for a little while, and the occupants briefly had the cheapest internet access anywhere in the land - until, of course, the companies got it together and clubbed the idea into the ground.. The excuse they used was that it would 'stiffle competition'.. LOL Of course it 'stiffles' competition, the people have no desire to rip a profit off themselves, so how's a company (that has to make money) ever going to compete? Is that really such a bad thing?

This phone scam is a beautiful example of what happens when 'competition' rules the roost, the company have found a loophole tactic that lets them get away with scamming the public (and I'll bet it's just about legal cos their lawyers *will* have checked!) and so, what happens, well everyone gets scammed to the bone of course!

Oh yes, competition is king, socialism and cooperative enterprise is 'communism' and is 'therefore' evil. Private companies always provide the best of services, because (of course!) they love every consumer, and always have the customer's best interests at heart (whenever anyone's looking that is) I mean, just think of Walmart or McDonalds :-)

I just love it when I see such a perfect example of the result of the most vicious sharks (ie the most 'comptetitve' companies, the ones that get away with lowest wages and cheapest employee care) being chosen to provide the most essential services. The above is what happens when that thinking is taken all the way to its natural conclusion. ;-))

Dave

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