An 11-minute telephone call was made from the Super 8 Motel in Windom, Minnesota to a residential telephone in Noblesville, Indiana because there was no AT&T or Nextel cell phone coverage. The company charged $42.56 for the call. They claim there is a charge to connect the call of $16.69 plus $1.99 per minute. They charged for a 14 minute call but according to my Vonage received call record it was 11 minutes. When contacted they just explained the fees. When threatened to file a claim they offered "a one time credit" of $19.15. But if the credit was taken I would be accepting responsibility for the call and the adjusted rate with no recourse. (If they are so anxious to offer credit of almost 50%, it is apparent they are aware the fees are outrageous and inappropriate.)
The manager of Super 8 Motel said they use OrbitCom as their telephone provider. There is nothing printed on or near the telephones in the rooms stating what company will be used to complete the calls or the fees that will be charged.
I don't believe what NCIC is charging is illegal and I am not going to spend a lot of time researching this. I accepted the credit from NCIC and am warning anyone using a land line telephone to make all calls as short as possible and be sure you listen to all options regarding who is going to charge you and at what rate. Do Not Use Any service that is serviced by NCIC. We were lucky that this is only a $21.41 lesson learned.
0 comments