I had a collect call from Ohio for 14 minutes and was charged $80.36 by a company called Zero Plus Dialing. The charge comes to a total of $5.74 a minute. When you accept a collect call, you expect a reasonable rate which is not what I got. Even my phone company cannot find an address for them, but they located a toll free number for me to call. I am not going to pay this bill because it is more like fraud than anything else
A little history: More than 70 years ago, Congress passed the Communications Act of 1934, which established a very orderly system that regulated telephone service, broadcasting and other public-service utilities. Everyone paid pretty much the same price and everyone got pretty much the same reliable, relatively inexpensive service.
It wasn't until 1996 that Congress once again stirred itself and, after decades of furious lobbying, passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which basically deregulated telephone service, cable TV and broadcasting as far as consumers are concerned, leaving in place just enough regulation to protect the big players who employ all those lobbyists.
I have e-mailed my congressman and would like to complain to someone who will look into this further, but am not sure what I can do.
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