STi Card is one of those long distance phone cards that you can purchase at some markets. I have purchased the cards in the past (no longer now) for my wife—who is from the Philippines and uses the cards to talk to her family. This was the first time I attempted to purchase one of their cards online with my credit card.
After visiting their website, you are prompted for the following information: 1) The country you are calling from, 2) The country you are calling, and 3) The local originating area code. After supplying all of the required parameters the website advertises that for a $20 purchase you are given 241 minutes.
I purchased the prepaid phone card with my credit card and they accepted my money. Upon first use I discovered the card actually only had 200 minutes on it.
Any attempt to call customer support via telephone leaves you in a never-ending queue that is never answered "your call is important, blah blah blah..." I have called many times and have learned the phones are not answered at all.
I had a reply from their customer support by e-mail which stated: "I am sorry to hear your troubles. I recommend calling the customer service number for that card and they will be able to look into that problem for you..." The e-mail is oddly signed "customer support". Why they cannot provide the same support via e-mail is beyond me, except perhaps it is a pretense for something that does not exist.
Follow-up e-mail requests (to the same customer support e-mail address) to have my missing minutes restored have gone ignored.
I am considering a small-claims suit, however I do not know if it's worth it for 41 minutes of missing time. I believe this is the nature of their scam; the "pepperoni slice" attack/scam if you will: Take a little bit of money from a lot of people. Steal by piecemeal, only a small amount. It adds up and no individual will bother to do anything about it.
Stay away from any and all phone cards owned by telco group of flushing, ny if you do not wish to be ripped off!
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