Recently, I found myself at the Portland, Oregon Airport (PDX) with a dead cellphone battery, and no way to contact the party I was meeting. I made 3 very short phone calls from a payphone at Airport, using my VISA card.
Two calls were to a Canadian number, and were for less than a minute—I left a very short voicemail. I was charged $28.41 for EACH of those calls. I was also charged $11.27 for a very short phonecall (2 minutes maximum) to a local number in the PDX metro area. These three calls totaled $68.09!
I contacted the company listed on my visa account, (FAIRCALL 800-279-5976GB), however this 800 number appears to belong to a company called International Satellite Communications, http://internationalsatellitecom.com/.
The customer service rep, James Kemp, said that it was normal for them to charge that much for phone calls, as they charge a minimum of 5 minutes, and that I could have found out the rates by calling the operator before placing my call. I knew the calls would be more expensive than the average call, but this charge is not something that any reasonable person would expect.
The agent finally agreed to issue a credit of $27.23 to my visa, still leaving me a charge of $40.86 for 3 very short phonecalls. He said that the credit will take 30 to 60 days. I let him know that I would take the $27.23, but that I do not find the remaining balance to be acceptable, and that I am far from satisfied.
I cannot believe that this company is getting away with this! I encourage anyone reading this to pass the information along to anyone and everyone so that others can be made aware of the rates being charged by this company in airports and convention centers all across the country.
I would like to see the businesses who allow this company to operate on their premises held accountable as well.
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