Complaint Review: Global Tel Link

Global Tel Link is a major rip off. They are contracted by almost all correctional institutions in the US. They have a total monopoly on the inmate phone systems charging outrageous prices for phone calls. When cell phones first came out the prices per minute where not this much.

Technology has come a very long way over the past ten years; how come their prices are still back in time when all calls were expensive. Now technology has reduced the cost of calls but GTL is still charge out of hand prices for these calls.

They know that inmate want to hear from their loved ones and vise versa and GTL feeds from this need to communicate. A loved one has no alternative but to almost go broke or go without food to have their loved one beable to call home. I just can't understand how a call from an inmate only 140 miles away costs me almost $1.00 per minute. Even if you have a limited cell phone plan (not unlimited) your extra minutes don't even cost that much.

How does GTL get away with such horrible customer service. I was locked out of my account for over two weeks and could not get in to check my balance. I called the customer service number; got a recording to add more time with my credit card. Finally got through to a real person. They tried over and over to reset the account so i could get in. No luck. Finally after a few days I get several emails telling me the account had to be reset with a new UserName and password. Then I get in to my account and I see these obsurd charges for taxes and other things. I call their customer service department to have them explain the charges and they have no idea what they are. Then I email a request and I get the exact same information I get on line which tells me nothing new. If I am being charged for something and it shows SCCRC and I want to know what this is and why i am being charged for it well their customer service reps should at least know what that charge is that shows up with every single call i receive.

Even when I have money remaining on my account I get this stupid automated recording calling me every single day alerting me to the fact that my account is low and that if i do not add funds to it soon I may not be able to hear from the person calling me. I sent them a nasty email to shut that stupid thing off so it stops calling me every single day. I keep track of how much i have left on the account, i don't need their system pestering me for more money (which by the way is the only good thing GTL know how to do well).

Trying to get a rep on the phone that you can actually understand is almost a miracle. I can't tell you how many times I had to hang up on a rep that I just could not for the life of me understand and it got so frustrating.

How do they get away with charging these ourageous prices for phone calls. I thought there was a law in the US for not allowing any company to become a monopoly. I can't understand why authorities have not gone after them. I don't understand how they get away with this. Either you pay their prices for calls or you can't hear from you loved one. How stupid is that??

Their customer service is horrible and their tech support takes 3 or more days to get back to you. This must end!!