Complaint Review: Legacy LD International

I was away for almost 2 weeks a few weeks ago. I don't have a cell phone so I used a pay phone to call my wife and kids collect. My wife mentioned to me that on our home caller ID a phone number was appearing and in the name area it said Californina. The number that appeared on the caller ID each and every time I called home collect was (213)999-4218. At one point my wife actually questioned the operator(s), who would ask her if she would accept the collect charges, why is it that I was calling from Worcester, Massachusetts but the number was showing as a number from California. They told her that they didn't know why.

Yesterday, October 18, 2005 our phone bill came in and was I shocked to see that this company charged me a grand total of $230.13 for 12 calls. The following is an itemized list of these calls with the dates and times.

1) 10/4 5:14 pm (508)799-4088 5:00 min. @ $16.95 ($3.39 a min.)
2) 10/4 6:17 pm " " 15:00 min. @ $26.85 ($1.79 a min.)
3) 10/4 6:43 pm " " 5:00 min. @ $16.95 ($3.39 a min.)
4) 10/4 8:31 pm " " 5:00 min. @ $16.95 ($3.39 a min.)
5) 10/5 11:22 am " " 5:00 min. @ $16.95 ($3.39 a min.)
6) 10/5 11:28 am " " 7:00 min. @ $18.93 ($2.70 a min.)
7) 10/5 12:42 pm " " 6:00 min. @ $17.94 ($2.99 a min.)
8) 10/5 1:21 pm " " 11:00 min. @ $22.89 ($2.08 a min.)
9) 10/5 3:22 pm " " 8:00 min. @ $19.92 ($2.49 a min.)
10) 10/5 4:00 pm " " 5:00 min. @ $16.95 ($3.39 a min.)
11) 10/5 4:25 pm " " 8:00 min. @ $19.92 ($2.49 a min.)
12) 10/6 11:53 pm " " 7:00 min. @ $18.93 ($2.70 a min.)

When this bill arrived, this particular section says that this portion of my bill is provided as a service to Zero plus dialing Inc. The number listed is (888)506-0734. I spent time on the phone yesterday, and will do again today, trying to get through to someone and it just rang and rang. My wife called our local company as well, Verizon, and they just told us that we need to keep trying that number. I asked Verizon for the number to the FCC but they stated that they didn't have it. I then called information and got a number for the FCC which is (888)225-5322. When my wife called them it was voice system after voice system. Press one key to get to another key then another key to get to another key and eventually, when we thought we would get a human being to talk to, we were instructed to go on line if we wanted to put a complaint in against a company, however, there was stipulations with that process. This is nothing my aggrravation and time consumption. We're being charged ridiculous prices! I don't claim that I don't owe something for the collect calls but $230.13 plus $11.51 in state tax and $6.90 in federal tax is a bit too much. One would think that I was calling a 900 number. How does this company get away with this and why are there so many loop holes to jump through to get this matter addressed?

There will be another bill coming in next month because I was not home until the 8th of October but my billing period ends on the 6th. I imagine that those charges will be high too. Any beneficial information that you can offer me to see to it that this company doesn't keep riping people off would be greatly appreciated. Who do I complain to? What are the numbers?

Robert
FIskdale, Massachusetts
U.S.A.