I received 2 charges to my bank account, the first of $14.98 and the second of $13.98. Saying payphone charges. While my card was used for a phone call less than 2 minutes long, I had not athorized two withdrawls of close to $30.
I called BOTH numbers on my bank statement, as there were 2, and both took me to Telecom Customer Service, he called it anyways. My call was answered by a man claiming to be Jessie Fox.
When I asked about these charges he said to me they were an airport payphone company. I asked him about the 2 outrageous charges on my account, and he wouldn't help me until I gave him the card number used.
Stupidly I did, he then told me there was nothing for that card number and had to wait 5-7 business days until it would show in THEIR system.
I asked him then if he couldn't prove the charges were made to my card why was he pulling money to my account. He told me he could not talk about it until they had the information in the system. I then DEMANDED he provide me proof, I got the same response.
I then asked to speak to a supervisor and was told it was impossible, they could not help me until the 5-7 day period was up. He did tell me that it was being held, but would be released within 5-7 business days.
This made me very uncomfortable, so I Googled the phone number and found a report here.
I immediatley called my bank, and was told that because the charges were still "pending", they could do nothing and told me to wait. I did bring up Federal Regulation E, and told them I was advised to report them to the banking commission in my state, and all about the reports on this site, but this made no difference.
I was told by my bank to wait until the charges had either cleared or expired. At that point I had to cancel one of our debit cards, and now am waiting to see what happens in the next couple days.
I have later found, and suspected then, that Jessie Fox is NOT his real name, as are none of the names given there. The minute I was not allowed to speak to a supervisor, I was suspicous.
I am glad of this site, as I would have left the charges until well past 60 days before checking it out.
Rathernot
Tijuana,#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Wed, February 16, 2011
I used to work there and I do have some suggestions.
Try to remember as much as you can about the calls you made. The time they lasted, and if they were connected to an answering machine or voice mail.
Call the company again. You will have to provide your credit card number to the service rep because the company does not save information.
Listen to the rep and before you agree to any kind of credit, ask to speak to a supervisor.
Listen to the supervisor and then explain as calmly as you can that you refuse to take the offered credit because you think it is too low, especially if you got an answering machine. Ask the supervisor to provide you with the maximum credit available.
If for some reason the supervisor refuses, then the only thing left to do is either e-mail the company constantly, get your bank to email the company, but do not use any swear words because they use spam filters that stop emails with any kind of profanity in them.
And the most inportant thing is to not back down. People who do not back down are the ones that almost always get their money back, although that can take months.
If it´s too much bother or you don´t have time, take the offered credit.
Good luck!
Gruvytune
Sandy Springs,#3Consumer Comment
Fri, February 04, 2011
I was in airport in Minneapolis and lost my cell phone so used the payphones to make several calls. They were all local and less than 2min each. Now I'm seeing 5 charges for 14.98 each!
I called the 800 no listed on my online bank statement and told they can do nothing till the pending charges go through. My bank says same thing and they can do nothing about a debit charge unless I file an affidavit of fraud.
Any suggestions????
Thanks!
Scammedbybbg
Hercules,#4Consumer Comment
Tue, December 21, 2010
Yes, this is the way BBG Communications works. They have gotten away with stealing tens of billions of dollars from people just like you. How do they do it? Simply by finding greedy partners willing to sell them their souls (Heathrow, Frankfurt, and Schipol Airports, Marriott and Sheraton Hotels, Visa and Mastercard, attorneys who should and do know better, to name just a few), by lying shamelessly to innocent victims like you, and by wearing their victims out. Unfortunately, as BBG well knows, 99.999% of their victims will eventually give up and go away.
BBG and those in its inner circles have operated under the cavalier yet nave assumption that it is possible to fool all of the people all of the time. BBG will be stunned to find how wrong they have been as evidence is introduced in the two class action lawsuits pending in federal court in California. Stay tuned. Payback time is coming.