Well, it has finally happened...MCI has put a block on my phone. I owe $266.00 and they won't take it off 'till it's paid. That's 266 calls this month! Steven helps me with my phone bill and my phone company only showed a portion of the MCI bill. So we are gonna have to write back and forth until it's settled.

If things couldn't get any worse. Just had to vent. :rolleyes:

I still say a boycott of a few million prisoners and their friends & family might get us somewhere!

i hate mci to

Leonda...

Girl I know what you mean!! I have AT&T for the long distance service from where EJ is at & I found out today those little sh**heads HAD put a block on my line even though my damn billing period for my phone wasn't up!! Can you believe that??

Hang in there girl...you'll get to talk to your man soon!!

Ain't it DJ, you think it's all peaches n cream when the phone bill comes but the rest is hidden and you won't know its there until they block your phone!

let's face it....ALL phone companies manage to screw people over who are calling from prisons because they CAN! it's ridiculous that they are allowed to inflate their rates based on the fact that a call is being made from a particular type of facility! i would love to know if there is ANY other facility subjected to this type of price gouging. my guess would be "no".... :(

I believe the only type of facilities that do the "wonderful" price gouging is the prisons. I have heard that the prisons commission the highest phone company to put their systems in. Just 1 more way to make things hard on our loved 1's & us as well.
Where EJ is at right now I am paying the most on a 1/2 hour phone call than I ever did before!! Hell I can call & talk to a friend in Texas for 3 hours & pay just slightly over what they charge for a 1/2 hour call from the prison...SUCKS big time!!

dj, that's just WRONG. i guess it's tricky to complain about it, though, or else they may pull the plug on phone calls, period? the more i learn about prisons in the us, the more frustrated i become. not only are the offenders stripped of their rights, but their innocent families are, too! :(

You really can't complain to the phone companies because in accepting that phone call you are taking responsibility for the money charged on your phone bill. You do have the option not to pay, but then your phone gets cut off & you don't have anymore calls from the person you want to speak to the most.
It's nothing but a huge pain in the butt & 1 more thing to make our loved 1's & us more stressed out.

i have always thought, and still do think, that those of you able to actually have phone contact with your loved ones are so fortunate. now, however, i see that good fortune comes with a high price....

I agree w/you aprilcat that those of us that can talk to our loved 1's & be able to visit are lucky.
I have a friend that can't get calls or even see her man. I have been trying so hard to get her some information to help her out w/no luck at all!!
You are right though girl good fortune DOES come at a high price....

That is really bad I guess they think they can get over us since we are families of 'felons' and I don't think it's right. The operator was like 'Are you calling concerning calls from a correctional facility?' and I'm like DUH what do you want?!? Why don't they just put it all on one bill so you can see how much it is?

I used to get my phone calls all on 1 bill from my local phone company. I would see all the calls & how much each 1 would cost me plus all the TAXES & more TAXES on top of TAXES!! I swear 95% of the bill for the calls was taxes!!

It's a rip-off and we're just lining the pockets of the people keeping our loved ones in prison.

Now thatis the highest price I have heard yet!! I 'll take my 11$ per 30 minutes a lot easier now!

guess i am lucky i can not get calls so no BIG phone bills.. but then again not talking to by baby either :( Hope you get your block off soon.. Let us know.

I am soooo lucky. Juniors calls are 1.91 per 15 min. 4 to 8 times a week

lizbeth

it sounds like we are pretty lucky with the phonecompany over here, although they're going bankrupt

My calls everytime EJ calls me are like $11.50 per call, for a 1/2 hour which wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't charged like $30-40 in taxes at the end of the month. Makes me sick....

Danielle...I am soo sorry to hear that you get charged $30 for a 15 minute call!! Is there something you can do about that high price??

the entire phone situation is the doc is ridiculous-somebody is getting fat off a lot of steak dinners with the profits-

we need to join efforts to challenge the current practices-see other posts in this forum to become involved-ETC, CURE

How come you can't call him Shortie? Yeah it is ridiculous.

My bills are running around $350 a month. It's hard, but I somehow scrape it together.

I don't know how to change it or lower the rate. Wayne has no idea it's that high or I am afraid he wouldn't call.

MCI here in Richmond charges $1.10 per call

If I had some of these low rates I would have one of those headsets growing out of my ear!

As far as I know you get billed by what Company the call originates from. When Junior calls it says "US WEST has a collect.........." you get my drift? It pretty much depends on what long distance company the collect call is going thru. MCI? SPRINT? PACIFIC BELL? QWEST? AT&T?

There was a time that I traveled alot and 1 - 4 minute collect call from my hotel cost me 7.00 when I got home. But AT&T told me that when I get one of those generic operators on the phone to ask that operator specifically to connect you to an AT&T operator (and they HAVE TO connect you if you request it) and those rates would apply. It cut my collect and long distance phone bill down by about 3/4. I hope inmates can do the same, though highly unlikely.

vnvdvc and danielle is that once a week or unlimited?

my friend can call as often as he would like if he is not on a disciplinary restriction.

Wow no wonder you said youd have a headset growing out of your ear. LOL

Tell me about it! Right now he can't call till August 6th. And when he calls you better believe I will be on w/ him all day! The bill will be the furthest thing from my mind. MCI wins that battle!

vnv....

That's the way I feel w/EJ!! Since I can't see him as often as I like our main part of communication is letters & calls. So my phone bills are SKY HIGH because I want him to call me so much. There are just too many things that need to be talked about on the phone rather than write in a letter & wait a week or 2. Plus he makes my days & let me tell you ladies I need my days made when he calls me!!

They let them call so many times and the calls that are within the billing cycle is what's getting billed for that month, so if your honey calls about 300 times in a month, in 28 days you'll only see about 80 calls. That's how MCI jipped me and now the block is on. It is tough!

is there any thing we can do about m.c.i?

WELL LADIES, GUESS WHAT I FOUND OUT JUST RECENTLY... THE PHONE COMPANY YOU ARE WITH IS NOT THE CAUSE FOR THE COST OF THE CALL. THEY ARE ONLY A BILLING CONNECTION FOR EVERCOM TELEPHONE, WHICH IS THE PRISON TELEPHONE SYSTEM.... EVERCOM BILLS THROUGH CORRECTIONAL BILLING SERVICES. THIS SERVICE THEN SENDS THE BILL TO YOUR LOCAL TELEPHONE CARRIER. IF YOU HAVE MCI, SPRINT, AT&T ETC THEN THE BILL WILL BE SENT TO THEM TO BILL TO YOU.

IT'S ALL A SCAM.... THE ONLY WAY WE WILL GET IT CORRECTED IS NOT THROUGH THE TELEPHONE COMPANIES, BUT THROUGH OUR GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS IN EACH AND EVERY STATE.

THEY MUST UNDERSTAND THE SCAM THAT EVERCOM IS PULLING ON THE FAMILIES OF INMATES.... THE PRISON SYSTEMS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY IS GETTING A COMMISSION ON THESE CALLS. THEY MAKE A PROFIT ON OUR PHONE BILLS.


DONNA

Donna....

They make a BIG PROFIT on all of our phone bills!! I know some people get charged outrageous amounts of money for like a 10-15 minute phone call! My phone calls when EJ calls me are $11.50 a call for a 1/2 hour, add to that the taxes AFTER they tally up all those calls. Makes for an extremely high phone bill.

I signed up for AT&T long distance not 2 long ago. They offer a Corrections Plan which is for a $5 a month fee you get 15% off of collect calls from a prison facility if AT&T subscribes there. Now from what I understand it's 15% off the total bill, so according to the rep. I talked to at the end of my bill I will have the total & then the REAL total w/the 15% off. I'll have to let you all know if this is BS or not when I get my bill sometime next month.

Well, I have AT&T and it's great! Although I do get a discount cuz I contract for them. :D

Well i have mci but i think that i have some other company cause i order the other day over the computer.

I kind of figured that they had an invisible source in all this. Instead of directly billing it to you they go through a billion and one things and it ends up on your phone bill. I would rather pay them separate!