Hi, I was wondering if anyone has ever heard of this company, Correctional Billing Services? This is what just happened to me! I returned from my vacation, right? And my husband was supposed to call me Sunday but he didn't; then I got a letter explaining why. He said he thought there was a block on my phone cause everytime he'd try to call he couldn't get through. So I checked it out and found indeed a block had been placed on my phone - get this - because I had exceeded my limit on my account with Correctional Billing Services. Needless to say I didn't even know that I had this account; and the silliest part of all was that I was overlimit by 85 cents and they still restricted my phone!! So after spending about an hour on the phone, I think it is finally straightened out. This is what I was told; in June the long distance company for my husband's prison was changed from Sprint to this Correctional Billing Services. Of course neither he nor I was ever informed of any of this. As a result of this change the new carrier gave me an account of $150 in phone charges from his prison; if I exceed this; a block is automatically placed on my phone!!! Doesn't matter if my phone bill is currently paid; which mine is, if the prison phone call charges are more than $150 this will happen. And they said something about they are 30 days behind the local phone company in billing, or vice versa, didn't really understand all this!!! Anyway, even though my phone bill is currently paid up I had to pay another $92 to get the restriction removed!!!! Because for some reason you have to pay the whole bill off before they will take the block off. You know if I was any more paranoid than I already am I might think they are seriously trying to make sure my husband and I have no way to communicate. First of all they took our visits for nothing, and now this. Unbelievable.:argh

Just one more irritation for us! I have heard of this company in the course of a phone call I made to my long distance carrier. I was having problems getting a call through and the MCI operator couldn't find a problem. She even transferred me to a "high tolls department," something I'd never heard of, but I didn't have any flags with them. Her next suggestion was that maybe that company had taken over billing for the facility and she just wasn't showing it on her screen yet. I did find out they handle the local county jail here when I got the bill for a friend's emergency (we'll call it that) call at 3am. LOL

I have had the pleasure of dealing w/correctional billing services when EJ was in the county jail last year.

Isadora...do you have a phone # for correctional billing services? If not, let me do a little checking on my past bills & I will send you the #. You CAN up that limit if you set up an account w/them. I had that problem myself until I got my first phone bill w/the collect calls on it. I called the # for CBS & told them I wanted to up my limit to the highest they had. It worked for me although then I had me some HIGH phone bills...oh well at least I got to talk to my baby!!

take care!
DJ

ISADORA

OH HOW WELL I KNOW THIS VERY SAME SERVICE... MY SON HAS BEEN IN PRISON FOR 12 YEARS.... I HAVE HAD IT SET UP HERE AT MY WORK DURING THAT PERIOD, THAT HE COULD CALL ME COLLECT HERE AT WORK. I HAVE PAID MY COMPANY FOR ANY CHARGES.

AS OF 6 MONTHS AGO, MY LINE WAS BLOCKED. HE COULD NOT CALL COLLECT... I CALLED TO EVERCOM AND THEN I WAS PUT ON TO CORRECTIONAL BILLING SERVICE.. I FOUND OUT THAT I HAVE TO HAVE A CREDIT BALANCE IN A PREPAID ACCOUNT BEFORE HE CAN CALL. I KEEP SENDING CHECKS. I ONLY KNOW THE BALANCE, I NEVER RECEIVE A STATEMENT TO SHOW WHAT MY BALANCE IS. I HAVE TO CALL THEIR 1-800 NUMBER. SO I HAVE TO KEEP THAT INFO SO I WILL KNOW WHERE TO CALL... ALL BULL IF YOU ASK ME....

GOOD LUCK WITH THEM..... I SURE WISH WE COULD GET THIS SITUATION STRAIGHTENED OUT.... THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST GOUGEING SITUATIONS I HAVE EVER SEEN. I REALLY WISH I COULD FIND OUT HOW MUCH THE PRISONS ARE MAKING ON THESE CALL.S I AM VERY SURE THEY GET A COMMISSION.

DONNA

Donna, somewhere in PTO it's been said that DOC make millions off those collect calls (kick backs?). That's why an inmate CAN'T call a toll free number or use a prepaid phone card.

I had the problem with Correctional Billing Services too when Billy was in the state jails. Everytime I turned around, they would block my phone. He was in state jails for a year before he was moved to the federal. I had paid out almost $3000 in that time. Some to Correctional Billing Services and to a couple other billing services. ARGH!!!

Thankfully he can pay for the calls now. WOOHOO!!!

Denise...UGH I shudder to think about how much I have had to pay on collect calls from EJ!! I am scared to add up all my bills for over a year now!! :mad:

You all may have to "revive" me after I do that or come to IL to visit me in the hospital!! :haha:

DJ

Well, give me the directions and I'll visit you in the hospital. LOL It was scary to write out all those checks too. Sometimes $300 sometimes $700. Yuck!! Like I said--he can pay for them now. Actually I still am since I send him the money, but it's not a lot at a time.

You guys should take a look at Pamela's new thread about Privatelines, Inc. It has an interesting little link! I printed the info off to send to my friend, too.

Isadora,
I have had the same thing happen to me back in May. I have this phone number for this place in Texas called inmate family phone services they give you a different number just for the loved ones use only and it cuts your phone bills in half and you have no set limit on your phone. Because when he don't call when he says he's going to I worry (I'm a worry wart anyway) so if you'd like this info. let me know.
Michelle

Michelle, I would like that number, send me a PM please. Thanks, I didn't know you could up the limit on your account with Correctional Billing Services, I will call and check it out.

Hey, if anyone else would like these phone numbers, send me an e-mail or a PM and I'll be glad to give them to you.

I called correctional billing because... One day my brother called me "too much in a 24 hour time frame per Corr.Bill,They blocked my phone from calls even though I did NOT have a PAST DUE bill less alone ANY bill as a matter of fact they just cut me off, I owe 106.00.To date I am awaitng my phone bill in order to see what is being done, I called Corr. billing but they informed me to pay the bill THEN I could have their services, I explained NO ONE had even told me ANYTHING about a "limit" I have an 800.00 credit that I can use in one month but hahaha? I cant use it? Due to too many calls in a 24 hour period. It is MY money and I should be able to use it as I SEE FIT and NOT some Correctional billing. Bottom line? WHEN I pay the 106.00 THEN I can talk to my brother, But not in time before he is transfered to a State Pen :(

Good luck to anyone that has Correctional Billing

I hated Correctional Billing. Thank goodness we don't have it now. Billy can pay for the calls himself.

That is so wierd. Knock on wood, but I haven't had any problems with CBS in terms of my phone being blocked or anything like that. I just got my first phone bill from Ameritech since the prisons switched over to Sprint, and now I have a page for the Sprint calls. I have never had to pay up front, I just pay off the entire bill when I get it. But, I know that in order for my b/f's mom to beable to get calls from him, she had to pre pay. I have never had to do that. Maybe they just overlooked me? (yea I wish) So, who knows! :)

I seriously think someone should have the ACLU or an attorney look into what CBS is doing to people. It seems so illegal to me!

Isadora, I am dealing with the same crap, same company as you..this is completely ridiculous!!!!! I get charged $6.95 ( I think) for 15 min, and I never know when Scott will actually be able to get through!! It's always trial and error. My bill is always, always paid in full, for the sole reason that I don't want to jeopardize us being able to speak to each other, ans still I end up calling this poor excuse for a company at least once a week. Is there anything we can do????

Well if they ever have any Town Meetings closer to me that Houghton and on a day I don't have to work I'll go to one of them. Also Kay Perry has put me on her mailing list and she's supposedly trying to do something about this situation.

Hey girl,\
Give me correctional billing any day over T-Netix. I had dealt with them for many years and never had a single problem until alabama decided to go with this other company. The only thing I can suggest is what I have done here and that is getting Ring master on your phone. This away you have the same line but, another number. So he can add this number to his calling list and have two numbers that can add a 150 charge to each :) There's more than one way to skin a cat.
Vicki

Well, I have never had any problems with CBS but I do have a problem with the phone bill and I really don't know who I need to speak with about it. When Adrian calls, he is still in county 15 mins. away from home, we get cut off due to "custom calling features are not aloud during this conversation" and click. This happens on a daily basis at least 5 times and you know ya get charged for each call. I have called the jail and QWEST and they both say that they are not responsible for the billing...this is so a pain in the you know what! Does anyone have any suggestions??

Thanks Stephanie

We have had a problem with a company called Global TelLink. This company will hold all your collect charges until they reach well over $300 and then release them to your telephone company. The real kicker is that before they have released those charges, they have already cut off any incoming calls because the bill is too high!

Stephanie: If worse comes to worse you might have to call your regular telephone company and have any extra features ( call waiting, caller ID, etc ) taken off of your phone. Sometimes the correctional phone will cut you off because of call waiting. It supposedly hinders them from recording your phone call.

Isadora:
Most of the information you ask for is in another post a few down from yours, posted by eadvocate (me). I think if you read it you will find they are effectively scaming the public. I personally have dealings with them, with folks I know in the Michigan prison system. I too had problems but now have gotten them straightened out. However, just last month a fellow called me and after I accepted the call, we couldn't hear each other so he hung up. When I just got my bill from Ameritec (they pass through Correctional Billing Services charges to my account at Ameritech) they had charged me $4.88 for the 1 minute call which we couldn't hear each other. 2 days ago I called CBS and they said they will credit me, but initially they tried to say it was me who hung up. I simply advised them that an affidavit to the Mihcigan Public Service Commission and a complaint, and then we wait for the hearing which I am not afraid of. They didn't want that and they checked again, and yes it was there error; which it was. Their equipment is in terrible shape in that facility (Parnall in Jackson). Again they tried to make me setup an account with CBS and I said NO, they can bill me and wait for the money to pass through appropriate systems. I will, and do, always pay my bills every month when received. I further advised them that, according to my records they have failed to bill Ameritech TIMELY for calls made to me from Michigan prisons, and that I had the records to prove the point. They really don't like when someone keeps records which can be used later as needed. Funny when I first call CBS their system always tells me I have a $600.00 dollar limit, but I don't have any account with them. All the phone numbers are posted in my other posting about CBS.

Enjoy and have a great day and a better tomorrow.
Keep documenting, and call them with every problem and log the calls in a register. It may later come in handy.

eadvocate

My son has been locked up for 2 years and my phone bill is way out of this world and there is no way I can pay it!HELP!!!!:argh

I can't stand to think about him wanting or needing to call home and he can't!

Correctional Billing is ridiculous!!! Almost $7.00 for 15 min when Scott calls from LCI! But I guess any price is worth it...

Correctional Billing finally totally pissed me off. Last week a block was put on my phone. My mother in law called me to tell me why my husband couldn't get thru. I called CBS the next morning and oh geez they didn't enter my $300. payment on 10/2 as their system was down although they had a note to enter it after they had called my phone company and verified that I had paid and oh geez I had a block as without entering the $300. I was over my credit limit by .43 cents. So---guess what--they couldn't take the block off til I went and paid what it showed I owed as they couldn't enter in the $300. til I paid today as the $300 was an OLD PAYMENT (even though it was never entered) What the hell????? OK I did it. The block came off and he got thru that night although they had told me it might take 24 hours to take the block off. Today I get my phone bill---and called because this phone bill finally showed the charges for 9/5 and 9/16 in which he called and I pushed the damn 0 to accept and there waS NO ONE THERE. I had called on 9/17 and they had told me they couldn't credit me til I got the bill with the calls on it and then just to call them and they'd manually delete them. Yeah right. I called them this evening and ----they are going to do an investigation which takes 7-10 days and if they find it was their equipment then I get a credit but the credit takes 30-90 days. They told me they seldom give a credit as they find it's our phone doing this.

I told them off and I am so angry. I am so sick of this. I was going to get a physical phone at my son's house and get the call forwarding on it---but I called him and their lease says only one phone line. So, I called Tele-net. I got a quote from them the other day. Now, they're sending me an application. I didn't like how the lady from Tele-net wouldn't answer my questions and told me not to get service from them if I couldn't trust them etc... Yes, I have questions. I'm paranoid. I don't want my husband to not be able to call me. I'm just sick of the cost and putting up with the crap CBS does. Why can't we have alternatives? Why can't they treat us with respect? We are their paying customers. They have a monopoly and we have no choice---but out of humaN DECENCEY they should treat us better. Tele-net wants me to just send them the $ and then they'll walk me thru it and I should trust them. I'm scared the prison will pick up on that I have a local phone number and my address is still 7 hours away. I told the lady at Tele-net that and she started on this 1st amendment rights stuff and how we're outside the prison etc... I know all that---BUT WE'RE DEALING WITH THE PRISON NOW AND THEY KNOW ME THERE AND ALWAYS ASK ME HOW MY DRIVE DOWN WAS ND IF WE HAVE SNOW YET ETC... (which we got blasted with snow last night and are still getting it---we have at least 8 inches and it's still snowing hard outside). I've rambled and typed fast cause I'm angry and scared with what I'm thinking of doing. Any comments? Does anyone from Michigan have this?

Deb

ew EVERCOM! Wow, I'm so glad I'm not the only one having problems with CBS! I thought I was cursed or something...they make it so rough on the families, Don't they? Well, my future mother in law is on a first name basis with one of their supervisors if that tells you of our difficulties! It's frustrating and I too worry when Evan doesn't call when he says he's going to...I fear he got thrown in "the hole" or something.

I"m in my brand new hell with CBS/Evercom. They told me I had a $50 paypoint with my local phone company and told me I would be billed on their bill. I KNOW that my phone company doesn't allow TPB so I called them back and said "hey lookie here, it won't work, what now?" She says "prepay is the only way" well, I don't have any way to prepay so now I'm SOL on getting calls.

Soul Sliver,

Check out remote call forwarding. It is an option. There are posts regarding remote call forwarding in here. Tele-net is another option. Pros and cons are posted on each. Don't give up.

Deb

I can't get remote call forwarding, it's not offered through my phone company (I'm not with a Bell, I'm with Cox). Tel-net is an option but I'm not ready to foot down the nearly $80 they want to set me up either.

Does anyone know what the charges are for calls from Hutchinson Correctional Facility in Kansas calling the same town?

I finally got my 1st call and we got to talk for 2 hours then the recording came on "You have 1 min. left". I didn't like hearing that.....

Just curious and don't want to wait for the bill....would like to have myself prepared ahead of time!

Thanks for any help you may have! :)

No I sure can't answer that question, don't know how you'd find out either unless you call CBS. Oh well they put another friggin' block on my phone! Didn't know but my husband didn't call when he was supposed to so I suspected something was up. When I called CBS sure enough, they had put a block on my phone because I was a whole $2 over my limit!! No warning from them of course that they were going to do this or that I was getting close to my limit. When I pointed it out to them that my phone bill was paid up to date they checked and then did immediately take the block off. Just a hassle, that's all.

Folks,
If enough of us get together and begin to overload each state's congressmen, representatives, and senators demanding that this abuse be stopped those politicians will begin to pressure the local political clowns to get them to back off and provide a better communication service for prisoners and their relatives or friends. They will be more inclined to act if national media (i.e., 60 Minutes or others like them) reports on the scam as well. It is a money-making scheme where the phone intermediator that calls itself Correctional Billing System messes up the local phone companies by coming up with the ridiculous charges and demanding them from local phone companies who usually do not have the manpower to challenge illegal charges like that. We know the prison system is surely getting a cut--they are the ones that say what goes. It is unreasonable that the prisoners cannot even have phone cards to make calls when they need to do so. This is a typical price gouging scheme. It is illegal. When the gouging is done by local grocers who up their prices for basic items during crisis, those local grocers are not allowed to get away with it. So why are our politicians letting the prisons and CBS get away with it? Think about it!! And even further, a lot of the folks that are in jail are not being granted their full constitutional rights and when relatives try to inquire all we get is a condescending, blow-off answer at best. The people running the judicial and law enforcement systems have forgotten that they ARE public servants supported by our tax dollars. And they also seem to think that they are above the law and can trample on constitutional and civil rights with impunity. It is a disgrace when our leaders from the president on down go telling other nations that they must respect their citizens human and civil rights or else we bomb them like it was done to Iraq, yet here the local authorities exhibit the same traits and behaviors that we criticize elsewhere. If we get organized we can stop this CBS abuse. They already have irritated a lot of people.

Welcome to PTOEL!! I agree with you and many of us have made calls to our Public Service Commision and representatives, senators and governors. Some of us are involved in law suits....If 60 minutes did a show maybe it would really help....(I agree about our government too!)

Deb

Isadora:
My husband is in Kinross. So far we have used Correctional Billing but I have never experienced anything other than $7.82 per 15 minute call but other people who are downstate have told me they have to set up an account with $150 in it and once you exceed that, you get no more phone calls.
I know this is a rip off but what are we going to do?

Here in Oregon there's supposed to be a thing going on where the prisoners can put money of their own into a phone card and make calls that aren't collect anymore. I haven't heard more about it yet, but maybe someone here at PTO has used it.

my huband iis in jail in grundy virginia and i live in princeton west virginia and our calls are 16 dollars for 20 nin and when the call reached 120 dollares they blocked it and my limit was 250 dollars

Check out tele-net you guys.... They can save you about half of what you're paying now... Talk to Richard--he's a member on PTO--you can pm him at golf_buddy...

Deb

I just had an irritating encounter with CBS this month. My sister called to tell me that my husband couldn't call, so he called her. There was a block on the phone. I called CBS and all I could get was a menu. Eventually my son made the call and didn't push any menu buttons. That is how you talk to a person!
Anyway, at 7:00 pm I had my first conversation with a customer service representative. I told her that what I had to say should be said to a manager. She at first tried to get a manager, but then came back within seconds and said they were all on the phone. I told her my problem.. that the automated system said I was $2.43 over my 'limit'. She told me that she would have to verify with the phone company that the bill was paid, but unfortunately, the phone company's office was shut for the day. I told her that I've been getting collect calls for 7.5 years, and I've never not paid a phone call. I told her that I didn't even know what limit was arbitrarily alloted to me. She did tell me that I had a $200 limit. I told her that I would wait on hold for a manager. She said she couldn't do that. But that a manager would call me back that evening before 10 pm Michigan time. Well, at quarter to 9 I called back. I talked to another customer service rep, repeated my story, and told her that I have to get up for work at 5 a.m. and would appreciate a call right away from a manager. All she would tell me is that my first call was logged, and a manager would call me before 10:00 my time. So I hung up. At 5 to 10, I called again, and of course.. they were closed for the day. So I brought the website up for Evercom, typed them an email, and went to bed. The next day, there was a reply (from the same overworked customer service rep that handled another complaint another time). She told me to call when the phone company could get on the phone with them to verify payment. So we finally got the block taken off the phone with 24 hours of when it was placed.
Interesting note if you happened to make it through all of this: I looked up CBS on the Better Business Bureau website and they have an UNSATISFACTORY rating! If I knew of any senators names that were looking into the phone debit cards for Michigan, I wonder if they know that the contract was given to a company with an UNSATISFACTORY rating with the Better Business Bureau???

Hey Everyone,
I live in Illinois and I have always had Consolidated Communications corrections billing service. I was wondering if what i get charged is about in-line with everyone else. I get charged 9.63 for 31 minutes. I was wondering if there is a cheaper way or if anyone has heard of a cheaper way to have these calls or get more calls for the same price. Just wondering. Thanks.

That's not bad at all. I'm paying around $4.34 or something like that for 15 minutes with Tele-Net (was nearly $20 before), so I'd say you've got a pretty good deal there...

if someone could please send me the phone numbers or web address to pay this billing thing it would be very much appricated........i need them asap

You want a horror story - I've got one. I have had the wonderful pleasure of sparing [that was sarcasim by the way] with CBS for the past two years. It started one June just before Father's Day and I found out via my sister in law that a block was put on my phone - my husband tried to call me and that's when I knew. BTW - Sprint is still in charge of all this - they subcontracted to Evercom - who have sub-subcontracted to CBS. My bills are sent via an international holding company so just imagine the maze I have had to go through to get it corrected. The first time [there were 7 blocks in total over 2 years] last 12 days. When I contacted the people at Sprint who had instituted the block, they used a lame excuse that they couldn't figure out whether they [Sprint] had a billing agreement in place with my local carrier. Of course my carrier said they'd had one in place for several years. When I threatened them with a lawsuit they took the block off - apologized all over the map and sent me 2 $20 calling cards as compensation for my trouble. That didn't compensate me for not being able to talk to my husband on father's day. From then - they always seemed to wait until just before a major holiday before putting a block on. The excuses went from a techical problem to gee we don't know. I was blocked just before Thanksgiving one year for 10 days...if you think your rates are high for a 15 minute call - hang onto your shoes - I pay $30 for a 15 minute call now - that went up when CBS took over and it is all in handling charges, surcharges and handler fees. We went from 7.36 to 30.00 - so we now only talk once a week instead of the 4 or 5 we were. Be thankful if you live close by or don't pay that kind of money. I live 4,000 miles away and see my husband once a year. Not complaining my move was something that we both agreed to...but still it is really hard. but he's coming up for parole next month - hopefully he gets it and can come home...take care and God bless to everyone