Is anyone else out there in Canada not receiving calls from US prisons???

This looks like an MCI problem and I have been trying to get to the bottom of it for almost a month now. The last call that I received was August 3rd.

I have talked to Bell Canada and it is not my line.

I have talked to the prison and they claim that they are not aware of any problem, but also said that they did not even think that an inmate could call Canada? (Well I have been receiving weekly calls for a year now - up to August 3rd.)

I have talked to MCI Inmate Services 20 times now and always get a different story. They have told me that no calls are going through to Canada if MCI is the carrier from the US prison??? They tell me that they are working on it and it will be fixed in a day or two? I get this story every time I call and we are approaching a month now.

DOES ANYONE KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIS???

:argh :pissed:

Hello
I was having a problem receiving my calls to Canada - I am in BC and receive the calls from Fla. They were down from the 4th of August til August 13th for me. As you - I went around the house with MCI - several dozen times - I eventually went to the Warden at the facility who doesn't like any of his ducks out of line :) and had MCI's on site person test my line from the prison to determine that it was a 'routing code' error - that all calls to Canada were not getting through - they corrected the routing code and it has worked since. Just As expensive as ever but works! How much do you pay for a 15 min call if I may ask and where are your calls coming from. Hope this helps...

ateeyah,

Thanks for your response!

I talked to my partners house manager and he was not even aware that they could call Canada. I guess that I am not wanting to rock the boat in case that I get the calls disabled forever!!!

MCI are telling me now that this is a software problem with a company called "Global" which provides the software inside the facility???

I will continue to call and call and call and see if I can get anywhere.

I pay on average 75-80 cents Canadian per minute. This is the total charge divided by the minutes. I have no idea what the connection charge is as all I see is the final charge. My calls are coming from Missouri.

What are you paying??

Ken

Hello Ken
I pay 24 Canadian dollars per 15 minute call. Don't you have a set number of minutes per call? Ours are 15 and that's it - he can call again but each call is only 15 minutes. You receive a bill that only lists the minutes not a per call rate? That is strange. How do you know all the minutes are yours if they are not designated to a time - date and rate?
I guess Mo is different from Fla - Global probably provides to all MCI and prisons so that doesn't sound right either. If you don't stay on those people you won't get it resolved. Take care.

ateeyah,

I receive my charges on my Bell Canada bill. It lists the date and time and minutes talked and then the charge. I usually see a 30 minute call at about $25 and a 40 minute call at $33 or something like that.

He can call for as long as he wants and as often as he wants. His only restirction is that sometimes if he does not get me (or there is a line up at the phones) as soon as he is out of his cell, then sometimes the call is cut short because lock down comes before we are fininshed talking - otherwise there is not time limit. This is bad actually because sometimes we just talk too long. I always say that there is a time limit but we reach that so quickly and I am always the one that breaks the rule with that. That is ok, I am the one paying for it anyway.

I think that there are different rates depending on the state that they originate from. I think that there have been suits filed in different states around the cost of calls and some states just are not "milking" us as much as others. I know that my partners brother is in a facility in another state and his calls home to his parents are more than double what it costs them to talk to Teddy.

I will keep on top of this believe me, but I am getting the impression that the problem is this "Global" company and MCI don't have much control?

I will keep my fingers crossed for this weekend.