You won't believe this...

[shorty]

I got my phone bill yesterday and I opened it up and da*n near had a heart attack. I was over $130.00. My husband was out of town a few weeks ago and his prepaid calling card ran out of minutes so he called me collect. One time we talked 25 mins and the other 35 mins. Can you believe that the grand total for 60 mins of talk was $64.99. I called the phone co and asked why. She tells me it's because we don't have AT&T as a long distance carrier. I told her we don't have a long distance carrier. So she has the nerve to ask me, well, would you like to make AT&T your long distance carrier? I said, will it make these two calls cheaper and lower my bill? She says No. I said then why in the hell would I want to make you my long distance carrier? She said the reason the calls were so expensive is they charge a $3.99 PENALTY fee for each call since we don't use AT&T and then 89 cents a min. My God, he was just 4 hours away, he could have drove home for 64.00! This is why I like those annoying 10-10 things, you can't beat 20 mins for 99 cents.
How do they expect a honest person to pay these kinds of rates?

[KCadet]

Damn! Sounds like you should take up the lost art of letter writing.

[Sig220Man]

Collect calls, especially operator-assisted ones, cost major $$$$.

It would've been cheaper for your husband to use his credit card, or call you and ask you to call him back at the pay phone he's using.

Assuming of course, the pay phone's incoming call feature hasn't been disabled. Lots of communities, including mine, have done that do cut down on drug dealing.

[Don]

Actually Sig, a lot of PAY PHONE OWNERS have cut out incoming calls as it brings them no revenue. This telephone situation is one of the biggest on-going rip offs in the country today.

Frankly, I'll stick with the "annoying 10-10" numbers when I call from home. It's sooooo much cheaper. If you are away from home and using the phone a lot, a prepaid phone card is really the best way to go. Those cards can be picked up at Wally World fairly cheap.

Personally, I have a cell phone with nation wide roaming and free long distance on it. But it's expensive as hell. And if you DON'T use it, then the cost is really outrageous.

I just tried to get my cell phone number switched back to Arizona (I've still got my Colorado number on it) and I got fifteen reasons from the Verizon bit er I mean lady in Flagstaff why it couldn't be done, or if it could it would cost me more money or - - -whatever. I'll keep the Colorado number until the contract has expired.