[latin_racer]

So this past weekend I went to willow beach and I had to make a quick emergency call since I didn't have any cell signal. I find a few coins but when I get to the pay phone it say's only CC only. I call the operator and ask how much for a 1 minute call and she responds at the most $2. I let her know to go ahead and I make my quick 30 second call. Once I get back home I see (7) $20 pending charges. I freak out and call the bank to file a claim. Today all of the pending charges drop but $45.15 cleared. At this point i'm upset. How the hell is a 30 second call going to cost me this much. I try calling the company of the pay phone and they keep giving excuses that they can't find the account to check the charges and that i'm out of luck. I did some reading and found out that this is a bait and switch scam that pay phone companies are doing in many locations for credit card holders. I haven't used a pay phone in 15yrs and didn't know any of this.

I called my bank and the first agent told me that I was out of luck since I did business with this company. That's when I got really upset and told the idiot to put his supervisor. After a few words they decided to close my debit card and send me a new one and the charges would drop in a few days. This only happened after I made a threat that I would closed all my accounts if they wouldn't take care of this. It's sad that banks now don't care about their customers specially when you have many accounts and transactions.

I'm going to try and call willow beach and possibly send the info to channel 8 news.

Here is the info I was able to get.

08/11 - $45.15
USA PAYPHONE
888-4519635 CA

Here is a few articles related to this of scam.

Pay phone users at DIA shocked by credit card rates | 9news.com-

Denver airport payphone SCAM - Denver Forum - TripAdvisor

[StaggerLee22]

This is what it would look like after I got that bill:


Further reading:
DESTROY PAY-PHONES BY MR. DEATH

[SoCalCpl2]

Where is Willow Beach??? And what cell phone provider do yu use?????

[clutchcargo777]

This is why I never use debit cards for anything. Charge back rights vary from weak to non-existent. Plus they now have a direct line to your checking account. Luckily your bank issued you a new account number.

Credit cards paid in full every month are the way to go.

[skugelstadt]

Originally Posted by clutchcargo777

This is why I never use debit cards for anything. Charge back rights vary from weak to non-existent. Plus they now have a direct line to your checking account. Luckily your bank issued you a new account number.

Credit cards paid in full every month are the way to go.

You echo my thoughts exactly. We are also getting reward points from the credit card.

[PinkString]

Originally Posted by SoCalCpl2

Where is Willow Beach??? And what cell phone provider do yu use?????

Willow Beach is out by Lake Mead.

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by clutchcargo777

Credit cards paid in full every month are the way to go.

Absolutely.

It's odd -- we went from "Everybody having credit cards" to "Credit or Debit?" to "Debit or credit" to "Please enter your pin."

What is it, nobody has a good enough credit score to get a real credit card anymore? I pull out my credit card and the clerks look at me as if I'm anachronistic.

[MediocreButArrogant]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

What is it, nobody has a good enough credit score to get a real credit card anymore? I pull out my credit card and the clerks look at me as if I'm anachronistic.

Apparently true in Las Vegas. Ever seen how long the line is exiting the parking lot at McCarran for the manned booths, vs the lines that only take credit cards and prepaid tickets? I don't think those people like waiting in line, so they either don't have credit cards, or are too dumb to use the machine.

[latin_racer]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

Absolutely.

It's odd -- we went from "Everybody having credit cards" to "Credit or Debit?" to "Debit or credit" to "Please enter your pin."

What is it, nobody has a good enough credit score to get a real credit card anymore? I pull out my credit card and the clerks look at me as if I'm anachronistic.

I have credit cards. just didn't register in my head to use it. I wish I would have as it would be easy to to file a claim vs calling the bank and getting road blocks.

[latin_racer]

Originally Posted by StaggerLee22

This is what it would look like after I got that bill:


Further reading:
DESTROY PAY-PHONES BY MR. DEATH

It was on my mind for quite some time but I rather not get into further trouble by damaging propery specially since the parks ranger office is just accross the street.