Phone Box charging

[hevweaver]

Hi, I live on the edge of Dartmoor and have a phone box outside my house. I feel the box is improtant to be kept in use as it may be the only emergency phone if someone is in trouble on the moor, and of course there is no moblie phone reception here. 

So, I try to make a call from it every month to keep it 'used'. 

It is card only, and recently the phone call has been transfered to USA to take my card details, the most recent charge for  a phone call was £31!!! 

To whom  can I object to this? Who is in charge of the decisions about phone box charging methods? How can we make this a more reasonable charge, so the phone box is kept in use? surely this is a very devious way of ensuring the box is no longer used? 

This box is clearly in an important location so BT should be duty bound to keep it affordable? 

How can I even start to make an objection about this?

[licquorice]

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@hevweaver wrote:

It is card only, and recently the phone call has been transfered to USA to take my card details, the most recent charge for  a phone call was £31!!! 

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Sorry, I really don't believe that, or you were scammed somehow.

[gg30340]

BT Payphone charges here

https://www.bt.com/pricing/current/Call_Charges_boo/3545_d0e5.htm#3545-d0e5

This link is about credit card charge for BT Payphones.

It is from 2014 when BT raised the charge but then dropped it back to £1.20. I doubt the price has risen that much since then.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26086314

[CJT80]

As noted by @gg30340  click the link, and in the case of Credit Card charges, you need to look at the top section of the page, as it takes you to another site Creditcall Telecom Services Limited who take the card payments.

Perhaps they are based outside of the UK.

I thought the Payphones had a Credit Card slot in them.....

[hevweaver]

Hi, no credit card slots anymore sadly. That would make life much simpler for the user! 

The calls are definately diverted outside of the UK, the operator seemed very surprised that I was in the UK, trying to make a UK call. And the charge was indeed £31, I have the bank statement to prove it!

[CJT80]

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@hevweaverwrote:

Hi, no credit card slots anymore sadly. That would make life much simpler for the user! 

The calls are definately diverted outside of the UK, the operator seemed very surprised that I was in the UK, trying to make a UK call. And the charge was indeed £31, I have the bank statement to prove it!

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According to this link: https://btbusiness.custhelp.com/euf/assets/pdf/payphones/PublicPayphoneNotice.pdf that PDF is the sign posted in Public Pay Phones operated by BT.

Credit Call Rates website address is on there as well (however at the time of this reply I cannot access it).

Additionally how to contact the BT Payphones Customer Services Team is listed on the same PDF.

You may wish to take up the charges with either of those teams.

Out of curiousity what type of number did you call?  UK Landline/Mobile/Overseas? How long was the call ?

[Andy_N]

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@hevweaverwrote:

Hi, no credit card slots anymore sadly. That would make life much simpler for the user! 

The calls are definately diverted outside of the UK, the operator seemed very surprised that I was in the UK, trying to make a UK call. And the charge was indeed £31, I have the bank statement to prove it!

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A divert should not cost you any money, that is done by the system.

However, as asked elsewhere, where were you dialling and for how long?

Did you ask the operator to connect the call for you? If so, that could cost you a lot ...

[hevweaver]

So maybe this is where the problem lies. My phone call was to a UK landline number from the UK based phone box (obviously). However after dialling the number I went through AUTOMATICALLY to the US (i presumed from the accent and questions) who took my card details and tried to connect the phone call. The call itself lasted less than a minute. However I had no opportunity at any time to make the call myself using an automated system.  Maybe its a very clever way of increasing revenue? But that does'nt make it alright.......shame on you BT for selling off these calls to another provider. 

[hevweaver]

have you used a phone box recently?

[Andy_N]

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@hevweaverwrote:

So maybe this is where the problem lies. My phone call was to a UK landline number from the UK based phone box (obviously). However after dialling the number I went through AUTOMATICALLY to the US (i presumed from the accent and questions) who took my card details and tried to connect the phone call. The call itself lasted less than a minute. However I had no opportunity at any time to make the call myself using an automated system.  Maybe its a very clever way of increasing revenue? But that does'nt make it alright.......shame on you BT for selling off these calls to another provider. 

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Hmm .. this still doesn't sound right of course. I expect there's a set charge for a certain amount of time (maybe up to 3 minutes, then anything after that - well who knows!)

Something is wrong here.

What did the credit card entry show as the vender? Did it also show the call length?

Seems like you've got a case here for this to be properly investigated. The phonebox should have it's own number, and maybe a moderator can get in touch to chase this up further.