Telephone scam at Moab

[Carl L]

I ran into a nasty little, shall I say racket, in Moab at the payphone at the Portal trailer park.

My cell phone, a? GSM model,? was worthless in Moab, no signal.? ?I had to contact some friends in Prescott, AZ.? ?Therefore, I used the payphone at the trailer park.? ? I placed the call by credit card with the operator.? Big mistake.? ?What I got was evidently a Texas long distance company named ILD TEL.? ?They hit me for $35.25 for a single 6 minute phone? call!? ?

I have been using cell phones for so long that I had forgotten about this little racket -- the tiny bucket shop long distance company that relies on trapping callers into exorbitant phone charges.? In my case a charge of $6 per minute for a call from UT to AZ.

Fortunately, I used my American Express card.? ?Amex gives excellent response to cardholder complaints of mis-charging.? ?They cancelled the charge.? I suspect, I am not the first cardholder to holler about ILD TEL.? ?

I remember too late the way to avoid this type of trap.? Place the call thru your regular carriers phone card.

Any rate be careful using the payphone at Portal, or I suspect, anywhere in Moab.

 

[Betty Brewer]

Carl,
Thank you for the warning.  As we are on the road I shall heed your advice and hope for clear views of the southern skies to avoid using the phone  as much as possible.

Betty Brewer

 

[Ron]

Basically any pay phone that does not have a carrier name on the phone is suspect.  Personally I like to use the high price pay phones when I call businesses that spam my postal mail box or my e-mail box then I return the favor by calling their 800 number on a pay phone to tell them I'm not interested then they get to pay the charges. ;D ;D ;D  Oh I did use the pay phone at Portal several times to call spamers 800 numbers.

 

[Jeff]

Basically any pay phone that does not have a carrier name on the phone is suspect.  Personally I like to use the high price pay phones when I call businesses that spam my postal mail box or my e-mail box then I return the favor by calling their 800 number on a pay phone to tell them I'm not interested then they get to pay the charges. ;D ;D ;D  Oh I did use the pay phone at Portal several times to call spamers 800 numbers.

Ron:

Let me guess: 1-800-AFFINITY  ;D ;D

 

[Ron]

Ron:

Let me guess: 1-800-AFFINITY? ;D ;D

How did you know? ??? ??? ;D ;D  Just one of several such as Williams- Sonoma.

 

[blueblood]

?

I have been using cell phones for so long that I had forgotten about this little racket -- the tiny bucket shop long distance company that relies on trapping callers into exorbitant phone charges.? In my case a charge of $6 per minute for a call from UT to AZ.

I wonder if Portal selected them and gets a portion of the chatge. That's often the case and if this was on their property, I would guess this is the case here.

 

[OldSoldier]

One of the nice things about GM products and OnStar is that I can avoid all pae phonws even when I don't have cell access.  I've found very few places where I can't get through via OnStar.  I will never buy another vehicle that doesn't have OnStar on it or some similiar service.

 

[Jeff]

One of the nice things about GM products and OnStar is that I can avoid all pae phonws even when I don't have cell access.? I've found very few places where I can't get through via OnStar.? I will never buy another vehicle that doesn't have OnStar on it or some similiar service.

One of the issues small airports have had with making after hours phone service available is that the phone companies are not willing to leave pay phones in place without very high utilization and even then will pull them if they are subject to reoccurring vandalism. Portal may not have had a choice if they wanted to have a pay phone though I find it sad they don't warn their customers to use a calling card.