FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

We provide services for many different phone companies around the U.S. and the world. If you received a charge on your phone bill, someone in your household likely accepted a collect call. There are also other possible call types and charges related to taxes and fees.

Charges on your credit card can also be the charges for a call, placed or received. We also sell prepaid packages for calls, messages and video visits from a number of facilities.

If you see an extra "charge" on your credit card, it may not be a charge at all. It is in many cases actually an authorization hold. Just like pumping gas, we must pre-authorize an amount to your card before we can allow service. This authorization will usually drop off once the actual charge is processed, which in some cases can take a couple of days. If there is ultimately no charge, the authorization will drop off on its own. The timeframe will vary depending on your bank and we cannot control it. Authorization amounts vary and to not necessarily reflect the amount you will be charged. The cost of services varies, and the authorization amount is meant to cover the majority of cases. Your ultimate charge is usually less than the authorization amount but is sometimes more. We often use $28.00 as an authorization amount, but other values are also used.

We, the billing company, do not own the phones or control the rates. We simply bill on behalf of the payphone owners. Every payphone has a different rate depending on what the payphone owner, the FCC, and the state’s PUC has decided. Rates given prior to accepting a call are an approximation since taxes and surcharges may apply and call lengths vary.

Collect and credit card calls are some of the most expensive calls and are not the same as depositing coins in the phone. Payphone owners are usually small businesses and the rates they set reflect the cost of keeping the phone active. Payphones are not used a lot these days, but their use is usually important. Mobile phones can die or be forgotten, and emergencies can disable cell towers. Payphones are a lifeline and should be preserved.

There are several reasons you may not be able to receive or accept a call.

• Some carriers do not allow the billing of collect calls. Using a credit card, or prepaid debit card may be an option. Prepaid packages are available in some cases.
• Your number may have been blocked. This could be due to misuse or for failure to pay for previous charges. If you have accidently applied a block by pressing the wrong key, please contact customer service. Blocks can also be triggered by fraud guards. If you are having trouble with a purchase it is best to contact customer service to identify the problem before too many failed attempts trigger a fraud threshold.
• You may have hit a temporary billing or attempt threshold that will clear itself after a period.

If you are unsure about why you cannot receive calls, please email customer service and we will research it for you.

The easiest and friendliest way is to email us or call our customer service. We will do everything we can to explain all of the charges and resolve your issues. Please contact customer service at (866) 898-5880 or customerserv@customteleconnect.com and we will respond as soon as possible. Please allow 1-2 business days for full processing.

Attempts to dispute our charges with a third party without first contacting us will be fully defended. Any and all information in our possession will be shared in defense of our charges. Both called and calling parties will be restricted from using any of our systems or services. No blocks of this type will be removed without reactivation charges.

Once we are made to defend our charges our resolution options are much more limited. Please contact our customer service first.