WiMacTel, Inc.
Complaint 162481 Details

I placed a call from a Bell Canada payphone in North Bay, Ontario to my home number in Australia. The call lasted several minutes (I estimate approximately 8-10 minutes). No notice is given on the payphone or by Bell Canada in any other way that the call is going to be handled by a third party or what the rates will be. I dialled direct (no human operator intervention required) and used a credit card.

Later on my credit card bill I noticed that I had been charged $59.85 AUD for this call, which equates to approximately $61.84 USD. In this day of inexpensive long distance calling, charging well over $6 per minute is nothing short of gouging and reprehensible. Even the more expensive long distance services do not charge even $1 per minute, and it is easy and usual to find long distance cards and carriers that charge under 5 CENTS per minute.

Add to that is the fact that the caller is given no clue of the rates they can expect to be gouged for, or even that it is anything other than Bell Canada who is serving them. I now see there are many others who have complained about this, and so it seems a case needs to be made both to the CRTC and to Bell Canada about this outrageous situation at Bell Canada payphones across the country.