Don’t touch that phone! A 13 minute call costs $58

Don’t pick up the phone in your hotel room. Don’t even look at the phone. Otherwise, you’ll pay the price.

You’ve probably heard that advice before. It’s a tip I’ve given a time or two. But here’s a twist on an old problem: What if the company doing the overbilling isn’t a hotel, but your own phone company?

Reader Kenny Brown explains the problem:

I was on a camping vacation at Dauphin Island, Ala., this past August and had a great time fishing. I had to watch out for thunderstorms but that’s normal weather for August.

The thing that caught me off guard was the telephone service. I have always used the pay phone at the campground with no trouble but found that it had been removed for lack of use. The campground staff told me to use the payphone at the gas station in the center of town so I did but got a shock when I got my bill. My calling card wouldn’t work so I called collect and talked to my wife to let her know that I had arrived safely and tell her when to expect me home.

When I got the bill last week it said I talked for 13 minutes and charged me $58.83 for the service. I would like to know if there is any recourse for me to get a more reasonable charge for this call. The company is ZPDI.

I traded a few e-mails with Brown, and recommended that he contact Verizon and ZPDI to clarify the charges. He said he had spoken with ZPDI and that it agreed to lower the bill by $21. (ZPDI is not a phone company, but a billing clearinghouse that processes charges on behalf of operator service providers and long-distance carriers for hotels, motels, hospitals, payphones, universities, and correctional facilities.)

Brown’s case is not unusual. Here’s another one involving ZPDI where someone was billed $19 for a call that never went through.

Verizon seems to take a hands-off approach to these questionable collect calls.

The good news is that once Brown contacts Verizon, it should remove the charge. It did in this case.

How to prevent this from happening again?

First, never make a collect call. When you’re on vacation and the cell phones don’t work, your best bet is to find a payphone and use a phone card that you buy at the convenience store. Don’t use the phone in your hotel room, because inevitably, the property will find a way to charge you extra for that call — even if you’re using a card.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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