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jontedkes

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Hi everyone. I have just returned from two glorious weeks in St Maarten. What a beautiful place. I am trying to find out if anyone knows how much a phone call on a payphone to a UK landline should cost. I made two calls from the hotel room (they don't get more expensive than that, right?) one to my Mum on her landline, cost $3.40 and one to my daughters mobile, cost $5.60. I made two calls from PJIA charged to my credit card, cost $88.72! Does anyone else think this is a bit excessive? These were two minute calls to UK landlines. Does anyone know which phone company these belong to and how I can contact them to query these costs?

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I made two calls from PJIA charged to my credit card, cost $88.72! Does anyone else think this is a bit excessive? These were two minute calls to UK landlines. Does anyone know which phone company these belong to and how I can contact them to query these costs?

 

I know that I've posted warnings on this before, but they appear to have fallen off of the archive shelf.

 

Yes, the charges were extremely excessive, but I don't think that you can do anything about it. You probably made the calls from one of the 'Blue Phones' that have the credit card images posted all about them.

 

These phones advertise calling for a specific rate, but have been known to bill the credit card at rates double or more, based upon 'from $$' charges identified only by an asterick (*) on the tag for a fine-print disclaimer.

 

Some years ago, a friend who had a morning radio show on the island mounted an aggressive campaign to outlaw the phones, but the government wouldn't deal with it. There were charges of kickbacks and payoffs, etc. but the bottom line is that the phones remained.

 

There used to be AT&T phones where you could use prepaid cards (we bought ours from Sam's Club) but they seem to have disappeared.

 

There used to be a couple of Internet Cafes off of Front Street that offered international calling for something on the order of $.15/minute, but I'm not sure of any currently in operation.

 

Your best bet currently appears to be buying a prepaid card from a local shop and using that at a phone that accepts them.

 

We rent a cellphone when we're on the island, and then pay about $.30/minute for calls to the US or the UK.

 

gary

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