After repeated disconnects finally got through after being on hold for 35 minutes. Representative was not even trying to help with putting money into my account. She was a smart ass who doesn't appreciate her customers and should be in the position of some of her customers, then the attitude may change. As much money as they make off of our friends and families, they should be thankful that they are still in business. We need more options for this kind of service. We don't deserve to be treated like trash because we have people in jail. This company needs to be put out of business!!!!!!!
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NORTH CAROLINA -- My little sister had my phone and made a mistake and pushed the block button. How do I unblock these calls? I tried to ask the jail but for that I got to wait on my next statement. Is there any way I can unblock the number through my phone account. It just seem like this service is ridiculous. You can never get in contact with customer service and actually talk to a human being and I been with them for about a year and get minutes every week. I am real frustrated and is just about to stop using Paytel. Writing is more easier than this system.
Dear Ms. Barr:
Sorry for any problems you have experienced with our company. After reviewing your account we show the reason for the block on your number was due to someone pressing the number 7 on your keypad when the call came in from the inmate. We have released this block for you as a courtesy; however please be aware that the standard policy to release this type of block (which occurs by pressing the number 7) is that the customer must contact the appropriate person at the facility for approval before the block is released.
Hopefully your problem has been resolved and you can receive calls without any issue.
Best regards.
Customer Relations
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This is the first time I have dealt with this company. To get a customer service representative on the phone is a miracle, and when you do they are no help at all. I have sent numerous emails to customer service and customer relations, and they responded saying "that they are showing that my number is free to accept collect calls" which would be a great response if it actually answered my question. My question is where is my money and why hasn't it posted to my account?
I paid a $120 cash through MoneyGram at 12:14pm, and it is now 6:30pm and my money has not posted to my account as of yet. I have placed six calls to this company, and nobody can tell me where my money is. This company is a sham!!! They are truly out to get your money!!! Glad they are local, because I will be making a trip to Greensboro to talk to someone face to face to find out where my money is. My next step is to contact five on your side (Channel Five News) so that everyone will know about these people.
We apologize for the frustration you have experienced with our company concerning your account and the MoneyGram payment you made on September 17th. The problem in posting your MoneyGram payment to your account was due to a failure of the payments to be transferred to Pay Tel by MoneyGram. We contacted MoneyGram and the problem was resolved by early evening September 17th. We received your payment at 7:30 pm and you received a 10 minute call at 8:27 pm.
We have record of five emails from you yesterday to csr@paytel.com and we responded to you explaining the problem MoneyGram was having. We replied back again at 7:37 pm and 7:42 pm last night explaining the problem had been corrected and the funds had been applied to your account. Then we received an email to customerrelations@paytel.com and we again replied to you explaining the problem MoneyGram had and it had been corrected.
Again we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you. Our employees worked very hard to resolve the problem and communicate with all our customers during this time period.
Best regards.
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I been using PayTel for a long time. I put money on my account every week. Now it's saying I owe them $29 and my last conversation was August 21, 2009. I know this information is incorrect, I just had a conversation the 23rd and had money on my account. I been trying to contact a customer representative but all I am getting is the automated. I even tried it locally. I love their services but can't keep wasting money. Plus if I owed money my number would be blocked within 2 hours. So it's no way I owe that number. I am very upset and need help.
Dear Ms. Barr:
Sorry for the problems you have encountered with our company concerning your account balance. We have been converting all of our internal accounting software to a new system this week. Regrettably the conversion has not gone as well as we had liked, causing some incorrect information to be released. After reviewing your account you had a credit of $2.75 on your account at that time. We are very sorry for the problems this has created for you.
In the future, if we fail to meet your needs, you can email a manager at CustomerRelations@paytel.com and your request will be addressed the same day.
Please accept our apologies for this error.
Best regards.
Customer Relations
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RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA -- I called in to open an account and put the charges on my debit card. The representative told me to press some other numbers to go ahead with the process once she connects me. I punched my card number and everything. Come to find out I didn't have enough funds on my card so I said I will call back at a later date. Not even a week later I call back to find out my number has a PIN on it that I did not set up. Once I got through to a representative the first one told me to hold on and just hung up. The second representative informs me that I couldn't set the account up because my name isn't on the phone bill.
Now just last week they were ready to take down my card number and not even inform me my name had to be on the phone bill. This company is a fraud and they're just money hungry. Someone needs to come up with another company for people to connect with their families.
Sorry for any problems you have experienced with our company. If you would provide us with your name, address, phone number and email address, so we can research the account for verification.
Regrettably, the PIN situation you are experiencing is a Federal requirement. We cannot discuss any account information with someone unless they have previously on their own established a PIN for security purposes so that when we speak with them we have the ability to ask them what their PIN is and thereby verifying we are talking to the person who has set up that account or owns that phone number.
When someone forgets their PIN, for security reasons we do not give out the PIN that was created when the account was set up. To change a PIN, a person will need to fax or mail a copy of their driver's license and copy of their most recent telephone bill showing they are the responsible party. Also please include with the fax or mailed copy, a new 6 digit PIN that you wish to have as your PIN. The PIN cannot begin with a zero. Fax Number 1-800-776-8423.
In the future, if we fail to meet your needs, you can email a manager at CustomerRelations@paytel.com and your request will be addressed the same day.
Thank you.
Customer Relations
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RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA -- A family member was incarcerated months ago. I reluctantly established an account with PayTel because it was the ONLY way I was allowed to communicate with the family member. By the time they were released the PREPAID balance was down to $1.50. The same individual was recently incarcerated again. I received one initial call, then nothing for about a week. I had no idea why. I was very worried the individual was extremely depressed.
Today, through a mutual acquaintance, I discovered PayTel had blocked my number - apparently because the balance on that old account was too low! I WAS NEVER NOTIFIED. I HAD NO WAY TO CONTACT THE INCARCERATED INDIVIDUAL SO THEY COULD TELL ME.
This company lives on the misery of people. They add no value that could not be replaced by a mid-range, modern PBX system. Their services are obsolete. They should be eliminated. County jails could replace every service they provide with low-cost phone systems. In spite of that, their company persists because of political connections. Join me in writing to your state and federal representatives and demanding a complete review of their procedures, services, policies and PROFITABILITY.
We apologize for the frustration you have experienced with our company concerning your calls.
We regret that we did not notify you of the low funds on your Pay Tel account; however when you set up your account on our website, you chose not to receive the weekly statements we send that show your available balance.
We do have two options for you to check your available balance 24 hours a day; using the Automated Phone System or our website at www.paytel.com. After you accepted the call on 1/13 and used the remaining $1.50 you had on the account, the system blocked your account. If you had checked the balance using the Automated Phone System it would have explained that the account was blocked and you would need to add funds to your account to receive additional calls or you could have reviewed your account balance on line. Our records show you made a payment on January 13th for $25.00 and your account is fine to receive the collect calls.
We regret this inconvenience and do offer our apologies. We would hope you realize that it is never our intent to prevent people from receiving and paying for calls as that is how we make our living.
In the future, if we fail to meet your needs, you can email a manager at CustomerRelations@paytel.com and your request will be addressed the same day.
Thank you.
Customer Relations
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REMINGTON, VIRGINIA -- I opened an account with this company in October 2008, I finally was able to receive my first call from the inmate on Nov. 3, 2008 from a Texas number. Both the inmate and I live in Virginia. Why is it that he is calling from an out-of-state number when he is jailed 15 minutes down the road from my home? I tried contacting Pay-Tel through email I did get response but was not helpful, they cannot explain why he is having to call from a Texas number when we both are in VA.
Now I feel it is because they get more money from us because of the additional fees added to the long distance calling. When I stated this in my email to them, they had no response for I wanted my account credited the difference in amounts, for he should be calling from a local number rather out of state. They have yet to respond to my email. Has this happened to any of you?
We apologize for your frustration concerning the rates for your collect calls.
In response to your calls starting on November 3rd, our records show this was the first attempt that the inmate had made to your phone number since your payment was made on October 27th.
Regarding our failure to respond to your emails -- our records show our CSR Supervisor addressed your emails numerous times. We received your first email on 11/4 at 9:17 am and replied back to you at 9:27 am; you replied back to our email at 12:33 pm and again we replied to you at 12:50 pm. Another reply from you came in at 1:00 pm and our final reply was sent to you at 2:57 pm. We explained the rates and caller ID showing a Texas number for the collect calls from the Fauquier County Jail.
To clarify the rates, the calls are coming from a Warrenton, Virginia facility and you have an Alexandria, Virginia phone number. We have checked the standard information provided by Telecordia to all telephone companies to verify long distance intra-state rates. The long distance rate for calls from Warrenton to Alexandria is $2.25 for the first minute and $.40 for each additional minute.
In regard to the caller ID showing the Texas number, this number belongs to the long distance carrier that Pay Tel uses for the collect calls; this number does not reflect the rates that we are charging you for your collect calls.
In the future, if we fail to meet your needs, you can email a manager at CustomerRelations@paytel.com and your request will be addressed the same day.
Thank you.
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GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA -- I started an account with this company on August 3rd with a prepaid amount of $30. I called to register without any problems with their automated service. However I wasn't ever able to receive calls from my party. Now I've been trying for the past month to see how to get my money back to no avail and every time I call I can't get a live operator and following the voice prompts eventually gets me hung up on and back to square one. Can anyone help me because I sure can't afford to just give this company my hard earned money. I am sure they are making millions.
We apologize for the frustration you have experienced with our company concerning your refund. My3Cents.com did not forward your complaint to us until Tuesday, November 4.
If you have not yet received your refund, please email us at CustomerRelations@paytel.com and we will process your refund within 24 hours. Please make sure to include with your email your name, address, phone number, PIN and
reference this email-very dissatisfied.
Please provide us your phone number so we can research your problem of not being able to receive calls.
In the future, if we fail to meet your needs, you can email a manager at CustomerRelations@paytel.com and your request will be addressed the same day.
Thank you.
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SOUTH CAROLINA -- If you have ever dealt with this company you will know that what I'm saying is true. They have the worst automated 1-800 number system I have ever used in my life, no exaggeration to that either. About half of the time it doesn't work even though I have prepaid for the phone calls. It is virtually impossible to ever talk to a real person that works there and if you do finally succeed in doing so you're liable to get hung up on. I truly believe that this company is taking advantage of people that are in a bad situation and don't have a choice besides them if they want to talk to their families.
We apologize for your frustration when you attempted to contact a CSR with our company. We just starting monitoring this website and received your complaint. In the future we will be monitoring these complaints daily.
It looks as if your problem has already been addressed, our records show you have been receiving calls since 8/13/08 and currently still receiving the calls up through 9/4/08. We would love to provide live operators for every call, regrettably this would more than triple our CSR costs and we would have to raise rates, which we do not wish to do. Every day several thousand customers use our Automated Customer Service to answer their questions and several hundred navigate the phone system to speak with a CSR. If you visit our website FAQ section, "How to Speak With a CSR" you will learn that the last prompt on the main menu will connect you to a CSR Monday – Friday 8 am – 8 pm and Saturday 9 am – 2 pm. Additionally if you visit our Contact Us page you will see instructions on how to request assistance by sending an e-mail to csr@paytel.com.
In the future, if we fail to meet your needs, you can email a manager at CustomerRelations@paytel.com and your request will be addressed the same day.
Thank you.
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Sorry for any problems you have experienced with our company and our customer service representative. If you would provide us with your name, address, phone number, PIN and an email address, we will research your account for further investigation and get back with you concerning your issues.
In the future, if we fail to meet your needs, you can email a manager at CustomerRelations@paytel.com and your request will be addressed the same day.
Thank you.
Customer Relations