"Hello Africa" phonecard aka ctacard.com aka Clifton Telecard Alliance ripoff dishonest billing North Bergen New Jersey

I bought a bunch of these phonecards, lured by the low per minute cost advertised. I used about half of one of these cards, then when I tried to use the rest of it a mere three weeks later, it was all gone. Called the customer service number, was told that it was used up because they had charged exhorbitant weekly maintenance fees, and they could do nothing about it. Seems they charge weekly fees after the first time the card is used. This of course is not mentioned anywhere on the card, or the attached "user agreement".

Gets worse. Tried to use another of the cards, this time I got disconnected by bad connection after the first few seconds. When I tried again, my balance was much lower than I would expect. The few seconds of dropped call had cost me 8 minutes of time. Called their customer service number again, was told that billing is 3 minutes increments. But what about the other 5 minutes? Their answer: "The card is designed for a single use only". What on earth does that mean? And even if it means anything, there was no disclosure anywhere on the card or the attached printout.

Caveat Emptor! I would never buy their crappy card again.

Najam
Portland, Oregon