I'm not sure how things work out there, but over here in the UK you have to display phone call charges in hotel rooms but call boxes are charge by the phone company at standard rate. Did you or have queried it with you hotel?

Sarah

The call was made from a public phonebox

I'm not really sure where you will stand with that to be honest. Maybe put it down to experience, an expensive one at that.

Sarah

You can complain but you are wasting your time.

Calls made via the operator here in the UK to a UK number attract a premium rate - the same applies overseas.

Direct dial calls were introduced as a means of reducing costs.

To the telephone company not the subscriber.

The cost of employing operators becoming prohibitive. Labour is the most expensive cost for any employer.

Just put it down to experience

fwh

Some years ago we met a couple who telephone their daughter from the Hotel and were charged something like £15 for a very short call. They complained to no avail.
When he filled in his guest questionairre he wrote on it "At least Dick Turpin wore a mask" They were Irish and I though it a brilliant but when we asked a couple of waiter in a restaurant if they knew who Dick Turpin was they didn't seem to.
Wonder what the hotel made of the comment!

Sue

I possibly would have accepted the charges better if we had made the call through a hotel...but this was a public pay phone, and there we no rates displayed You don't expect this in a civilised country as Switzerland is.......its not as though I was exactly crossing continents now was it ?? I don't think you can even put it down to their cost of living, as in most respects, prices were (surprisingly) similar to here.

What a great little earner ......I'd like to know how they can justify such a magnificent cost in this day and age, of ultra modern technology......

Well, as you say, you live and learn and I hope I have at least prevented someone else on here making the same costly mistake !

They can justify it because they have to pay the wages of the operator - regardless of the technology you were paying for the operator to put you through the good old fashioned way. You would pay through the nose here if you did the same as opposed to using direct dialling. What the modern technology does is allow you to by-pass the International Operator and dial through direct.

For future reference, before using the operator again, if dialling back home to the UK from abroad try substituting 0044 or +44 for the initial 0 in the standard STD dialing code for the number you are wanting but you made need to check that it is a phone that you can make International calls from - not all public phones do. If you have no alternative but to use the International Operator system it's always a good idea to check the tariff with them first.

£4.65 a minute is steep but depending on your tariff a mobile phone call could have ended up costing you not that much less on some networks pay-as-you-go tariffs

SM

Just an update to let you know that I have since found out that my expensive phonecalls were made via a privately operated American company called "International Calling Services", based in Ysidro, California !!!

There have been loads of complaints about this company (just check out Trip Advisor) charging obsene amounts of money for short international phonecalls...they are bordering on the s*** area of business.....well, I would go as far as saying it is a s***.

Apparently they advertise in phoneboxes all around Europe and America, but more often, in hotels ...either in rooms or in lobbys where phones are situated. Rates / charges are never advertised (unsurprisingly) and usually the hotel will be taking a chunk of the profits (so no use complaining to them !).

If my experience ensures just one person does not make the same expensive mistake then I will be happy. Meanwhile letter is in the post to Holiday Watchdog, in the hope that further publicity can be generated to warn people of this unethical practice.

Don't you just love American companies

Try using their phone service to access the internet for a spot of online gambling. Then let's see if a Senate sub-committee closes down "International Calling Services".

I refer of course to the American abhorence of internet gambling.

However, my belief is that they will suffer such abhorence once their multi-national companies have set-up the infrastructure to provide on-line gambling better than the existing international (and UK) companies.

I'm sorry for hijacking this thread with my cynicism.

No Mike, you refer to the U.S. government's abhorence of Internet gambling. There is a difference. In my experience, most Americans don't have a big problem with online gambling.

In my experience, most Americans don't have a big problem with online gambling.

Probably because most of them use the hundreds of casinos' that are available to them

Yup, 'tis sweet to be in the U S of A.