Global Tel Link review: I work at Global Tel Link 123

i acquired this number off another site. it may help

Margaret Phillips
Executive Director of Billing Services, GTL
Office Direct Line: [protected]
Fax Line: [protected]

Terrible service. In the last two hours I have been passed around to 10 different people. I am being told that I have to talk to supervisors and then the supervisors are telling me to call a different phone number. I call that number and they tell me I shouldn't have to talk to them. I am told various account balances I have on my phone. No one knows what they are doing.
I am never going to use this account again.

YOU GUYS JUST SUCK ALL AROUND...YES ME HAVE LOVE ONE THAT DID A CRIME BUT HEY WE STILL LOVE AND MISS THEM AND YOU ARE MAKING THIS SO HARD LIKE IF WE MUST ALL BE DOING TIME... WE JUST WANT HEAR THEIR VOICES...I BEEN TRYIN TO SET UP ACCT WITH YOU AND IT NOW BEEN 6 MONTHS AND IM STILL BLOCKED AND AT 200 A WASTE

I JUST ADDED 25.OO TO MY ACCOUNT, I TRIED TO CANCEL THE ACCOUNT BEING MY SON WAS RELEASED. THEY TOLD ME I HAD AN OUTSTANDING BILL OF 12.00. AND TOLD ME THAT THEY LET ME HAVE MORE PHONE CALLS THAN I WAS SUPPOSED TO GET AND THAT I OWED THEM MONEY. I COULD NOT EVEN GET CALLS UNLESS THERE WAS MONEY ON THE ACCOUNT SO HOW DID I OWE THEM THE MONEY THIS IS NOTHING BUT A RIP OFF THEN SAID THEY COULD ONLY REFUND 10.00 AND THAT WOULD BE BACK ON MY CARD IN 7 TO 10 DAYS.HAS ANY ONE EVER RECEIVED A BILL FROM THEM SAYING YOU OWE THEM MONEY I THOUGHT ALL CALLS WERE PREPAY.THEY ARE CRAZY

I want to do the call back service business as a whole seller.

GTL is the absolute worst criminals pretending not to be. I HATE having to deal with them at all. But in order to talk to my loved one in prison, I must go through them. They are the worst. . .

they promised to charge 8.7cents per min to India, but now when i took 100$ worth calling time, i got only 700 minutes, which means they are charging 13cents per minute..which is total cheating. and also when i called to there tollfree number, its not getting connected, and when i mailed them to refund my money back, they dont even care to reply back. Please dont use this service.

I Live in Mississippi and I have the same trouble and after about 3 weeks I finally talked to a rep and she got it straight for me to use, but everysince I haven't been able to put put money on the account because it says I have the wrong password and now I( can't get in touch with anyone, this whole thing sucks. It is the worse service I have ever tryed to deal with. If they had to relie on customer satisfaction they would be out of business.

Yes i have to agree that i feel that GTL seems to be ripping me off. I am used to inexpensive long distance and low fees for subscription services. I think that $4.75 service fee to take my credit card No. and credit my account is excessive. I also feel like their per minute fees are excessive. But who am i but the father of an inmate in NC.

i have been dealing with global-tel since july. for some reason they are denying for mr to be able for my loved one to call me. My father is terminally ill and want him to be able to speak with my loved one before my father passes. Is there anything you can possibly do to help me. I have sent my phone bills to global-tel numerous times via email and via scan. please help i am very desperate.

Thank you,

Faith Boozer

I've actually never had a problem with GBL lolz... I find it very convenient & love it! Been using it sense 4/13/08 and haven't had a problem yet. I find the people to be very polite when i call and they always are able to help me answer a question i have to ask. I think you ones who complain aren't being to grateful. Like she said, it is a privilege to talk to your inmate. The whole point of them doing time is to take all their free rights away.. So really you & him/her are very fortunate to have GBL! :)

I put in an account with you all on October 26, 2009. I have not been able to get in touch with an representative to get it straigten out. The one time that I did get to speak with a representative she told me that you all have the wrong area code. I would appreciate it if I can get some service or refund my money back. You all can take some bodies money but can't return it to me. Please resolve this problem as soon as possible. My confirmation number is 001748 my telephone number that I'm reference to is [protected]. You all took $25.00 off my credit card but I can't accept any calls from the correctional center where my son is. I can also be reached on [protected] or [protected].

Have you lost your mind telling us how you are doing us a favor hey dumb ### without us you would be out a job we are doing you a favor. It is our money paying your wages and you really need to get a clue with that you are the showing of what idiots work at this company no wonder the company sucks BIG TIME

This company sucks they block your service for the dumbest reasons. Anyone who lives in the metro ATlanta area knows that the area codes for Cobb, Fulton, Dekalb, Clayton an Gwinett counties are 404, 770, or 678. But this company expects you to change your area code if you move from one county to antoher. So if you live in Cobb county you better not have a 404 number because if so you will not be able to use them.

Let me give you my 2 cents, since that's all I have due to GTL's ridiculous fees. You've obviously never had a loved one or a family member in a correctional facility, or you'd have never said something as stupid as you did. No Thanks to GTL for a god damned thing. If it weren't for you, the calls would have eventually been made somehow. You don't know how hard it is to make it all work, or how much aggravation we have to endure out here. For your information I don't have food stamps or kids or whatever you deem to be unacceptable, but I have a husband whom I love with all my ###ing heart sitting in prison right now for something he shouldn't be. I'd just about give anything to hear his voice, he's my world. If your other half, or your child were in prison you'd probably understand where I'm coming from. I spend money on gas to visit him every week which for one day is about $40 then I spend another $20 on garbage vending machine food so he can eat something besides ### on a shingle, I spend money so he has stamps to write, and his necessities in there. I get to see him for a few hours and that's it. You want to tell me it's ok that you people charge us out the ### to talk to our families? ### you. That about sums it up right there. Money means nothing to me other than survival, I don't need much to be happy in life, but I do need my husband. Capitalize on someone elses suffering and misfortunes, that's the American way I guess. You can't catch a break if one fell in your ###ing lap. I don't think the government or GTL could find another angle to ### me at. I hope you never do have to experience anything like it, I truly do. I just hope that before you open your mouth and say such incredibly hurtful and uninformed things you think about how it would feel if the shoe were on the other foot. I'm not a ###ing criminal, and I am not catching a "free ride", just remember that you also deal with a lot of good people too, who are just wanting to hear someone they love on the other end.
-Aggravated in Atlanta

LOL, GTL is full of [censored]e, have u ever tryed to call them and get the recording that someone will call u back within 2 hours and no one ever calls u back. and as for calls being cut saying it's a third party call it has happend to me so many times and gtl dosnt care i know because i called them and told them they owe me a credit and they said sorry. I pay $3.10 for 15 minutes and the jail is 10 minutes from my home in the same county go figure right. GTL you SUCK and yes you are a RIP OFF. mail may take a little longer but it cost a hell of a lot less.

dnt talk bull ###

Disagree strongly with them. Before these crooks with the strong arm backing of the government got involved locally an Inmate could place a collect call a few years ago at a low Ma Bell collect call rate. Twenty five dollar charge off for a ten minute call is robbery without a gun. I seriously wonder how much of a "kickback" by any other name the government gets off this company! Any other business that daily committed these offenses would have rapidally been out of business and/or facing criminal charges.

In my state they violate the laws after an Inmate call by if the call is not accepted, repeatedly do computerized recorded call backs trying to get you to setup a credit card account, which is illegal here. And secondly mask their calling number which again violates state or federal laws now I believe.

The UCLU needs to file a class action on behalf of every Inmate and family member affected by their practices in suing the Global Tel Link and every government agency that uses them. Lastly what ever happened to the anti-trusts laws of monoplies with a gaint like this. Flush the crooks in my book.

Allen

I agree totaly

I think that if you have a cell phone that is in the same area code that your love one is in and it says they only charge $4.16 for a call i dont think they should just up the rates to $17.92 that is just ###ed... and it was not even 24 hours since i got the last call and when i called customer service they gave me the run around and told me that they could not do anything about it... THIS IS THE SUCKIEST COMPANY EVER! Iwhen he was in a different county then i was in it didnt cost me this much to get one phone call!

Yes they do truly suck! They took my money - as I checked with my CC company, but never deposited it to my account! Cannot get through to anyone there and have left many messages. TERRIBLE COMPANY

I have spent over one thousand dollars with global tel link, to talk too my husband, who is a inmate at the dekalb co. jail. I understand that your company is doing something to help the people that use your services, but you have to admit that your company has t many complaints. I have s many complaints, but i will give you the most rcent one. Just this morning i went to western union and i put forty dollars pre-pay on my phone, but global tel did not post it to my account.I will start an online pertition aganist global tel and if everyone signs it, gobal tel will improve their services, because righ now they are stealing form us.

I'm along with everyone else thats been told to fax a copy of their phone bill and waited a week, called to find out why he still can't call just to find out they're too slow minded to recieve a fax and don't have any reason why. These reps should know more about their company before working for them. I'm just gonna give up, they can rob me of my $50... I'll just pray for them.. pray that they get sued, all go to prison and have to deal with their own BS service. I'll just stick to writing, atleast the postal service tells me why my letters dont go through and dont make me pay hundreds ahead of time for nothing. GTL makes all these "options" like paying online, setting up an account on their automated phone service just to make an excuse for why they "lost" your money. They're just tricking people out of their money and not doing a very good job since all of these people have figured them out and they will be shut down eventually. I give em a year tops til theyre completely screwed just as they've been doing to their customers.

I sent $35.00 to GTL on the 25th of May 2010 and it still has not been put on my account! The phones where my loved one is constantly drops calls in the middle of us talking and we get charged for it! I have had to charge money with my visa card in order to talk to my loved one, these people are major rip offs! I am filing A complaint with the attorney generals office and federal trade commisioner TODAY! Angelface

Global telelinks has been an absolute cheat & the agents are shameless liars who give you false info about your own ac balance & literraly harass you with repeated phone calls until you agee to top up the ac.

Recently after being told I had only 34NZD in my ac & my ac would expire, I told them I didnt want to continue & wsas happy to shut down the ac. I was literally harassed with repeated calls until i agreed to top up NZD 110 & was given a guarantee of 1 year validity n no one calling up again until then!

When i realised that an unauthorised amt of NZ$ 220 was charged to my credit card, I complained & in the process found out that there was NZ$ 534 sitting in my ac as balance & the agents had told me I had only 34 NZD left ! The lies that they tell is absolutely shocking.

After complainting by emails n calls I was refunded 102 dollars of the recent NZD110. The $8 was charged to me for refunding my own money & they have refused to refund the NZD220 that they charged to my credit card without my authorization. They said the agent that did it has left so apparently I can't get that money back!

Beware of this company as they are absolute scaming cheating frauds & refuse to take any responsibility for their employees & agents' actions ! Can a company legally deny responsibility for their employees & agents? Someone should sue them & I think it should be done soon before they continue with this for long!

absolutely agree . i've had horrible experience with the company too n have luckily managed to terminate my ac soon enough. have heard a few friends complaint about the agents too!

Now after talking with the customer support i am told that if I terminate the ac they will charge me money to cancel it n refunf the rest of my money back! So to get back my money i have pay them once again...is this an actual legal company or what?

Obviously havent been so lucky as i thought to terminate it! I have to use up all the ac balance n onlt then can I terminate otherwise they will charge me more money to terminate it now!

Now that i am reading more n more complaints I can see the scamming has been going on since more than a year!

First of all, HOW DARE YOU ACT LIKE YOU'RE PROVIDING A SERVICE WHEN WE'RE PAYING YOUR CHECK!
Secondly, it is absolutely a MONOPOLy, like the poster above said, and is sewn through the seeds of greed, pain and other people's oppression.
Thirdly, who are you to challenge how someone spends their money? You have no right! I don't agree with people using their bill/rent/food/children(s)/etc. monies but really, you work for the company and you have no right to act like you personally own the company and we shoould bow down to pay $1.75 for the first minute and .05 for the second and $4.75 on every $25.oo increment we pay! And then, we should, after that first million dollar second + fees, be allowed to tal non-stop without interruption by your company so it makes the person have to call back and accrue and accrue!
IT IS OUTRAGEOUSLY EXPENSIVE AND WITH ALL OF THE TECHNOLOGY OUT THERE, SOMEONE WITH THE MONEY AND THE SERVER-POWER COULD SET UP A GOLDMINE BY LOWERING THE COSTS FOR THE CALLS, QUALITY OF SERVICE, NO DOUBT, AND THE RATES, TOO, AND STILL MAKE MONEY!
When that day comes and you are let go, let's see what loyalty you have.
Or, since you're so self assuming, save your paychecks and start your own company WORKER BEE!

Global tel link rips off their customers by charging exhorbitant fees and making families of inmates pay up front to talk to their loved ones. We support them financially, pay taxes to house them and get charged to talk to them over the phone. We not only pay for long distance service on our private phones, but pay an additional long distance fee to them. All calls are routed through Texas from PA and back.

GTL is full of s**t! They rip people off BIG TIME! They scam and are taking peoples money! I had the same thing happen to me. They charged me 3 extra times $25 dollars. They tried telling me it was my banks fault and the bank made the mistake. I knew that wasnt the case. Clearly my online banking says GTL pulled the $ out. Do they not think it doesnt say who the money goes to! So i called the bank. And i was right! GTL did take the total of $75 dollars out my account. So I called GTL back and now they are telling me to fax them my statement that says they took out the money. They are full of it. They have poor service! The calls are sometimes not clear. you can hardly hear of they drop. Customer service is very poor. They obviously hate their jobs. They dont wanna help anyone out! People if you dont have to really use them dont! I wouldnt wanna give them another dime!

I would tell anyone with complaints about the bill, if you have contacted Global Tel Link with no luck, then I would suggest contacting the FCC and filing a complaint with them. I have had trouble in the past with dropped calls, static on the line etc and when I called to complain I was put on hold then disconnected or told that the office was closed. I don't mess with that anymore. I let the FCC deal with them and they are much more cooperative. Was even given the name and direct phone number of the supervisor and was told to call her directly if I had any more problems. So far, there have been none.

This is a digital age and yes GTL is taking advantage of cheaper digital technology to process their calls, however it is still billing as if communication lines are still in the 1970's. Well they are not, collect calls don't cost GTL anymore to process than other phone companies. However there are small cost associated with monitoring the calls and other services provided. For example a local call costs $1.00 instead of being free. This is the cost associated with extra services provide by GTL because of the prison requirements. The long distance calls however are totally inflated to make huge amounts of profit for the company shareholders and for kick backs to the state. It is outrageous that these people are making a killing off mostly desperate poor people. Outrageous! Thanks for the service GTL.

Regardless of any complaints towards the company, Please try to keep in mind, that the customer service reps only work for the company. We don't set the policies in place, we have no control over how things are done, and the info given to the customers is the same information given to us. The technical issues, as far as calls dropping, double charges, Merchant Override declines and staticy calls are just as frustrating to the CSR's as they are to the customers. Yes, you are paying your hard earned money for the service but we have to listen to the complaints and get cursed out on a daily basis when all we are trying to do is earn a living to take care of our own families. Some us have loved ones locked up too. All this money that you say GTL is taking damn sure is not going in our pockets. Not all of us are rude and don't care, either. Some of us care a great deal but most of the time there is not much we can do other than what we are told. Alot of the issues customers call about and the info that is given is correct. But, from my experience, most people believe what they want anyway regardless of what they are told. Most do not even want to listen and even try to understand. GTL is not a monopoly. GTL is a contracted company CHOSEN by the Facility or Facilities your loved ones are incarcerated. DOC is trying to get what they can get at the lowest price. The company chosen can only do so much with what they are payed to do. There are so many factors involved that none of us, the customer or the employees, could understand why things are done the way they are done. There are alot of customers who call in and say they love the service so with that said, it is pretty much the same as any other company...You can't please everyone! If I had a company that gave away FREE gold, SOMEONE would call in and have something to complain about. You do have a choice.

my fiance is an inmate at a local correctional facility, i havebeen receiving phone calls & when i pick up they give me my account balance. now apparently the updating of their systems is horrible, because i have a negative balance on a PREPAID account, which to me, is off the wall. when i do not have money in the account i can not accept calls, but apparently i was able to this weekend, surprise surprise. i went and loaded $10 onto the phone & my balance was only $3. talk about being ripped off. GTL needs to get their systems together because they are screwing people out of money. if its PREPAID then i should only be allowed to talk for the amount i put on the phone, not any more making my account negative.

I work for a phone company myself so I think I am qualified to speak about this, my husband was incarcerated and I paid the horrible prices for 2 years. He finally got out and I requested a refund of $62.00 that I originally placed on my account on September 10, 2011. It is now October 18th and I still have not received my refund. I have been told so many stories, first it would take 7 to 10 days, then I would have it back on my card that evening, then they mailed it to my OLD address, then they needed my new address again 2 weeks later. Last week I was told it would be put back on my card and now no one is answering their phone or responding to my e-mail. I feel they are trying to avoid refunding me my money. This is not good customer service. I have never had to go through such trials and tribulations to get MY money back. This company makes good money off of all of the customers and least we can expect is good customer service. I have went ahead and filed a complaint with the FCC and the Better Business Bureau. I feel if you need my little $62.00 that bad, then this comapny must be doing pretty bad or not handeling the funds correctly.

I HATE using this system soooo much. its $2+ fro one 30 minute call and if i don't use the left over dollar because the call only lasts 30 minutes i lose it. this is crap, yes we probably should be paying but with over 35k prisoners in my county only i am pretty frigging sure that you guys are making money all day everyday. so much money that you all could go on vacation for a couple months. i believe you all are doing us good by allowing us to use your service to talk to our loved ones but those prices are STUPID.

I feel that this company does not have any sympathy for anybody. The excuse I got back when I told them that my boyfriend called me three times and the phone cut off right in the middle of our conversation was that they couldn't credit my money back because I was using a cell phone for my account. One call cut us off at 5mins 54secs, another cut us off at 4mins 47secs, and the third call cut us off @ 1min 9secs. I tell you people make up the lamest excuses to something that can be handled in seconds. And the thing is that I did not yell at them so attitude has nothing to do with their bad customer service its the smart ### dummies they pick to run things. But karma is going to hit them very soon and I can not wait until that day come. It's a shame that people so hungry for money that they got to scam you out your money. I can care less of they giving us the opportunity to be able to speak to our loved one but the fact is that they should not be ripping people off like they do. From the looks of things they have a lot of complaints and I'm pretty sure they have millions of lawsuits against them yet no one has handled this matter yet and its been going on for years. Are they blind or something or are they remedial to not see so many complaints towards this company. That money spitting game to their dumb ###. They need to do something about this situation.

Perhaps a nice class action civil suit should be considered. Globeltel will never be responsive or accountable for their actions unless they are forced to do so. Even the biggest of money hungry empires can fall and fall hard. I too have been fustrated by this corrupted, insensitive, unprofessional, money scamming, indecent company. BTW, I found out that if an inmate calls back to back in efforts of trying to reach you...GTL will take the cost of the call(s) and as they say put it on hold and then release it later. Someone tell me why is that? What's the purpose? If you connect you connect if you don't then you don't. Calling back to back does what? Nevertheless, in order to make some changes and to fight a big boy...it will have to be done in unity...the more the merrier...strength in numbers...and file a class action suit against this company... make them pay everyone back for the pain and anguish they have caused through out the years.

Hmmmm... maybe if you people didn't consort with CRIMINALS, you wouldn't have this problem. Poor you? What about the person they wronged that led to them being incarcerated? Maybe you need better people in your life and you won't have these kind of problems.

Hmm, I don't get what the nicnic in FL was rambling on about, but no, I'm not grateful for receiving any calls from a number that I had to google just to find out its from someone in jail, or prison, whatever, that I don't know whom or why anybody there would even be calling me in the first place. I can only guess they've dialed my number in error and received my voice mail. But they continue to dial my number so they must be misinformed that someone else must be at my number. Problem is, I won't answer a call on my cell phone I don't know...but either way, this is my peace-of-mind gophone that I only use for emergencies, so don't even power it up for days at a time, which is why I keep finding these auto-generated operator messages left in my voice mail. I hope someone reads my post so they remind their jailed callers to be certain about the numbers they are attempting to dial, because strangers like me, who've only just learned about this calling feature, are not as appreciative of messages left on our pay phone voice mail. Luckily, I can call my own phone from a landline to hear the message and not get charged, but will not likely ever be there first hand to answer a call as it is coming in. Nor would I care to be. Two sides to every story. Now keep your nose clean so you won't need to be calling strangers at all hours from some jail cell.