Same thing happened to me. I was vacationing in Dominican Republic last week, called home from the hotel room and got charged $120 for a 5 min phone call. Ridiculous.

Same thing happened to me Kate, call the number back and fight the charges.

I called from Frankfurt to India for around 2 minutes. They charged me $55. I thought it will be more expensive if I use my international roaming phone and used this thinking that it will be cheapter. But to my surprise, it is a big scam. I'm going to fight back with these guys and going to dispute this transaction. Please let me know if anyone was able to fight these guys and succeed.

I just spoke to these guys. They gave me a credit of 50% I fought with them and then they agreed to give this discount. Even after this, it is expensive for me. It seems there is a $15 connection fee and $5.99/minute. And he is also arguing that I should have talked to the representative and find out the rates. Whatever it is, now I realise that we should never use our credit card where we can't get a receipt especially international travel. Hope it helps others!

Man....This is horrible and real scam. I've been charged around $350 just for talking 30 mins from Frankfurt to India. Guys becareful and think twice before you use your credit card.

dont use ur credit card at frankfurt airport. i have been charged 80$ around two  minute call. be care ful

$47 for a few minutes. Frankfurt to USA. WOW!!!

I called from france to canada.. just a few minutes on 5 calls because we got engaged and it cost me 39$ a call... that's 200$ almost for about 12 minutes of talking!!! I hope that no one ever uses this number again

actually i called them to dispute the charges and they reversed them no problem... we'll see if i get the credit but they were really nice about it.

I called from Frankfurt Airport to Ottawa (Canada)by using public phone, for less than 10mm, and 98 $ was debited to my  bank account. Im really shocked and wondering how to redress this injustice. I can't identify the company because currently, Im in Sudan.

A quick update for people looking to make calls from Frankfurt airport.

I got scammed by BBG the first time I transited through. This last time, I realized a few things:

1) DO NOT BUY the calling cards from the machines around the airport. They have calling card vending machines right next to the payphones. As absurd as it is, these calling cards DO NOT work on their own payphones. The 800 access number on the card is blocked from the payphones. So its a complete waste of your money.

2) The rates for the payphones are clearly displayed on the LCD phone displays, and these are the cash rates. In theory, disputing the charges from BBG should be trivial if we can get a screen shot of the LCD displays. The display says that calls to the US are $1 or so per minute. Unfortunately I did not have a camera, so could not take a shot. Can someone who sees this please take a shot and post it?

3) And for folks who actually need to make a call... USE COINS. I got a few Euro coins at the money changer, and called home for a couple minutes to the US for just 2 Euro. Best of all, total peace of mind that there are no hidden charges.

Hope this helps someone out there.

I was in a train station in Paris and made a 30 second phone call to someone in France... 39,80 freaking dollars!!! I can't believe this scam. Is there any way of making an official complaint?

Re BBG /International Satellite  Communications

Hi John Mattes here with Investigative guy.com We are starting to put together stories of consumers scammed by this company so we can take action  . Can you join us and send us details of what happened to you? Please send to Investigativeguy@gmail.com
Thank you in advance
I-guy
See all our stories at
http://www.investigativeguy.com

HI,

Did you ever get your refund?  I have over $300 in charges and the sad thing is the calls never went through, never had a chance to speak with anyone.

i made a call to us from frankfurt by credit card through BBG systems the call was about 40sec they charged 24.54 and another call to india for about lessthan 1 min they charged 54.65 which i was shocked after seeing the bill.

atleat all of you made calls. They charged me INR 1812, for 10 second call to India by connecting wrong number

I made a call from my hotel room in Prague - the call cut out immediately after connecting and I had to re-dial. Had about a 3 minute conversation. My hotel charged me 23.83 euros per call - when I queried them they quickly agreed to reduce the cost by 50% and I paid the balance with my hotel bill.
On my return home, I found that BBG or International Satellite Communications charged me for two phone calls totalling nearly $100. I have now been charged about $135 for a three minute telephone call.
Is there no recourse to this highway robbery?

I wonder how a dubious company like LDFONE has been allowed to put up their public phone-call booths in the premises of prestigious Hilton Hotel, Terminal-4, Heathrow Airport, London UK. I made two calls from one of the booths installed at the said Hotel---one on 3May, 08 to Gainesville, USA and other on 4May, 08 to Delhi, India through my Visa Card issued by State Bank of India. Both the calls lasted less than two minutes. In both the cases booth-phone did not issue any automated voucher for the calls made. Later I learnt from the Bank Statement that instead of two calls I have been charged for three calls, that too at very exorbitant rates. USA call was charged @ $24.74 and India call @ $28.63. Not only that the Statement also showed six more entries under the caption ?Transactions To Be Confirmed? totaling some sixty US Dollars. These six entries were, however, later dropped by the Bank for reasons not known to me, though they continue to insist that I must cough up almost eighty US Dollars for the said two calls?well, they also continue to insist that I made three calls on the authority of LDFONE. But the Bank would not tell me on what basis they later rejected the above-mentioned six transactions as unsound, but accepted the other three as sound. A painful enigma!

yep me to!! made 5 calls from a payphone ion greece - each time i didnt get through with a max of a 10 second message on three of them yet I was still charged £18 - £19 for each of them... Called a guy in the Calafornian office by the name of Danny Garcia whom said he was a team lead/supervisor yet couldnt give me the website or contact number for whom to complaint further... said he would refund me for the calls i didnt leave messages on yet still waiting... also finding it hard to find an email adress.

Ok, so I sent an email, with no response.  Ended up having to make an international call to call them (we live in Chile), and after arguing for a few minutes with them, and asking to speak with a supervisor, they gave me a discount of $33.00 USD.  Ok, still an expensive phone call, but that gets my bill from $83 dollars to $50.

We called from Grand Bahama twice, and each call lasted less than a minute and now I've found a bill for more than $80 dollars!!!  I called from a payphone at our hotel...they're going to be getting an ear-full from me too considering that they should at least warn their guests about the high charges.
I'll post again if I have any luck reducing/eliminating this bill.

My Parents made a half minute call from Frankfurt Airport to California,USA. and I got a bill of $36.04 USD. The Credit Card Company says they got the same bill from LDFONE.

I HAVE same problem i was calling to czech republic from a frankfurt airpor. I was calling no longer than 2 minutes and i was charged 25 euros. I think its better to borrow cellphone from somebody.That is shame and robery.

I made two calls from CDG Airport from Paris to India on 21-11-07 on LDFONE COM ,less than 1 min and 30 secs each and was charged 64.96USD  and 33.94 USD nearly 100 USDOLLARS!!Reference nos are 55438647327 and 65438647328 respectively.
The CDG Airport authorities must be sued too for letting the services for such blatant cheating.The authorities have not displayed the fare card for the services beig used which is against the Legal Metrology Dept Rules.
LDFONE  COM needs to refund the money!

I made some calls from Argentina and was not aware of the extreme charges either.  I just called the company and because they just signed a new customer service agreement with mastercard, they offered me a one-time full refund on all charges.

call them now before its to late!

Hello Jen,

I just returned from Norway where I was victimized by this phone scam.  (learned about outrageous charges on my return home.)

Did Citibank help you?  (ie Did they eliminate the charges or reduce the charges or what?)  I'm having trouble with my credit card company.

Thanks for your help.
Tom Hyle

I called the US for 5 minutes from the Frankfurt airport and got billed 160 bucks. I called them and they promised to refund if I gave them my credit card # and didn't cancel the credit card for 3 months. How creepy is that? I called citibank and they immediately called them out for being a scam, which is somewhat unusual for Citibank, which usually leaves you high and dry with stuff like this

We made 3 calls from Heathrow to Mexico and got a 200 USD bill!!! In total we spoke no longer than 20 minutes. It´s outrageous that this company is allowed to operate in airports!! We called their customer service and they said that they would reimburse 100% if we DID NOT FILE A COMPLAINT WITH the credit card company! The representative repeatetly said that the condition to receive the reimbursement was NOT to file any complaints. When we asked to receive this in writing, they said it was impossible. The company is International Satellite Comm. If you go on their website www.ldfone.com, it seems that it is only dealing with complaints and nothing else. It seems like a SCAM!!!!

I made a call with a pre-paid card from one of these phones...I was advised in order to process the call I also had to put in my credit card number...not only did they charge my card but the also took the money from my pre-paid card.

I made three attempts from Heathrow to Canada...i couldn't hear anything and assumed it didn't connect. The phone company tells me it went to an answering machine each time. Bill was $93. They offered me a $37 one time waiver of the connection charges - whihc are anywhere from $10-15 for each call. They charge for a minimum 5 minutes. They gave me the option of having an investigation done..if they find the calls were less than 30 seconds they will refund the charges. takes 3-4 weeks. everytime i called the company to inquire, i was told the supervisor was busy, was on another call, or it was shift change and to call back???!!!