My first experience with a phone card

I recently discovered miraculous little products called "Phone cards". I was shocked, because although they have been out for ever, I always dismissed them as a scam and didn't look to closely. It turns out that you can save ALOT of money with them (I learned this from two women at my school who call their husbands daily in China. They get phone cards that let them call for $0.10/min Canadian!).

This seemed like a good deal, and since I was calling friends in San Francisco fairly regularly, getting a better rate seemed like a good deal. I tracked down a card that let me call the US for $0.025/min (great rate!) that proclaimed "no connection charge" and made a couple test calls. On my first two calls, all I got was an answering machine, left a short message and hung up.

ENTER THE SCAM: When I made my second call, it reported that the amount left on my card was about $0.70 less then I paid ($10 card). I called the "customer support desk" asked "What the hell?" and they said while there wasn't a CONNECTION CHARGE, there was a SERVICE charge of $0.67 per call. False advertising? In my opinion, yes. Still a good deal? Well, if I don't get the answering machine, I guess so.

Buyer beware I suppose. No where on the card did it say anything about the service charge. I didn't see anything on the poster either. These cards have a pretty good business going in my opinion. If my first experience had been more positive, I would have been very loyal to that brand of card. Now I'm looking at them all as crooks, and want to ask other people about what brand doesn't have service/connection charges (or has low ones if they do).