BEWARE! FONGO is overcharging you!

[fotograff]

Here is my story:
I had $24.84 in my account when I first called my dad in Sudan (he is there temporary for work). I checked the rates page and it's supposed to be $0.51 a minute. I spoke 15 minutes and ran out of money - FPL charged me $1.66, i.e. three times more!!!

I called the customer support and they promised to look into it and get back to me "shortly". I kept calling them during the following two weeks and finally I got my refund... of $13!!! So, in the end one minute of call cost me $0.87 instead of promised and advertised $0.51

I just called my dad and the balance I had of $13 went through the window after 8 minutes of call... again $1.6 per minute

WTH FPL? You are hoping that people do not look into their bills? Or that we, your customers are incapable of doing the simple math operations to understand that you are screwing us???

I've been a loyal customer to FPL for years, and since a while you are failing to keep up! I will continue using only the free service and give my money to your competitors on international calls!

The morale of this story: PEOPLE, REGULARLY CHECK YOUR BILLS AND YOUR CALLS HISTORY, you may be unpleasantly surprised!

[TheHardy]

It is not a MOBILE number or some other surcharged number is it? On the longer calls, it does not come into play too much, but do not forget the connection charge.

While CS is a good place to get the problem resolved, here in the forum we do have A LOT of Level-3 techs, so someone here (Steve, Mike, Neil, Dom) can look into the actual tariff and see if there is an error with the destination that you are calling ... feel free to PM any of those 4 to assist you in looking into this.

On a side note, you are correct, there are some cheaper intl providers out there other than Fongo.

As for them hoping for you not to notice billing errors, that may be true, but then they have to still go back and fix them when you do. And it always always always comes down to cover your own butt, check your own bills!!

[dibsmft]

The Sudan is one of those places that is very expensive to call and finding a cheap way to call is neither easy or meant to be easy. However, it does seem that Fongo may have some problems with the rate that they are charging as it might be a bit above the odds. It might be easier for the people you are calling to find a cheaper way to contact you is you can arrange that.

[FONGO_mike]

On the Fongo website in the tariff look up, it is coming up as $1.61 to make the call. On the FPL website the rate is not coming from the correct source and appearing as $0.51. this is an issue with the information source as the correct billing for the number you are trying to reach is indeed $1.61 plus a 4 cent connection fee.

This information has been passed along to the correct people to view why it was giving the wrong information.

[dibsmft]

On the Fongo website in the tariff look up, it is coming up as $1.61 to make the call. On the FPL website the rate is not coming from the correct source and appearing as $0.51. this is an issue with the information source as the correct billing for the number you are trying to reach is indeed $1.61 plus a 4 cent connection fee.

This information has been passed along to the correct people to view why it was giving the wrong information.

Are you sure that the error is not with the placement of the decimal point? Out of interest I have checked a few other reliable providers and their current rates seem to be around 16 - 25 cents/min. So perhaps the rate should have been $0.161/min rather than $1.61/min would be a good rate. The rates that I see on both Fongo and Dell voice are in the 25 - 30 cent/min range or have the rates now been corrected?

[FONGO_mike]

In this case, there may be more then one issue as the country code dialed was 21 yet sudan country code is 249 so it is difficult to tell for sure. Again though, this information has been passed along to the right people to verify.

[dibsmft]

Probably the code 21 is for Southern Sudan for which the area code is actually 211. I think it was approved not all that long ago. There is always more to the story than you at first expect.

[TheHardy]

+221 South Sudan
+249 Sudan

Those are the official codes ....

???

[dibsmft]

Here is reference to the code change......

http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=466245

Looks like the code only went live last October
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%2B211