Global Tel Link
reviews and complaints

I have been charged NC collect rates at $3.40+tax for more than 120 calls that should be charged $3.15+tax per the NC DPS website Inmate Telephone System section. I have paid the $4.75 service fee 18 times, but paid $7.95 3 times. I have paid full (yet incorrect) price for 7 calls less than 5 minutes each, including a 2 second call that was a busy signal, that should be refunded per the Q&A Help section of the GTL website, as my phone is not a cell phone. I have been told by GTL that my billing will not be researched, and that I will not receive any credit on my account, ever.

Global tel link has a phone directory for inmates to be able to call home rather by house phone or cell phone calls. Global tel link call policy is made not to. Give rufunds for any cellphone dropped calls three way calling and or any other reason due to high volume called through cellphones. Their are over a million people who have family and friends within the jail system and have kids. The phone is also made as a privilege to inmates, they are the ones being punished does the family and friends have to suffer as well. The calls are at $3. 22 minimum of $25 dollars a day, not including plus $4. 95 activation. People not only have to buy cards get a ride or drive to get a debit card buy the card in which have to load it activate call global tel link when the whole process takes two hours or more. In this whole time your ffriend family member whatever daughter mother sister brother dad etc; could be trying to call or don't think to call because they think family forgot about them or just know how much everything cost and know they feel so confined don't wanna put the friends and family through the hassle. The complaint is for me and so many others people do not know where to go to receive help not only about refunds for our calls, or feeling ripped off when it's bad enough if they do the crime they already serving their time, and yet still no room for change, and acceptance so will and can. The people who don't know where they can to start a compliant, i will send them here first, i only hope people are not to scared to take action take a stand do this for your family for yourself and put a stop to the high cost of global tel link connect network calls, not because we don't understand the privilege or that doing something wrong can affect people with you and around you, but frankly their are inmates and people inconclusively willing to change, if someone starts by helping now please people help. Me take action post everywhere put in complaints for our jail system to the white house and also complaints here through this review board and any other rssources. It'll only take a free minutes of our time to get our point across. Thank you

Calls from Inmate in correctional facility are not going through. When I call their center to report the problem, I get the same answer. The people are very nice about it, but I keep getting told my account is inactive or needs to be reset. Some tell me I need to let the phone ring more times, or that my phone company is blocking the call. None of this is true. They just have crappy connections from point A to point B. Unfortunately, they are the only game in town to get calls from the inmates, so we are kinda screwed on this. It is very frustrating. I urge anyone else with this problem to file complaint with FCC and Better Business Bureau. and the department of corrections in their state.
Thank you.

Their network fails all the time and on Christmas Eve all the video conference which cost $10 each did not work. When you call to complain they say it is on your end which is wrong since the error message even said their network was down and all the inmates had the same issue who were in the room taking video calls. contacted their customer service and they said it was on my end which was incorrect and they don't want to refund the money.. This has happened numerous times with. Bot the video and the phone class. Usually get cut off and they refuse to refund the money. This is a huge scam. I wonder how many people have been ripped off and they will not issue refunds.

We have had to use GTL phones and services off and on for the last 2 years. At first, the collect calls from prison came through our local telephone provider, but shortly thereafter, GTL put a freeze on our communications until we paid them for the privilege to use their services instead of our local company. The calls are expensive, furthermore, you cannot clearly hear from their phones (Penn Pavilion, New Brighton, PA) if you are lucky enough that the phone calls get disconnected prior to the 15 minutes you are alloted to talk. If you call to report the poor phone connections, it doesn't matter, they can't and won't help you or even consider a refund. The phones have not been fixed there for years. Does the prison system get a cut of the phone funds or is this just legalizing theft of services?
The billing statements are not correct and you cannot keep them straight, since they change when you request a billing history. The "doctored" statements vary from time to time.
Months ago, we requested a refund. Last month, we demanded our $100.00 back and have not received anything yet. I called today, (8-29-12) and GTL's rep says that a Western Union Credit Card was mailed out 8-17-12. I asked about the card and there are fees that apply if you use it. Who gets those fees, Western Union or GTL? Why do we have to pay fees to get our full amount refunded to us?
Isn't the irony blatant...GTL provides telephone service for prisoners and their families, yet they are the THIEVES who are PROTECTED by the government and Department of Corrections.
One last suggestion...CLASS ACTION SUIT.

It is appalling to me how some State wide companies can cost us so much. Global Tel-link is a rip off. They bid for contracts with the State so inmates may receive phone calls. However it is costing 25cents per min (how rediculous this is.) and even more ridiculous is the fact that they are the only phone providers with Pitches Dentention "Correctional" Facility. So when thier computer system has glitches in it we as the consumers have to pay for "GLOBAL TEL-link" mistakes. WOW! SERIOUSLY!?... This is a total rip off, and the sad part is we as the consumers have no other choice but to continue using thier service if we want to keep in touch with our loved ones SMH. (I have now resulted to writing to my family member to keep in touch.)

i have been trying to close my account since my nephew was released from county jail. i called 3 different times and spoke with customers service, today 6/14/12 was the 4th time i called and i paid $50.00 for my nephew to be be able to call home. he was released and never used the $50 i paid, and now i can't get a refund. this lady who sounded very old said i was going to be charged $15.00 service fee so my refund would be $35.00, i told her nothing was used! how could you charge me when i called the next day to cancel and credit my card. i first paid on a sunday and i called monday to cancel and it took until today to finally talk to someone at global tel link. DO NOT PAY GLOBAL TEL LINK NOTHING UNLESS YOU ARE GOING TO LET THEM KEEP YOUR MONEY...AS I READ THE OTHERS, THEY ARE A RIP OFF AND SCAM!

On 4/10/12 I allowed a friend to use my debit card to put time on on her phone to talk to her boyfriend in prison. My card was double charged fot a $25 depsit, totalling $50. When I tried to call to have it corrected on 4/18/ they charged another $25. When I finally got a person on the phone, I was promised a full refund of all $75 plus reimbursement of the $32 NSF fee I received. Good thing I disputed the charges with my bank, because I never received 12anything from them and now cannot get through to anyone!

FOR THE LAST SIX MONTHS I HAVE BEEN MAKING $20 - $25 PAYMENTS TO MY ACCOUNT PER WEEK ON LINE WITH DEBIT CARD. SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2012, I DID AS USUAL, MADE A $20 PAYMENT. WHEN I HIT "SUBMIT" MY SCREEN FLASHED RAPIDLY AND THEN CONFIRMATION CAME UP INDICATING I HAD MADE A "****$200 PAYMENT****". WOW! WHEN I WENT TO PRINT THE CONFIRMATION IT WOULD NOT LET ME. I HAD TO WAIT UNTIL MONDAY TO CALL. AFTER SPEAKING WITH 4 CSR's TO SUPERVISORS AND BEING ON HOLD FOR 15+ MINUTES EACH TIME (CALL TOOK OVER 1 1/2 HOURS), I WAS TOLD THEY WOULD NOT REFUND MY MONEY...BUT THEY COULD ONLY TO FREEZE ALL COLLECT CALLS FOR 30 TO 60 DAYS.

SO CONSIDERING HOW THIS HAS OCCURED, I REALLY THINK THE PERSON OR GROUP THAT IS IN CHARGE NEEDS TO STEP UP TO THE PLATE INSTEAD OF THESE PEOPLE WHO HAVE TO LIE TO HONEST HARD WORKING PEOPLE BECAUSE OF A SO CALLED "POLICY".

THIS IS REALLY CROOKED!

IT'S SAD THAT A COMPANY HAS SET UP THEIR ONLINE PAYMENT SYSTEM TO TAKE MORE MONEY THAN WHAT THE CUSTOMER IS PAYING AND THEN HAS AN EXCUSE AS TO WHY THEY CAN'T GIVE IT BACK TO YOU.

ONE DAY MAYBE GLOBAL TEL*LINK WILL HAVE TO ANSWER FOR THEIR WRONG DOING.

i purchased a prepaid card and loaded it with $50 and global tel link declined it then i brought another card and loaded it with $25 and global tel link declined that card...Now its $75 that's floating around somewhere and I've been calling their customer service and they told me there is nothing they can do about it, but i won't stop until i see my $75 so i would advise people to never use global tel link and to just get a house phone that accepts collect calls because global tel link is a rip off.

IM AN AUSTRALIAN, MY FRIEND KEEPS TRYING TO CALL ME COLLECT FROM M.C.S.P. (IONE) BUT CAN'T EVER GET THROUGH, GLOBAL TEL LINK PLAYS A MESSAGE SAYING THAT THERE'S A BLOCK ON MY HOME PHONE OVER AN UNPAID BILL! WE DON'T EVEN HAVE GLOBAL TEL LINK IN AUSTRALIA! IV'E NEVER HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH THEM BEFORE...NEVER EVEN HEARD OF THEM! SO MY FRIEND CAN'T CALL ME! WHENEVER I EMAIL THEM, THEY NEVER ANSWER ME, THEY ALWAYS PUT ME ON HOLD & I HANG UP AFTER 20 MINS! HAS ANYONE HAD THIS ABSOLUTE ### HAPPEN TO THEM BEFORE? ANY SUGGESTIONS? GLOBAL TEL LINK= HERE'S A MASSIVE f**** YOU..ALL THE WAY FROM SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA...

Our grandson calls us collect several times a month and the facility he calls from uses Global Tel Link. We use AT&T for our long distance carrier and pay our bill monthly. Global Tel Link tells us their company policy is to bill the party directly when charges are $100 or more. Our phone company always accepts our payment. What is the deal here? They say their charges won't be any more than AT&T would charge. I doubt that or why are they insisting to bill us themselves? Or are they getting a cut somewhere along the line for heavy usage at the consumers expense or inconvenience of having to pay another bill? Someone should look into this.

I have been calling this company for a refund of $20.00 for the past month and all I get is excuses like; company is slow not enough people or Oh you wanted a refund? I am sick and tired of waiting for my money. They are a rip off you give them $25.00 and when you can;t use them they only refund $20.00. We should be allowed to charge this scam company interest. Please help if you can and get my $20.00 back. Thank you Miss J0Anna Patti

my husband if on lorian correctional institution and there has been a block put on my phone i do not understand why because i did not order the block to happen. it also will not let anybody in jail call me. could you please get back to me as soon as possible because i really need to talk to him. i do think its unfair that if somebody else would to ask you to put a block on my phone how you could let them. thank you for your time an dhopefully you will be able to help me and get the block off my phone fast. thank you rebecca

GTL is BS. For 2 days now my fiance has been trying to call and GTL won't connect the call. There is $80 in the account, but when I press 0 to accept the call it doesn't connect. i was on the phone with GTL and AT&T ALL DAY. Still the same problem exists. Then I call and ask to have the money on the account(MY MONEY) transferred to another phone and they won't do it..when it's their system that's messed up. What BS..now my fiance thinks I'm not accepting his calls. This company is ###!

I have been charged through verizon for operator assisted calls (collect calls) that I nor anyone at my home accepted, over $160.00 I'm being billed for!

When the inmate that calls me i can not hear nothing he says to me and it happens every time he calls me...Today i put $25.00 by the time i got to talk to him it was down to $14.00...I do not know why it went down so fast but not being able to hear what he has to say is bull...Your company needs to fix it today...I am reporting this to the Federal Buisness Bureau...It is ripping off the inmates family when they can not even hear what they are saying... Your service is terrible and you need to fix it...

I got a phone call to accept collect call from some prison. At first I said, "No." The woman's voice said, "You have a family member that is in prison. This a service to find a family member that is in prison." So, I accepted. The guy that I was connected to said, "You have a family member that is in prison. You have to dail this #xxxxxxxxx(I don't remember the #). That will tell you of a family member that is in prison." I asked him a half dozen questions and the only thing he would say, "You have to call this #. Just call it. Call this #." Well, thinking I just got scammed some how, I called the at&t operator. She told me it was a good thing that I did not dial it. I'd've gotten a hughe phone bill from it plus all kinds of other charges linked to my phone #. Nuthin' she could do about it. When it shows on the bill, contest it and request a refund. Today, I tried that. Close to an hour on hold. The rep. said she'd connect me to her supervisor. 15min. later, I get a recording that, "they're not taking any more phone calls today and try later." I'll try again. They nicked me $5.70.

I was attempting to set up a cell phone account so my fiance in prison can call me and thought i could do the prepay on my cell instead of setting up a direct account. after i learned that the prepay was for jails and not prisons i called to get my refund and they told me 7-10 days. this was febuary 28th 2011. after 14 days of waiting i still hadnt gotten my refund so i called again and was told that they put an email to the refund department for my money that i would have it in the next 48 hours. Today march 19, 2011 i called and was told that there are no promises as to when i would get my money back after i've been told MULTIPLE times that it takes 7-10 days. here it is 20 days later and i STILL DONT HAVE MY $25.00 back. This is illegal, it is fruad, and this company is a SCAM. i want my money back by monday night. if i do not have my money back I WILL FILE A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT. your company is nothin but problems, and just because my loved one got himself into some triv does not mean i should have to pay to. he may be in trouble but that doesnt mean he doesnt have loved ones out here that dont need or want to talk to him to make sure he is OK. Prison is nothin nice and he is in danger every day he is in there. not being able to talk to him is taking an emotional toll on him, and his family and friends out here. This is not fair to us. Times are hard for everyone, not just your company. GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK!

This is the most worthless company i have ever seen! You set up a damn account it works for 2 days, then just stops working, but your balance still goes down. WTF. And they charge 5 bucks for a refund and they can't do their job f-this cpmpany I hope they all die, and for the a-hole employee saying w/o us you'd have to write no [censored] another company would be around to take our hard earned and they might not be as useless F you& f gti