Comments on: T-Netix

By: cathy

cathy — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:02:12 +0000

Want to talk T-Netix, and about not having the option to claim your spouse as a human being base on the repugnance of a so called “inmate billing company”. where the automated person seem to be collecting more ph minutes for it prompts and warnings than you get in connection time. How about this fact that my spouse is unable to contact me for weeks at a time because the charges for him to dial a (347) code cost more than 32.00 per 30 min calls. if this is not the worse how about the fact that it take up to 28 hours for the account to clear before he can attempt to try and reach me wait! no 5 consecutive days we have not spoke with a clear account status of more than $60t. what about the $9. quick collect charges applied or the $6. surcharge for a credit card use inorder to apply credit to your “T-Netix ” correctional billing account. I need to know does any 1 out there have a solution.
p.s. thanx for your site it provides more vent for the out side population than our families inside the WALLS. YOU ROCK

By: Catherine

Catherine — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 05:55:32 +0000

After reading through the horrors that people have had to go through I feel that my situation is fourtunatly (for me) much better. My brother who is mentally unstable has been sentenced to weekend incarceration in MD. Tonight was his first night. As I said he has some mental and emotional problems and one of the main things tha helps him get through is knowing that I am here for him and he can talk to me. In fact the last thing he said to me when I droped him off was that he would call me just as soon as he could so we could say good night or else he wouldn’t be able to speak. Well he called and we had barely said hello to eachother before I was kicked over to this voice message saying I neede a T- Netixs account. I sat on hold for over thirty min. all the while just imagining how confused and scared he must be. Then I was disconeccted without speaking to anyone. That’s when I went on line and found this site. I am so thankfull that he will be home on Sunday and I feel so deeply for all of you who aren’t that lucky. Even though I will be able to explain everything to him and we will have to deal with the fact that we won’t be able to speak while he is away on weekends, I still feel outraged. Not on my own behalf, but for everyone else. As Mike has put it, this is unconstitutional and morally wrong. I have taken the suggestions to heart and fully intend on writing letters to congrestional and state officals. Even though my situation is no where near as bad as others’, anyone can see that this is disgusting and T- Netix is a morally bankrupt company. Tank you for your site. Without it, I would have had no idea what was going on. To the rest of you, my heart goes out to you and if there is anything I can do to aide in putting a stop to this I will.

By: Chena

Chena — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:59:29 +0000

Someone needs to do something about t- netixs i have a pre paid account with them and they are very unprofessional. I receive calls from my husband in jail and i spend alot of money to talk to him. However t-netix takes there time posting funds to accounts to were as though there are times i can not speak to my husband all weekend because they dont post money to accounts on time i put 30.00 on my account on Dec 23, 2007 so i would be able to speak with my husband on christmas day and he would at least be able to hear our small children open there gifts t- netixs did not post that money on our account until later christmas day this is not the first time they do this often and when you try to speak to a supervisor you never can. You can call to discuss an issue and at times they put on a recording saying systems are down and call back later when they know they are doing people wrong this has to stop i feel like telling them they get no more money from me but they already know this is the only way we can talk to our love ones so they do it and not care. I cant wait until my husband gets out tnetixs can kiss his mine and our kids ass!!!!!!!

By: Janet

Janet — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 20:03:40 +0000

My complainent with T-Netix (EVercom Systems Inc.) is there billing practices. I began receiving calls in Oct 2007 (approx 4 a day) from the Fresno County Jail of which I immediately hung up because I knew no one in jail. This went on for 10-days till I called the Sheriffs Dept and had a block put on my phone. November bill from my phone company comes and what do you know billing from T- Netix! So I called their 800 number to demand a credit to my bill. First it won’t get me to a person to discuss this mistake with because you have to have a 4-digit personal “code”. Of which I didn’t have —-and was not about to set up since this was there mistake! After continued research i got a number of an actual person a T-Netix to call. I finally was connected to that person who proceded to be very rude to me when I denied ever accepting any calls. Finally after much complaining and insisting they said I would be issued the credit to my phone bill. BUT —-Here is the clincher—— It will be 2-3 months (billing cycles) before it would credit to my account. Well it didn’t take them 2-3 months to bill me so why the delay on a credit? I said that was not acceptable and asked first for a supervisor (to no avail) and then I asked for an address to send a complaint. I was told there was no corporate address and I would have to email or call them again. What do they mean no corporate office?
What a substandard shady business the states and corrections dept have gotten involved with!!!!

By: Jen

Jen — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:04:50 +0000

I am currently going throught the same thing. My fiancee is in the county jail and has not been been able to call me for a week. The people at t-netix are rude and they do not let u know it takes 90 days for them to receive a payment. So when your credit through them runs out they want you to prepay. This is a load of crap. They first told me 50 dollars was okay to prepay by check. as of today the 23rd of Oct. they want 150 dollars with 7 dollar surcharge. People beware. Esp. when the local jailhouse only uses them.

By: Elvera Williams

Elvera Williams — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:43:39 +0000

This is a response to CB and others that fell victim to setting up an account with T-NETIX. File a complaint with your public utility commission. The process is lengthy but it has to be done. It has been 16 months since I filed my complaint with the Maryland Public Service Commission. The commission began ruling on my formal complaint the 1st week in June 2007. As of yet there has not been a decision. It is important that everyone do this first, by filing a complaint with the utility T-NETIX will be forced to respond directly to you and at that point you will learn how they operate and then you can challenge them for what they have done to you.

Your can read about my current formal complaint with T-NETIX that the Maryland Public Service Commission has put online. Just google this search by typing in Elvera Williams v T-NETIX formal complaint and it will come up.
I guarantee that everyone will learn a whole lot by reading this and you will understand just how to challenge them.

I gather that everyone has been assigned a credit limit by them and this is your first time learning about it. An account can be established when a person calls from the local jail and then when they go on to prison you have an account with CBS that you know nothing about.

By: CB

CB — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 16:52:09 +0000

I am another one that T-Netix has messed with. Same deal, my son was calling me collect and I was paying my bill and out of the blue my phone line was blocked. No explanation at all. I finally got a hold of T-netix and had to set my account up so my son could call me. I argued with the operator that it is my perogative to accept his collect calls and pay for them on my regular bill. She totally ignored me and went on with her questions. If I want to accept the collect calls it should be my decisions not T-netix. I hate this and wish there was something I could do.

By: Len

Len — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 05:39:20 +0000

How do we get rid of T-netix in the detention centers? Is there a need for a “middle-man” to make a phone call? Was there a contact bid open to the public or was T-netix given the opportunity without a competitive bid? These are just a few questions I have about this situation. It’s not fair!

By: Al Opdenaker

Al Opdenaker — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:09:53 +0000

My phone rang while I was eating lunch at a local restaurant. “I have a collect call for [static] from [static] will you accept?” Before I can say anything, the phone seems to go dead. Then someone else is speaking and the only thing I could understand for “Queene Ane County Prison”. Well, it turns out that my granddaughter’s father is in that institution , I think. The voice changes again and a man explains that if I want to speak to the caller I have to set up an account. It sounded very strange to me. He said I would need to give him some information so that he could set up my account, and he started asking me questions, name, address, last four digits of my Social Security Number. He asked me to spell every word no matter how simple the word was. He then explains that the best way to set up this account is to use a credit card. Ding, ding, ding!! The bells and whistles start ringing. There is no way on earth that I am gong to give anyone my credit card number especially since I still do not even know at that point who he is and what organization he represents. He tells me that the least I can give him is $50 plus an $8 fee, and the maximum is $500 with the same $8 fee. I ask him who it was that wanted to talk to me, to which he replied that he was not permitted to give out that information. The whole thing has got to be a scam, I think, so I ask for the company’s snail mail address, and he surprized me by giving me one. I told him I would call him back later today or send the money to him via snail mail. He sort of”sneared” at that when he said that it takes at least ten day to set up the through the mail. I said “thanks” and hung up the phone. I googled T-Netix and wow! a bonanza of information every single bit of it quite negative! How much danger am I in for having given him the last four digits of my SSN? Is there something I can do to prevent him found using it to steal my identity? Obviously the state’s are not interested in helping us.

By: Judith K. Steck

Judith K. Steck — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 22:08:50 +0000

I think I have finally gotten a handle on this. After all the garbage excuses including my husband put a block on the phone in June (he died 3-12-06) she finally told me the truth as she knows it. My son makes the collect call. I get billed for it on my monthly bill. At that time I owe 25.00 or thereabouts. My phone company gets the money. They pay Embarq who in turn pays Correctional billing. As soon as correctional gets the money they release the block. My son calls and before I am even billed for the call another block is put on my phone. Because this is political and the sh– hit the fan and exposed all the excessive charges for calls they want to switch everyone to a prepaid calling card. Under the collect method - my son can only call collect once every 3 mos. I guess we can look at this a different way. The state has to have the money from somewhere. Otherwise services are the lst to go. It is another tax!! They are losing a ton of money in collect phone call fees and the state and local taxes on the phone calls. Hope they straighten it out soon.