BBG Communications Phonecard charges Misleading ripoff San Diego California

I used to work there a year ago as an opereator and I want to make clear that I was not fired, I had to resign when I got pregnant, so this is not for revenge, but I was concerned all the time I worked there(seven months) about how much money they rip off in a day to unsuspecting people.

Anyway, the call center I worked in is in Mexico. The boss is Vania Monge and she supposedly has a degree in something, although I've never been clear on what, since she does nothing all day but sit in her office. The owner of the whole place(i.e. offices, call center grounds, etc.) is a man named Galicott. I have never seen him, only heard about him.

The company works like this. We (operators) provide several different operator services. CANOPCO and International Operator Services in english, as well as Fairmont Operator services and Delta Operator sevices which is to hotels. In spanish we are Logitel operators for Mexico and Enitel operators for Nicaragua.

(There is also another sevice called #TAXI which is for Canada and people dial it from their cell phones and the operator connects the person to taxi companies.)

The calls can be made with a credit card to all the world, collect to US, Canada, Japan, Germany and the UK. Also there are these calling cards which we were supposed to call "residential" calling cards, provided by canadian phone companies Bell, Teles, Sastel.

The most expensive calls are the collect calls from Mexico to the US or Canada. The rate of such call is 25.47 US dollars for the first five minutes(which is a real laugh because it doesn't matter if you talk for the five minutes or only one, you're still getting charged for the five minutes) and 3.18 for every additional minute. If the call comes in as International Operator and the call is made with a credit card, doesn't matter where you are or where you are calling to, the cost is 24.31 USdllrs for the first five minutes and 2.89 for every additional minute if you use a VISA. If you use any other credit card the cost is 23.15 USdllrs for the first five minutes and 2.89 for add. Minutes.

There are about 15 operators every shift(three shifts), 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Each operator connects each day about 20 to 35 collect calls and 15 to 25 credit card calls. I've made calculations using the least calls, times the 15 operators* times seven days a week and I got 53,487 US dllrs a week for collect calls and 36,461.25 USdllrs for credit card calls.
*For the calculation I used only the afternoon shift and the least expensive credit card calls. Also I did not put in canadian calls because the rates differ too much from province to province.

As operators we were not allowed to give out rates unless asked by the customer. Needless to say very few people ask, and even fewer people go through with the call once they hear what the call will cost them.

The other kind of operators are the CSR, Customer Service Representative. They deal with direct complains about the collect calls and credit card calls. Sometimes people are awarded 30 or 40% credit discounts on their collect calls bill or their credit card calls bill. I knew some of the CSRs, Vince Ortiz, Emily Diaz(who is also a supervisor), Steve Soto, David Brown. Obviously those are not their real names, all the people working there are 100% mexican. They are all trained to calm the customers and basically tell them that no matter what they have to pay up. The pretext they use is that the calls are made through a satellite system which is more expensive but also more reliable. I got many complains over the time I worked there that calls got cut off after fifteen minutes and they had to be reconnected, and of course there would be another 25.47dllr charge for connection and first five minutes.

Customers are not the only ones getting ripped off. The company makes almost a hundred thousand dollars a week only from the international services. Who knows how much more from canadian sevices, and still they pay their operators only 1,350 pesos a week, I can't say how much that is in US dollars because lately the exchange is very unstable, but is a little more than a hundred dollars a week. And still the company says that they can't give their employees a raise because the company is not netting any profit. When I left the microwave oven broke and last I heard they still haven't fixed it or bought a new one.

But still, for mexicans it is not sucha a bad job, it pays well(better than other jobs where you have to break your back) and it's plenty relaxed, but oh, woe the poor unsuspecting customers.