Now I was even more unnerved. Thirty bucks? Before I’d even connected to a call? Something did not seem right about this, as it did not seem right to my credit card company. Checking my bill online the next day, I now noticed the four attempted (one successful, one minute) phone calls. I had been charged more than $20.00 for each attempted call, although only one call lasted more than four seconds. Voice mail had picked up the other three calls (I hung up before leaving messages).

Yeah. You heard right. Twenty dollars! Each. “Where was she calling?” you might ask. Pakistan? Iraq? Antarctica? No, I was calling Chicago. I was calling from New York to Chicago. Yes. Twenty dollars for a non-call. And one 40 second call. Seriously.  Obviously, I disputed the charges with my credit card company, and then proceded to call the pay phone provider.

“Yes, I see the calls right here,” said a cheerful customer service rep with a Texas drawl (the company is based in Texas). “Four calls; all less than a minute apparently. But they were all connected.”

“To a voice mail,” I interrupted, ignoring for the moment that she was acknowledging the fact that I had been charged $20 per fraction of a minute for a phone call.

“Well, you were connected. We charge a $15 connect fee and then the other five was for the time you were connected.” Which, I reminded her was less than a minute.

After she suggested (generously, apparently) that they go halvsies (my word, not theirs) with them and pay just half the charges, I told her that I was simply calling to register a complaint at their exorbitant scheme, and that they would hear from my credit card company, the FCC, my Senator and whoever else I could rally to my side. (Kidding about the Senator, but I will phone his office to discuss pay phone regulation!)

Never mind the deregulated and dubious legality of charging $15 to connect to another line via pay phone (I can’t even begin to think that this is in any way ethical practice.) There was no warning (which I know they are supposed to give), no caveat emptor; just a “bong” and a request to tap in my credit card information.

Legalized mugging, is what it’s been called by other victims at websites like the Ripoff Report. Preying on the weak, desperate and cell-phone deprived, who often are making an emergency call home, they await the next innocent victim. It’s a racket, and its worthwhile stopping. For me, it’s an expensive annoyance; an $80 argument. For other victims, this practice is predatory and completely indefensible. My next stop? The Federal Communications Commission. And the appropriate House and Senate subcommittees. Something simply has to be done.

For now, should you find yourself in a similar situation, make sure you ask for the operator directly and have that person clarify all charges. Because they're not necessarily posted on the phone's small-print instruction placard. And it's the only way to protect yourself.