Legal Question in Telecomm Law in New York

Can you be charged for a phone call that does not complete

My phone bill had 2 seperate charges for overlapping minutes. The customer service manager told me that the first call may not have gone through and it took that long to disconnect. I asked why I was being charged for incomplete/unanswered calls. Sprint, my phone carrier told me that they charge for calls made (long distance or local) that never get completed or answered. Is this legal?


Asked on 12/05/05, 9:01 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
John Friedman Law Office of John K. Friedman

Re: Can you be charged for a phone call that does not complete

You failed to mention whether this is Sprint Wireless (which I suspect) or Sprint local/long distance over a wireline phone. The short answer to your question is that the terms of service covering your particular service will control whether they can bill for incomplete calls (if it's wireless service they may be so bold, if wireline very unlikely). If it's intrastate traffic you are questioning, you need to look at the appropriate tariff (this applies to wireline only).

The customer rep you spoke with likely got it wrong -- you're not being charged for incomplete calls (I've yet to find a telco that ballsy!). Rather, your calls are being rated to the second and then rounded-up to the next full minute (totally legal). If you end call "A" at 10:31:01 and initiate call "B" at 10:31:59, your bill would show that both bills originated at 10:32. That's your most likely answer.

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Answered on 12/05/05, 9:57 pm


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