Pay phones at Denver International Airport will soon have an automated feature offering to give the rate for a call made with a credit card, in the wake of a customer complaint about the cost of such a call.
RMES Communications, DIA’s pay-phone contractor, said the interactive voice response system will give callers the option of pushing a number to get the rate.
The company is working to put the feature in place this week.
“It’s an additional step that we are making available to any user at the airport, so there will be no confusion about what’s taking place,” said Herman Malone, president of RMES Communications.
The move comes after a traveler submitted a complaint to RMES and DIA about an $18.42 charge on his credit card for a brief long-distance call he made at DIA. While local calls from DIA pay phones cost 50 cents, long-distance calls cost more. Also, credit-card calls cost more than calls made with coins.
Malone said the rates on DIA pay phones are competitive, “right in with the industry rates.”
The phones already have the option of calling an operator to get the rate for a call, which varies depending on the location called. RMES uses contractor BBG for long-distance and credit-card calls.
While pay phones have fallen out of favor as cellphones become ubiquitous, many of the users of the 220 DIA pay phones are international travelers who don’t have cellphones that work in the U.S. Malone said an average of 50,000 pay-phone calls a year are placed at DIA.
Kelly Yamanouchi: 303-954-1488 or kyamanouchi@denverpost.com
