Hi everyone :-)
I need your help! I'm from Germany and have known my pen pal for almost a year now. He has wanted to make phone calls for a long time. But I've always shied a bit because I'm insecure about my English. Now I've finally decided to talk to him on the phone. For this I got a US phone number via Skype and set up an account via GTL. I have both as an app on my smartphone. At GTL I added my US number, my credit card and my friend. So far no problem. But today he has already tried to call me 3 times and I just can't take the call. The first two calls ended on their own. With the third I got a little further ... I don't remember exactly what was said on the tape but I first pressed the 3 and then the 5. And then nothing came up anymore. Nothing at all. I feel so stupid! Maybe I have to adjust something on the GTL account so that the calls are automatically paid with my credit card. I hope someone from you can help me!
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Hey jess how did you go about a new number I'm having the same problem with gtl
Hi Jessimay!
I was able to fix my first problem because I put money on the GTL account. At the beginning I assumed that it is enough to register the credit card and then it is automatically debited there. After that, we were able to make two phone calls. But after that two call’s my phone didn't ring at all again. I almost went insane. Luckily we were able to communicate through another friend of him so that I always knew when he tried to call and that the phone just didn't ring at my end. Because to find out about that via snail mail would have taken a long time. I got my US number on Skype and after some research I found out that there is a hidden setting that allows Skype to blog calls. Since I deactivated this setting everything works fine.
Hi, I am having this problem too! I am from New Zealand and my pp is in Pelican Bay State Prison. I have JPay all set up with money and it had been working fine until the end of last week. I get the call come through and answer it but then nothing, it just cuts off. I have been frantic trying to get my phone provider to fix this. They said it's not at their end so I spoke to GTL this afternoon who have told me that CDCR have blocked all international calls except Canada and Mexico!! So tonight I have spoken to a tollfree forwarding company who have given me a local US number. Hoping this fixes the problem!!!! Please update this if you have any news and I will let you know if my new number works in the next few days.
Thanks for your answer maxi!
Patience is really always required in every way. But what can I say, it worked yesterday. :-) The announcement was different from the previous times. Very easy and all I had to do was press 5 and I was connected. I hope that it will work that easy the next time.
Do you know if we can generally only talk for 15 minutes and then have to call again if we want to talk longer? Or is there another option? I couldn't ask him that yet.
Liebe Grüße
GTL can be such a pain. I'm in Belgium but for high-security CDCR inmates they will not pass it through to Skype usually also a US number does not always work (that will depend on "who the inmate is" and the rights they have) because that works for many people but after a lengthy back and forth in my case it is my Belgium phone.
You can use Advance pay unless he has some free minutes he can use. (Make sure you pay in advance and do not pay attention to their marketing interruptions). Phone time in High Security is a big deal. I sometimes missed the call and they don't have the right to try again an hour later the same day. You can wait for several weeks again....
My other PP in medium also in California but BOP is totally different. Almost normal, calling back 15 minutes later.
I don't know specifically about Saint Quentin but Corcoran level 4 is not fun.
Don't worry, they know to be patient. High security and Super Max is like they are on a desert island. Timing is different and I learned it to have a different meaning.
Alles Gute, ich bin übrigends auch Deutsch.