A quest and a request

After the fourth day and the fifth attempt to figure out  how my daughter could use her One World Telecom prepaid calling card to call home for 9 cents a minute as opposed to the 31 cents a minute on her international cell phone, I decided to go for The ASK.

I didn't get very far. More on that later. That's when I decided to go on a quest-- I want to find out who owns One World prepaid Calling Card. The name on my daughter's card says One World Telecon -- I can't find them.

Perhaps my commitment to go on this quest was inspired by the fact that I have just completed Mark Helprin's Freddy and Fredricka-( a book club book) - Actually it wasn't the book that inspired me, but  R Forzani's review of it on Amazon

"If you decide to read this book, let me give you a bit of advice: You must get in the right frame of mind, which is to say you should temporarily suspend any disbelief, in preparation for some of the literally unbelievable things that happen in this wacky story. Just accept and laugh at some of the situations the two main characters get into, which at times border on the absurd, and you will enjoy this book more. "


That's how I feel about tracking down a company that doesn't want to be found. I have to get in the right frame of mind and temporarily suspend any belief for some of the unbelievable and unacceptable things that happen in a business world where companies play hide & seek with their customers.

This is a racket. My daughter's calling card had a $10 value on it. If you add up the time that I have spent trying to straighten the whole thing out --another person would simply walk away and say "forget it, it's just 10 dollars."

That's the problem. I would imagine a lot of people simply give up and the company gets people to deposit 10 dollars on a calling card that never gets used. You do the math.

If the U.S. Congress found fit to pass a law that makes it a federal offense to send  anonymous annoying emails and anonymous annoying comments on blogs, then surely there has to be a law that states that companies doing commerce in the United States cannot be anonymous to the general public.

So my quest is to find someone in authority at One World Telecom and have them add $5 to my daughter's calling card. ( Okay I would be happy if they add $10 but I was attempting to be more temperate in my request)  That's it. A reasonable request given the circumstances.

The original problem was that the access number on the card was no longer in working order. Neither were the next 3 phone numbers they gave me to have her try.

Now a word for the calling center. They did call me back on two occasions to update me on the problem. However, it wasn't until yesterday afternoon that I finally got a number that worked.

But, when I went for 'The Ask", I was told that they were just the calling center and didn't have the authority to add $5 to her calling card.

In one of my previous conversations I had learned that this particular calling center handled the customer service for 500 different calling cards

When I asked the obvious question, please give me the number of the calling card company so I can chat with them, I was told, " we are not permitted to provide that information."

And so my quest begins.And so does my request. Anyone who has information in the very secretive One World Telecom, please pass that information my way.