My son was in a hospital in Tulsa, Ok, and my son and I live in TN. My son did not have any money on him, so he called me collect, every day, till he was released from the hospital and I was able to drive out to get him. I was charged an out rages price for collect calls. 1 minute cost $8.95m 5 minutes cost $13.55, 22 minutes cost $33.10. My total bill was $442.60 from 9/06 to 9/16. I feel that if I can call long distance for 10 cents a minute, why is collect calls $8.95 for a minute, and why do you get charged for them to say thank you. It does not take a whole minute to say "I'll call you back", takes about 10 seconds if that, the minute a consumer is being charged is them saying "thank you for using ******". I do not think a consumer should pay for their advertising, and there should be some kind of regulation on the amount they charge for a consumer to make a collect call. When you are in a hospital, it is a big trama with out this phone company taking you across and charging a redickless amount to contact home to advise you are in the hospital and how you are doing. $8.95 for a minute is way too much. I am not rich and now at 65 will lose my phone, as their is no way of paying a bill like this, it is my rent money, and I need a place to stay. So, thanks to this company I will not have a phone, and will not be able to contact my doctors. They are robbers, and it should be a law if they can charge this large amount, they should by law have to advise a consumer how much they are going to have to pay per minute.