FiServ is the apparently the puppet-master behind CBS/Evercom (Correctional Billing Services), a company that handles outbound calls from detainees and inmates at correctional facilities across the USA. Most people, including me and a family member, use the prepaid option with CBS/Evercom, and payments can be made online.

FiServ, however, makes it as hard as possible to fund these accounts on any kind of timely basis to stay in touch with family members with seemingly ridiculous rules posted NOWHERE. Transgress one of their rules, like trying to make more than one payment in a 24 hr. period, and they lock out your credit card for a week.

They will only allow CBS/Evercom to accept one payment per 24 hours per credit or debit card. You may know this, or not, or have known it and forgotten, but the "fail" response on CBS/E's system doesn't necessarily tell you WHY the payment attempt failed---so you try again, thinking you typed a wrong number. Try more than once, and your card is locked out for a week.

It doesn't make sense not to let me make more than one payment in 24 hrs. to begin with---I have plenty of money in the bank, and I am trying to give CBS/Evercom $100 each on two accounts.

The unfailingly polite customer service reps at CBS/Evercom with whom I've spoken and IM'd numerous times are bound by FiServ's rules, yet cannot explain why they exist.

What's missed here is the human story---families have NO OPTIONS except to use CBS/Evercom, and sometimes it takes 10 days or more to maneuver through the many hoops and rules and penalties imposed to prepay the account so the family member can call collect. The c/s rep at CBS/Evercom told me tonight, "FiServ is strict about these rules."

The correctional calling system stinks, and the stench comes from FiServ. If YOU have a family member or friend in a US correctional facility, see if the telecommunications company handling the calls uses FiServ for their payment processing. If so, call the public relations office at BOTH companies and tell them what you think. Also, tip off a reporter in your local newspaper, and ask him or her to do an investigative report on the whole correctional facilities calling rip-off. We CAN change this if we ban together.