£1.50 text charge?????

Thanks for the info.
I called Orange and they are crediting me back the money.
But thanks for the info as it's useful to know.

Czarina wrote: »

Unbelievable!!! First, Phoneboxdirect has gone bust without paying even a penny of my cashback. Rang Vodafone last December (as they are my providers) asked if I could change my tariff to a lower one because of what happened, the man on the other line said, yes, he said I can have it for around £21 (75mins free). I agreed and I made it clear to him that I will have this tariff disconnected on the 12th month of my contract and he said, yes, I can write to them just before the 6th of Feb to have it disconnected.
And yet, today, I got my bill and they have extended my contract to 18months. I am really furious.
Apart from that, I started getting unsolicited texts from a 88850100001155 since the 9th of this month, Rang vodafone straight away, their advise is to ignore it because I won't be billed bec when I open the texts it says cannot be viewed. I decided to check my bill 3 days ago and I noticed I've been billed. So, I rang Voda again, this time the man said to text back STOP and it should do it. Today, three days after that call, I'm still getting the text messages around 5-10 a day.. AArrrGGHH!!!! I'm really really annoyed. I thought, I'd post here just to lighten my anger a bit.
Any suggestions or anything you can say about the matter will be most welcome.

Hi,

This happened to a friend of mine, he was inundated with these messages costing £1.50 a text. He never realised every message was costing him. Sometimes he got up to 50 a day, he tried sending back STOP but nothing. Only when O2 barred his phone did he realise what had happened. These messages had run up a £600+ bill which is now being investigated. I would advise you look into this urgently before you to get landed with a huge bill.

MM

I posted my experience on another thread - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=670875

Today, after contacting PhonePayPlus, the perpetrator, Job Updates (acting it seems with Orbit Interactive) sent me a £5 note in compensation.

It strikes me as odd that so many of these compensation payments are IN CASH, are they trying to hide them from accountants ?

It seems to me the law should be toughened up. Quite simply, reverse billing should be BANNED, if you want to purchase a service by SMS then the CUSTOMER must authorise the payment (e.g. by replying ACCEPT to a text message requesting payment).

I have follow this thread and I do not believe it is the right way of doing this. The common solution is to Text Stop to so and so, and hoping it is going to stop and even send our money back.

If we have not signed up any of these texts, we do not have to pay for it. All the mobile network is trying to convince us that it is down to us to do sth to sort it out and DO NOT FOLLOW THEIR ADVICE!!! AS THEY ARE PART OF THE SCAM!!!!
Network would get profit from this for sure!!!

If sb ask O2/Amazon/Parcel Force to send me a Tank without my permission and O2 or whoever delivers it to my front door and then invoice me for £1M. Do I have to pay it? Absolutely not! Text message has no difference to Tank!! as the principle applies.

Network is hiding behind the claim that we might sign up sth without even knowing it... ... and the scammer will charge Network and Network has no choice but to pass on the charges. Absolutely Nonsense.

Network need to go back to scammer for proof to support any charge. Honestly, they should do it even before deliver the text. Why don't they do it, apart from laziness, they are part of it.

Bottom line is: Do not pay it. Call your network, refuse to pay! They have gave you a service without your order. Charge me?!, prove it that I order it in the first place.

Until network feel it is increasingly difficult to benefit from these scams, they wouldn't do anything about it. Until they do, this will never stop.

John_Youles wrote: »

How can you refuse to pay if you are on pre-paid ? The only answer is to switch to another telco which I intend to do when the credit on my phone runs out.

Ask your credit back. Do not just let them get away with it and soon you might get another bite fro the new supplier.