T-Mobile charging me £125 for making calls to 700034282?

link5

I have a contract with t-mobile since 2 years now. Recently out of the blue I started receiving text messages saying "thank you for texting" or something along those line from a number which I never even seen before (700034282).

I didn't pay any heed and deleted it. But it kept texting back every 10second, each time charging me £1.50. By the time it stopped it already charged me £125.

I have not subscribed to anything or gave out my number. T-mobile said they can't do anything, what shall I do because I don't have £125. Please please advice.

Date/Time Number Called Description Duration Cost 

04/11/2008 12:50:55     700034282         00:00:00     £1.50
04/11/2008 12:50:46     700034282         00:00:00     £1.50
04/11/2008 12:50:39     700034282         00:00:00     £1.50

princessjessica08

T-mobile can tell you what the short code is for that number (5 digit code that is texting you) T-mobile can't give you a refund for this as it is a 3rd party company charging you. What they can do is give you the short code to text stop to, and the companies contact details to contact them for a refund. As I said, T-mobile can't do anything about the company, although, you can ask them to put a bar on all premium sms services for your phone, that way you know you'll be safe in the future.

Jess

wantmemoney

link5 wrote:

I have not subscribed to anything or gave out my number. T-mobile said they can't do anything, what shall I do because I don't have £125. Please please advice.

make a complaint to
http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/consumers/complain/default.asp

I personally would under no way pay T-mobile any money for a service i did not request and did not agree to pay for.

Under the Phonepayplus regulations the text message must contain the price/contact details and clear instructions how to stop the service. This service is clearly not compliant with the pp+ code.

This 'third party' company has the billing agreement with T-mobile (you don't).
The billing agreement between these two is for T-mobile to bill T-mobiles customers on behalf of the 'third party' company.
If this 'third party' company is abusing that agreement to send unsolicited reverse billed premium rate texts to T-mobile customers then that is a matter between T-mobile and their 'third party' clients.

And remember T-mobile is the company charging you on behalf of their clients and
T-mobile is also taking up to 50% of the money before passing the rest on to their clients.

Jon_01

Most networks have a dept to sort these things out, call CS and kick up a fuss they'll soon find someone for you . . .

lawbunny

T-Mobile have a strict "no credits" policy for third party services within customer services. For any chance of a credit you would have to escalate your complaint to customer relations - [EMAIL="cust.rel@t-mobile.co.uk"]cust.rel@t-mobile.co.uk[/EMAIL] (include your telephone number, name and either password if you have one or your address for security).

If you do not pay T-Mobile for these services then your account will be marked with late payments, possibly be suspended and then end up at a debt collection agency. In order to protect your credit file you would be better paying the bill (if possible) whilst you are dealing with the complaint. If they agree to credit anything back then you would get it as a refund.

surfcat

link5 wrote: »

I have a contract with t-mobile since 2 years now. Recently out of the blue I started receiving text messages saying "thank you for texting" or something along those line from a number which I never even seen before (700034282).

I didn't pay any heed and deleted it. But it kept texting back every 10second, each time charging me £1.50. By the time it stopped it already charged me £125.

I have not subscribed to anything or gave out my number. T-mobile said they can't do anything, what shall I do because I don't have £125. Please please advice.

Date/Time Number Called Description Duration Cost 

04/11/2008 12:50:55     700034282         00:00:00     £1.50
04/11/2008 12:50:46     700034282         00:00:00     £1.50
04/11/2008 12:50:39     700034282         00:00:00     £1.50

This sort of !!!! is the reason I'll never take out a mobile phone contract.

barclaysguy

Is a hard one, sign up to anything online? i got caught out a long time ago when i was looking for a job, a website asked me to put my mobile number in. Con artists!

DCFC79

surfcat wrote: »

This sort of !!!! is the reason I'll never take out a mobile phone contract.

but then ive not had any problems and im on orange

nlwsaint

This has started happening to my young son today. He has an O2 payg phone & I topped it up today with £15 credit but it's nearly gone already with spam texts @ £1.50 a time. Only just found out & their cust serv dept is closed til morning.:mad:

redux

I found something on a thread on Grumbletext, a reply someone got from Ofcom

- see the post on 02/05/08

http://www.grumbletext.co.uk/vt.php?t=333&postdays=0&postorder=desc&subj=complaints++SMS+Spam+%28General%29+complaint&start=0

I am grateful to you for having alerted us to this. There does appear to be a problem and it looks to be exactly is as you describe it.
where a customer has a 5 digit short code listed on his itemised bill, he can text "STOP" to that number, and can go on to the PhonepayPlus number checker to verify the identity of the service provider behind the service in question.
however, it seems that T-Mobile and Virgin do not list the 5 digit short code at all on their bills, but instead choose to put an 7000XXXXX "service ID" on their bill alongside each charge.
this means that consumers getting a bill cannot (i) check the identity of the provider through the PhonepayPlus number checker; and (ii) for subscription services, use the "STOP" command.
That's a description of the problem. Two possible solutions:
PhonepayPlus starts listing 7000XXXXX service IDs as part of its number checker;
Virgin and T-Mobile start to list 5 digit short codes on their bills.
The second of these looks like the better solution, not least because the first still does not allow the consumer to use the STOP command.

We are engaging with the mobile operators to understand better why they use 8700XXXXX service IDs rather than list the 5 digit short code.

I consider this to be a serious issue as, on the face of it, it makes it harder for consumers to validate their usage of phonepaid services and to opt out of particular subscription services. We are working with PhonepayPlus to find a way forward on this.

I wonder if Ofcom and PhonePayPlus have made any progress on this in the last 5 months? And why T-mobile don't appear to have changed anything ...

A guess at removing the leading 7000 and searching the result on PhonePayPlus got nowhere

alex99

@redux

you wrote:

"I wonder if Ofcom and PhonePayPlus have made any progress on this in the last 5 months?"

As the original recipient of this letter from Ofcom, I can confirm that no progress whatsoever has been made since this letter was sent. T-mobile (and Virgin) are refusing to budge and Ofcom are continuing to wring their hands. Phonepayplus simply refuse to engage on this question.

And no, you cannot infer the real shortcode from the 7000 number and these numbers are not published anywhere. The only way to identify them is to ring T-mobile (Virgin - same infrastructure) and insist on speaking to someone who has heard of these numbers.

Better still would be if any victims of these practices cut through the Gordian knot and took their network providers straight to the small claims court each and every time. That would stop it!

:mad: