Non itemised bills - unlawful?

scheming_gypsy

it is indeed sir.... i've been hiding but popping back occasionally.

with online bills its probably to do with differentiating (sp) between an online bill and a sent bill. I can view my bill online but also get a paper copy.
Is it just online billing or do you get a paper one as well? its whether they'd be able to split sending a paper bill with just how much you owe and showing you all online or if you see exactly online what you get through the post.

bunking_off

Parliament laid down law over-rides Ofcom regulations. However, Ofcom have a very large group of lawyers that ensures that their regulations aren't at odds with UK law. I'm not saying they can't get it wrong, though.

The mistake of the last few posts is to assume that the charge made for a service has to have any linkage whatsoever with the cost of provision : the regulation says the charge should be "reasonable", not "cost based". For online billing, I'd say the cost is probably zero (much as the incremental cost of e.g. enabling CLI display is zero)...the whole trick of capitalism is to charge more for something than it costs you to provide, and if the customer doesn't like the charge they'll move to a competitor with a lower one.

stevemLS

We're talking about 5 calls under 50p - so absolute max £2.50.

I know they say that if you look after the pennies.......

But, this is going too far.

As I understand it, Ofcom has power delegated (by Parliament) to make regulations relating to the licences granted to telecoms companies. Others above have pointed out the relevant part of the regulations.

Surely there are bigger fish to fry?

energyemployee

Im not being funny but I work for a major energy company in the high level complaints team and what you are doing is pointless. Its probably soting you more to make the complaint than the cost of the calls in total and you wont see a penny of it back and may even encure extra charges to see the calls made! If you want an itemised bill, write your phone calls down and time them!

ffylip

This is doomed to fail, not least because you will have almost certainly (and freely) signed a contract with the provider in which you agreed not to be provided with itemised billing data below a de minimis limit UNLESS you paid an additional fee.

There IS a cost to providers in retaining full details of a customer's call, rather than the summary cost, which is why the government has to chuck large sums of money their way every year to obtain historic data for investigation purposes under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers and Interception Acts.

If you were either too tight to stump up for fully itemised billing, or didn't bother to read the terms of the contract then don't expect your MP, or Ofcom, to come to your assistance - it's not what we pay then to do.

Caveat emptor!

[Deleted User]

Accepting everything that has been said previously - I queried the charge with Virgin and they not only wrote it off but they also sent me the details of the calls that my OH had made!