Virgin claim i have sent texts to premium number that i havent plaese help

grimlea

overdraft wrote: »

Think your self lucky that you have been caught for just £50, I have just been caught for £4445.38 on my 15yr olds contract phone, yes that right 4 and a 1/2 grand!! This started in December to a shortcode number run by MX telecom!! I have been in contact with PPP, I really dont know what to do...how the hell am I going to get this money back?? the child was under age!! these chat lines are meant to be for over 18s. Orange have also told me that there is another £906 owing for over 800 texts that were sent in 3 days!! Surely there has got to be some mistake? Just dont know where to turn. How the hell could Orange let a contract that has been for just £25pm rocket to this much without letting me, the bill payer know?? when we dialled 150 to check the balance these bills never showed . Big big shock. Also many thanks to the Halifax for letting this UNUSUAL amount just go out of our account no questions asked!!

i hate to say it, but it always amazes me that people give their children a pay monthly phone which has a credit facility linked to it.

don't do it people - learn from this post. the number of times i've heard things like "well my little jimmy wouldn't use his phone like that" or the classsic "but jenny is only 8, she doesn't even know how to text" or "i know my son, there is no way he would run up a bill like this, i'm not paying".

I feel I know & trust my daughter, but she won't be getting a monthly contract phone until she is old enough to get one in her own name.

btw, all pay monthly phones (as far as i'm aware) will not have a age restriction bar on the services, basically because you have to be 18 to set up the contract. Phone companies are not mind readers, they will only put the bar in place if you request it.

overdraft

Just thought I would update you on the latest in this horror story, Orange has kindly sent me my last bill, not £906 plust the cut off charge of £113 as I was advised but for a staggering £5818.97!!so thats a total of £10264.35!!! this is from the 3rd Dec so called when the texts started to the 19th Jan when we stopped the phone...I'm in the wrong bloody job!! Trying not to panic about it as this is SOOO wrong as to be unreal

medders2604

Have you asked your 15 year old if they ever sent a text to a premium number? Did they not tell you/you notice they were receiving so many texts?
Sorry don't mean to sound abrupt but I notice if my mates 15 year old is receiving loads of texts when I am at their house and so does her Mum, surely what must be almost constant beeping of a phone when a message is delivered is noticed or even if on silent you must have noticed your 15 year old with mobile in their hand a lot.
If not and it is all incorrect billing somehow good luck at getting it sorted.

Soubrette

overdraft wrote: »

Just thought I would update you on the latest in this horror story, Orange has kindly sent me my last bill, not £906 plust the cut off charge of £113 as I was advised but for a staggering £5818.97!!so thats a total of £10264.35!!! this is from the 3rd Dec so called when the texts started to the 19th Jan when we stopped the phone...I'm in the wrong bloody job!! Trying not to panic about it as this is SOOO wrong as to be unreal

Have you contacted payphoneplus yet? They will give you the intermediary (such as mblox, dialogue communications etc), if you contact these people then they can tell you when and if your child signed up for this service.

If they did not sign up then these are unsolicited texts so complain to payphoneplus and ask both the intermediary and the texting company for a full refund (plus expenses).

If your child did sign up for these services then I would take the position that my permission was not asked before being signed up - I think (but don't quote me on this) that there is case law that says that if a minor spends money on non essentials then it is not a binding contract. Particularly as Orange refuse to block these chargeable incoming texts.

Consider getting your child a t-mobile contract as apparently they can block these premium rate texts.

Good luck

Sou

sporedude

Phone companies normally wont do a thing about 3rd party SMS

overdraft

Medders, thats the strange thing, his phone hasnt been receiving the texts, we took the phone off of him on the 19th and I had it with me, the bill says that texts were sent and received from 05:30 in the morning until just after 13:30...I HAD THE PHONE it would have been going bonkers as the texts were so called coming every minute...it received nothing and I most certainly didnt send anything!!
Soubrette, Yes I jave been in touch with PPP, fat lot of good it did me, they just say the service was requested on 3rd Dec, he swears that he never did this, I also have been advised about the point in law of his "capacity to contract" as he was a minor. Thankyou both for the replies and I intend to keep fighting...cant afford not to!
Sporedude, you are a little ray of sunshine arent you(joke)

sporedude

I know I am a little ray of sunshine, But you admitted that the texts where requested from the handset, Doesnt matter if the person was 15 or not, You have no leg to stand on in the battle.

medders2604

Overdraft - That is very very strange, sounds to me like the only way you could ever prove it would have been while the phone was connected taking it into an orange store and spending the day there with them watching the phone as well so they could confirm that no texts came through and then seeing if any had been billed for that date.
No use now I know.

Good luck sorting it out although I have no idea how.

Just a thought but does anyone know if sim cards can be cloned in a similar way to credit/debit cards? If so Overdraft it may be worth checking through the rest of the bill and looking for any calls to numbers that you don't recognise and calling them maybe if cloning does happen the person that cloned has made calls as well and you could track it that way. Only a thought and appreciate that I may be just having paranoid conspiracy theories going on in my brain!

Jon_01

overdraft wrote: »

Just thought I would update you on the latest in this horror story, Orange has kindly sent me my last bill, not £906 plust the cut off charge of £113 as I was advised but for a staggering £5818.97!!so thats a total of £10264.35!!! this is from the 3rd Dec so called when the texts started to the 19th Jan when we stopped the phone...I'm in the wrong bloody job!! Trying not to panic about it as this is SOOO wrong as to be unreal

Have you escalated this ?
There are people at Orange who will look into this (I used to sit next to a lady who did these). They can go through the call logs and see who sent what to who when. Don't let the drones on CS tell you there's nothing that can be done. Go up the chain to a team leader or a manager they'll know which dept can get this looked at...