Beware texting 118118 questions

ladycat_2

Just got a nasty shock when I looked at my bank account, direct debit for £70 plus taken for daughter's Virgin mobile phone bill this month. Instantly rang Virgin to find out why, as it should only cost me £10 a month. Apparently she'd been texting questions to the 118118 ask us any question service (as advertised on TV recently) and they'd been texting the answers to her. The reply texts are a premium rate service costing £1 per minute and she'd asked 54 questions! Premium rate calls aren't included in the Virgin bundle that I pay for, hence the charges. Stern words ensued and she's promised not to ask any more questions of the 118118 service. The helpful lady that I spoke to at Virgin said that they's had a lot of people ringing up with similar queries, as it's obvious that neither parents nor children are aware of how much these 118118 calls cost. She also said that if you text 118118 with the the message "STOP ALL" it will prevent 118118 sending premium rate texts to the phone concerned.

Hope this saves you a nasty suprise bill!

Crazy_Jamie

Whilst I suppose it's easy for a teenager to fall into something like this, it is a silly and naive mistake to make. I mean, did she actually think the service was free? Very few things with mobile phones are. At least it's a lesson learned for further down the line.

Money_Grabber13579

This was on Watchdog last week. It appears that even for your pound, it can't be guaranteed that the answers are right!

Crazy_Jamie

Money_Grabber13579 wrote: »

This was on Watchdog last week. It appears that even for your pound, it can't be guaranteed that the answers are right!

Just like when you ring them up it can't be guaranteed that they even know anything about England.

robt_2

Another reason why you shouldn't take out a contract for someone else.

Although it is 100% her fault and nobody elses, including 118118.

mistyarthur

I used them a couple of times (I knew it was a pound) but the answers were rubbish. So I complained to them and they asked for my mobile number and they said they'd send a cheque covering the cost for the inccorect/irrelevant answers...still waiting. Aqa are much better if you actually want to use a service like that anyway.