Home Phone Question

Zebra

I help look after the finances of a friend, who has difficulty managing her finances due to illness. She recently received a very large bill from Talk Talk for her home phone use, which has now been paid.

We can't find an itemised bill, if one was sent, and I'm at a loss to think where the charges have come from - my friend insists that she han't used the phone that much, but it could be her or her teenage son either calling friend's mobiles or his father overseas.

We aren't challenging the bill, and accept that the calls have been made, but are looking for advice how to reduce the bills in future.

Is it possible to cancel the home phone package, whilst retaining the line for broadband, or even cancel the phone line entirely and rely on payg mobiles and mobile internet access, or can we make it accept incoming calls but not allow outgoing calls, or is there some other way to limit the phone's useage?

I do appreciate that the simplest method is just not to make the calls in the first place or remove the handset entirely but would appreciate any other constructive suggestions - thank you.

Buzby

If you can aaccess the account - why not try to view online or ask for a copy itemised bill? It may cost, but at least it will answer the unaswered questions. As for the phone - you need a working line to have BB piggy-backed onto it, so cancellation isn;t an option unless you switch to wireless.

If you do this, other issues arise - it costs more (especially with 'fair use' caps) and is prone to being slow at times of high usage- more so than normal ADSL, so view this as the nuclear option for the last resort!

Tommyh

Definately try to see the bill and the number that have been called. If there are calls being made overseas then get the caller to use an international phonecard and ban them straight from the phone. If its mainly to mobile phones then you can get those blocked by a pin code, my friends parents added one to his phoneline about 10 years ago but they lost the number so it's still on there lol.
Speak to the company also and see what they can suggest, they'll probably be a little apprehensive at first because it's less money for them but if you can't afford the bill then some is better than none.
Maybe look around for another broadband provider and see if its cheaper else where.

Zebra

Thanks Buzby and Tommy - as you say, we need to get an itemised bill before going any further.

Tommyh wrote: »

If there are calls being made overseas then get the caller to use an international phonecard and ban them straight from the phone. If its mainly to mobile phones then you can get those blocked by a pin code

How do we do that - do we need to speak to the provider?