Problem with Invoices from Call18866/1899 (merged)

Heinz

ianking wrote: »

I too received invoices all dated 2/7/10, all for varying amounts and all containing NO call itemisation. I haven't used them for 2 or 3 years. I queried it & received back the "We may be experiencing a technical difficulty with our invoicing system at present. Please excuse any inconvenience this may be causing you." email this morning.

Late last night I phoned the bank. The debit card I used for 18866 expired 18 months ago. But the bank say its a "continuous payment authorisation" whatever that means so the bank say that although the payment has failed this time, it is possible for the merchant to obtain payment eventually as the bank will honour it. The bank say it's to allow for payments to be made when cards have just expired & prevent loss of service for example. I can sort of see the logic behind that for recent transactions but not a merchant trying to use a completely different card card number and a long expired expiry date. I did say that to the bank but they said it could still happen. I can't see that myself but has anyone got any comments?

Also there are going to be people who don't actually owe 18866 any money BUT have valid card details & presumably their bank account will get debited. What happens if this then makes them considerably overdrawn? I've just totalled the invoices I got sent & it's well over £200... more than the total I've ever paid to them.

Best Regards... Ian

Martin warned over 6 years ago that allowing continuous payment authority on a debit or credit card is more dangerous than a direct debit - simply because in the former, you cannot cancel, the retailer has to.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=7485&postcount=1

Pre-www.moneysavingexpert.com (back in 2002), Martin's input was used by the BBC Radio 4's Money Box programme too.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/2099270.stm

Having said all that, I'm fairly certain no calls for payment have been made for any of these bogus (for want of a better word) invoices.

tagz

Me too.

Haven't used them for 6 years. The email says I owe them £2.04 and has all my details apart from my phone number. I got it yesterday but it was also dated 2nd July.

MyUserNamesTaken

Got this reply from them this morning:

helpdesk 27-07-2010 Dear customers,

We may be experiencing a technical difficulty with our invoicing system at present. Please excuse any inconvenience this may be causing you. Our IT department has been advised of the issue and is looking in the matter at hand.

Kindest regards,
Customer Service

MyUserNamesTaken

I got this from them this morning in reply to my help desk query last night (having received an invoice for £9.89 for a service I have not used in over 3.5 years):

helpdesk 27-07-2010 Dear customers,

We may be experiencing a technical difficulty with our invoicing system at present. Please excuse any inconvenience this may be causing you. Our IT department has been advised of the issue and is looking in the matter at hand.

Kindest regards,
Customer Service

bayla_2

I'm so relieved to find this thread. Like many others I haven't used 18866 for at least two years, so was shocked to find 14 invoices in my inbox, all dated 2/7/10 for varying amounts, and am unable to log in and unsubscribe from the service and remove my cc details (which are probably out of date anyway) Wasted a good hour online late last night trying to sort this out.....

EDIT: Just got the following email from them:

Dear 18866 user,

Due to a technical error in our system we accidentally sent out incorrect invoices.
Please ignore these invoices and we apologize for any inconvenience!

Best regards,

The 18866 team

PHEW!!!

tagz

Hi

I've just got off the phone to my bank (Santander) and they told me that they can't take any money out if the card details are out of date. I tried asking about "continuous payment authorisation" and had to explain the concept to him a few times and he still said no they can't do that! I was speaking to an overseas callcentre and did wonder if maybe he understood me (he kept saying credit card instead of debit when I don't have one). The gist of it was if I find something taken off my account I should call the disputes number!!!

KevinB

I've been using Call18866 at home for a few years and suddenly received 6 invoices overnight, all for payment on the same day, and all for different amounts. Trawling the web shows that they're notoriously hard to contact, so I started digging a little.

This is what I have found

c:\>tracert call18866 (dot) co (dot) uk
Tracing route to call18866 (dot) co (dot) uk [77.72.174.19]

then using a reverse "whois" lookup I get

whois (dot) domaintools (dot) com/77(dot)72(dot)174(dot)19
NetRange: 77.0.0.0 - 77.255.255.255
CIDR: 77.0.0.0/8
OriginAS:
NetName: 77-RIPE
NetHandle: NET-77-0-0-0-1
Parent:
NetType: Allocated to RIPE NCC
NameServer: TINNIE.ARIN.NET
NameServer: SUNIC.SUNET.SE
NameServer: NS-PRI.RIPE.NET
NameServer: SEC3.APNIC.NET
NameServer: NS2.LACNIC.NET
NameServer: SEC1.APNIC.NET
Comment: These addresses have been further assigned to users in
Comment: the RIPE NCC region. Contact information can be found in
Comment: the RIPE database at www (dot) ripe (dot) net/whois
RegDate: 2006-08-29
Updated: 2009-05-18
Ref: whois (dot) arin (dot) net/rest/net/NET-77-0-0-0-1

OrgName: RIPE Network Coordination Centre
OrgId: RIPE
Address: P.O. Box 10096
City: Amsterdam
StateProv:
PostalCode: 1001EB
Country: NL
RegDate:
Updated: 2004-12-13
Ref: whois (dot) arin (dot) net/rest/org/RIPE

ReferralServer: whois (dot) ripe (dot) net:43

== Additional Information From whois . ripe . net:43 ==

inetnum: 77.72.174.0 - 77.72.174.255
netname: Finarea
descr: Finarea SA
mnt-domains: MNT-Comnet-int
country: CH
admin-c: MH5885-RIPE
tech-c: MH5885-RIPE
status: ASSIGNED PA
mnt-by: MNT-Comnet-int
source: RIPE # Filtered

person: M Holland
address: ComNet International B.V.
address: PO BOX 10552
address: 1001 EN
address: Amsterdam
address: NL
phone: +318000231753
nic-hdl: MH5885-RIPE
source: RIPE # Filtered

route: 77.72.174.0/24
descr: Finarea SA
origin: AS42416
mnt-by: MNT-Comnet-int
source: RIPE # Filtered

Then, I Google searched for ComNet International and I get

bgp (dot) he (dot) net/AS42416#_whois
% This is the RIPE Database query service.
% The objects are in RPSL format.
%
% The RIPE Database is subject to Terms and Conditions.
% See www (dot) ripe (dot) net/db/support/db-terms-conditions.pdf

% Note: This output has been filtered.
% To receive output for a database update, use the "-B" flag.

% Information related to 'AS41984 - AS43007'

as-block: AS41984 - AS43007
descr: RIPE NCC ASN block
remarks: These AS Numbers are further assigned to network
remarks: operators in the RIPE NCC service region. AS
remarks: assignment policy is documented in:
remarks: RIPE NCC members can request AS Numbers using the
remarks: form available in the LIR Portal or at:
org: ORG-NCC1-RIPE
admin-c: CREW-RIPE
tech-c: RD132-RIPE
mnt-by: RIPE-DBM-MNT
mnt-lower: RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered

organisation: ORG-NCC1-RIPE
org-name: RIPE NCC
org-type: RIR
address: RIPE Network Coordination Centre
address: P.O. Box 10096
address: 1001 EB Amsterdam
address: The Netherlands
phone: +31 20 535 4444
fax-no: +31 20 535 4445
admin-c: CREW-RIPE
tech-c: CREW-RIPE
mnt-ref: RIPE-NCC-RIS-MNT
mnt-ref: RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT
mnt-by: RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered

role: RIPE NCC Registration Services Department
address: RIPE Network Coordination Centre
address: P.O. Box 10096
address: 1001 EB Amsterdam
address: the Netherlands
phone: +31 20 535 4444
fax-no: +31 20 535 4445
org: ORG-NCC1-RIPE
admin-c: AdlH1-RIPE
admin-c: ACM2-RIPE
tech-c: TIM4-RIPE
tech-c: KL1200-RIPE
tech-c: IW112-RIPE
tech-c: PINK1-RIPE
tech-c: XAV
tech-c: AKA
tech-c: SD1131-RIPE
tech-c: SLON-RIPE
tech-c: ALEX
tech-c: DIRK1-RIPE
tech-c: NATH
tech-c: ARNE
tech-c: SHAR1-RIPE
tech-c: DEV82-RIPE
tech-c: MdB176-RIPE
tech-c: MSCH2-RIPE
tech-c: TA2370-RIPE
tech-c: GAV
nic-hdl: CREW-RIPE
abuse-mailbox: abuse @ ripe.net
mnt-by: RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered

role: RIPE DBM
remarks: ****************************************************
remarks: Information about the RIPE Database can be found at:
remarks: www (dot) ripe (dot) net/db/index(dot)html
remarks: ****************************************************
nic-hdl: RD132-RIPE
org: ORG-NCC1-RIPE
address: RIPE Network Coordination Centre
address: P.O. Box 10096
address: 1001 EB Amsterdam
address: The Netherlands
phone: +31 20 535 4444
fax-no: +31 20 535 4445
abuse-mailbox: abuse @ ripe.net
admin-c: DW-RIPE
tech-c: DW-RIPE
tech-c: INTY1-RIPE
tech-c: HAJ-RIPE
tech-c: GRUM-RIPE
tech-c: PP-RIPE
tech-c: RIPE124-RIPE # Nagios stuff
tech-c: DUMY-RIPE # placeholder object for dummification
mnt-by: RIPE-DBM-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered

% Information related to 'AS42416'

aut-num: AS42416
as-name: COMNET-AS
descr: AS Comnet international BV
org: ORG-CI22-RIPE
admin-c: RS7200-RIPE
tech-c: MH5885-RIPE
mnt-by: MNT-Comnet-int
remarks: Peering requests/questions: peering @ comnet.nl
remarks: 24x7 support tel +491801250360
source: RIPE # Filtered

organisation: ORG-CI22-RIPE
org-name: Comnet International
org-type: LIR
address: PO BOX 10552
address: 1001 EN
address: AMSTERDAM
address: Netherlands
phone: +318000231753
fax-no: +318000231754
admin-c: MH5885-RIPE
admin-c: RS7200-RIPE
mnt-ref: MNT-Comnet-int
mnt-ref: RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT
mnt-by: RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered

person: R Slootweg
address: ComNET International B.V.
address: PO BOX 10552
address: 1001 EN
address: Amsterdam
address: NL
phone: +318000231753
nic-hdl: RS7200-RIPE
source: RIPE # Filtered

person: M Holland
address: ComNet International B.V.
address: PO BOX 10552
address: 1001 EN
address: Amsterdam
address: NL
phone: +318000231753
nic-hdl: MH5885-RIPE
source: RIPE # Filtered

The important info seems to be this:

2 individuals, M Holland and R Slootweg are named, and their telephone/fax numbers are +318000231753 and +318000231754 resepctively.

If I don't get a reply by email, I will be phoning them...

Incidentally, I sent the same email to services @ call18866.co.uk, services @ finarea.ch and admin @ finarea.ch as well as using the "contact us" form on www . finarea . ch... I wonder if I'll get any replies at all???

KevinM

I received this reply from my "report a fault" e-mail I sent to call18866 last night:

helpdesk 27-07-2010

Dear customer,

We may be experiencing a technical difficulty with our systems at present. Please excuse any inconvenience this may be causing you. Our IT department has been advised of the issue and is looking in the matter at hand.

Kindest regards,
Customer Service

So, looks like they are at least aware of the problem...what they do, is a different matter though.

rebgershon

Just received this reply from 18866 tech support titled 'Incorrect Invoices':

Dear 18866 user,

Due to a technical error in our system we accidentally sent out incorrect invoices.
Please ignore these invoices and we apologize for any inconvenience!

Best regards,

The 18866 team

so looks like we're all off the hook. I shall now cancel my 18866 account if the system will let me in!:)

SALOPMAN

Just had this reply from them in email:

Dear 18866 user,

Due to a technical error in our system we accidentally sent out incorrect invoices.
Please ignore these invoices and we apologize for any inconvenience!

Best regards,

The 18866 team