T-Mobile - calls to 07404 (Lycamobile) excluded from allowance

chattychappy

chattychappy wrote: »

Incidentally, the ASA has just extended it's scope to include websites...

Correction, as of tomorrow.

I'm sure they will be very busy as people start sending them complaints about every website which is, in some way, misleading.

adencooled

simax wrote: »

So what would happen if you took a Lycamobile number and ported it to O2/Orange/T-Mobile?

That would be funny! Getting one of these numbers ported in to T-Mobile. Let's see them explain that!!

in jan i brought a "gold number" from ebay, which was on lycra

started 07424, i then ported this into orange around the 8/1/11, since then my wife has been charged for ringing me, on jan and febs bill i got the charges removed, and the customer service agent in feb that this wouldnt happen again.

i check the tmobile site today, and were still being charged, after a few "heated" calls to tmobile, they have told me that this number will/ is treated still as a lycra number, as per in my terms and conditions section 3.7 (which i dont have)

so it looks like im going to have to get a new number

redux

Buzby wrote: »

The Lyca network has a particularly high rate, this is because ...

BT charge 11.97 pence a minute at all times to call Lycamobile numbers

BT charge 13.00 pence a minute at peak times to call T-mobile numbers

(residential rates)

lapsa22

chattychappy wrote: »

I called customer services and they refunded the charges. The guy said the number was "probably some kind of virtual number sitting on top of a real one" and that's why it was charged that way. But anyway he would refund it.

I said that that didn't explain why it had been annotated as "international" - he agreed. He also thought that all personal numbers were in the range 070... this was 074.

Anyway - no point in arguing it. It was a small amount and they refunded it without question. He also said he "refreshed" my account so I shouldn't be charged during this cycle...

Since, you have said that they refunded, will you be able provide some sort of proofs. I would like to write a complain, because they charge me a lot as well for calling 074 number sayings its like and they never informed as that number was not a UK mobile number! Thanks could you please kindly provide like a support document that it have been refunded. thanks! You can post it to my e-mail address: sluxman@gmail.com or lapsa22@gmail.com. Thanks again. Your help would be appreciatable!

phild145

I have a 07412 number which is on the 3 network and is from them direct

ftmo

I was charged around an extra 50 pounds by tmo. I called up t-mobile; the lady (probably gathering beforehand I was gonna ask for a refund before she took the call) talking in a 'buttery' though polite tone. I managed to talk to get 25 pounds, but that was nothing considering that another 15 pounds were already charged in my current cycle, for which they did no refund. I should've talked for more, but didn't feel like so since for me it felt like they are using customer care execs as human shields(metaphorically). :mad:

Anyway, if you are seeing this thread before you are calling up, insist on a full refund, don't fall for your soft side or emotion, and make some disapproval if they don't, even some light growls would help.

Anyway, this is from T-mobile site:

What's a UK mobile call?
This is a call made within the UK to a mobile number allocated to a customer of what's called a national UK GSM cellular network - more commonly known as a mobile network. At the moment, the national GSM cellular networks in the UK belong to Hutchison 3G, O2, Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile. Calls to one of the mobile operators exclusively using numbers allocated to these networks (eg Virgin, Tesco, Fresh) are treated the same.
There are some newer networks whose customers have a telephone number starting with 07, but which aren't treated as a UK mobile call (or text) for the purpose of allowances, Boosters and rewards (or any other bundle of inclusive services) on any pay as you go, SIM only or pay monthly plan. This means that calls or texts to some numbers starting with 07 aren't treated as UK mobile calls or texts. These include (but may not be limited to) some numbers beginning with the following sequences:
07404 07405 07408 07417 07424 07466
075202 075594 075894 075895 075896 075897
07609 07610 07621 07682 077077 0782210
078228 078920 078921 078931 079112 079118
079788

This means if you call one of those numbers, that call won't come out of your inclusive allowance and you'll be charged your price plan's rate for a call to a UK mobile. Special Access Numbers also begin with 07, are not included in allowances and are charged as detailed on page 2 of our 'What it costs' PDF.
As networks like these change from time to time, please contact us if you would like to check a particular number before dialling it from your T-Mobile phone.

As you see, at least some numbers in each of 074 to 079 range don't come under 'allowance'. Note the 'not limited to' clause. Perhaps we ought to contact them for each number we dial. Would they dare to put these even in smallprint next to their offer? I'm not sure whether I signed up for these because Fonehouse didn't give me a copy of the terms and conditions; I have only the front page(of 8 pages) which which says in very small print that I should've read the T&C before I signed; not sure whether they did this to save paper or to hide this fact :mad:

In other words every number we call is suspect; t-mobile then ought to send a text message each time we make a call to tell whether it is charged or not, or we ought to call 150 each time we make a call.

A good idea would be to send a list of 1000 07xxxxx numbers each day asking them to verify which all are callable under 'allowances'. If they reply with a set of prefixes I think it's ok to ask them to indicate which numbers come under which prefixes. I think we have every right to. :mad:

If it's too difficult for them to verify which numbers are chargeable, or text us when we make a call, then so it is for us to verify our numbers against 100 prefixes before calling. :mad:

How would this be for an advert? "Some numbers starting from 074, 075, 076, 077, 078 and 079 are chargeable on t-mobile" . How about that as a t-shirt caption? That's straight from horse mouth.

colmax

This is really stupid, I have just been billed £2.35 for a 9 minute call this morning. I only found out when I checked what my allowance balance was this evening.

I am 17 days into a 24 month contract and am disgusted that they have been so underhanded about this. I have a mobile full of numbers which I never check before calling, I have no idea if they are on Lyca mobile or not. I will be leaving as soon as my contract is up, sadly that is a long way away. I can't stand the idea of having to worry about every call I make.

Thankfully I noticed this before I put my wife on T-mobile too. She is on O2 so I will be using her phone to call my Lyca friends. I have over 200 regular customers and I will be telling them all about this scam of T-mobile. One of them is an editor at a well know tabloid newspaper, so perhaps there might be a mention of this in there.

I regret moving away from Vodafone, they have thier faults but I could at least trust them...

colmax

I have gone through my address book and entered all 25 prefixes under the name "Charged". While I am dialing numbers that I dont have in the address book the auto search shows every matching number and when a charged prefix is dialed it shows in the info bar at the top of the phone list. When I get missed calls that I dont recognise I just write the number down and type it in again to check it. That is helping me to filter calls a bit better.

I am counting the days to leave T-mobile......

colmax

If there are any android app developers, this is an app I would buy... One which would allow prefixes to be entered and give a warning before calls are made begining with those numbers.

That way we could enter all these prefixes along with 0845 0800 etc and be reminded of the fact they are charged before making the call.

colmax

Sorry to keep bleating about this, but I got charged this week for two other things.

First, I was called by T-mobile regarding an unpaid bill which had already been resolved but thier computer had not been updated yet. They called me on a 0845 number which I happened to touch on the screen as I was making another call and it auto-dialed. I hit disconnect but the call was picked up and I was charged 41p for a 1 second call. I now have an app which askes if I really want to make a call before allowing it to go out. T-mobile refused to refund the charge saying I "need to be careful what I dial"!!! Don't forget I only had the number in my phone because T-mobile called me from an 0845 number.

Second I called vodafone yesterday using an 07836 number which is not in the 25 prefixes mentioned on the web site. Guess what, I was charged £1.77 for the 20 min call. T-mobile customer dis-services told me that they are not in the habit of giving me free minutes to call their competitors!!!! So really this demonstrates that they can just pick any number they dont feel like paying for and charging for it without putting it on their list of numbers first.

In my humble opinion T-mobile seem to be very dishonest and don't have a clue about customer services. Just 22 more months till I can leave!!!:mad: