Mobile bill is a little high Dad!

wuckfit

can you get access to the phone to get the call duration statistics? that might be able to give some clues as to what has happened.
I've worked out that you could rack that sort of bill by callling

£1.50 p/min (+vat) for 80 hrs (over 1 month this would be 2.5-3 hrs every day)
£3.00 p/min (+vat) for 40 hrs (over 1 month this would be 1-1.5hrs every day)


but then there's also text messgaes. has she been trying to evict someone from the Big Brother House? (at 50p + standard message rate, that could be 15,000 messages :eek: )

The_Tax_Mans_Cash_Machine

Hello,
and WOW ! :eek:

It sounds like a lot of premium rate numbers to me. She hasn't been entering competitions from magazines, phoning chat lines & the like has she?

I hope she's known her friend for a long time too. There was a motorbike delivery scam being run by Russian scamsters a while back. The biker goes into a company to drop off a package, but it doesn't match anyone in the buildings name. He asks if he can call head office & uses the phone on reception. He is really calling a premium rate number they have set up that can be over £10 per minute. After 10 minutes or so he apologises for the mistake & leaves.

I hope her friend isn't a Russian!

jitsuguy

I must admit I worry if my bill goes over £25 a month!

Plus you might be able to make some money by selling the story to a newspaper or magazine about a phone company letting this happen! You never know to avoid bad press the company might even write off the debt!

Jitsuguy

GreyPilgrim

The_Tax_Mans_Cash_Machine wrote:

Hello,
and WOW ! :eek:

It sounds like a lot of premium rate numbers to me. She hasn't been entering competitions from magazines, phoning chat lines & the like has she?

I hope she's known her friend for a long time too. There was a motorbike delivery scam being run by Russian scamsters a while back. The biker goes into a company to drop off a package, but it doesn't match anyone in the buildings name. He asks if he can call head office & uses the phone on reception. He is really calling a premium rate number they have set up that can be over £10 per minute. After 10 minutes or so he apologises for the mistake & leaves.

I hope her friend isn't a Russian!

This smells like an urban myth, by the way...

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/phone.htm

GreyPilgrim

scocky wrote:

and any enquiries just brings about a shrug of the shoulders.

I'm gobsmacked. Also partially terrified because I have a 12 year old step daughter who will happily chat to friends on her mobile (PAYG, thank god) for long periods, and who also has zero grasp of concepts such as 'value', 'worth', 'money' etc etc etc. I'm having serious visions of my future here...

But from a 19 year old...tell me, has she had a slightly sheltered life?

I would feel obliged to:

1) strip her of every single possession except the clothes she is wearing
2) sell the items on eBay,
3) rent her room out to recoup the money
4) move her in to the attic with nothing but a blanket, a collection of spiders and a dictionary opened up at the section beginning "Responsibility"

rog2

kai666 wrote:

or ring 08442009595 (from a landline) before the australia number it is then only half a pence a minute

I've just been looking this up, as I will try anything to keep my call costs to a minimum. Just please be aware that, in addition to the half a pence per minute call charge to Australia, you will be paying for the connection to the 0844 number - this can be anything from 2 - 4 pence per minute, depending on your service plan - BT charge a minimum of 5.5 pence per call. It is, however, still going to be cheaper that £8k, but if you have broadband anyway, there are several VOIP providers that you can use and you only pay their published rates. Even cheaper if friend has VOIP (same provider) - then you can talk for free.

Josie64

Plus you might be able to make some money by selling the story to a newspaper or magazine about a phone company letting this happen! You never know to avoid bad press the company might even write off the debt!

Jitsuguy
agree with this - try going to the newspapers , if only to warn other parents....

as you have internet access , could she 'chat' to friend in Oz using MSN messenger or something similar?

could friend go halves with the bill?

mobilegossip

What Network is the Phone on?

What Tariff is she on?

Floss

Thats a point - download Skype, and get "Aussie mate" to do the same - then its free all night!

skintchick

THere are two issues here.

The first is the phone company. AS others have said, it is entirely unaccpetable for them to allow such a high bill to be racked up without notice. (Assuming they didn;t notify your daughter of course). YOu need to take this up with them and find out what happened.

The second is your daughter. If she is hsurgging her shoulders then she needs a good kick up the behind. At 19 I was in my first job, living alone and fully responsible for all my own bills. She isn;t young. She is an adult and should behave as one.

Personally, I'd be treating her very harshly indeed.

BUT is there a possibility that she has been bullied by someone and they have used the phone? Could her shrugging be because she is hiding something, not just being irresponsible?

You need to begin overall with a good chat with her to get to the bottom of it. And just keep going. Don't allow her food or drink until she tells you what went on, even if that takes HOURS. Really, you have to know the full soty before you can talk to the phone company.

8k in a month - how is that possible? It's not normal and there is definitely something weird going on.

Good luck