Called using Calling card but Vodafone charged me international calls

salars

salars wrote: »

Yes the calling card shows the reduced balance. Ie the calls are registering on the calling card and is deducting money.

but this calling card in question does not have an online login like some others to then check the times and dates.

Use sunnysoft calling card. But then when it connects to the service, i can clearly hear the balance read out before it sends out the tones automatically.

buglawton

For that amount of money, get the card provider to send you a log. It's in their interest to protect their customers from being victimized. If the card log proves you were billed twice for one and the same calls (once by the card and once by Voda) then fight it in court. It will make lovely publicity. Voda are not supposed by law to monitor or know who you call after dialling the UK geographic number - the 2nd leg of your call is completely confidential (could even be phone banking account & pin number for example) so it should not be possible for it to appear on your Voda bill.

I think it altogether more likely that you've made a technical error in the way you do the dialling and the call is re-connecting directly. Your outgoing call log inside your mobile is one source to help prove things.

It's all an excellent case for NEVER having a phone contract, ALWAYS use pay as you go top-ups and keep your balance at around £10.


[ edit ] just noticed your comment about Sunysoft. Is Sunnysoft an APP you use to connect with Chillitalk? These apps for smart phones make managing the calling card easy and dial the first / second parts of the number automatically.

Only, if so, is you app malfunctioning? It is meant keep a call history. Does that appear to be working? If not it may mean the calls went direct.

drbesty

Calling cards cost mobile operators alot of money, someone along the line has to pay for the expensive international call, its not unusual for calling cards to be blocked by an operator, although usually the calling card number just stops working, instead of rerouting the call to the international number and then charging the customer

buglawton

I use the equivalent of a calling card from my prepay mobile to call abroad. If the option were blocked, I'd wait till I get home to the landline as the cost of calling the number I want would be prohibitive for more than a very short call. So how much is my operator losing? Actually they gain some reasonably long landline calls they would otherwise have not got.

grumbler

drbesty wrote: »

Calling cards cost mobile operators alot of money,

They don't cost them anything except the lost profit they would have made if you were crazy enough to make long calls abroad from your mobile directly.

someone along the line has to pay for the expensive international call,

Well, who pays then if you use a calling card or, say, 18185 for calls from a landline phone? BT maybe?

drbesty

They lose profit therefore they lose money, in the same way HMV would lose profit if I stole a CD from them instead of buying it. I'd assume 18185 buy a large amount of minutes from BT at a wholesale price then resell them, to be honest I'm not sure how it works but I do know that if it was costing BT money they wouldnt allow it.

As for calling cards, mobile operators don't like them, they will block them and furthermore it is legal for them to do so

bubblesmoney

Ann_S wrote: »

As far as I know, Vodafone do not and never have supported calling cards.

When I was on Vodafone a little over 4y ago for nearly 4y I almost exclusively used calling cards for international calls and was billed only the local rate.

buglawton

Hmm, anyone who can provide a cheap service (that bears a relationship to the 'production cost') causes another company to lose money. So if you buy your own unlocked phone and insert a Lebara sim card (available at any Tesco), and call one of over 30 countries for 1p per minute, you are causing another mobile company to lose money. It's called modern capitalism and the free market.

I know, let's go back to the good old days of the Post Office running the only UK phone system and charging what they like - it's called a monopoly.

NFH

buglawton wrote: »

Hmm, anyone who can provide a cheap service (that bears a relationship to the 'production cost') causes another company to lose money.

No, you're wrong. This scenario prevents the other company from gaining money. It does not cause them to lose money. They neither gain nor lose.

buglawton

NFH wrote: »

No, you're wrong. This scenario prevents the other company from gaining money. It does not cause them to lose money. They neither gain nor lose.

I was just re-quoting drbesty's point - did I sound as if I was agreeing?

Who is wrong?

PS
It's the consumer who gains, and what MSE is actually about.