'inclusive' minutes scam

simcourtney

I have just been going through my bill which was far higher than expected. On analsing my '300 minutes' of inclusive calls I actually worked out it was far lower. I phoned customer services to find out that you are charged by the minute for this and a 4 second call actually uses up 60 seconds of inclusive minutes. The number of 3 and 4 second calls where I had got through to answerphones and hung up was actually using up a huge amount of my allowance. This makes it virtually impossible to actually have 300 inclusive minutes.

I am with T-mobile.

Firstly - do all mobile companies do this?

Secondly - I cannot find anywhere on the website that expalins this and if I try to take out a contract on the web and follow the process to the checkout at no point does it mention this. I feel I have been totally mis-sold something that I am paying for. How can they advertise it as 300 inclusive minutes when in reality I am going to get far less than this every month? Do I have grounds to terminate my contract?

jhp

Most mobile companies do this, its clearly mentioned in your plan call costs,and you dont have grounds to terminate your contract.

If you search your find " All chargeable calls will be subject to a one minute minimum charge unless otherwise stated."

JJ_Egan

simcourtney wrote: »

I have just been going through my bill which was far higher than expected. On analsing my '300 minutes' of inclusive calls I actually worked out it was far lower. I phoned customer services to find out that you are charged by the minute for this and a 4 second call actually uses up 60 seconds of inclusive minutes. The number of 3 and 4 second calls where I had got through to answerphones and hung up was actually using up a huge amount of my allowance. This makes it virtually impossible to actually have 300 inclusive minutes.


Standard as soon as an answer phone kicks in you have made a call even the same with BT landline .

Firstly - do all mobile companies do this?

Secondly - I cannot find anywhere on the website that expalins this and if I try to take out a contract on the web and follow the process to the checkout at no point does it mention this. I feel I have been totally mis-sold something that I am paying for.

How can you have been miss-sold you are paying for a call to a number .Not the networks fault that the user chooses to use a service that costs you money .Neither would something as obvious as the fact that you get charged for a phone call be in the bold print . The service you buy is phone calls to an answer-phone is a phone call .


You have no grounds to terminate in any shape or form as i see it .


jje

simcourtney

The way I feel I have been mis-sold is that I am effectively being charged 60 seconds worth of allowance for 4 seconds worth of calls. Why is my 300 inclusive minutes not taken off as I use it - ie per second?

How can it be 300 inclusive minutes when I will never actually get to use 300 mins?

simcourtney

jhp wrote: »

Most mobile companies do this, its clearly mentioned in your plan call costs,and you dont have grounds to terminate your contract.

If you search your find " All chargeable calls will be subject to a one minute minimum charge unless otherwise stated."

You are correct, I have found it. I do still think this is really unfair and an easy way for them to get money by using up inclusive minutes quickly and then charging for calls.

Guess I will look at pay as you go in future? Does that work the same way?

lovinituk

Its standard operating procedure. It states "All chargeable calls will be subject to a 1 minute minimum charge unless otherwise stated"

From their website...2nd page, top right...

http://support.t-mobile.co.uk/resources/sites/TMOBILE/content/live/DOCUMENTS/0/DO199/en_GB/36014425_PAYM_Low_user.pdf

*edit* - sorry didn't see this already posted above!

k3lvc

It's not a scam - it's the T&C's you've signed up to.

If you want to get your moneys worth then keep listening to the answerphone message for up to 1 minute (but not a second more)

Stuart_W

Call-rounding and minimum call charging are something that many phone companies have been using to squeeze more out of phone customers for a long time.

I often make short calls, so have chosen a plan that fits in with this (a minimum call charge of 1p+VAT).

Voicemail is where some operators are adding more charges too. It used to be easy to get free voicemail, even on PAYG, but now even some hefty £30 a month contracts charge 30p per minute and it doesn't come from inclusive minutes.

You need to check the terms of whatever deal you sign up to carefully, especially where a long contract is involved. My current Orange contract actually charges per second with no 1 min minimum, but it is on a no-longer available tariff. New ones may be different.

simcourtney

Thanks, guess I need to do more research next time - are there any current tariffs that offer per second billing and inclusive usage with no minimum call charge?

simcourtney

k3lvc wrote: »

It's not a scam - it's the T&C's you've signed up to.

If you want to get your moneys worth then keep listening to the answerphone message for up to 1 minute (but not a second more)

Surely you can see that it is just another easy way for them to make money and get away with using up all your 'inclusive minutes'. just because things are contained in small print doesn't mean they actually contradict the offer you think you are getting?

k3lvc

simcourtney wrote: »

Surely you can see that it is just another easy way for them to make money and get away with using up all your 'inclusive minutes'. just because things are contained in small print doesn't mean they actually contradict the offer you think you are getting?

Of course I can but where do you draw the line - a minute, a second, a millisecond.

They've stated the unit of measure is a minute