Geographic number diverted to 0845 and caller is charged!

RikJ

victor2 wrote: »

AFAIK unless Tesco have some sort of deal with VM, they cannot transfer a call to a geographic number to their 0845 number AND ensure the caller is charged for the 0845 call. They can do the transfers, but at their cost.
VM said to me that they charge for the number you dial, so I would pursue the complaint with them if you have, or can create, evidence to show otherwise. Doesn't harm to raise it with Tesco though. I've contacted them through www. tescocomments .com before now - they print that on the till receipts and I got a response.

Will be interesting to see if VM contradict your evidence!

Thanks for the link

Interestingly at no point have VM claimed I dialled the 0845 rather then the geographic number. They are simply taking that stance that the geographic number I dialled was diverted to 0845, so it is fine for VM to bill me the 0845 call!

Virgin are clearly aware this is going on with Tesco and are happy to do nothing about it as there is another example on the VM forum -

http: //community.virginmedia.com/t5/Telephone/Operator-connected-call/td-p/553303

You have to delete the space i inserted after http: to access the link as being a new user I cannot post direct links

Anyway, once I have the final response from VM I shall take it to CISAS and will keep this thread updated with progress.

DonnyDave

It is of course not forced to be something specific to Tesco; perhaps it is Tesco's communications provider (I understand this to be Cable & Wireless) that is doing to "operator connected" calls (assuming that this is actually possible).

victor2

I don't know enough about telephone systems to say what can and can't be done between a Virgin phone and their billing system, but this is in more detail how they responded to my query:

Thanks for your e-mail to Virgin Media asking us to confirm if we've a
mechanism to change a number dialled to a different one for billing
purposes.

We'll be happy to help you with the information you need.

We can confirm that we charge our customers accurately as per the calls
made from the Virgin phone line.

So it's not a resounding NO, but does suggest you get billed as dialled.
I don't get itemised calls below 50p on my billing, so it's difficult to test on my line, but as a VM customer, surely they should tell you if it's possible for you to dial one number and be billed for another. Would be interesting what Tesco have to say about it as well - from the forum entry you linked to, you're not the only person to have experienced it.

Heinz

RikJ wrote: »

I think in order to cover all bases I may now also raise a complaint with Tesco - if only I could find their complaints policy on their website!

I think that may just muddy the waters.

Your complaint is against your calls provider - Virgin. You made the call to a geographical number on your Virgin landline via your Virgin calls package. Virgin charged you for an 0845 call (which you did not make) which was 'Operator Connected' (which it wasn't). End of story.

victor2

Heinz wrote: »

Your complaint is against your calls provider - Virgin. You made the call to a geographical number on your Virgin landline via your Virgin calls package. Virgin charged you for an 0845 call (which you did not make) which was 'Operator Connected' (which it wasn't).

Agreed. It's not as if your phone line even goes through a BT exchange. It goes through a system belonging exclusively to VM I believe.

paulofessex

(just subscribing to thread to watch developments)

RikJ

Heinz wrote: »

I think that may just muddy the waters.

Your complaint is against your calls provider - Virgin. You made the call to a geographical number on your Virgin landline via your Virgin calls package. Virgin charged you for an 0845 call (which you did not make) which was 'Operator Connected' (which it wasn't). End of story.

I did make these points to the not very helpful and very ineffectual representative of VM but frankly they weren't interested in my thoughts. I wasn't keen on entering into a long debate with them so just told them to send their final response to me so I can escalate it to CISAS.

The customer pays nothing to escalate a complaint to CISAS whereas the provider bears all the cost, so their refusal accept my reasonable request will end us costing VM a few £100 anyway

victor2

RikJ wrote: »

I did make these points to the not very helpful and very ineffectual representative of VM but frankly they weren't interested in my thoughts. I wasn't keen on entering into a long debate with them so just told them to send their final response to me so I can escalate it to CISAS.

The customer pays nothing to escalate a complaint to CISAS whereas the provider bears all the cost, so their refusal accept my reasonable request will end us costing VM a few £100 anyway

Good for you in pursuing it. Of course if VM included 0845 numbers in their prepaid allowances, or just charged local call rates for such calls, the problem would largely go away. It's because they screw us on calls to 0845 numbers that we look for alternatives. It's a nice little earner for them and if they're charging us when we attempt to legitimately bypass it, they deserve the negative publicity and to lose customers because of it.

derrick

paulofessex wrote: »

(just subscribing to thread to watch developments)

You don't need to post to subscribe, click on "Thread Tools" at the top of the thread, then click on "Subscribe to this Thread", job done


.

DonnyDave

Another SAYNOTO0870.COM member has confirmed that he has been billed for an "Operator Connected" call when the geographic number was dialled.