T Mobile are billing me for shared usage for a number I do not recognise

davisifa

I noticed this in April 2011 when I registered for on-line billing, and realised that they were billing me for a second number which I do not know. I looked back and saw this had been billed since April 2007, and the number had never been used. I called T-mobile customer services who said they would investigate and arrange for a refund, and they agreed it had never been used and was obviously an error. When I checked my bill again in August 2011 I realised that it was still on my bill and still being charged £25.53 each month. I called them on 19th August and they told me that the number had been suspended in April 2011 and was being investigated by the fraud team. they suggested sending a fax to the Fraud team which I did on 19th August. I called again on 2nd September and was told that the fraud team had completed their investigation on 22nd August and decided it was not fraud. I do not know how they proved this as they did not even get back to me. The person I spoke to asked me if I had been aske to fill in a fraud form. I said no, so she proceeded to ask me some questions on the phone and said that the fraud form had now been completed and I will hear from someone in 28 days. They said they would stop collecting payments, but I said I want a full refund going back to 2007. I am sure that if they do get back to me after 28 days they will say they have investigated it and nothing is due, but I do not want to accept this as it is clearly an error. Anyone have any suggestions?

grumbler

Was it a paper billing before April 2011? If so, what address the bills were sent to for the mysterious number?

I am asking because even if they admit their error finally, they can refuse to refund everything.

Personally, I wouldn't wait for another 28 days and would start their formal complaint procedure ASAP. You cannot trust in anything that this company tells you over a phone.

davisifa

Hi. Paper bills were sent to home address, so were not itemised, so I did not realise there were 2 numbers on there until I saw the on-line bill.

grumbler

I cannot imagine that the paper bill didn't show both numbers. The only purpose of a bill is to be checked by the customer. That's why I am pessimistic about you getting the refund for all 4 years.

Silk

davisifa wrote: »

Hi. Paper bills were sent to home address, so were not itemised, so I did not realise there were 2 numbers on there until I saw the on-line bill.

Did it not show two lots of line rental if there were two numbers on the same bill ?

Did you try ringing the number on that you have been charged for ?

I would have thought if it was fraud there would have been massive charges on it ...my guess would be a billing error rather than fraud

davisifa

I did try phoning the number as soon as I realised and of course the number did not work. I never thought it was fraud - it was T-mobile who decided to pass it to their fraud team (who took over 4 months to decide that it was not fraud!). I never saw how it could be fraud when the phantom number was linked to an account with my own number as "shared usage". My biggest battle will be to get them to refund all the charges taken since 2007. I had not noticed it because my own bill varies quite a lot each month due to overseas calls etc, so I did not think to query the amount.

Cash-Strapped.T32

Agreed 100% with Grumbler - Don't ever, ever, trust anything, any phone company says, about anything, that might possibly cause them to get less money out of you (and even take "good morning", or "good afternoon" with a pinch of salt )
And in any case where you speak to them, always record the call.

Best of luck getting it sorted, I would also suggest you don't ring the "extra" phone number, you don't want any activity to appear on it that might give them a whiff of a chance to say you've used it.

Buzby

What do you mean that the 'number did not work'? If you mean it was N/U (number unobtainable) they cannot be charging line rental for it - as no service is being provided, however they MAY have suspended service when you queried it, so that's not a good indicator.

Guys_Dad

Buzby wrote: »

What do you mean that the 'number did not work'? If you mean it was N/U (number unobtainable) they cannot be charging line rental for it - as no service is being provided, however they MAY have suspended service when you queried it, so that's not a good indicator.

They did - see original post.

Write to them under Data Protection subject access - it costs £10 - and ask for all data they have on you.

If there is no proof that the number was ever taken out by you then you can reclaim all of the money they have taken.

If you find that you have in some way had this number allocated correctly and you were being charged accurately, then for £10 you have peace of mind.