Premium text? OMG

robbies_gal

is he sure he didnt enter any compes online that said put in your number to be contacted if you win

these places always end up texting you with these stupid subscriber texts

o2 also wouldnt do anything said its up to the customer to watch wot they do as they put it back then

Nicky321

Thankyou for the replies, I will keep you informed. At the moment I have told my son to pay his o2 bill less the amount in dispute. I will see what the outcome is from contacting phonepayplus and Switchfire, and if their is no resolution we will contact Ofcom.

NFH

The onus is upon O2 to prove that the charges are correct. If in the unlikely event that you have to go to court over it, a judge would expect O2 to provide such evidence. The same principle applies out of court.

Nicky321

NFH wrote: »

The onus is upon O2 to prove that the charges are correct. If in the unlikely event that you have to go to court over it, a judge would expect O2 to provide such evidence. The same principle applies out of court.

Can you explain this? The only evidence O2 can provide is a list of transactions.

Sample taken from actual bill
02 Dec 11 20:30:14 69400 Premium Text 0.833
02 Dec 11 20:33:25 69400 Premium Text 0.833
02 Dec 11 20:38:23 69400 Premium Text 0.833
02 Dec 11 20:43:39 69400 Premium Text 0.833
02 Dec 11 20:47:02 69400 Premium Text 0.833

Nicky321

The more I google on this topic the more I find, there must be hundreds and hundreds at least been scammed by these robbing Ba$*Ards over time. Would a call to the police be of any use?

NFH

Nicky321 wrote: »

Can you explain this? The only evidence O2 can provide is a list of transactions.

Sample taken from actual bill
02 Dec 11 20:30:14 69400 Premium Text 0.833
02 Dec 11 20:33:25 69400 Premium Text 0.833
02 Dec 11 20:38:23 69400 Premium Text 0.833
02 Dec 11 20:43:39 69400 Premium Text 0.833
02 Dec 11 20:47:02 69400 Premium Text 0.833

The onus is on O2 to prove that the charges were incurred by the invoiced party, i.e. your son. Given that these are charges for received texts, not sent texts, O2 needs to prove that your son incurred the charges. Simply giving a list of received texts is not evidence; they need to demonstrate that the charges are correctly incurred.

Nicky321

We had emailed Switchfire, the 3rd party, who have replied and asked for the mobile number involved so they can investigate. I emailed back the number and said we did not want to be contacted on this number as this was for their investigation purposes only. My son has just received a call on his mobile from a foreign woman from switchfire, saying he is responsible for the charges. where do we go from here?

This is what she said "You were on our WAP site on 2 December 2011 and purchased premium rate content that you got charged for accordingly. Each item viewed cost £6 and you accessed 19 of them. You have been charged accordingly for the content"

19 x £6.00 = £114

We are querying 76 x 83p = £63.65 + VAT

Nicky321

My son has suffered mental health issues not long ago, and I have just found him brokedown in the bathroom, I feel for his safety.
Please help

Wintermute

Are you able to pay it for him? If it's that bad pay the money then continue to dispute it in an attempt to get a refund.

Now that you've been in touch with the premium rate SMS company I'd recommend contacting O2 over the phone again, don't make any threats about court etc. just explain that you're disputing the amount, that you've contacted the company and you'd like O2 to look into things on your behalf.

O2 can't block the messages (yes, they could technically, but there's no system in place to do it)
O2 are unlikely to credit you back the charges as they're still getting charged for them (even if they do take a cut).
They can however investigate things on your behalf, I think the timescale is something like 5 working days, but they will look into the issue and contact the company involved.
O2 shut at 21:00 so you still have time to call them tonight, if you feel like you're not getting anywhere don't be afraid to ask for a manager.

Have you checked with your son just in case he did access some WAP site with "premium rate content"? As if he did the investigation may just come back and prove the charges are valid.

Good luck!

Nicky321

Switchfire have asked for a copy of the bill, do i send it?