Massive Call Overcharge by Virgin Mobile

DoctorSnoopy

I received an email from Virgin Mobile notifying me that my bill for the month would be £145.04, which was a shock as I hardly ever use my cellphone. I have a Galaxy Ace Android Gingerbread handset on a pay monthly £10.99 tariff with an allowance of 75 mins talk and 250 texts.

Checking online I discovered that £131.53 of the bill was attributable to just one call made at 19.36 on 28 January, recorded as having lasted for 392.22 minutes! This is absolutely ridiculous as it was to a friend who has severe facial palsy, with whom my calls never last more than ten minutes. Fortunately I had also made a call to him that evening at 20.21 which was listed as having lasted only 1.42 minutes.

When I called customer services I was told I must have failed to hang up hence the reported length of the call and that I was liable to pay it. I pointed out that had I and my friend both failed to hang up there would not have been a subsequent call registered to his number only half an hour later. The representative offered a £100 deduction "at her discretion". I declined and when I asked to speak to her manager I was told he would call me back. He hasn't.

I attempted several times to query my bill through Virgin's internal email system but it failed to transmit - not the first time this has happened. Anticipating this I copied my complaint and posted it as a letter instead to the Virgin office in Swansea, telling them that I have no intention of paying this massive overcharge and unless my bill is corrected I shall instruct my bank not to pay the direct debit until the matter is resolved, in court if necessary.

Too early to have had a reply from Virgin; however I would like to hear if anyone else has had this kind of problem? I used to be loyal to Virgin ever since Richard Branson's first venture into Virgin Records but now it seems the only records the company is interested in are its profits.

Curr946

i wouldnt recommend not paying the bill as it could damage your credit file.

try emailing chief exec Graeme Oxby: graeme.oxby@virginmobile.com

;-)

robbies_gal

dont cancel the dd would only affect you in the long run

if theyve offered 100 pounds off isnt that enough?

Curr946

gabbyevs wrote: »

dont cancel the dd would only affect you in the long run

if theyve offered 100 pounds off isnt that enough?

:rotfl: you are kidding... virgin make the error and op needs to pay towards it?

DoctorSnoopy

Thank you Curr946 and gabbyevs. I shall wait for Virgin's reply and if it doesn't come in the next five days I will email Graeme Oxby. The debit isn't due until 28th February. I still don't see why I should pay Virgin over £30 for what is clearly a technical error without which my bill would have come to only £12.99. The threat of having one's credit rating damaged or being automatically referred to a debt collection agency is not sufficient reason for me to give in to the power these companies exercise. I have offered to pay the proper amount, adjudged in a civil court if necessary.

grumbler

DoctorSnoopy wrote: »

Fortunately I had also made a call to him that evening at 20.21 which was listed as having lasted only 1.42 minutes.

It doesn't necessarily has to be a call to this friend to prove Virgin wrong. Any other calls from your handset between 19:36 and 20:21? Also, what call histories of both your and your friend's handsets show?

robbies_gal

well if you can prove it yeah have you still go your call records on your phone?

DoctorSnoopy

Checking the phone logs is a good idea. Thanks. Mine does have the figures given by Virgin. I will check my friend's phone log the next time we meet - he is on a different network. I can't think of any other reason than a technical error that would explain the follow-on call. Surely it isn't possible to have two calls being registered simultaneously to the same number?

DoctorSnoopy

I think I have found the cause! When I tried to call my friend this morning I was diverted to his voicemail and it wouldn't hang up after I pressed End Call or the Power button. There was no indication on the Home Screen that the call was active and it didn't end until I actually completely powered off the mobile. I could tell it was still in progress because I kept hearing the voicemail options being repeated time and again, though that doesn't explain how I could make the second call to him on the 28th if his voicemail was still connected!?!?!

NFH

If Virgin also supplied the phone, then they are nevertheless liable, assuming this is a fault.

DoctorSnoopy

Having had no reply from Swansea I emailed the CEO Graeme Oxby this morning, not expecting a response until next week. My friend in Ohio was less optimistic, telling me it would be swallowed up by a black hole and I would never hear from them. Wrong! They emailed shortly afterwards, then I was called by one of their engineers who cancelled the charge. My faith in Virgin has been restored.

The engineer had no explanation but I still suspect the diversion to voicemail had failed to disconnect. It is possible that my face touched the Hold button while I had it close to my ear listening to the recorded message, in which case I would say it is a design fault in Android. I shall be careful to report if anything like that happens again and will inactivate the touch screen in future before holding the handset to my ear.

Hope this advice comes in handy.