Charged for calls we didn't make

chrisaw

Received our Virgin Media bill this morning and noticed two 0904 numbers on the itemised section of the bill. Having checked with hubby I can say that neither of us dialled these numbers. One I have identified as a telephone opinion poll line (the sort of thing where you're given two numbers to ring depending on whether you agree or disagree with some current issue) - the other I haven't been able to find out anything about at all.

What I do know is that there was no-one at home when the second call was made. Hubby was at work 30 miles away, and I was in the middle of a committee meeting for our local children's centre. The first call was on a Saturday so we would have been in, but was made at a time when we would have been having lunch.

Now I know I can't prove to Virgin's satisfaction in either case that these calls weren't made from our house. But we're both worried now that the same thing's going to happen again, only worse, in the future. Is there any explanation of how these calls have ended up being charged to our number?

kiwikaz

We had a similar problem at the beginning of this month. My OH was at a footie match in Sheffield and, I was at a BBQ. The only being in the house was my 12 year old Belgian shepherd, Frank. Intelligent he is but I've never seen him use the phone!
We'd made calls to a mobile several times within the space of 10 minutes and, calls to Southport despite not knowing anyone in Southport !
My hubby rang customer services and complained. Apparently it was a system error!! Who's checking this fault on the system and then issuing refunds ? Who knows ? It seems that as usual it's down to us to spot these calls and then phone in, complain and request the refund ! Haven't received our bill for this month as yet. Granted we we're only over charged by a few quid but, if it's happened to a million customers then it's been a nice little bonus for Virgin !

darwin-rover

if it's happened to a million customers then it's been a nice little bonus for Virgin !

If it was a system error then someone made the calls anyway , so someone was originally going to be paying for the calls . You've been refunded and someones got the calls for free , so I fail to see how VM are profiting from this ?

albertross_2

Do you have an old fashioned dial-up modem connected to the phone line or a dect phone? If either are true, it could possibly have originated at your house without you being there. (virus dialer or neighbours).

If not, argue with them.

thefirs

chrisaw wrote: »

But we're both worried now that the same thing's going to happen again, only worse, in the future

I can't speak definitively for VM, but all the providers I've ever been with offer the facility to block premium-rate calls, so why not request it now? It will prove any dispute in the future.

muffinhead

kiwikaz wrote: »

The only being in the house was my 12 year old Belgian shepherd, Frank.

I thought they'd outlawed child slavery in the UK !

chrisaw

We have talked today about getting Virgin's premium number bar on our line, but it isn't free unlike BT (I think). I got through to customer services again today and she advised against it for the moment, and she's also refunded the call charges. I got her to check whether there were any premium rate calls showing on our record since the last bill and there were none. So we have a resolution of sorts.

Our PC has a broadband cable connection and isn't connected in any way to a telephone socket, so that isn't the problem. The phone however may be. It is a Dect and the telephone poll line dialled by the first number was related to our geographical area. Would it be possible for a neighbour's phone to piggyback our line? I've now put a bar on 0904 numbers being dialled from our base set and all extensions. Would this prevent any piggybacking happening?

Heinz

chrisaw wrote: »

The phone however may be. It is a Dect and the telephone poll line dialled by the first number was related to our geographical area. Would it be possible for a neighbour's phone to piggyback our line?

Only if they've managed to register another DECT handset with your DECT base station - and that requires physical contact with your DECT base station (at least for a minute or two while the registration takes place).

You haven't lent a neighbour a key for anything have you?

chrisaw

Thanks for that Heinz. No - nobody's had physical access to our phone other than myself and my husband, so it looks like those rogue calls are going to remain a mystery. I suppose the fact that Virgin refunded them without a quibble, and Kiwikaz's experience, show that it can happen due to a glitch in the system, and that's the explanation we're going to have to settle with.

I suppose it might be worth paying the extra money for the premium number barring, just for peace of mind - it would be annoying though, seeing as we've stripped the cost of our services from Virgin down to the bare minimum, and we'd view this as an expense that should be unnecessary.

diamonds

id ask for a refund of the monthly premium barring fee seeing its thier mess up, why should you pay it when the only reason you need it is thier fault !

thefirs

Looks as though VM may have a bit of a problem with other customers on just this issue, see Guardian Money, 9 June:

Quiz question Virgin could not answer

Q: I signed up last November with Telewest for a TV, broadband and telephone package. I never used the phone - I don't even have a handset as I use a mobile.

All went well for the first months. But when Virgin took over in February, I was billed for more than £300 of calls which I never made. The following month, the calls bill went back to zero. Can you sort this?
BM, London

A: Virtually all the calls - sometimes several a minute - were to daytime TV quiz shows when you and your flatmates were at work. Virgin accepts the it was bizarre and, after turning down your own appeal, will wipe your debt