Billing nightmare is there any recourse?

wondermouse

A friend of mine complained recently of her high mobile phone bills from Orange.

After some amazing hassles I managed to get her number registered on the orange web site and downloaded her monthly bills.

One was £344 alone, the others were between £117 and £200. Considering she's on the top Orange tariff with unlimited minutes unlimited calls and 3Gb data that was quite a shock!

Turns out the majority of the overages are made up of calls to 118 type directories with some costing as much as 5.62 for a 1 minute 59 seconds call.

According to her bill on one day in January alone she spent £140 on directory enquiries calls

I believe she may have made the calls, but is there any way I can reclaim any of this money? I don't believe she was aware of the costs, and as so e of the calls are long, I'm wondering if she may have been put through via 118 118 and was unaware that this is an additional premium service.

She has been charged in one day what I pay for 6 months for my phone!

So, on what grounds may I launch a complaint and to whom? Orange her provider, 118 118 and Ofcom all spring to mind.

This has been going on for months and at no time has orange brought up the highly unusual spending pattern.

Other charges are for 0845 and free phone numbers and even a few London numbers listed as 0044 numbers, but they pale into insignificance next to the £1000+ in extras run up sing last July.

Help please!

mobilejunkie

Really? Getting charged extortionate rates for special rate calls? For months on end without getting to the bottom of it; what a surprise.

People who think they can use a mobile device with inpunity for calling anything learn a very basic lesson when they (eventually) "notice" they're being charged a fortune. Those who check beforehand avoid all such charges. It's not rocket science. Of course, having incurred the first huge payment she could have stopped using the phone until she discovered why. 118, 08 numbers have (with one or two exceptions) always and (unless 0800) obviously and clearly been special (and very high) rates - which is precisely why they are special numbers.

grumbler

wondermouse wrote: »

... I don't believe she was aware of the costs

How are Orange to be blamed for this?

This has been going on for months and at no time has orange brought up the highly unusual spending pattern.

How is it 'unusual' if it was going on for months? Even without an online access to the bills a simple 150 call after the first bill could have helped her to find reason of the excessive amount.

londonTiger

a bit silly calling 118, when she has a data capable smartphone.

The 118 staff probably locate the number on google when they can't find it immediately on their database.

balletshoes

your friend has no recourse - she made the calls, its her responsibility (as with all calls she makes) to check how much its going to cost her. She didn't do that, and after her first big monthly bill, she didn't query it with Orange.

Hopefully OP now you have educated her on how to best use her mobile phone so she doesn't continue to get big bills in future.

[Deleted User]

According to her bill on one day in January alone she spent £140 on directory enquiries calls

that's about 1 hour on 118 118.
this one gets me worried 1 hour in one day is vary strange.
have you checked the phone for virues as i do not think they is need to call 118 about 30 times in 1 day and if its one call go after it.

Anoneemoose

mtwiscool wrote: »

that's about 1 hour on 118 118.
this one gets me worried 1 hour in one day is vary strange.
have you checked the phone for virues as i do not think they is need to call 118 about 30 times in 1 day and if its one call go after it.

It is possible that she was connected to a different number via 118, they charge the same rate.

chanz4

Op she should raise the complaint to herself, and throw a glass of water for a wakeup

wondermouse

grumbler wrote: »

How are Orange to be blamed for this?
How is it 'unusual' if it was going on for months? Even without an online access to the bills a simple 150 call after the first bill could have helped her to find reason of the excessive amount.

Not to excuse anything but The lady has been going through a highly stressful divorce, so checking her phone bills was not the first thing on her mind.

I am somewhat surprised by the harsh reaction though. You seem to be implying that she deserves this. Well maybe she does, but I was trying to see if there is anything I can use in mitigation.

An orange phone bill in excess of £200 with no data or foreign usage is very unusual. Even Orange admit this.

For one thing, it's NOT clear that when you phone 118118 and they say offer to connect you, that the entire call is then chargeable at premium rates. No warning, nothing. I'm sure all of the bright young things round these parts know that already, but clearly some people don't.

Anyway thanks for the retrospective advice. If I had a time machine....

wondermouse

Anoneemoose wrote: »

It is possible that she was connected to a different number via 118, they charge the same rate.

This appears to be the root of the problem. They don't warn or remind you that if they put you through they continue charging premium rate for the entire call.

wondermouse

balletshoes wrote: »

your friend has no recourse - she made the calls, its her responsibility (as with all calls she makes) to check how much its going to cost her. She didn't do that, and after her first big monthly bill, she didn't query it with Orange.

Hopefully OP now you have educated her on how to best use her mobile phone so she doesn't continue to get big bills in future.

I've done the education bit, but it's too late and she's really upset at the vast amount of money In charges.