0845 Number - Mobile bill!

Moireach

Turns out I've been very naiive with my phone bill. I just got my EE bill with a £36 charge for calls to Santander on an 0845 number. I assumed if there was a charge it would be pretty insignificant like most are, but this was 35p a minute! Infact 7 seconds was charged 33p!
Do I have any case at all to dispute this?
I'm guessing not but I can't believe I've been so naiive, trying to save up and this money is going down the drain!

InsideInsurance

Use the saynoto0870.co.uk website to find alternative numbers

Many newer contracts do include 0845 and 0870 numbers in their inclusive minutes but this is a new thing and older contracts didnt.

Ultimately you could throw yourself on their mercy but you have no grounds for complaint beyond that

Moireach

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Use the saynoto0870.co.uk website to find alternative numbers

Many newer contracts do include 0845 and 0870 numbers in their inclusive minutes but this is a new thing and older contracts didnt.

Ultimately you could throw yourself on their mercy but you have no grounds for complaint beyond that

That's what I thought. I checked an EE don't offer any add-on related to calling numbers like 0845, though apparently Vodafone do. My one hope for complaining is that the EE website and phone app have been down for 2 months so I haven't been even able to keeps tabs on these things! Could have discovered that my calls to Santander were costing 35p a minute much earlier in the month because I check the app quite often.

tomtontom

Moireach wrote: »

That's what I thought. I checked an EE don't offer any add-on related to calling numbers like 0845, though apparently Vodafone do. My one hope for complaining is that the EE website and phone app have been down for 2 months so I haven't been even able to keeps tabs on these things! Could have discovered that my calls to Santander were costing 35p a minute much earlier in the month because I check the app quite often.

I can't comment on the app but the website was definitely not down for two months. I use it often for work and have not experienced any problems. Plus you could have asked your question on their forum, or FB or Twitter.

Moireach

tomtontom wrote: »

I can't comment on the app but the website was definitely not down for two months. I use it often for work and have not experienced any problems. Plus you could have asked your question on their forum, or FB or Twitter.

I meant the My Account section, it was giving an error called "Landing Error" for lots of users which left us with no way of accessing our account. There's a 20 page thread on the EE forum about it. http://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Announcements-from-EE/My-EE-app-and-My-Account-Planned-maintenance/m-p/232437#M3441

I know I can but what's wrong with asking it here too? This is a good forum for tips on consumer rights which I won't get on the EE forum.

SuperHan

But you can check prices.

I just took out an EE contract, and before doing so looked at all the out of contract costs, just a couple of weeks ago. 35p seems reasonable where 0845 are not included within the allowances given.

I'm not sure you've got much to go on.

Plus I think tom meant you could have asked how much it would be on their forums BEFORE you made the call.

Moireach

SuperHan wrote: »

But you can check prices.

I just took out an EE contract, and before doing so looked at all the out of contract costs, just a couple of weeks ago. 35p seems reasonable where 0845 are not included within the allowances given.

I'm not sure you've got much to go on.

Plus I think tom meant you could have asked how much it would be on their forums BEFORE you made the call.

Oh I know I could have before. But my whole point is that I've been naiive, this is the situation I'm in, so is there any way to mitigate the consequences now. I think EE's failure to fix an IT problem over two months is definitely something to go on because I was trying every few to check my usage and couldn't access it, and that failure has cost me.

tomtontom

Moireach wrote: »

I meant the My Account section, it was giving an error called "Landing Error" for lots of users which left us with no way of accessing our account. There's a 20 page thread on the EE forum about it. http://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Announcements-from-EE/My-EE-app-and-My-Account-Planned-maintenance/m-p/232437#M3441

I know I can but what's wrong with asking it here too? This is a good forum for tips on consumer rights which I won't get on the EE forum.

Sorry I wasn't clear - you could have asked how much it would cost to call an 0845 number on the EE forum etc. You don't have grounds for complaint because you could have got this information prior to making the call.

Surely you were already aware of how long you'd been on the phone to Santander without needing to check your account?

Moireach

tomtontom wrote: »

Sorry I wasn't clear - you could have asked how much it would cost to call an 0845 number on the EE forum etc. You don't have grounds for complaint because you could have got this information prior to making the call.

Surely you were already aware of how long you'd been on the phone to Santander without needing to check your account?

That's true, and yes I could have checked my call history to see the total minutes, so I don't have much grounds for complaint. But I still think that as someone who had been naiive with regards to call charges and have always relied on checking my account, EE should take some respsonibility for failing to make my account available to me for such a long time. It's worth a try I guess anyway.

CKhalvashi

Moireach wrote: »

That's true, and yes I could have checked my call history to see the total minutes, so I don't have much grounds for complaint. But I still think that as someone who had been naiive with regards to call charges and have always relied on checking my account, EE should take some respsonibility for failing to make my account available to me for such a long time. It's worth a try I guess anyway.

But how is it EE's problem?

I had to call someone in Cyprus for work, and before doing it didn't check if it was Northern or Southern Cyprus I was calling. Completely my fault, and I would have made the call anyway, just through another system.

The one I did get back was in Lithuania (we were staying with friends about 200m from the Belarus border, and never actually entered Belarus), but for that they requested copies of my passport to prove there were no BY stamps in there.

There is very little chance EU are going to remove this charge, as the charges would be in your contract anyway.

powerful_Rogue

If youve got an Android or ios phone, download the app and use WeQ4U
http://www.weq4u.co.uk/

Not got Android or iPhone? Just dial 0333 5432111, and then the number you wish to reach. WeQ4U calls are included in your regular phone minutes, just like 01 or 02 calls, whether you use landline or mobile phone