call made to an answer machine for hours after a silent call connection

lost1974

hi All

I wanted to hear your opinion on the following: my partner tried to call me on my mobile phone one evening but due to the location I was in (we are living in a rural area) he 'landed' in my answer machine and without noticing it (he thought the call was disconnected as there was no sound) his phone was connected to my answer machine for hours which costs us over 20£. We tried to contact the mobile phone provider (the same for both of us) and explain the situation but they are told telling us that they cannot prove that we did not have a real conversation. This has never happened before as well as my partner is actually never using the phone for more than few minutes (which is easy to prove looking at his calls history ) so I thought the provider will do a search and will either cancel the charge or at least offer us a kind of discount. This is not the case and they refuse to take it further. I would welcome any ideas what we could do in this situaiton. Thank you,

pepdavies

How is it the phone company's fault that he didn't hang up? I'd be annoyed too but put it down to experience and try not to make the same mistake twice.

grumbler

lost1974 wrote: »

... they are told telling us that they cannot prove that we did not have a real conversation.

What difference would this make? What matters is the connection, not the conversation.

In a similar case in the past I remember getting 50% discount, but the actual cost was much higher than £20. So, your only option is to keep asking for a goodwill, but if they refuse you can't do anything and have to pay.

Kernel_Sanders

lost1974 wrote: »

(we are living in a rural area) he 'landed' in my answering machine

You mean your voice mail? If not, how did the signal find your answering machine if it was too weak to reach your mobile?

lost1974

grumbler wrote: »

What difference would this make? What matters is the connection, not the conversation.

In a similar case in the past I remember getting 50% discount, but the actual cost was much higher than £20. So, your only option is to keep asking for a goodwill, but if they refuse you can't do anything and have to pay.

yes I do get it - the problem is how to not do the same mistake in the future as it could happen so often... I asked if I could set up my mobile for a limited time of conversation to avoid a similar case and they told me they cannot do anything- of course it is in their interest to not do it...
it is a rip off as we could make a call having a phone in a pocket and press some buttons ...

wiogs

lost1974 wrote: »

yes I do get it - the problem is how to not do the same mistake in the future as it could happen so often... I asked if I could set up my mobile for a limited time of conversation to avoid a similar case and they told me they cannot do anything- of course it is in their interest to not do it...
it is a rip off as we could make a call having a phone in a pocket and press some buttons ...

No it is not a rip off.

Make sure the phone is locked before putting it in your pocket.

Hang up at the end of a call.

Remarkably simple.

robbies_gal

i didnt think u could make a call the voicemail for so long

Comyface

Do you use your voicemail much / at all? If not, is there any way you could turn it off? So, anyone who rang you when you were out of signal range would just get a 'this phone is not reachable' message and not be charged for the call? This used to be possible by amending your handset somehow, sorry I can't be more specific!

I never get voicemail messages really. If I'm unable to answer the phone, my friends tend to then text me instead so I wouldn't miss the voicemail at all if I turned it off.