WARNING Virgin Charging for Free Calls

1931modela

Just a heads up to anyone with a Virgin Mobile Phone contract.
I have 2 phones with them (Daughter & Wife) when my daughters January statement came through it was for more then the normal (both phones are U/l Data, Texts & Calls) £9.65 instead of £9.50, yes I know it was only 15 pence but we checked as she said she had not gone outside her allowance.
Online bill showed a Premium Rate call to her my wife, on calling Virgin I was advised it was a glitch in their system which they were fixing and they would refund me the 15 pence, so all well..............
No it is not as I recieved March's statement and on checking that, they have again charged an extra 30 pence for 2 premium rate calls to my wife and not only that but did not refund the initial 15 pence when they said they would.
After a 50 minute phone call to them, it turns out it is a known problem to them, but after at least 3 months they cannot fix and the call handler admitted she was getting quite a few calls on this.
In the whole scheme of things 45 pence is not much money, but multiply that by how many Virgin Mobile customers there are and it could suddenly be a lot of money they are making if like me you accept that a bill might be a few pence more then normal.
Or am I being too hard on them??

Ian011

You should be billed correctly. The amount is irrelevant. It could be argued that over-charging every customer by 15p is far worse than charging the odd person a tenner more.

For the call that was incorrectly charged, what are the next five digits after the initial zero?

1931modela

Ian011 wrote: »

You should be billed correctly. The amount is irrelevant. It could be argued that over-charging every customer by 15p is far worse than charging the odd person a tenner more.

My point exactly, been going on for at least 3 months, so how much have Virgin made from this error??

For the call that was incorrectly charged, what are the next five digits after the initial zero?

There were 3 separate calls all to my wife's mobile (also on Virgin) not sure what you mean by next 5 numbers after zero ? though

AndyPK

Tell us the first 6 digits of the number.

Was it only the odd call that was incorrectly charged? Or does she not call her mum much?

1931modela

AndyPK wrote: »

Tell us the first 6 digits of the number.

Was it only the odd call that was incorrectly charged? Or does she not call her mum much?

Still don't understand why the number is needed, but the first 6 digits are: 07876 3
Yes it's only the odd call although she calls her regularly, so numerous calls per billing period and only this number has been charged, as an 18 year old girl her call history per month is 7 - 13 pages long

bazzyb

1931modela wrote: »

Still don't understand why the number is needed, but the first 6 digits are: 07876 3
Yes it's only the odd call although she calls her regularly, so numerous calls per billing period and only this number has been charged, as an 18 year old girl her call history per month is 7 - 13 pages long

07876 numbers are not freephone numbers. They are standard, chargeable mobile numbers.

AndyPK

But they have unlimited minutes to regular numbers

Ian011

The reason for asking for the first few digits was to check which network the number range is allocated to.

07876 3 is a standard mobile number. This range has been allocated to Vodafone since 2000.

If the number had previously been with Lyca or some other such network, there may have been an explanation for the charges. As it stands, unless you went over the monthly allowance the call should have been fully inclusive within the your calls allowance.

Is there anything 'special' about the particular calls that were charged. Are they especially long? Or short? Are they all on the same day of the week, or made at a similar time of day?

dazzaofdagenham

I had a issue with Virgin mobile, my daughter has a sim only with unlimited everything. Texts to her friend on Vodafone were showing as a premium text and costing a extra .15p per text.

On asking about this, they said the number for her Vodafone friend was stored in the international format. +44 and she should revert it to the normal format. 07 and that would cure it.

Virgin mobile did refund the charges and it seems the solution has worked....strange as it was only Vodafone number that was affected

wongataa

dazzaofdagenham wrote: »

I had a issue with Virgin mobile, my daughter has a sim only with unlimited everything. Texts to her friend on Vodafone were showing as a premium text and costing a extra .15p per text.

On asking about this, they said the number for her Vodafone friend was stored in the international format. +44 and she should revert it to the normal format. 07 and that would cure it.

It shouldn't make any difference if the numbers have the country code or not - it is the same number. I have never had any issues with whatever my numbers are stored as - with country code or not. I don't use Virgin though.

Ian011

If people are being charged for messages or calls because the number format is +44 rather than 07 then millions of people will have been overcharged. If this really is happening, Ofcom need to be involved.