Unreasonable charges - or is it someone else's responsibility

lolo59

I was told by Talk talk that I couldn't phone out on my landline till I paid them £136 for a 16 hour phone call which proved to be a call I rang off of after 5 minutes to a contractor. It seems to me that even if I didn't successfully turn my phone off that the call centre (Mears, a repair firm used by my landlord, Peabody)should have turned the call off at their end. There was no tone to tell me that the phone was still 'on'. I'm trying to find out if BT is responsible for all lines still, despite my payments going to Talk Talk as provider because I believe they have an automatic cut-off of calls after a certain time.
Can someone advise me what I should best do? I've contacted Talktalk who have offered me 25% off (ie I'm only going to pay £100 for a five minute non-contact call!), Mears (the contractor whose line I believe may have been at fault) and Peabody, who contracts Mears but I fear I'm already getting the runaround.
Surely this can't be acceptable practice - £136 is a lot of money!
Lolo59

Dean000000

Correction. It’s neither mears, bt, Peabody, or talk talks error... it’s yours...please own your mistake, reasonable or not...

The fact they have offered discount is generous, you should thank them.

It wasn’t a 5 minute phone call, it was a 960 minute phone call.

iniltous

.............

iniltous

TT are a LLU/MPF provider and do not use 'BT' equipment at all, TT use Openreach wires to get the service from TT's equipment to your home, so it is absolutely nothing to do with BT, so BT are in no way responsible.
If you were a 'BT' customer , then if you didn't hang up ( or thought you had but hadn't replaced the phone handset correctly) but the called party did hang up, after a short period , a 'called party clear' is actioned , and the call is cleared anyway, even though your phone hasn't been hung up....
You would have to ask TT if the have the same policy , but it would appear they don't , if they say the call lasted 16 hours.

techquest

When you clear a call in the UK, as iniltous says, there is an indication by the equipment, an open loop disconnect, that tells the equipment either the calling party or called party has cleared/terminated the call. Ordinarily this will, in a set timeout period clear the equipment involved in the call, if either party fails to put down the handset.

If TT say you were in the call for 16hrs, WOW, then they must have evidence to prove that. I can't imagine anyone on a call for 16hrs and I imagine TT would not either. Don't just give up and pay, ask them to provide the evidence they have. They will have to have such record, provided by their exchange equipment, pertinent to the call in question, to then charge you.

It's difficult to imagine a business at the other end of the call sitting there chatting for 16hrs either. However logic does not prevail in such circumstances, You will have to start somewhere with TT to prove that you weren't on that call for such a ridiculous period of time. I suggest you start by, in written format, asking them for their proof of the call duration, that way it is then on record.

Sibz

Have you been dealing with a complaints department at TT?

What times did the call allegedly start and finish? Are any of these hours outside Mears opening hours (which may be listed publicly online)?

This next bit might seem silly, but this is not unheard of. Are there any other calls detailed on your bill between these 16 hours? - this could prove a billing fault.