Accidental calls - will I be charged?

davy_fulla

Just got the shock of my life when I found my baby son playing with my mobile. He's dialled international directory enquiries for about an hour and I now find that my curent spend stands at £180. My bill is only ever around £18 per month as I rarely go over my £18 contract. I've just got a text saying that I am approaching my spending limit.

I've called 3 and the person who took my call was helpful enough but she couldn't do much as the charges had not yet been fully applied (only happened a couple of hours ago). She couldn't confirm whether these charges would be wiped or not and advised me to call back once they have been applied to my bill.

Has anyone had any previous experience of this? I've been with 3 for about 18 months now and always paid my bills on time.

Alec_Eiffel_2

I strongly doubt they'd wipe this out but there's definately no harm in asking! Mobile companies can surprise you sometimes by doing something nice, but unfortunately my gut feeling is you'll have to swallow it, chalk it up to experience, and keep your phone on a higher shelf. Like I said, give it a go though - if you don't ask you don't get, but don't be surprised if it's a "no", it is unfortunately 'your' fault.

Rob50k

Take it out of his pocket money till he is 18!:D

Old_Gold

Unfortunately it looks as if there is no protection for the consumer against this happening. Any consumer is at the mercy of the Telephone provider. At least in the good old days of landlines and there was a fault or a mistake you knew you would be most likely to have the charge wiped out. IMO Oftel should make sure the networks have safeguards in their system.

gazza975526570

But the telephone company have done nothing wrong?!!

Quentin

Shouldn't the question be "Will I have to pay for the calls"?

As you will quite correctly be charged for them.

As has already been suggested, all you can do is throw yourself at their mercy and see if they take pity and don't make you pay.

If this fails, and paying is a problem, ask if you can pay it off "on the drip".

He will incur you loads more cost than this over the next 18 years, so prepare to bite the bullet!

Old_Gold

gazza975526570 wrote: »

But the telephone company have done nothing wrong?!!

Its not a question of whether they have done something wrong. They benefit because of someone else's mistake.

Quentin

When you are responsible for children then you ought to accept that responsibility.

(eg if the baby is allowed to cause damage (maybe knocking over a display in a china shop) you are responsible, not the shopkeeper). Likewise if you allow a baby to play with an expensive mobile phone you have to accept the consequences.

Could have been worse - the baby could have left it with irreparable water damage!

Old_Gold

Quentin wrote: »

When you are responsible for children then you ought to accept that responsibility.

(eg if the baby is allowed to cause damage (maybe knocking over a display in a china shop) you are responsible, not the shopkeeper). Likewise if you allow a baby to play with an expensive mobile phone you have to accept the consequences.

Could have been worse - the baby could have left it with irreparable water damage!

Agreed to some extent however the example you give has another side to it. Did the store take enough precautions for a reasonable person? So we start to get into grey areas.
Also Quentin when was the last time you saw someone charged by Tescos when accidentally a jar of marmalade went crashing to the floor? I know legally they could although they could legally lose aswell. But if they did then they would have to start changing their layouts and it would not be in their interests to do so.
Same with the phone industry. If there were loads of complaints because of accidental calls the industry would most likely have to introduce more safeguards in their system.

Old_Gold

Quentin wrote: »

When you are responsible for children then you ought to accept that responsibility.

(eg if the baby is allowed to cause damage (maybe knocking over a display in a china shop) you are responsible, not the shopkeeper). Likewise if you allow a baby to play with an expensive mobile phone you have to accept the consequences.

!

Just had a thought on this one. The shopkeeper is probably insured for this. Certainly they would not be able to trade legally if they did not have insurance to cover for accidents incurred by the customer on their premises.

Optimist

Old_Gold wrote: »

Agreed to some extent however the example you give has another side to it. Did the store take enough precautions for a reasonable person? So we start to get into grey areas.
Also Quentin when was the last time you saw someone charged by Tescos when accidentally a jar of marmalade went crashing to the floor? I know legally they could although they could legally lose aswell. But if they did then they would have to start changing their layouts and it would not be in their interests to do so.
Same with the phone industry. If there were loads of complaints because of accidental calls the industry would most likely have to introduce more safeguards in their system.

Good grief !! However do you put in safeguards in to allow for such a thing
The OP has to take responsibility for allowing their baby son to get his hands on the mobile in the first place. If the mobile company let them off the bill then good for them but they certainly have no legal or even moral case for doing so.