topic Re: I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45! in My Account/Billing

I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45!

Ann-on-a-Moose — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 04:50:39 GMT

I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, but I had been calling my Husbands mobile in May and when my bill came through it was double my usual bill. The number is an 11 digit 07 number which I have called in previous months with no charge, but this time it was charged seperately. He was in this country, not abroad. I have an anytime landline and mobile call plan. I raised a ticket with Plusnet who have told me it was a VOIP call and so it is not charged at the usual rate and have charged me 34p/min. It is a Sky mobile, but he has no Internet. Plusnet gave me a contract to call all mobiles for free and I am struggling to see why I am being charged and how I would know if there is no warning it is a VOIP call or that I may be charged? I already pay for my internet from Plusnet, so calling a VOIP mobile (if true) shouldn't cost at all. No one else he knows has been charged like this to call his mobile. Please could someone explain to me what I am missing here and if anyone else has had this happen to them? I had chemo and only finished radiotherapy 2wks ago for cancer and I am exhausted trying to talk to customer services

Re: I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45!

Mav — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 05:47:12 GMT

Moderator's note:

A duplicate post was released from the Spam Filter and removed.

Re: I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45!

MisterW — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 07:27:14 GMT

@Ann-on-a-Moose , sounds like they were talking rubbish to me!. AFAIK the only 07 numbers to be charged not as mobiles are those starting 070 , they are 'personal numbers' and usually charged at much higher than 3p/min. However , the Anytime Landline & Mobile plan only includes 2000 minutes to mobiles , any chance you could have exceeded that ? Also, inclusive calls are a maximum of 60 minutes/call , after that they are chargeable, any chance there were some calls longer than that ?

If neither of those apply then I'd have another go at customer support or perhaps wait and see if one of the Help Team spot this thread and investigate.

BTW here's the OFCOM guide to call charges https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/how-much-does-a-phone-call-really-cost

Re: I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45!

Ann-on-a-Moose — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 07:36:53 GMT

Thanks MisterW, no 070 No. but one of the calls was over 1hr and an extra £4 odd was also added. I have had 7 responses from Customer support, 1 blaming BT Openreach for the charges and another blaming Sky mobile for not telling me that the call would be chargeable

Re: I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45!

MisterW — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 08:26:38 GMT

@Ann-on-a-Moose you said earlier

The number is an 11 digit 07 number which I have called in previous months with no charge, but this time it was charged seperately.

Does the bill show the same number in May as previous months, I assume it does?. Then I don't see how the charges can be different unless you've exceeded the months 2000 minutes allowance. If the Help Team (they're usaully pretty good in responding) don't pick it up then I'd raise a complaint via the help assistant https://www.plus.net/help/legal/complaints-code-of-practice/

Re: I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45!

Ann-on-a-Moose — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 09:41:55 GMT

MisterW

You are indeed correct it appears I have been charged previously for this number I have been going

through cancer treatment, so I must not have noticed the charges for this number on the older bills.

Since it is paid by DD I have not kept tabs on it, although this is the most expensive to date. I definitely haven't

gone over the 2000 min threshold though

I am not discounting that BT Openreach may have charged Plusnet extra for calls to this number, but I am

disputing the legitimacy of such charges and that it is Plusnet who should be seeking reimbursement if that is

the case. I am unable to view bills that are older, itemised, do you know if there is a way to do this?

Re: I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45!

MisterW — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 09:57:30 GMT

@Ann-on-a-Moose you should be able to do it from your Home phone control panel. https://portal.plus.net/plustalk/index.php?page=wlr_my_account ( you'll need to log in with your accountname & password ). Click the 'Itemised bill' tab and you should then be able to select previous bills from the dropdown box. There's also a link there to allow you to download the itemised bill as a csv ( excel ) file.

If you've been charged previously then it sounds like your package may not be set correct (or not what you thought you had), that should be shown on the 'account summary' tab.

Hope that helps

Re: I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45!

Ann-on-a-Moose — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 10:18:06 GMT

Thanks for the tip I originally had the Anytime landlines and mobile call package, but that has now changed to Unlimited UK and Mobile calls. I think the only change will be to 0845, 0870 and 118 no.'s which will be charged. Ofcourse the problem is I am currently unable to call this mobile still

Re: I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45!

MisterW — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 10:09:41 GMT

@Ann-on-a-Moose No problem!.

I'm surprised no-one from the Help Team has picked this up yet.

Let me give them a prod...

@Gandalf , (seeing as you are online) any chance you could get someone to investigate this please

Re: I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45!

Chris — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 11:02:53 GMT

Hi there,

I'm sorry for the issues you've had. At first glance the number in question appears to be a mobile. I'm digging in to this to see what's happened and see what I can do for you. Leave this with me and I'll get back to you over the next day or so.

Re: I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45!

MisterW — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 11:17:03 GMT

Thanks for picking it up Chris

Re: I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45!

Chris — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 13:13:55 GMT

We've looked in to this and through the raw call data for the queried calls.

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, however these calls are deemed as chargeable.

This is because of the way the calls were received by the other provider. They are showing as WiFi calls, which would be the case if the receiving party has no cellular signal on their phone or has set up WiFi calling as a preference.

Apologies that this isn't the answer you were looking for, however these calls are chargeable.

Re: I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45!

MisterW — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 14:09:37 GMT

@Chris So the user dials a conventional mobile number and the mobile network diverts that as a wifi call to the mobile. Surely any charges (over and above the normal mobile rate) are made to the receiving mobile account, for the call diversion NOT the originating caller ?

Anyway AFAIK SKY mobile is a MNVO on the O2 network and do NOT support the O2 Tu Go app or wifi calling

edit: I've just looked into this a bit deeper and it's a nightmare

apparently , accoding to the BT price list (http://www.bt.co.uk/pricing/current/Call_Charges_boo/1631_d0e5.htm) there are a number of bands for mobile calls (fm1 to fm17) and bands for wifi calls(fw1 to fw12) .Some numbers are in the fw bands instead of the fm bands , here's some examples below of those in the fw bands ( it's not exhaustive cos I got fed up with trying to go through the list...)

07305
07306
073682
073683
073780
07404
07405
074060
074061
074062
074063
074064
074065
074066
074067
074068
074172
074173
074174
074175
074176
074177
074179
074182
074183
074185
074186
07424
07438
074400
074401
074402
074403
074404
074405
074406
074407
074410
074411
074414
074418
074419
07448
074512
074515
074577
074582
074583
074587
074588
07459
074653
074655
07466
074883
074886
074888
075206
075207
075208
075209
075373
075590
075591
075592
075593
075594
075595
075597
075598
075599

How on earth is the caller supposed to know which band the number is in ????

@Ann-on-a-Moose does the number you dialled fall into this list ?

further edit: Having looked more closely at the BT price list , all fm and fw call bands are classed as 'mobile' for Inclusive call allowances, which makes sense

Which begs the question , why are PlusNet differentiating between fm and fw and is it correct to do so ?

Re: I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45!

HarryB — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 15:10:08 GMT

While I do tend to agree with your reasoning behind this @MisterW, we have simply charged the call based off of the call data and charges associated with this, that our suppliers sent us for this particular call.

Re: I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45!

jelv — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 15:44:57 GMT

I've just looked at the product pages and the only conditions I can find are:

Mobile: Calls to UK mobile numbers at any time. Fair usage limit of 2,000 minutes applies. Hang up and re-dial before 60 minutes and you won't be charged.

This looks to me to be a clear case of false advertising and should be reported to the ASA.

Re: I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45!

Chris — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 16:05:20 GMT

As the call wasn't to a mobile network the calling rules were different so the advsertised information is correct.

@Ann-on-a-Moose we are continuing to look in to this and I should have more information either tomorrow or Wednesday.

Re: I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45!

MisterW — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 16:24:30 GMT

@HarryB @Chris I'm sorry but I am with @jelv on this!. Unless you (PlusNet) have explicitly defined what constitutes a 'mobile' number, which I can't see anywhere, then you must be bound by the normally accepted and OFCOM definition (from herehttp://static.ofcom.org.uk/static/numbering

Personal Numbering, Radiopaging & Mobile Service numbers

Download 07 numbers in MS Excel format

(numbers beginning 07)

Personal Numbering (070 numbers)

Radiopaging numbers (076 numbers)

Mobile numbers (071 to 075 and 077 to 079)

from that we must assume that all numbers starting 071 to 075 and 077 to 079 are classed as mobile numbers and are included in any included mobile minutes.

As the call wasn't to a mobile network

Chris, I'm sorry! I thought the OP said it was a call to a SKY mobile ? is that not the case ?

It's good news that you are continuing to look further into this. We await the results with interest ?

Re: I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45!

beeceegee — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 20:41:42 GMT

I think we must be missing some vital information here.

I am on Three network, and have to use "Wifi Calling" when at home. All this does is route my outgoing calls into Three's network over the internet, and incoming calls from the Three network to my internet connection. There is NO additional call cost in either direction. It is still counted as a call over the mobile network. PN's replies seem to suggest that the number called is not from a mobile service provider, but OP has said that the mobile being called is on the Sky network, which uses O2 but does not yet support "wifi calling" at all, either through hardware or app.

Re: I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45!

Ann-on-a-Moose — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 00:43:12 GMT

Thank you so much for all your input into my problem It is good to see that something is happening. I can confirm after looking at the area codes for mobiles that it is listed as a Sky mobile:

07488 2

Sky

mobiles

As listed here http://www.area-codes.org.uk/mobile/#074 I don't know what has happened that has caused this Sky mobile to be charged at 34p/min, but I think that Plusnet should be talking to BT Openreach with regard to their charges. I would never have had an hour long conversation if I had thought that I would be charged

£20.40p for it

Re: I called my Husbands mobile and it cost me £45!

MisterW — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 08:08:20 GMT

@Ann-on-a-Moose , thanks for confirming the mobile prefix you are dialing. From looking at the BT price list, I suspect that the 2 sky mobile prefixes have been wrongly clasiified. 074882 & 3 are classified fw10 whereas 074884, 5, 7 & 9 (which are Three) are classified fm6. 074886 & 8 (Lanonyx Telecom & Ziron - never heard of them) are fw7 & 10 which may well be correct. Sky are relatively new to the mobile game and that number range may well have been used by someone else previously and it's not been reclassified properly by BT (and BTw)

Anyway, as I said earlier, it is assumed that all 07 numbers (with the exception of 070 ) are mobiles and without some explicit list of which are not , then in my view it's reasonable to assume that they are included in any mobile plan.

In fact, I'm not sure how you can make any other assumption, since numbers can be ported from one network to another!. It would be interesting to see what happened if a SKY mobile customer migrated their number to PlusNet mobile, would calling it now be chargeable!

NB Sky's other 2 prefixes 073682 & 3 also seem to be classified as fw10