I appear to be sleep dialling!

[#1]

That is true. I have however got no prima facie case that a crime has been committed. The only empirical evidence from my viewpoint is that the telecomm system at some stage has recorded a call that did not take place from the place that it is alleged to have done. Even if I were able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that person "A" made the call at some location other than my premises, there would be absolutely no chance of proving crimninal intent. It's a matter of keeping a proper perspective on things.

Thousands of people are being charged for calls that they have not made and it is a known problem. I believe it is a regulatory issue and one which at some stage somebody needs to challenge.

[#2]

Who would make a 1 second call to the speaking clock - not even listening to the service they've called?

The most likely answer is "an engineer". When searching for an unused copper pair, the mere fact that the speaking clock answers is enough for him to move on to try a new line.

This issue isn't a regulatory one. It is about "retraining"/sacking lazy engineers ... who are quite possibly lazy subcontractors. Whoever they are working for, they are making calls with no intention of paying.

AAISP's RevK on stolen copper (and the originating story)

And again, but more recently

The only way to prove that this may have happened is to get Openreach to search their job records, and find out whether an engineer was working on the cabinet at that time.

Proving intent might then need "BT" (might be BT Wholesale this time) to confirm whether other subscribers on the same cabinet encountered 123 calls at the same time.

[#3]

"This issue isn't a regulatory one."

I have to disagree with you there. When training, advice, cajoling or whatever has been tried and has failed then there comes a time for enforcement. What form that might take I don't know, perhaps a requirement that a 'proper' premium rate  telephone number be used for the facility and 123 being removed as a valid number.

p.s. - interesting reading in the links, thanks.

[#4]

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@longedge wrote:

It goes back to the days when there was only BT and calls to 123 were free and not recorded on telephone bills. It seems old habits die hard.

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This has certainly been going on since I was a GPO apprentice in 1965, and no doubt since the speaking clock was invented.

As far as I'm aware, the service was never free. The point is - it's only in relatively recent times that full itemised billing has been available, where you can see every call, and therefore we're now aware of the problem. IIRC itemised billing initially only showed calls charged more than 50p. Before that, there was no itemisation at all - the bill only showed the current and previous meter reading, much like electricity or gas.

 Openreach (and I'd imagine contractors Quinn and Kelly) technicians' every movement is controlled and recorded by a 'Work Manager' system, or whatever it's called these days. Given the will, those responsible could be found.

[#5]

The other possibility is that you have a line fault and the exchange interpreted an intermittent connection as pulse dialling.  Not unheard of (along with engineers testing a line) and very difficult to pin down.

Is your line quiet in all weather conditions?  Do you have an overhead drop cable and does it pass near any trees?

[#6]

"As far as I'm aware, the service was never free."

Yes - that's the danger of simply repeating what others says. I'm sure you're correct. What is clear from what I'm reading is that it is still very popular and generates an income of over £20 million a year for BT. I can see that it is popular with BT for that reason but I wonder how much of that income stream comes from calls made by engineers?

[#7]

No trees the line come to a pole directly from a manhole next to the pole and the drop cable is ~20 yards and clear of any interference from any sort of vegetation. I touch wood carefully as I say that at the moment I get a crystal clear and silent quiet line test.

[#8]

Sorry to see you've been charged for a 123 call @longedge

Really sorry to hear this, I'll say the same thing I said last time I dealt with one of these

Quote from: HarryB

On this occasion I'll get this refunded as soon as I can, however if it happens again moving forward we'll need to do a little more investigation in to it. I'll need to wait for the payment to clear and then once I've seen that it's cleared I'll get the refund issued. I've said this before on a similar thread, but I really do not understand why engineers would use 123, surely they must know it's a chargeable call

(And also for my recycled response from one of the last one of these I dealt with)

I'm going to escalate the ticket on your account to myself and I'll make sure the 50p is refunded as soon as possible for you after the payment has been taken.

[#9 · Accepted solution]

Thank you Harry. I hope I've made it clear that I don't blame Plusnet for this and I'm very happy with Ben's efficiency and attitude when I finally got through on chat.

You've taken the wind out of my sails. I was building up a head of steam for a long campaign

p.s. I'm in the process of updating other posts elsewhere to acknowledge your intervention

[#10]

Sometime it can be a Sky box which has dialled. It especially occurs if the box has not been connected to a phone line for some time and is then reconnected.

[#11]

A possibility, but not in my case. It could also be one of a multitude of things but in a case like mine where it was a single isolated event, it was almost certainly an engineer looking for a spare pair. If you do a little looking around, it's not difficult to find forums where people have got dozens of 1 second calls to 123 and I think that's when you start thinking about rogue equipment, loose connections pulse dialling and the like. For now I'm sorted out but a multi million pound scandal like this really ought to be sorted out at a far higher level than end providers.

I'm just glad to be with PlusNet who have still got staff who are willing to get involved and sort a problem out. I know what a thankless task it is to be on the sharp end of a support system where all you get day in and day out is criticism no matter how hard you try!