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Wrongly Billed Home Phone

michaelm
Grafter
Posts: 83
Registered: ‎21-06-2007

Wrongly Billed Home Phone

Hi
I am normally very happy with my home phone service from PlusNet but in the last billing month I have seen a few random chargeable calls added to my bill mostly mobiles and 0845 numbers and although I raised a ticket I am still to get an action and a credit for these calls. Baring in mind my billing date is on the 12th I am rather annoyed with PlusNet.
The only answers I have had to date give me a very vague reply about my home phone credit limit which is odd as I have never missed a payment and I barely make a £1 calls a month above my line rental. Most of the wrong calls seem to have been made during day time as well which means I was not even at home!
Since I am not getting any joy from the usual ticket  route I thought I'll try the forum.
If anybody can help...please do.
Thanks

18 REPLIES 18
ed
Grafter
Posts: 191
Registered: ‎15-08-2007

Re: Wrongly Billed Home Phone

try Watchdog
tonight they had people moaning about Virgin Media as other people were renting naught films and charging it to their account.
Lolz Haxorz  Roll_eyes
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Wrongly Billed Home Phone

I've asked Mand to have a look.
She's far more useful than Watchdog ever will be Smiley
Mand
Grafter
Posts: 5,560
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Wrongly Billed Home Phone

Hi there,
I've checked the data in BT Wholesale's system and it does look correct. This data is very rarely wrong (0.01% or such like) and when it is wrong it's usually an error which bills hundreds or thousands of pounds (I guarantee we will notice this before customers do should it happen! ;)).
Does anyone else have access to the property? Do you have anything connected to the phone line which can dial out?
I've asked one of my colleague's to refund the calls on this occasion as it's a small amount, but I'd be happy to help you get to the bottom of why they appeared.
michaelm
Grafter
Posts: 83
Registered: ‎21-06-2007

Re: Wrongly Billed Home Phone

Hi Mand and thanks for the reply.
No body else has access to the property and there is mothing else connected to my phone. I dialled the numbers just to check and the 0845 numbers were directing me to a Bradford Council Service....which I have no dealings with as I live in Glasgow....
Furthermore, my home phone device allows me to check recently dialled nrs and none of those numbers appear there not even the mobiles.
Since this is not the first time this has happened (I had lots of trouble with my home phone billing for months, i.e. none of my calls were charged since January and I was not even shown as a customer... and PlusNet had to reset my account and start afresh as a new customer), I am certain it was an error on your billing system as I was not even at home when the calls took place.
In any case thanks for your help and I appreciate the prompt reply. If you can investigate why those calls appeared and how that would be good!
I will closely monitor my bills from now on though. Incidentally, the calls still show on my account. Let me know if you need my user name and I will drop you an email.
Thanks for your help
Much appreciated
Michael
Mand
Grafter
Posts: 5,560
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Wrongly Billed Home Phone

Hi there,
The calls will show on your account, as we have no way of manually deleting them. One of my colleagues will be applying a refund for you though.
I'll look a little further for you into the calls, and see what I can find.
michaelm
Grafter
Posts: 83
Registered: ‎21-06-2007

Re: Wrongly Billed Home Phone

Hi Mand
Thanks for your reply again.
I just got the following reply via a support ticket:
"BT call records are generally very accurate, and mistakes, when they happen, are generally to the order of hundreds of pounds. As a gesture of goodwill, however, I will apply a discount of £x.yy to your next subscription payment in case these bills are indeed incorrect."
Although I am grateful for the discount, I cannot help but notice the fact that the support staff are still to admit that there could be an error and i sense a bit of sarcasm in that reply. Surely, the fact that I was not at home during working hours would mean that I am not responsible for the calls? And perhaps a fault should be admitted?
Thanks for you help anyway. Much appreciated.
Michael
itsme
Grafter
Posts: 5,924
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎07-04-2007

Re: Wrongly Billed Home Phone

There is a possibility that you have a cross line. If you ring 17070 you will hear the number of the line. Check that this is your number and that you can't hear a echo. If it is a cross line the std part of the number (020 etc) will sound okay but the rest of the number will have a echo to it.
michaelm
Grafter
Posts: 83
Registered: ‎21-06-2007

Re: Wrongly Billed Home Phone

Thanks for that advice
I will try that when I get home tonight. What happens in that is the case then?
Anything I need to do?
Cheers
Thanks
Michael
Peter_Vaughan
Grafter
Posts: 14,469
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Wrongly Billed Home Phone

Ring 150 and report a voice line fault but don't mention ADSL
michaelm
Grafter
Posts: 83
Registered: ‎21-06-2007

Re: Wrongly Billed Home Phone

Hi
Mand, if you are reading this, I am afraid wrong calls are still appearing against my phone bill and I still have not had an answer from PlusNet. More calls were made since my last billing period during hours that I am not at home and they are all to 0870 & 0845 nrs. Can you please investigate? Yesterday a call was made at 13:21 and like most of us I am at work during the day.
Can we please resolve this?
You have my contact details if you need to get hold of me.
Thanks
Michael
Mand
Grafter
Posts: 5,560
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Wrongly Billed Home Phone

Hi Michael,
I'm still looking into this, but have not had much time in the last couple of days. Your ticket is with me for further action and I'll be picking that up today.
Did you try the test detailed above? If so what were the results?
paulby
Grafter
Posts: 1,619
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎26-07-2007

Re: Wrongly Billed Home Phone

Michael,
What type of phone do you have?
Is it an analogue cordless?  If it is I'd try plugging a standard corded phone in or buying a DECT cordless replacement. 
My brother had a similar problem with calls on Telewest which turned out to be his neighbour making calls on an analogue cordless phone which had somehow managed to connect to my brother's base station.
michaelm
Grafter
Posts: 83
Registered: ‎21-06-2007

Re: Wrongly Billed Home Phone

Quote from: Mand
Hi Michael,
I'm still looking into this, but have not had much time in the last couple of days. Your ticket is with me for further action and I'll be picking that up today.
Did you try the test detailed above? If so what were the results?

Hi Mand
I tried the test above and my line number sounds OK with no echo to it. Obviously I cannot call 150 to report a fault as there is no fault and 150 does not work on the line as that is a BT Number.
As for the other comment. It is a cordless phone at 2.4 GHz and it is a DECT phone. Furthermore, this has not happened before and I had that phone for 4 years now....
Any more advice will be welcome.
Thanks for looking into this for me Mand. Will wait for an update.
Thanks
Michael
LiamM
Grafter
Posts: 5,636
Registered: ‎12-08-2007

Re: Wrongly Billed Home Phone

Quote from: michaelm
As for the other comment. It is a cordless phone at 2.4 GHz and it is a DECT phone. Furthermore, this has not happened before and I had that phone for 4 years now....

But what does that mean?  I've seen several cases of other peoples lines being used either from the street cabinet directly where it is easily accessible and broken into - or by hooking onto the cordless signal and successfully managing to register with the base station.  Unfortunately, both of these are extremely hard to prove / track down.
I'd certainly try unplugging *everything* from your telephone line and trying again.  PCs, Sky Boxes, Phones.  Use a corded phone in one socket for a few days and see if the spurious entries still appear.
Not to sound pedantic, but you are certain nobody (children or otherwise) are sneakily using the phone and telling nobody?
Have you also ensured that any PCs / Laptops in the house are not using dialup modems that are plugged into the line and dialing expensive numbers.  Same with Sky Boxes?  Checked they're not able to dial out?
Have you tried calling the numbers?  What are they?  Can you speak to someone who operates the numbers to see if they have any call monitoring / recording?  Are they getting your CLI presented to them?