Plusnet charging international rate for a local UK call

[#1]

I would be interested if anyone else has experienced this. My daughter has made ten calls to a UK landline number, and on seven of those occasions they have charged me for an international call. I have queried it and they refunded £5 to my account but only £3 is showing as credit. When I called to find out why the £5 credit is not showing it appears they have charged me again for two international calls which were to the same local landline number. However they are now saying that my daughter must have misdialled 7 times to an international number instead of the local number. They have questioned my integrity and left me feeling extremely angry and frustrated with Plusnet. Has anyone else experienced this? It looks like its time to move on from Plusnet!

[#2]

That should be easy enough for you to check.  What number is it showing as being called on the  bill for these?  It would be in the "Itemised Usage - Calls" section of the bill.

[#3]

@Lougabben Welcome to the forum. 🙂

Were these calls to Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man? They're 'International' although within the UK numbering scheme.

[#4]

No they were to Westward Ho,  Devon UK

[#5]

Hi, the number my daughter called was an 01237 number which is the prefix for the Torridge area of Devon UK. She has called the same number 10 times, (the person she is calling is one of her elderly nail clients) . The phone bill shows two of the numbers as +44 numbers (UK) and the other seven are on the bill with the prefix 00 before the number. Plusnet have said she has misdialled and put an extra zero at the beginning of the number. I might believe this if it happened once, but seven times? They then went on to tell me that the number called in the USA is for FEDEX, and suggested I may have called it in regards to a parcel! Therefore suggesting I was lying! If myself or my daughter had wanted to call Fedex, which we didn't,  we wouldn't be stupid enough to do it on a mobile phone, and would  have contacted a UK number or emailed.  Sorry for the rant, just very annoyed at Plusnet right now.

[#6]

I've just realised that this is from a mobile, not a landline. Won't the call history on the phone confirm the numbers actually dialled ?

[#7]

Yes the iPhones call history shows she has dialled 01237 the U.K. prefix and not 001247 which is a USA one, but still Plusnet insists she has misdialled or called the USA deliberately.

[#8]

In that case, hopefully one of the Plusnet staff will see this and explain how this could possibly happen. I've not heard of anything like this before.

I'm not an iPhone user I'm afraid, but as a prevention measure whilst it's being investigated, is it possible to block international calls ?

[#9]

I thought they already were, but i will double check that. Thanks for your replies. 

[#10]

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@MisterW wrote:

In that case, hopefully one of the Plusnet staff will see this and explain how this could possibly happen. I've not heard of anything like this before.

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Neither have I.  🤔

Following with interest...

[#11]

Been doing a bit more research...

@Lougabben  given that it's an iPhone, could it be anything to do with 'Dial assist' ?

this https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Virgin-Mobile/iPhone-Dial-Assist-Problems/td-p/3795425 might be worth a read through.

This https://www.iphonelife.com/content/how-to-turn-dial-assist-iphone details how to disable it

[#12]

What about if you hold the initial 0 button down slightly too long when dialing, it will change to a + so 01234... changes to +1234... which would be USA? I would still think it would show as that in the call log on the phone though.

[#13]

Thank you for that information, I didn't know about dial assist, but have now disabled it for both myself and my daughters phone. However, her call log on her Iphone shows both incoming and outgoing calls to the landline we are being charged an international rate for, and it has the location below the number, as Bideford England. This is correct as the landline number in question is in Westward Ho, which is a village in Bideford. The Iphone call log shows a UK number has been dialled but the Plusnet bill shows it as an international number.

[#14]

Yes that was suggested to me by customer services but the Iphone call log shows it as being a UK number. Also, she has called this number ten times, seven of which have been charged as an international call. That would mean she has misdialled on seven different occasions which is unlikely. Luckily the calls have been very short, most of the time my daughter was unable to get through to the landline number using her mobile, so resorted to using the home landline to call the number, where she got through with no problems at all, and was not charged an international rate!  Customer services have basically accused me of lying and although they initially refunded me £5 for the first five calls I flagged up as being charged incorrectly on the bill, they are now refusing to do the same for the two subsequent calls she made to this number, before we realised there was a problem. They said Fedex in the USA have the same number as the one she was dialling in the UK and that perhaps I wanted to talk to someone about a parcel!  I am gathering all the evidence together today and emailing the CEO of Plusnet, as customer services have been of no use at all.

[#15]

Luckily the calls have been very short, most of the time my daughter was unable to get through to the landline number using her mobile, so resorted to using the home landline to call the number, where she got through with no problems at all, and was not charged an international rate! 

@Lougabben  that's interesting...

so the calls in question didn't connect to the UK number then ?

did they connect to fedex USA or not connect at all , and was the ring tone different than normal ? ( which is often the case with a non UK call )

Now I'm no mobile network expert nor do I have much knowledge of iPhones but from a long time engineers logical point of view , I see 3 possibilities :-

1) the phone dialled the incorrect number

2) the network routed the call incorrectly as an international call

3) the charging information fed back by the network operator to PlusNet is incorrect

Now 1) would seem to be contradicted by the phone's call log but only Apple would know what is actually written to the log

If 2) or 3) is happening then I would be amazed if it only applied to one account, so I would have expected lots of other complaints