Charged for texts abroad

[mrsdsk]

Hi there! I am new and hoping someone can give me some advice. All 3 of my children have virgin mobiles, all of which were due contract renewals in March which we did. My husband pays for 2 of the bills and I pay the other.

So, when my hubby received the first bill, we were shocked to see that instead of the £16 it should have been, it was over £50!! When he looked at the bill he noticed that there were a large number of texts to two mobile numbers in Romania. We know our daughter has not sent these texts and there are no texts to these numbers in the phone history.

So when we phoned virgin to explain, we were told that the texts had come from that phone and we had to pay the bill. Virgin even rang the numbers in question to find both no longer connected. So we paid the bill. Her bill this month is normal.

However when hubby received my son's bill this month, lo and behold the same 2 numbers appeared and the same £50 odd bill. So he contacted virgin once more to be told the same thing. And they couldn't go back and check daughters bill from last month to correlate the information, as they don't keep them long enough.

We are struggling financially like everyone else and an coming to my wits end with this issue. Virgin seem very unwilling to help us or even investigate this problem. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance

[weenie]

If the numbers were no longer connected last month and it's the same number/numbers this month why don't you call VM and ask for an explanation how someone can phone/text a phone that is no longer connected, also can you not go on line to your bills and print them off and send a copy to VM asking them to check,you could also ask if you can get that number blocked I do not know if this can be done but it could be worth asking. Always take the name of the person you speak to and where they are based and keep a copy of times,dates,names etc as this will help when and if you if you need to discuss this matter again with someone else at VM.

Originally Posted by mrsdsk

...they couldn't go back and check daughters bill from last month to correlate the information, as they don't keep them long enough.

This is complete nonsense, if they told you this they are out and out lying.
Bills are available for well over a year - you can log on yourself and download them, so they can most certainly access them.

[mrsdsk]

Thanks for the fast response! We have called vm on both occasions only to be told there is nothing they can do. We have printed the bills off, the texts do appear on them but there is no history on their phones. We are utterly baffled by all this. Yet vm are insistent that they are unable to help. We asked to be referred to their fraud dept and they told us they wouldn't be able to do anything because nobody else has reported a problem, also they couldn't go back and check that far back. Really?? Can't go back a month? Hubby pointed out that we called last month to report the problem, so someone had reported a problem previously but they said that didn't count as it was the same person reporting the problem. Poor poor customer relations.

---------- Post added at 09:17 ---------- Previous post was at 09:14 ----------

Ah ok, hubby just told me it's not vm who said they can't help, it's EE who can't go back and check. I'm not sure why EE are involved with vm, I'm sure there's a logical reason why, I just don't know it.

VM mobile calls are carried on the EE network. Not sure why that's relevant though, as you pay VM for service.

[swoop101]

VM use EE as the operating supplier of the network.

[weenie]

Passing the buck here I think, as your contract is with VM not EE, can VM not block that number that keeps appearing on your bill?

[mrsdsk]

We will try that thanks for the help.

[jcw00]

Ask for their final response, then either contact their CEO team <Executiveteam@virginmedia.co.uk> phone 0800 052 1569.
Or take your complaint to CISAS (International Dispute Resolution Centre), www.cisas.org.uk which VirginMobile and VirginMedia are members of.

I had two separate complaints with VirginMobile and VirginMedia this year and CISAS upheld both my complaints in my favour. Get all the facts together and complete their on-line form. It normally takes 4 weeks to be resolved, but before you get a response from CISAS, Virgin's CEO office will be on the phone with an apology and for me confirmed a refund of monies due to me!

[mrsdsk]

Brilliant thank you very much! We shall do that tomorrow.

[weenie]

Hope you get a good result mrsdsk, all the best.