Have you been charged for premium calls that you didnt make?

[WHISTLED]

That goes without saying - there was no mention of data protection being limited to phone calls - the suggestion was that VM would not divulge the number at-all

Have you read the full thread? The OP was given the number!

I taught data protection to employees (maybe even VM) so there is nothing you can tell me about confidentiality/data protection - and my facts are straight

lol yeah right

Originally Posted by WHISTLED

Have you read the full thread?..

More than you it appears

Originally Posted by WHISTLED

The OP was given the number!..

Spinyfish, who i was specifically responding to here

Originally Posted by Spinyfish

...They also can't tell me the numbers citing "data protection act"...Any advice on this? Thanks

was not given the number - nice try - but futile & a bit childish

Originally Posted by JethroUK

I taught data protection to employees (maybe even VM) so there is nothing you can tell me about confidentiality/data protection - and my facts are straight

Originally Posted by WHISTLED

lol yeah right

Well I did!

You could spend the rest of your life waiting for me to trip up - and i'm sure i will - eventually - but alas not today my friend

[Spinyfish]

I have now recieved a phonecall from Virgin Medias CEO's office informing me that due to massive fraud at a local substation this has happened to many people, not just on virgin media. They have credited my account.

Thanks for all your advice.

If you're still haveing problems call the CEO's office.

Originally Posted by Spinyfish

...due to massive fraud at a local substation this has happened to many people, not just on virgin media...

AFAIK VM/Cable use totally seperate infra structure than anyone else - so it's strange the scam affects other providers in the same way

[Wild Oscar]

Mmm .. interesting since I have an unusually high bill too! .. admittedly not as 'grand' as those mentioned here ... mine is only about £15 more than usual.

My ebill is showing that I made 88 calls of 3 hours total .. under the 50p itemisation limit!

It's nonsense, I don't even use the phone that much .. btw how are you supposed to change this itemisation limit on the bill? .. I'd like to see all details in future!

[icklelight]

just ring 150 and ask to put full itemisation on ya bill - it'll show all chargeable calls from then on....£1 a month for it...

[moaningmags]

Originally Posted by Wild Oscar

Mmm .. interesting since I have an unusually high bill too! .. admittedly not as 'grand' as those mentioned here ... mine is only about £15 more than usual.

My ebill is showing that I made 88 calls of 3 hours total .. under the 50p itemisation limit!

It's nonsense, I don't even use the phone that much .. btw how are you supposed to change this itemisation limit on the bill? .. I'd like to see all details in future!

Now see that did my head in. I want to know every call made from my line
so I went for full itemisation and I'm less grumpy now
I called them and they changed it to full itemisation for me it costs extra but worth it in my book.


I need to type faster icklelight beat me to it.

[martinj]

I too have been charged for a premium rate phone call I could not possibly have made as it was at 12:59 and I was at work 100% and noone else has access.
Unlike other posts here the number does show up on my bill, which is 09090271146, duration exactly 14 mins costing me £21.10. PhonePayPlus confirms this is an adult service.
At virgins insistence an engineer came and confirmed that there was no crossed line or other problem, which I am also now going to be billed for.
Haven't got anywhere with customer services. Guess next step is to write a formal complaint. Interested to hear how others get on with this process...
Now maybe i understand why they charge £5pm for non direct debit. I dont even have the option of witholding payment.

Martin

[warriorsq]

Originally Posted by Wild Oscar

Mmm .. interesting since I have an unusually high bill too! .. admittedly not as 'grand' as those mentioned here ... mine is only about £15 more than usual.

My ebill is showing that I made 88 calls of 3 hours total .. under the 50p itemisation limit!

It's nonsense, I don't even use the phone that much .. btw how are you supposed to change this itemisation limit on the bill? .. I'd like to see all details in future!

Weird my latest bill is bit higher than usuall and we dont use it much either,will ask for fully itemised bill

[harky]

The same thing has just happened to me. I live in North London. Only been with VM for two weeks and didn't actually want the phone in the first place (was told by the sales guy that I might aswell have it cos it was free with the package I ordered). Had all services cut off when a bill to premium rate calls reached £160. I was told in order to get the services back that at least £150 needed to be paid, which I foolishly did. Unfortunately this only lasted 3 days and I was cut off again when I was told I had a new bill exceeding £260, despite having the phone cut off. An engineer is coming out tomorrow, after reading this I was thinking I should probably get him to sign something there and then to say what's happening as CS will deny everything. I've emailed Watchdog and intend to contact Trading Services, after that the Police. VM are a joke - I was also told that this has never happened before

[chuzzlemonkey]

Back to the very original point of this thread...did you check with the premium call regulator as to who these numbers belong to.

From experience it can (not saying it was) be a company who you have dealt with at some point in the last month and forgotten about.

www.phonepayplus.org.uk

bash the number into their website and see what it says...

---------- Post added at 16:46 ---------- Previous post was at 16:43 ----------

Originally Posted by harky

The same thing has just happened to me. I live in North London. Only been with VM for two weeks and didn't actually want the phone in the first place (was told by the sales guy that I might aswell have it cos it was free with the package I ordered). Had all services cut off when a bill to premium rate calls reached £160. I was told in order to get the services back that at least £150 needed to be paid, which I foolishly did. Unfortunately this only lasted 3 days and I was cut off again when I was told I had a new bill exceeding £260, despite having the phone cut off. An engineer is coming out tomorrow, after reading this I was thinking I should probably get him to sign something there and then to say what's happening as CS will deny everything. I've emailed Watchdog and intend to contact Trading Services, after that the Police. VM are a joke - I was also told that this has never happened before

100% that somebody else in the property didn't call the numbers?

Let us know what the tech says - customer services can't confirm or deny anything, they just get to see that the call was made...and then they get to see the technicians notes after visiting yourself.

So if its on the bill and the tech says the call is valid...customer services will just tell you the same thing!

[harky]

The number was to an adult chat line each time - first day it happened it was dialed all day up until 7.30 pm, second time it ran even longer.

Anyway, I got a technician to come out and have a look at it and he told me he couldn't see that anyone had tampered with the line. BUT, I did get all the call charges credited back to my account and my services are back and running.

I asked the technician why this is happening to VM customers and he said that the telephone exchange boxes (or whatever they're called) at the end of my street can be easily opened with a screwdriver.

I've since had call barring applied to my line. The lady I spoke with yesterday from credit control explained that they were taking extensive measures to ensure it didn't happen again (not sure what that means, but it was almost and admission that it is a common problem they're aware of).

Hopefully it's all been resolved now, although time will tell. If it happens again I will cancel everything and switch to Sky.

My advice is to call and ask to speak to someone who can make decisions there and then, that's what I did. I spoke with a manager in cs after explaining that unless I spoke to someone who can actually do something, and my services were up and running within 24 hours, I wanted to be put through to the cancellation team - I was put through immediately and spoke to a lady who then escalated it with the credit team.

I am relatively happy that this has been sorted, but I'm still not 100% convinced it will not happen again. I'll obivously be back on here if it does. Good luck to everyone else

[rob135]

Hi

Just been reading the posts as I did google it due to the fact that I have just received a bill showing prem numbers being called from my phone at 04.26 in the morning. When I first queeried it with the 150, I told them that in the area I lived it was common knowledge that the main boxes were tampered with, and for a price, services could be increased for basic packages. Vm bloke told me rubbish, never heard of such a thing, I basically got told tough you rang it you pay it. Got passed around when I told them to cancel the account and eventually spoke to someone who also informed me that it must have been us as other calls were made before and after the prem numbers, and these were to mobiles. Told them that we didn't ring mobiles because of the costs and used our own mobiles for this purpose. Eventually they did say that when looking over previous bills there was no history of these calls to prems or mobiles. The mobiles slipped through as they were under 50p and not itemised. I asked for a check by vm on these prem and mobile numbers, which I am awaiting. Other info is that it is only the telephone and no internet connected in the house to the phone.
Awaiting response from vm but concerned that if it has happened once and the system is unsafe then it could happen again.

Originally Posted by Haggis23

Back to the very original point of this thread...did you check with the premium call regulator as to who these numbers belong to.

From experience it can (not saying it was) be a company who you have dealt with at some point in the last month and forgotten about.

www.phonepayplus.org.uk

bash the number into their website and see what it says...

---------- Post added at 16:46 ---------- Previous post was at 16:43 ----------



100% that somebody else in the property didn't call the numbers?

Let us know what the tech says - customer services can't confirm or deny anything, they just get to see that the call was made...and then they get to see the technicians notes after visiting yourself.

So if its on the bill and the tech says the call is valid...customer services will just tell you the same thing!

When I had the issue of around 30 calls being made over the period of around an hour early hours of the morning the tech told cs the calls were made.
It was left to me to switch provider, because I was banging my head against a brick wall with VM, strangely enough no such issues with the new provider.

[chuzzlemonkey]

Originally Posted by arcamalpha2004

When I had the issue of around 30 calls being made over the period of around an hour early hours of the morning the tech told cs the calls were made.
It was left to me to switch provider, because I was banging my head against a brick wall with VM, strangely enough no such issues with the new provider.

Does that relate to my post? lol sorry i may be misreading

---------- Post added at 00:23 ---------- Previous post was at 00:20 ----------

Originally Posted by martinj

I too have been charged for a premium rate phone call I could not possibly have made as it was at 12:59 and I was at work 100% and noone else has access.
Unlike other posts here the number does show up on my bill, which is 09090271146, duration exactly 14 mins costing me £21.10. PhonePayPlus confirms this is an adult service.
At virgins insistence an engineer came and confirmed that there was no crossed line or other problem, which I am also now going to be billed for.
Haven't got anywhere with customer services. Guess next step is to write a formal complaint. Interested to hear how others get on with this process...
Now maybe i understand why they charge £5pm for non direct debit. I dont even have the option of witholding payment.

Martin

ok...the number on your bill...

Number checker
PhonepayPlus has the following information about the number 09090271146.


The number offers an Adult Content service. This is promoted through various sources, including magazines, the internet and television, and you use it with your telephone or mobile phone.
This service costs £1.50 per min (plus any phone network surcharges - check with your phone company for full details).
If you would like to find out more about this service or have a question about it you should contact the company that provides this service which is listed below.

Datapro Services Ltd
BM 8027
London
WC1N 3XX
Tel: 0870 046 5910
help@dataproservices.co.uk


Looks like somebody MAY have had 'the urge' ???

These calls can be barred free of charge by collections, call 173 from your line...advise them that you are worried that 09 numbers may be increasing your bill. Adult Barring will be applied within 24hrs for free..

Or if you would like a barring that you control then call customer care...but that's £1.75 per month!