Virgin Mobile overseas - charged £270 for voicemail error

[Anand M]

I'm often overseas, and avoid using my UK Virgin mobile to make calls/texts because of the high charges. I keep my UK phone locked, buy local network cards, and only check my UK voicemail in emergencies.

I was therefore alarmed to get a message this January while in Kenya, telling me I'd exceeded my credit limit. I'd not been using my phone, and initially suspected fraudulent activity. There were several calls recorded on the website was preceded by an odd incoming call, and the number dialled out looked odd - including various country codes and the phone's own number. Most were in a period of a few days, and lasted minutes, but one was over 3 hours in length and billed to me at over £270.

It took several international calls, e-mails, a letter and nearly a month before I finally found a helpful member of 'The Team' (thanks Daniel – ext. 7651) who realised this was a voicemail error. As described here Virgin may charge for incoming messages at international rates - even if you don't pick up the phone.

However that recording system seems to have messed up on this occassion, and not timed-out. The voicemail kept recording for over 3 hours.

Virgin's helpful response - ignored all my attempts to clarify (which was scary when I thought it was something fraudulent), and have not responded to messages - by telephone, e-mail or letter. There seems little way to escalate this within their systems, or talk with a manager.

The collections department simply keep insisting that I made the call, and keep chasing me for payment. They are now threatening to send around baliffs because I refuse to pay for an error on their systems.

I'm really concerned how Virgin are handling this, and that other people might be affected.

If you're overseas, using any form of voicemail leaves you completely open to ridiculous charges, unless there is some kind of timeout on voicemail recordings.

[AndyCambs]

I have to admit, I had a call when I was overseas. I was called by a friend in Canada (I was in Toronto at the time). They called me internationally (from Canada to the UK).
I had just gone through security, and the phone was therefore in my hand luggage, and was not answered.
I was surprised to see on the bill a charge for receiving a call (80p) and also a charge for making a call at exactly the same time which came to £1.00. I didn't call the answerphone until I arrived into the UK, as I only noticed the call when I was about to board the plane. If I had called the answerphone - then it would have been another outgoing call cost to listen to the message. That would effectively have been four international calls (Canada - UK and back to my cellphone,cellphone back to UK for answerphone, and then me to call the answerphone).

I'm pretty certain that no other phone company charges you for not answering a telephone call, and it does seem a little harsh to charge you twice in these circumstances. When I queried the cost, I was advised that it would be possible to divert all calls to the answerphone before you leave the UK, and this would avoid the double charge, but then you wouldn't be able to receive any calls whilst abroad which does defeat the object of a cell phone.

Fortunately my bill wasn't in the same league as this one.

You can see the information here on the website where it's explained in small print...

Set your call diverts

• When someone reaches your voicemail, you get charged the cost of sending the call to the country you're in, and then back to the UK even though they may not leave a message.
• But you can get around this - just set your phone to 'divert all calls' to voicemail.
• However, this does mean that you won't get any incoming calls.