I recently, after about 100 years cancelled my contract with Vodafone and went 'Pay as you go'. A bit of hassle but it all settled down OK. This morning I received a final bill of £1.69, a charge for cancellation of contract before the end of same. Meh, I'll let that go. What I am troubled by is a call to Austria lasting 1 hour and 16 minutes and costing £60.80p which was also on the bill! :blink:
Of course, I call Vodafone and tell them there is no way, no how, did I make that call. 'Yes you did' they said, it's on our pooter. Lots of huffing and puffing later they wouldn't back down. I checked my phone and sure enough in the 'dialled numbers' log is the Austrian number.
I dialled the number...nothing. I called it from my land line...'Sorry, the number you've dialled has not been recognised' So I'm paying for a call to a number that doesn't exist. Well not any more it doesn't. :g:
Now I ask you believe me when I say, I know no-one in Austria, have not called anyone in Austria, would NEVER spend 1 hour and 16 minutes on the phone to anyone and certainly not on a bloody mobile to Austria!
To boot, no the phone hasn't left my person unless it's in the house. I can't imagine my pocket being picked, thief making a call to Austria then putting the phone back in my pocket can you?
This makes me wonder, can it be a scam of some sort? Anyone have a similar experience?
Damn, I'm angry. :taz: (this smiley doesn't do it)
First things first, you don't have to pay for a thing you haven't done. Don't you have a "consumer protection office" or something for these kind of things ?
Also I have read somewhere that you might get a call from somewhere abroad and if you return the call you get a huge bill, thats some sort of a hoax.
I would call the Vodafone and ask what is the thing in here, maybe it is a mistake or at least they can tell when you supposedly made the call.
Quote from: Lexander;270433First things first, you don't have to pay for a thing you haven't done. Don't you have a "consumer protection office" or something for these kind of things ?
Also I have read somewhere that you might get a call from somewhere abroad and if you return the call you get a huge bill, thats some sort of a hoax.
I would call the Vodafone and ask what is the thing in here, maybe it is a mistake or at least they can tell when you supposedly made the call.
I know when I supposedly made the call, it's logged in the 'dialled numbers'. Vodafone's only response, which they won't budge from, is: You made the call, our computers say so'
Do you connect your mobile to your PC?
Quote from: OldBloke;270435Do you connect your mobile to your PC?
No. I do leave it by the
side of my pc sometimes, does that count?
Do you have Bluetooth switched on and, if so, do you have your mobile set to 'discoverable'?
Just a thought (and its happened to me). I never lock the keypad, so, when I'm bending down, or bump against something, the keypad gets engaged. I once dialled a number to, 034 country code, I think, and was on for about 10 minutes at a cost of about a tenner. The only reason I knew it was me, besides looking at the Dialled Nos. log, was that I wanted to make a call and took the phone out to discover it was connected to this 034 number.
Its a long shot, but it can happen.
It's a bit of a shame it happened when you cancelled your contract as otherwise you would have had some leverage to use.
I say keep on at them. Check places like AV forums and double check no one has had a similar problem with Vodafone or the same model of phone etc. Keep on at Customer Services until they agree to put you through the the higher echelons of people who actually have the power to do something rather than just consult the manual. Do you phone abroad a lot (eg Finland?) if not then you can get them to look back of your records and check to history to confirm that's it out of the norm for you to use your phone usage to call abroad etc etc.
I had a recent one with Three Mobile. I bought a phone on contract as I wanted the free mobile internet. The reception was crap at the office. They kept saying that I'd ha the phone for a fortnight and was therefore stuck on an 18-month contract. Having kept phoning them I was eventually passed out of the first line customer services in India to a nice lady in Scotland (their higher tier) who agreed just to cancel the contract, return the phone and not get charged.
Let's face it. Perseverance is the key and you, more than a lot of people I know, are the right sort of person to fight your corner :)
Quote from: OldBloke;270437Do you have Bluetooth switched on and, if so, do you have your mobile set to 'discoverable'?
Bluetooth is off. As is 'My phone's visibility' whatever that might be.
Quote from: Browne;270438Just a thought (and its happened to me). I never lock the keypad, so, when I'm bending down, or bump against something, the keypad gets engaged. I once dialled a number to, 034 country code, I think, and was on for about 10 minutes at a cost of about a tenner. The only reason I knew it was me, besides looking at the Dialled Nos. log, was that I wanted to make a call and took the phone out to discover it was connected to this 034 number.
Its a long shot, but it can happen.
It's a thought, but my phone auto keyguards. Besides, the number that was dialled was +4382.......etc. The plus sign needs asterisk button pressing twice. A hell of a long shot.
Just a thought, could you of called different (UK?) number and been put through to a Austria 'call center' or alike without you knowing where the call was diverted to? (if that's even a possibility??)
Quote from: Snokio;270451Just a thought, could you of called different (UK?) number and been put through to a Austria 'call center' or alike without you knowing where the call was diverted to? (if that's even a possibility??)
Nice try. :) Snag is the 'Dialled numbers' log. Those digits were (apparently) dialled on my phone. Being transfered wouldn't show that...Would it? No. :sad:
Have you googled the number?
If it's a scam number someone will have flagged it up on some forum
whenever I receive a call from a number I don't recognise I google it.
a few times I've found who it is (usually HSBC or someone else trying to sell me insurance etc.)
The number being dead sounds like it's a scam. A reverse charge call to a premium number (is that possible?) Or similar. Whatever you do DON'T pay the bill. Getting money back off big companies is next to impossible. Cancel the direct debt and check with your bank when they reinstate it. Be sure to keep cancelling it.
Thanks for your input chaps. Googling the number turned up nothing. I've paid the bill and wiped my mouth with it. :rolleyes: I could see a long torturous road ahead of me to fight it and life's too short. The most anyone will be able to rip me off for now is £10! I've put that down to experience.
Quote from: Doorman;270500Thanks for your input chaps. Googling the number turned up nothing. I've paid the bill and wiped my mouth with it. :rolleyes: I could see a long torturous road ahead of me to fight it and life's too short. The most anyone will be able to rip me off for now is £10! I've put that down to experience.
Yeah, some fights aren't worth the time. If you value your time at £6 and hour, I would imagine it would take more than 10 hours to resolve...you're in profit.