£15.70 for a 60 minute call I never made?

[LeicesterLoz]

Hi everyone, this is my first post.

This morning whilst reviewing my bank statements I noticed that my most recent one from Virgin Media as £15.70 more than the £34.99 monthly rate that I usually pay?

Naturally I called them to query this amount.

I was told that the additional cost of £15.70 was for a 60 minute call to the following number.

09015455329

So firstly, I very rarely if ever make 60 minute phone calls and secondly if I do they would only be to UK landline numbers as they are included in my package for free up to 60 minutes.

I've done a bit of 'googling' and it appears this number may be owned by TalkTalk Communications which strangely enough was my previous supplier for phone and internet services?

So far I have had no agreement from VM to credit this amount back into my account 😞

Just wondering if anyone else has had a similar problem and how they managed to resolve it?

Thanks

Loraine

[Alex_RM]

Hi Loraine, 

Thanks for posting and welcome to our community 🙂

I'm sorry for any confusion regarding your call charges.

Depending on what plan you're on the call may be included, if so, you do need to hang up before the 60 minute mark other wise you would be charged.

Alex_Rm

[goslow]

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@LeicesterLoz wrote:

Hi everyone, this is my first post.

This morning whilst reviewing my bank statements I noticed that my most recent one from Virgin Media as £15.70 more than the £34.99 monthly rate that I usually pay? 
<snip>

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Unexplained calls to 09 numbers (generating large bills) have been mentioned on here in the past

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Forum-Archive/dodgy-call-charges/td-p/4443987
https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Forum-Archive/Scam-call-on-phone-bill/td-p/4459497
https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/how-do-i-block-090-premium-numbers-land-line/td-p/44...
https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/VirginMedia-box-making-premium-rate-calls/td-p/47309...

You can check the number here

https://psauthority.org.uk/for-consumers/service-checker

and it returns as a premium rate number for 'Fixed-line service Call Connection By Digi Contact to EE'

The billing from VM doesn't match the service charges described though which seem to be flat rate rather than per minute so VM's billing does not seem right.

Call connection services

https://psauthority.org.uk/news/blogs/2018/april/call-connection-services--what-are-they

are a very questionable activity anyway IMO but, from the info above and from VM, this looks like either a scam charge or a billing error. If you have no connection with EE, then that further distances you from the charge.

[Andrew-G]

@LeicesterLoz  Open a formal complaint, rejecting responsibility for the alleged call, requesting as resolution either a refund, or a deadlock letter in order to escalate the complaint to the industry complaints adjudication scheme, CISAS.

If VM have any sense they'll immediately refund the dodgy call costs, if they won't then you take the matter to CISAS who'll consider the case independently.

[LeicesterLoz]

Hi Alex

I just checked my bill again and found it was actually less than 60 minutes?

[Beth_G]

Thanks for the screenshot LiecesterLoz.

I'll pop you over a PM now so I can look into this further.

Please find my message over at the purple envelope.

Many thanks

Beth