Landline calling by itself

[pipnat]

I had someone call me on the landline at 7am today complaining that I had tried to call her at 1am, my number was apparently in her call log. Certainly wasn't me, I never use the landline, as the line is too crackly to use.

I then checked recent bills and see I have been charged for making calls to odd numbers, in the early hours of the morning. This seems to happen regularly, judging by the number of posts on this forum. How do I get it investigated and erroneous charges refunded?

[Beth_G]

Hi pipnat,

Thank you for your post.

I'm sorry to hear you've been charged for some calls that you haven't made, it sounds very much like you may have a crossed line.

I'll pop you over a PM now so I can look into this for you. Please find my PM over at the purple envelope.

Thanks

Beth

[goslow · Accepted solution]

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@pipnat wrote:

I had someone call me on the landline at 7am today complaining that I had tried to call her at 1am, my number was apparently in her call log. Certainly wasn't me, I never use the landline, as the line is too crackly to use.

I then checked recent bills and see I have been charged for making calls to odd numbers, in the early hours of the morning. This seems to happen regularly, judging by the number of posts on this forum. How do I get it investigated and erroneous charges refunded?

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You are correct, this 'phantom call' issue gets mentioned about 3 or 4 times per month on average on the forums.

Does your VM landline service come via the back of the VM hub (a 21CV connection) or in the usual way from a traditional landline socket on the wall?

Usual explanation for a traditional phone connection is a 'crossed-line'. VM will usually offer to send a technician to investigate often with the pending threat of a call-out charge if no fault is found.

If you can see the dates/times/durations of the calls, it is usually possible to see that they are not normal dialling activity. Unfortunately it largely seems that the onus is on the customer to prove they didn't make the calls (which is quite hard to do)

[Andrew-G]

I've just had some nice Scottish bloke phone me up and say "Sorry, I missed your call", I explained that I'd been in all day, and not a single outgoing call had been made.  He checked the number that had shown on caller ID, and it was my own number.  This is on an old style separate VM phone line.  So, two possibilities:

1) VM's cranky network is up **** creek, and attributing calls to the wrong number, complete with incorrect CLID.

2) My number is being used by scammers who are spoofing their CLID with near-random UK landlines, because if it shows as India then many people won't pick the phone up.