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Unauthorised call-BT claim we should pay £35

mattyl149mattyl149 Posts: 2,110
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in Landline Phones and VoIP Services #1
We had our phone bill through and on there is a 5 hour call to my mom's mobile costing around £35. We phoned BT to get this investigated as she was in London when the call was made at 10:00am and I was at work so no-one was at home apart from 2 cats. The house was completely empty so no-one could have used the phone (unless my cats have developed super powers and learned how to use the phone) and it shows on the mobile as a missed call at that time so I presume there's no way that call could have been answered. We had a letter back saying that they had investigated it saying that it may have been a dialler. First of all why would it dial the mobile and not some premium rate number, and second of all I have broadband and I disconnected my 56k modem 12 months ago and no rogue dialler software works on broadband. The only connection between the computer and phone line is a broadband router. I can't think of any way that call could have been made

What's the best course of action, without affecting our credit rating, as this seems a very unfair charge

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    Wilma FootWilma Foot Posts: 90
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    #2
    Surely the fact that there is a missed call on the mobile, this proves that the call was made. As far as BT are concerned, this is enough for them to charge the cost of that call. I suspect the call was answered by the mobile's voicemail which then stayed connected. A long shot, perhaps, but could one of the cats stepped on the house phone and pressed the redial button? If the call was completely out of character (ie to a number never called before) then BT may have applied a credit as a goodwill gesture - as it is a known number to you, then there is less likelihood of this. IMHO it's not looking good for you and the call will have to be paid for.
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    mattyl149mattyl149 Posts: 2,110
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    #3
    There are no numbers stored in the phone and surely the receiver has to be off for a call to be made. That mobile very rarely calls the home phone, or is called by the home phone so the chances of it being the last number are very very low. That mobile is never called by the house phone apart from when my mother goes to London and it was quite a few weeks beforehand that she last went. The phone does have a redial although where the phone is, for the cats to tread on it, they would knock it on the floor as it is only on a small table and as I said there was no one in the house. 3 people live in the house, me and my parents. They were both on a National Express coach to London and I was at work, and as I work on the phones they have a record of when I was there, and how many voicemails on mobiles allow you to leave a 5 hour message?

    There can be absolutely no chance that the call could have been made, unless we have supernatural beings who like to cause trouble, although to be fair I'm surprised that wasn't on the letter from BT - You may have a phantom dialler lving at your house and we do not cover against calls made by the other side
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 187
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    #4
    Wilma Foot wrote:
    Surely the fact that there is a missed call on the mobile, this proves that the call was made. As far as BT are concerned, this is enough for them to charge the cost of that call. I suspect the call was answered by the mobile's voicemail which then stayed connected. A long shot, perhaps, but could one of the cats stepped on the house phone and pressed the redial button? If the call was completely out of character (ie to a number never called before) then BT may have applied a credit as a goodwill gesture - as it is a known number to you, then there is less likelihood of this. IMHO it's not looking good for you and the call will have to be paid for.

    5 Hour call to a mobile's voicemail..cats hitting the redial button..I wonder how your house operates :confused: :eek: :rolleyes: :D
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    Central cakeCentral cake Posts: 5,625
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    #5
    So a cat picked up a receiver dialled a number and then put the phone down and then hit redial :D

    Perhaps you should offer your cat a job as a secretary to help pay the £35
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    AppleseedAppleseed Posts: 3,827
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    #6
    w3stwOOd wrote:
    5 Hour call to a mobile's voicemail..cats hitting the redial button..I wonder how your house operates :confused: :eek: :rolleyes: :D

    I don't know of ANY voicemail capable of storing a message of THAT length!!
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    mattyl149mattyl149 Posts: 2,110
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    #7
    David Tennant wrote:
    So a cat picked up a receiver dialled a number and then put the phone down and then hit redial :D

    Perhaps you should offer your cat a job as a secretary to help pay the £35

    I work at a Lloyds Bank call centre and we always need new advisors. If I recommend them both I will get £500. Hmmm, now where's that recruitment number?
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,326
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    #8
    AlarmsBloke wrote:
    I don't know of ANY voicemail capable of storing a message of THAT length!!
    Nope, but quite a lot of the time your call doesn't get disconnected after the voicemail has finished recording unless you hang up.
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    mattyl149mattyl149 Posts: 2,110
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    #9
    I think the fact that no-one was at home would be quite obvious to BT
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,173
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    #10
    You stated earilier that she had a missed call though...so the phone call must have taken place.
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    mattyl149mattyl149 Posts: 2,110
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    #11
    Well if it has, I would like to know how it could have happened
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    Central cakeCentral cake Posts: 5,625
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    #12
    mattyl149 wrote:
    I think the fact that no-one was at home would be quite obvious to BT


    How the hell do BT know thats true though?

    They dont watch your house
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    Beavis99Beavis99 Posts: 851
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    #13
    What I reckon happened was that the number must have been on that phone, the cats knocked it off-hook and redialed/speed-dialed, call connected, went to voicemail (or recorded message), but the phone never went on-hook so at the exchange level, the call was still connected.

    By the sounds of it, it's highly unlikely BT will refund you. You could threaten to disconnect and move to cable, but doubt that will work.

    B
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    mattyl149mattyl149 Posts: 2,110
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    #14
    There are no numbers programmed in the phone, and no-one was in the house for 8 hours from when this 5 hour call was "made"

    Still, will probably have to end up paying for it. Just hope this doesn't happen again or it will get very expensive
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    HeinzHeinz Posts: 7,210
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    #15
    mattyl149 wrote:
    There are no numbers programmed in the phone, and no-one was in the house for 8 hours from when this 5 hour call was "made"
    I bet the phone's got a LNR button through.
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    mattyl149mattyl149 Posts: 2,110
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    #16
    Well this number was only dialled twice in the month and the other time was 2 weeks later
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 242
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    #17
    A couple of years ago we had a similar problem where a premium rate number kept being called while no-one was at home. Each time it was hung up and redialed a few seconds later. We were with NTL at the time and eventually they agreed that we couldn't have done it (especially as it was on our second line which we didn't use, had no equipment attached to it and the socket was behind a large bookcase!). We asked them to investigate but they never were able to find out what caused it....
    At the time I found out that it is possible for engineers (and presumably others) to plug into the phone system and make unauthorised calls.
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    MadMullaMadMulla Posts: 1,195
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    #18
    When we were with Birmingham Cable for a phone service, we had around £1,600 of calls on our bill, calls we didn't make, we didn't have to pay them, as we had already found out someone was using our line, as a few times we picked up the phone and we could hear someone onto an International sex line, Birmingham Cable came out and found that 2 or 3 other properties were connected to our line.

    The engineers had forgotten to disconnect them when they ended their service, and had joined us onto the same connection, as the other properties had been empty for sometime, there wasn't a problem until someone moved in and found their line (ours) to be working, and thought they'd run up a bill.

    Birmingham Cable said, the system will still send out the bill, but we don't have to pay it, it was all sorted out.
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,326
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    #19
    dmeredith wrote:
    At the time I found out that it is possible for engineers (and presumably others) to plug into the phone system and make unauthorised calls.
    I doubt an engineer would be calling this guys mum though, unless she's hot :cool:
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 242
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    #20
    good point! :p
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    mattyl149mattyl149 Posts: 2,110
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    #21
    Well she's recently turned 66
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