Phantom 123 Call on BT Bill

Yesterday I received an email notification from BT to say that my latest bill was ready. On checking it, I discovered that I had been charged for a call to the 123 Timeline number on 7th July. The duration of the call is shown as 1 second.

I have never dialled that number in my life and, on that day, I didn't use my phone at all. My BT account also shows that this was the ony number registered for 7th July. I live alone and no other person has access to my phone. The phone is a single line and is not connected to my computer in any way.

As I was at a complete loss as to how this call had come to be charged to my account, I contacted BT Customer Services, seeking their help. Unfortunately, the person I spoke to adopted a rather "cavalier" attitude towards me and insisted that the call to the 123 number had been made on my landline. He suggested that I may have made a mistake whilst dialling another number. Despite my entreaties, he was adament that I had made the call and offered no assistance whatsoever.

As I hadn't used my phone on the day in question, I find BT's attitude absolutely dumbfounding. I've sent a question about the matter to BT's LiveChat, but so far have received no response. 'Have also posted on their Community Forum and, again, am waiting to see if anyone responds.

I was wondering if anyone else on this forum had ever experienced the same or similar problem and, if so, how was the matter resolved.

I would be so very grateful if anyone can suggest some way of having this bogus charge removed from my bill. It's not the amount charged that bothers me so much, but the registering of calls to my account that I have not made.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

  • SJ_MentalSJ_Mental Posts: 16,138
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    I did a google to see if this is common and it seems this can be caused by a line fault causing pulses on the line, It is a throwback to how phones used to dial before the tones that are used now.
  • littleboolittleboo Posts: 1,187
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    Or it can be caused while dusting a corded phone and pulsing the handset switch
  • kevin88kevin88 Posts: 864
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    Did you have a fault on the line recently that you had you got BT to report to Openreach for repair. i have read before that some Openreach engineers dial 123 timeline to the test the line.

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bt-engineers-ring-speaking-clock-5748745
  • Chorlton2Chorlton2 Posts: 353
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    Thank you all so very much for your advice. I honestly don't recall dusting the phone recently and, to my knowledge, there hasn't been a fault on the line - I certainly haven't reported one.

    I still haven't received any response from BT's Live Chat so, bearing in mind all your suggestions, will try again with customer services.

    Fingers crossed, as I'm still baffled! :confused:
  • Chorlton2Chorlton2 Posts: 353
    Forum Member
    This is just an update on the "phantom" telephone call that appeared on my current bill.

    After the most distressing experience in communicating with BT's Customer Services, who adamently refused to accept the fact that I had not made the call, I was eventually granted a refund on Monday.

    What truly upset me was the obdurate attitude displayed towards me by the Call Centre staff, who made me feel like a lying half-wit. I spent the whole week worrying myself silly over this business and am totally disgusted at their behaviour.

    I went to the Which? link that mac2708 kindly gave me, and was astonished to discover that this problem is not only widespread, but has been going on for some considerable time. Bearing in mind that not every BT customer will bother to check their telephone usage, goodness knows how many people have been charged for calls to this number that they did not make. It's apparently down to telephone engineers working on lines outside who then use the 123 time line number to check them.

    As a consequence I have lodged a complaint with Ofcom, in the hope that someone will do somthing to stop this practice.
  • soulboy77soulboy77 Posts: 24,396
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    Chorlton2 wrote: »
    ...As a consequence I have lodged a complaint with Ofcom, in the hope that someone will do somthing to stop this practice.
    We need more people to do this.
  • bryemycazbryemycaz Posts: 11,735
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    Chorlton2 wrote: »
    This is just an update on the "phantom" telephone call that appeared on my current bill.

    After the most distressing experience in communicating with BT's Customer Services, who adamently refused to accept the fact that I had not made the call, I was eventually granted a refund on Monday.

    What truly upset me was the obdurate attitude displayed towards me by the Call Centre staff, who made me feel like a lying half-wit. I spent the whole week worrying myself silly over this business and am totally disgusted at their behaviour.

    I went to the Which? link that mac2708 kindly gave me, and was astonished to discover that this problem is not only widespread, but has been going on for some considerable time. Bearing in mind that not every BT customer will bother to check their telephone usage, goodness knows how many people have been charged for calls to this number that they did not make. It's apparently down to telephone engineers working on lines outside who then use the 123 time line number to check them.

    As a consequence I have lodged a complaint with Ofcom, in the hope that someone will do somthing to stop this practice.


    Phone enginners should be dialing the 17070 test number when doing line checks. That is what i always do. That number reads back the exchange line number and is not a premium rate call number like 123 is.
  • IcaraaIcaraa Posts: 6,043
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    bryemycaz wrote: »
    Phone enginners should be dialing the 17070 test number when doing line checks. That is what i always do. That number reads back the exchange line number and is not a premium rate call number like 123 is.

    There's absolutely no reason to dial 123. If they want to know if it's a stopped line they can start dialling a regular landline number and the message will kick in after two or three digits. If the message doesn't come on after the third digits then it's an active line.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 74
    Forum Member
    However, if the Kelly's and Quinn's contract installer's training school was telling students this was a way of finding a stopped line, this could quickly become a widespread problem. ;-)
  • tom_warnertom_warner Posts: 113
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    kevin88 wrote: »
    Did you have a fault on the line recently that you had you got BT to report to Openreach for repair. i have read before that some Openreach engineers dial 123 timeline to the test the line.

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bt-engineers-ring-speaking-clock-5748745
    Not so much BT openreach engineers but those subcontracted like Kelly communications and MJ Quinn
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