Can anyone help please?

I have 250 minutes a month which I never ever use up as I only use my mobile for brief calls to the children.

However according to my provider I made a 3 hr 50min call to this totally random number the other day so using up a months worth of minutes.

Now at the time of this 'apparent' call the mobile was just sitting on my kitchen side and wasn't even touched. No-one else was in the house.

I have argued my case with the provider (Tesco) and told them to check all my previous bills and it will tell them that I only make brief calls to the numbers I gave them. However they are adamant I must have made this call (as if anyone talks on a mobile for nearly 4 hrs!).

They are therefore refusing to credit me with my lost minutes. Unfortunately I can't just walk away as I have 15mths of my contract to go.

Has anyone any advice please?

Many thanks!

did u call this random number and see who it is?

What I would do is call the number to see who it is. Then go to your call log on the phone to see if the call is registered there.

If it isn't and you're 100% sure the call was never made then email their head office with the evidence above.

Unless the phone was reported lost or stolen at the time of the call then youre screwed, because its your responsibility as the contract holder /owner .

That's not quite true - if the handset were proven to be faulty, then I believe most (all?) networks would wipe any charges caused because of that.

First thing I would do is look at call history on your phone to see if it's there, if it is then the call was np,ade from tar phone.

It's not impossible that a call was made accidentally with the phone jiggling about in your pocket. I have done it but only with numbers in the address book.

I have manged to dial random numbers before while my phone is in my pocket but for my luckily they were invalid.

Thanks everyone for all your responses.

Just to let you know after countless emails and taking it to a Senior Manager I have got my minutes back.

However on dialling 'the number' it is a company I have never even heard of let alone dialled.

I have therefore requested advice as to how to prevent this happening again as at the time of 'the call' my phone was just sitting on the kitchen side with no-one else in the house.

Wouldn't mind but the phone is a total bugger to switch on at the best of times!

Thank you all again!

What type of phone is it?

There are stories of malicious Android apps that can make calls or send texts without the user's knowledge.

True.
But usually the purpose of such apps is to generate income via a premium-rate number. Which would be excluded from the "minutes" and would be chargeable in pounds.

Yeah, I know.
But it's the only example of a handset calling a number that's never been called/used/saved on the handset before, by itself, that I can think of.