Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Original poster

My teenager ran up £160 worth of calls on his mobile phone

111 replies

StuntNun · 03/02/2021 17:55

My 14-year-old DS has a Three phone contract that was supposed to be capped so he couldn't exceed his call allowance. Over Christmas, due to WhatsApp issues he made three hour-long calls to his brother in the next room FFS while gaming online. Three have now billed me £160 for the calls and claimed they have no record of there being a cap on his call allowance. The contract was set up in a Three store about six years ago so I can only assume the salesperson forgot to enter the cap on the contract at the time. Note that no current Three contracts have a limit on number of call minutes so I am effectively being punished for being a loyal customer for so many years. I have complained to Three and they have said they cannot progress my complaint and I must go to the Ombudsman to take it further.

AIBU to expect Three to cancel the £160 charges?

OP posts:

Lyrata · 03/02/2021 19:49

YANBU - that is very annoying for them to lure you in with a claim that they’re now not honouring.

I wonder if they’d waive it as a ‘goodwill gesture’ or something like that? I have had banks etc waive fees for me for ‘goodwill’ (when they have messed up and don’t want to admit it!)

HappyPumpkin81 · 03/02/2021 19:52

I’m afraid 3 customer service is awful. I put £20 on my phone and it was converted to £10 of data and £10 phone credit. I never use data so immediately phoned to correct it. I could never get through on the phone, kept getting cut off on the internet chat, went in to store where the staff were lovely but completely helpless. Finally spent an hour on hold on my home telephone 2 weeks later before I got through to the call centre to be told categorically it was my fault, they were not going to change it etc, had 3 different “managers” telling me I had bought the data and they would not convert it back to phone credit. I held out and after an hour they grudgingly gave me £10 back as I refused to hang up. Good luck getting your £160 back. I would move to another provider but they seem to have the best coverage for my area, they have however just increased the cost of a text from 3p to 12p, so I am happy if anyone wants to recommend somewhere else I would be interested.

SionnachRua · 03/02/2021 19:53

Hang on, he was gaming online and on the phone simultaneously? For three hours? Ffs, you'd expect a teen to know Discord or similar exists.

I don't think you have a leg to stand on with 3 tbh.

Original poster

StuntNun · 03/02/2021 19:53

I've already made a complaint and they've said they can't to anything and I need to take it up with the Ombudsman. I'll have a look through my paperwork once I've got the DCs to bed but I'm not hopeful of finding anything. It sounds like I haven't got a leg to stand on really. My DS almost never phones people, he only uses WhatsApp on the WiFi, so he's never gone over his minutes before. I'm sure he had no idea it would be £1 a minute or he wouldn't have made the calls in the first place.

OP posts:

Eskarina1 · 03/02/2021 19:55

Make yourself annoying to them and do a subject access request for every piece of information they hold containing your son's name. It might encourage them to make a goodwill gesture.

Original poster

StuntNun · 03/02/2021 19:55

SionnachRua it was an hour on three consecutive nights over the Christmas holidays. The worst thing is he was gaming with his brother who's in the next bedroom so they wanted to be able to talk to each other while playing. Imagine getting charged £160 to phone somebody in the same house! Honestly you couldn't make it up!

OP posts:

ChristMyArse · 03/02/2021 19:57

@Eskarina1

Make yourself annoying to them and do a subject access request for every piece of information they hold containing your son's name. It might encourage them to make a goodwill gesture.

I like this. SAR's are a pain in the arse for companies.

SionnachRua · 03/02/2021 20:01

@StuntNun

I just can't get over a teen deciding to phone someone rather than use Discord etc! Anyway, that's no use to you now.

I'd give him some tin cans and string personally 😂

FudgeSundae · 03/02/2021 20:01

£160 for 3 hours is nearly £1 a minute. Is that a video call??

Undies1990 · 03/02/2021 20:02

@LochJessMonster

You are angry at the wrong person.

Time to write a list of chores your son can do to start paying off his bill...

^ ^^ this

Oneborneverydecade · 03/02/2021 20:05

Do your boys really talk to each other when gaming? My 14yo DS seems incapable of talking whilst gaming, everything must be shouted or screamed!

YANBU and good luck

Original poster

StuntNun · 03/02/2021 20:08

SionnachRua and Oneborneverydecade tin cans and string are a great idea and yes, the amount of noise they were making they probably could have heard each other's shouting without needing the phone call. It was so lovely for them to be playing together because DS1 is 18 and DS2 is 14 so they don't have a lot in common at the moment.

OP posts:

Original poster

StuntNun · 03/02/2021 20:08

FudgeSundae nope an ordinarily mobile-to-mobile phone call.

OP posts:

Original poster

StuntNun · 03/02/2021 20:10

Oh that's awful HappyPumpkin81 what a faff you had to go through.

Thanks for the tips everyone that has offered one.

OP posts:

WhenISnappedAndFarted · 03/02/2021 20:14

If it really was only for three hours then I'd have a proper look into it. I had a quick look at their website and it says 55p a minute calling a mobile.

Chambored · 03/02/2021 20:15

If he’s got a bank account then I’d actually be making him pay back the £160.
I certainly wouldn’t be stumping it up.
Or they can split it between them.

BleedinGums1 · 03/02/2021 20:16

I work in the mobile phone sector. The spend cap for companies was only introduced on the 1st oct 2018.

WhenISnappedAndFarted · 03/02/2021 20:23

@BleedinGums1 "Three has been the first mobile network to introduce this protection for its customers in January 2015."

From - www.gov.uk/government/news/government-action-secures-end-to-shock-mobile-bills

Was it that all companies had to do it by that 2018?

DumplingsAndStew · 03/02/2021 20:23

@Eskarina1

Make yourself annoying to them and do a subject access request for every piece of information they hold containing your son's name. It might encourage them to make a goodwill gesture.

They shouldn't hold any information in the son's name - the contract will be with an adult, not a child.

Zoomies06 · 03/02/2021 20:24

You have my sympathy op been there with my teenage DC not quite as much but least twice their normal bill .This was on game store though and I didn't realise it wasn't capped, the call's are. They had just been buying the add on's to games without thinking. It also got capped and I couldn't get my money back .

Original poster

StuntNun · 03/02/2021 20:24

WhenISnappedAndFarted it's an old contract so it could well be £1 a minute. My mum has a BT pay-as-you-go contract (on a Nokia 3310 would you believe) and she pays £1 a minute for calls. But maybe if Three won't cancel the charges I could ask them to reduce it to the 55p a minute and get a partial reduction as a goodwill gesture.

OP posts:

Rosebean92 · 03/02/2021 20:26

When I worked for EE I had a customer with a similar situation - teen ran up massive bill, the mum was distraught as she could not afford it, I could see on the account that it was not normal usage for them so I waived it and put a cap on the account so it wouldn’t happen again. The customer was in tears she was so relieved.

Maybe call back and hopefully you will get someone more sympathetic. When you call don’t kick off, stay calm and make your case and if you don’t get far with that ask to speak to a manager. They can’t palm you off to the ombudsman without attempting to deal with your complaint internally and even then they need to send you a deadlock letter so you can go to the ombudsman.

Good luck :)

AfternoonToffee · 03/02/2021 20:27

@HappyPumpkin81 There seems to be a couple of companies that piggyback onto Three's network, I am not sure what they are like though.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/mobiles/piggybacking/

WhenISnappedAndFarted · 03/02/2021 20:28

@StuntNun haha I can believe that - I know someone who also still uses one!

It just doesn't sound right that you've had no contact from them regarding the contract since then (not that I'm disbelieving you). I have had my bill put up every year by them.

So yes, I'd definitely look into it more. It just doesn't strike me as right because I checked all their charges under their plans and the max was 55p and that was even for contracts before 2014.

MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously · 03/02/2021 20:28

You did nothing wrong StuntNun. You should be able to trust that the phone company did what you asked them to do. £I60 is total exploitation on their part - there's no justification for that amount. Can you get some consumer advice? And definitely look for the contract - it's amazing the amount of old paperwork people have lurking in back of filing cabinets. Hope you get the money back.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

Join Mumsnet Log In

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.