We have just received a monthly phone bill for £120! £70 of this was to 090 numbers. I phoned the cable company check that there hadn't been a mistake but after checking dates/times and speaking to my children it turns out that my 11 y.o. DS2 has been phoning these numbers.
He had got the numbers from a Playstation magazine (mums beware!). I'm so angry - the thing is the Playstation magazine (which does not belong to him) has a recommended age restriction on the front cover of 15. So why is there a page of half naked women offering various services in this magazine? In very small writing at the bottom it says you must be over 18 and the person who pays the phone bill to use these numbers!
I really want to complain to someone but not sure who. For a start I thought about complaining to the magazine.
Who can I complain to?
I've already phoned the cable company as we pay £1.75 per month for a call-barring service. However, they tell us that it has not been set up properly. It is down to us to enter the relevant codes and they are saying we cancelled it! The code you enter to cancel it cannot be done by accident but they are adamant that we cancelled it some time ago. (dc would not know how to do it)
As a punishment my ds is grounded for a month and must pay the £70 (I might take half but not tell him that) from his birthday/Christmas money, also cannot use computer/phone without permission or supervision in future. I feel really mean but he must be punished so that he and ds1 and ds3 do not do it again.
To be fair he did not realise that these calls are £1.50 per min. and could not resist listening to "sexy sounds" as it was advertised, but he did call them from the upstairs phone when we were downstairs so did know that it was wrong.
I dread to think what he heard but he did say most of time he was holding or being told to "press 1" etc. He said is was boring! I can think of cheaper ways to be bored.
Who can I complain to? What do other MNs think of punishment?