Charged for landline usage...but I don't have a phone!

[nbanbury]

So I noticed on my latest bill I was charged £0.84 for 4 calls to the same number on one day:

31 Mar - 09:11 - 0330 1235371 - 00:00:05 - £0.21

31 Mar - 09:10 - 0330 1235371 - 00:00:05 - £0.21

31 Mar - 09:10 - 0330 1235371 - 00:00:05 - £0.21

31 Mar - 09:09 - 0330 1235371 - 00:00:05 - £0.21

I don't have a land line connected anywhere in my house. 

Why am I getting charged for these and how can I dispute it? I know it's for a tiny amount of money, but it's still wrong.

[iniltous · Accepted solution]

Although it shouldn’t happen ,it’s not unheard of for an ‘engineer’ working in the network to use any line with dialtone to call their ‘control’ , alternatively, do you have anything connected that may  ‘call home’, like a burglar alarm , TV set top box , elderly/disabled ‘call for help’ type device ?...the fact the calls were only 5 seconds long , and in quick succession, suggest they must have been answered ( unanswered calls are not chargeable ) but no conversation took place , so possibly an automated call maker, or made ‘manually’ , the calls answered , but the caller given the announcement  ‘you are in a queue’ message and the caller didn’t want to wait so hung up and tried 4 times, you could ( if you wanted ) call the number yourself ( possibly from a mobile as it’s less likely to be a charged for call ) and find out what ‘company’ answer

[NeilO]

Hi @nbanbury  welcome to the community and thanks for posting, I called the number out of curiosity and when it was answered it sounded like a fax machine tone. This indicates that it was most likely a device that's connected to your line rather than a phone that made the calls. 

Thanks

Neil

[nbanbury]

Thanks for trying - but there's nothing connected to any landline socket in my house!

[nbanbury]

Oh dear...I'm sorry. I forgot there's an alarm connected and there was an engineer here that day testing it!

D'oh!

Thanks for your help.

[iniltous]

It may also be worth calling 17070 ( you will need a landline phone though ) and checking the number on the line is what you expect , as you line may be crossed with someone else’s line...

just seen your  mea culpa , it was the alarm person

[barnpiece]

Alarm systems which are connect to the phone line do call the base occasionally to check they are working and update if necessary, so you may get further calls ike these once in a while if it is that sort of alarm system.

Richard

[ney]

I had similar problem back in December and January and after posting on here and doing some search found out it was the community alarm testing its self as thats the only thing I got connected to the landline as stopped plugging in a phone to the landline during the first lockdown last year. It was also used once during the Christmas holidays for dad.

Seems the alarm dials out every 5 or 6 weeks to do a test but why the test has to be over 2 mins I dont know.