Service Calls

[psgk]

My latest BT Bill shows 16 calls out of plan to a service number 08448------ which have cost me £4.49!

I didn't make these calls which last about 0.10 to 0.19 seconds.

I have noticed one or two similar out to plan charges  to this number on previous bills from BT over past months

I've spoken at length to BT Billing and Tech Support  who have checked the line and found no fault. They suggested it could be third party equipment dialling out and I do have an alarm system connected to a monitoring station. My alarm was serviced on the 11th March and nine calls were made to the 084448 number that day.

I am sure that I recently saw, it might have been in a Community post, that somebody had also been charged for calls to this number. They complained to BT and stated that they had never made these calls and had obtained a refund from BT.

Could it be my alarm system that is making these calls? The alarm engineer asked if I had had any problems with my land line. I had not, but he had received a report probably from the monitoring centre that my land line was out of action at some point.

What throws me is that when I ring the number on my mobile I get the following recorded message,

"You have reached your maximum spend cap. To make calls not included in your plan please call us on 150 from your BT phone or 0800 800 150 from any other phone"

I have an anytime call plan for my land line and unlimited call and texts for my mobile.

The recorded message doesn't seem to equate with an automatic test of the landline by my alarm system.

Any comments or suggestions gratefully received

Thank you.

[iniltous]

Ringing the disputed number from your mobile is of limited use , and if you have a spend cap of zero  set for ‘premium’ calls then that may be why the calls are not allowed to connect from your mobile , presumably it’s not your mobile phone account you are interested in .

As the number is called by your  landline phone , that’s  the obvious place from where to make a test call ,  but why bother , the chances are it’s to a remote modem at the alarm company , so apart from some ‘tones’ from the far end attempting a ‘handshake’ it’s also of no real use, that number wont be answered by a human .

TBH , if your alarm is connected to your phone line and makes calls to the alarm monitor centre on a chargeable number , as either a health check or when an in an alarm condition,  then why would  you be surprised they show on your bill ? , you may not have made the calls , but you are still responsible for paying for them if your alarm system made the calls ….you probably should have a discussion with the alarm company why the number they have programmed into your alarm is a premium rate number ( a hint, your alarm company gets a share of the revenue ) .

You either consider these calls as a cost associated with the alarm , or look for a different alarm provider that doesn’t use this technique to enhance their revenue.