Disputing a phone bill

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Our expert says...

Hello Dominic, it is not uncommon for home phone providers to make mistakes with customers’ bills. You may receive a phone bill which has charges that you don’t recognise, for calls that you don’t think you’ve made.

You may also notice charges for additional services, such as voicemail, that you may not have used.

Telecoms regulator Ofcom stipulates that all landline providers have “a duty to provide their customers with a bill that represents correct usage”. To help ensure that this is achieved, providers with a relevant turnover of £40million must have their billing systems checked by an approval body.

Even with this in place though, errors can sometimes occur. So what can you do if you think you’ve been billed incorrectly?

What should I do if I receive an incorrect bill?

The first thing you should do is check with everyone else in your house to make sure that the charges do not relate to services they have used. It may be that a housemate or child in your home has called a premium rate number or a personal mobile number without your knowledge. Calls to these numbers, such as a TV game show number, can cost quite a lot, so would instantly increase your bills.

If you still can’t identify the charges, you should contact your home phone provider. It may be helpful to send them a copy of your bill, highlighting the relevant charges and the reasons why you think the bill is incorrect. Below are the contact details of some of the UK’s larger home phone providers:

Your provider should be able to explain the charges, but if this fails to resolve your dispute, you should follow your provider’s formal complaints procedure.

Making a complaint about your home phone provider

If you are still experiencing problems, tell your home phone provider that you’d like to make an official complaint. Under Ofcom regulations, all telecommunications companies must have a complaints procedure. Full details of the complaints process will be available in the company’s code of practice on complaints handling - ask your provider for a copy of it if you do not have one, or find it online.

If your complaint about the unexplained charges is still unresolved, and you are a residential or small business customer, you can raise the matter with the relevant Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme.

There is more information about making complaints in our Home phone complaints article.

Speak to Ofcom about billing problems

While Ofcom cannot respond to all consumers personally, it says that it is still interested in hearing about customers’ billing problems.

The regulator collects information from consumers to help it identify trends, which can lead to investigations about a particular company’s behaviour, if a number of customers have reported the same problem, for example.

If you would like to share your experience with Ofcom please contact the advisory team on 0300 123 3333 or 020 7981 3040.

I hope this helps Dominic - don’t panic about your bill if it seems inexplicably high, it could be that your home phone provider has simply made a mistake. Always speak to your provider and ask it to clarify any charges you are not sure of.

Ask us a question

If you have a general switching or provider query please email us at ourexpert@homephonechoices.co.uk