Numerous calls to the speaking clock billed to my account

[#1]

I've just received my latest bill and see that I've been billed £6.50 for calls to number 123 (the speaking clock), which were not made by me or anyone else in the house. 7 made on 24 February, 6 made on 25 February. 

Having googled, this seems to be a not infrequent problem - possibly from BT openreach engineers testing the line. 

I would appreciate it if the charges could be removed from my bill, please. 

[#2]

@winspiration  It could be engineers looking for spare lines but the fact that there is a large number of calls would suggest it may be line fault where an intermittent connection can dial low numbers. Are these calls in normal working hours and are there any other odd calls being made on other dates? I'm sure Plusnet will refund you.

[#3]

Thanks for the reply, RealAleMadrid - some were made during normal working hours, but a few were made during the night (between 3 - 5 am).

Now you mention it, there are some strange calls to other numbers on the same two days (mostly combinations of low numbers), which have gone through as local calls - free on my plan, so I hadn't really looked at them before. My phone line has been out of action this month (which I thought might be the internal wiring) although broadband has been fine, so I guess it may actually be a line fault. 

[#4]

Could be something as simple as Openreach tinkering in the cabinet.

Missus who is a BT customer lost phone service, had crossed lines & other peoples calls appear on her bill three times over an 18 month period due to Openreach repeatedly tinkering in the cabinet. 

She ended up with a apology from BT & a massive credit on her bill.

[#5]

@PowerLee wrote:

"Could be something as simple as Openreach tinkering in the cabinet."

At 3am?

Do Openreach pay Night Rate / Unsociable Hours Allowance?

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[#6]

I think Openreach do (or did) overnight work at the exchanges. I was woken up a few years ago in the middle of the night by the bedside phone making a chirp sound. Next morning looking at my router logs, I lost connection for a few minutes at that point

[#7]

@winspiration

I'm assuming that you currently have FTTC (VDSL broadband and phone service) with Plusnet ?

Given that you're being billed for spurious calls, and that your phone is faulty anyway,

have you considered 'upgrading' from FTTC to SOGEA (FTTC without phone service) (AKA Plusnet 'Fibre'),

and migrating your landline number to a VoIP provider, and converting your handset to connect via your Plusnet Hub ?

This will have several advantages -

• SOGEA broadband should be cheaper than what you're paying for FTTC
• Because VoIP is digital, spurious billing from random engineer calls becomes impossible
• VoIP calls are typically cost a fraction of the price of analogue voice calls
• Converting to VoIP opens up more options, such as using a VoIP app on a mobile to act as a landline handset
• Because VoIP makes your landline digital, your calls will be clearer - no noise from dodgy old copper landline
• VoIP can provide useful additional features, such as receiving call recordings by email, call forwarding, and group calls
• Given that UK PSTN landline phones will be discontinued by the end of 2025, you'll be converted before the deadline

You don't need to wait until your existing contract comes to an end, you can 'upgrade' from FTTC to SOGEA at any time.

There is no engineer visit, you don't need to change your broadband setup, just unplug the handset from the BT phone socket then plug it in to an adaptor which converts your phone to VoIP, which is then plugged in to a spare LAN socket on your router.

If this is all new to you, there are plenty of people here who have already move to VoIP, and can give advice.

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[#8]

@winspiration 

As you suspect that there *might* be an existing fault with your Plusnet phone service,

can I suggest using the mobile phone that is registered in your Plusnet contact details,

to do Plusnet's automated "troubleshoot by text" - to see whether that identifies any issues with your phone line -

[#9]

@winspiration Hi there, 

I've taken a quick look into this issue for you personally and can confirm that these call charges shouldn't have been added to your bill. Apologies for this inconvenience. I have gone ahead and applied a £6.50 credit to your account to cover this for you, unfortunately i am unable to change the current bill as it has already been generated by our system. When it comes to next months bill, the credit I've applied will be used first before we charge the card registered on your account.  

Out of experience of seeing these sorts of charges before, i ran a quick test on your line for any issues. Unfortunately a fault was found during the testing which i have already raised with Openreach for you today. The fault is fully external according to the trouble report we received from Openreach so they wont need to visit the premises to get this fault fixed for you. Any external landline faults we raise for Openreach are typically fixed within 3 working days. I've sent you an email with the fault reference and have also placed a ticket on your account so our offline team and automated system can monitor this fault for you to make sure it gets fully resolved. 

I did also try to give you a quick call just to have a more personal chat about this, sorry if i called at a bad time ☹️

If you need anymore info about this, i would be happy to give you a call-back at a time that suits you, alternatively if you give our tech team a call on 0330 1239 123 they would also be able to help. 

[#10]

Thanks so much, Joe - your help is much appreciated! Thanks for confirming that the fault appears to be entirely external, I'm happy to give Openreach some time to fix the fault. Just to confirm that I didn't receive any call, obviously the landline is out of action and my mobile wasn't listed on my account, I have since added it. 

Thanks very much also to outcast for your advice, I will look into upgrading to SOGEA and migrating my landline number to a VoIP provider, I wasn't aware that that could be done, it sounds like a good way forward!  

[#11]

@winspiration 

If you are wanting to continue using your landline number after 2025, you will have to convert to VoIP this year

otherwise your Plusnet service will just get terminated.  So you might as well migrate sooner rather than later.

BE AWARE that the correct sequence to do this is -

1. Research which VoIP provider (such as A&A or Voipfone, etc) you want to migrate to.
2. Figure out for your chosen service, what ATA phone adaptors, or new VoIP phone hardware you want.
3. Upgrade your Plusnet broadband from FTTC to SOGEA.
4. Wait for the broadband conversion to complete and for your landline phone to stop working, then wait another day.
5. Contact your chosen VoIP provider, and start your ceased Plusnet phone NUMBER migration to the VoIP service.
6. While you are waiting the few days it takes for the number migration, the provider should send you the VoIP configuration settings that you will need to setup your ATA adaptor or VoIP phone (unless you've bought a pre-programmed system from the provider)
7. Once the number has migrated, your phone should be now be working.

DO NOT attempt to migrate the phone number before your broadband upgrade to SOGEA has COMPLETED, otherwise if the number gets migrated too early you risk losing your Plusnet account and associated broadband, email, etc.

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[#12]

Thank you again, @outcast. I had already had a quick look at the top thread in the Tech Help section of the forum, your information on the sequence to follow is extremely helpful!