Block premium rate numbers

[paulshears]

How do I stop being entrapped by premium rate numbers such as the Virgin Media number 0870 8883116? 

I need to block this number urgently. 

Please advise on a practical solution. 

[XRaySpeX]

@bristolian : The OP wasn't on the phone for just 5 mins. He also had a waiting time of over an hour.

The Service Charge to that VM 0870 no. is 2p / min. To be charged about £55 for the call if on contract he must have been on the line for 55 / (0.73 + 0.02) mins = 73 mins = 68 mins on hold + 5 mins speaking. Even longer on PAYG.

[paulshears]

I was kept waiting for 39 minutes. The I heard a phone ring three times, then I was kept waiting for another 15 - 20 minutes. Then I spoke to a call operator for a few minutes, who could not help and so he put me though to complaint helpdesk, I then waited another five minutes before being cut off without speaking to anyone.
The initial driver behind this was the bill for trying to respond to the number that called me.
All free numbers did not produce a human being except a business number which an agent passed to me and turned out to be directed to the Philippines who could not even acknowledge my problem because I do not have an account with Virgin.
Yes this is all a corporate scam which is why it does not make sense.
The entire Virgin enterprise is designed to wear the caller down without any human interaction. I actually spend most of an afternoon on this if you include the free phone numbers which produced absolutely nothing.

I could go into much more detail but what is the point wasting any more time on this corporate scam?

The biggest lesson here is to get Virgin out of your life and if that costs money, then just pay up and get rid of them.

I still await the Email from EE to confirm that they have issued the order to block all 0870 numbers which I was promised this afternoon.

In total I have spent more than an entire day on this if you include the free phone calls and this web site chat which was a direct consequence of my telephone number being given to Virgin by an agent who simply did not know what else to do in order to get a Virgin Media problem off their back.

If anyone thinks that they can persuade EE to not charge me the £55, they are welcome to try.

Paul Shears

[XRaySpeX]

Yes, it'll be EE taking the most of this charge, £53, while VM nets just £2.

[paulshears]

I have now spent many hours trying to use this web site and I find it totally frustrating. 

I cannot see anywhere to send an Email to EE asking for the confirmation Email that 0870 numbers have been blocked. 

I was promised just after mid day today that this Email would arrive within three minutes but I have received nothing. 

Can anyone advise? 

Thanks 

Paul Shears 

[bristolian]

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@paulshears wrote:

I cannot see anywhere to send an Email to EE asking for the confirmation Email that 0870 numbers have been blocked. 

I was promised just after mid day today that this Email would arrive within three minutes but I have received nothing. 

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EE don't have a customer-facing email contact address, and confirmations such as this aren't generally sent.

You can login to your myEE online account or app, and check the "call abroad & premium rate" option mentioned by @Chris_B has been disabled.

However, 084 & 087 prefixed numbers shouldn't be impacted by this restriction, as it's blocking "premium rate" numbers not "service numbers" that this is.

[XRaySpeX]

EE provide no email contact.

[XRaySpeX]

It's a waste of time checking the "call abroad & premium rate" option in MyEE. It's nowt to do with this. This ain't a Premium Rate no.

[paulshears]

Ah, I just re-read your message.
So it's not just myself at fault here.
So no official record from me and no official record from EE.
Great corporate behaviour yet again.

I wonder what will happen if I ring EE yet again tomorrow (Day three on the same simple task) .
Will I be told once again that this task cannot be accomplished?
Perhaps I am being too cynical here. I wonder why?.........
Paul Shears

[bristolian]

084 & 087 numbers are not regulated in the same way that 09x premium-rate numbers are.

If you don't want to incur charges for 084 & 087 numbers, then simply don't call them. There may be an app-based solution, but that is outside EE's remit as a network operator.

All of VM's main contact numbers are 03x based which are landline rate calls.

[Chris_B]

@paulshears The best way not to fall for this is not to call back any number you don’t recognise.   And more importantly if your a virgin media customer you can call virgin media customer services on 150 from a virgin media phone ( landline/mobile). Or 0345 454 1111 from a different network.    
  

 If you was told you’ll get an email about this check your spam folder just incase it went in there.