Huge charge for calling my French bank

[natkins]

So I had to call my French bank in an emergency to sort out my buy to let. 

the French bank website said  to call on an 0810 number at ‘local rate eur0.09’

EE on my bill they charged my £5.33 per minute resulting in a massive £495 call charge!!

ee have said the number is premium rate and that eur0.09 only applies to the French.  They have also said this £495 went to the number I called not them. I’m not sure I believe them. 

There seemed to be no way for me to know what this charge was going to be in advance. 

I have no idea who to complain to or what my rights are but this seems outrageous.

Help! 

[Dode_]

@natkins Banks in the UK usually have a freephone No for in the country and usually a number for from abroad. It's worth checking the site to see if that's the case.

[natkins]

That’s the number I called. The one they told me to call from abroad. +33810…..

i.e. the same number. It clearly says on their website to call that one from abroad but doesn’t give a price. 

[natkins]

 

[natkins]

I have posted the screenshot 

[James_B]

Hi @natkins,

You can view the costs for calling non landline/mobile number in France on page 9 of the EE Standard and Non-Standard charges price guide.

Your bank should also have a standard landline number you can call from outside of the country.

James

[natkins]

Thank you James. 

That is very helpful. 
so it is £5.21 per minute

EE help desk told me they didn’t have this information, which seemed odd. 

secondly it says I should have received an announcement before the call connects that it is a premium number. This didn’t happen so I will be making my complaint to OFCCOM shortly for not fulfilling the contract. 

[bristolian]

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@natkins wrote:

This didn’t happen so I will be making my complaint to OFCCOM shortly for not fulfilling the contract. 

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Ofcom don't handle individual customer complaints, they will refer you to EE's complaints process - which includes the option of ADR if the issue is unresolved after 8 weeks or deadlocked before.

Read up on https://ee.co.uk/content/dam/ee-help/help-pdfs/complaints-code-of-practice-june-2019.pdf 

[Chris_B]

@natkins   Can you prove you didn’t get that pre recorded message ?    It’s also an international premium rate number and when calling an international number you’ll be charged as your tariff allowance doesn’t cover international calls.       The images of payment in euros would obviously mean not including calls from the UK as you don’t use euros in the UK.    Perhaps you could plead being naive because everything posted on here kind of implies this.   I don’t mean to offend you but I’ve been reading the be comments on here with interest and you are not taking responsibility for your own actions thats for sure

[bristolian]

There are legitimate ways of checking if a pre-call announcement is in-place, or should be.

The complaints process will have access to those checks, a genuine case should have nothing to fear.

[natkins]

Thanks.

yes. I called the number I about 10 times over several days. I would have heard the message many times and I definitely didn’t.