Refunds
It’s an Ofcom rule that phone companies must provide you with a correct bill for the calls and services you’ve actually used.
That’s why companies with a turnover of £40 million or more must have their billing systems approved by a specialist body.
But even with these precautions, mistakes sometimes happen.
If you think you’re owed a refund because of an error on your bill, you should follow your service provider’s complaints procedure. Details of this should be available through its website or customer services.
If you exhaust this process and remain unhappy, or if your complaint has been ongoing for more than 8 weeks, you may be able to approach an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme.
At the moment Ofcom has approved two ADR schemes – CISAS and Ombudsman Services: Communications.
Your phone company will tell you which scheme it is a member of, or you can use our ADR checker.
This process is only available for residential and small business customers (with 10 or less employees); if you are a larger business you will need to consider alternative options such as legal advice.
Watch our video guide to telecoms complaints
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