AN Orange landowner is fighting to have his phone bill made void after he was charged $8357.40 for phone calls he allegedly made to Sierra Leone and Israel.
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The man, who asked not to be named but lives on a property on the outskirts of Orange, said he doesn’t know anyone who lives in either location and has no reason to call either place.
The phone bill indicates 864 calls were made to Sierra Leone on December 23 between 3.03pm and 5.28pm, while a call was also made to Israel at 4.13pm the same day.
However despite the man’s protests, his service provider is yet to drop the charges.
The man said he’s “disappointed” he didn’t do more research on his service provider before he signed up with it.
“I’m also worried that someone has accessed our phone and computer and viewed who knows what,” he said.
According to the man this billing problem is simply “the icing on the cake” when it comes to this provider who he contracted to facilitate telephone and internet access utilising the newly-installed NBN.
“The original order was placed with [the provider] on September 10, 2014, but it took until October 23 to get the internet working, which did not prevent them from billing us for the whole month of October,” he said.
The man has pledged to fight the charges but wants to warn other people to be careful when selecting a telecommunications service provider.
“I’m hopeful that this story may prevent other people being stung by their service provider,” he said.
A couple of hours after the Central Western Daily attempted to contact the company, a staff member contacted the man and confirmed the “fraudulent event” was being investigated although he was given no indication as to how long this investigation would take. He has contacted the telecommunications ombudsman.
