Hi @Smellor15,
We'll send you a PM to look into your billing concerns. Please keep an eye out on your Community inbox.
Thank you.
Hello Elderlyscammed,
Sorry to hear of your mother's situation. However, I don't think they are trying to take advantage of anyone. Unfortunately, there appears to be a bug with WhatsApp. While it's not mentioned on their website, it seems as though the app will automatically switch to using mobile airtime minutes (within the app) if it deems the internet connection is insufficient for voice calls. It has happened to many people across Countries and even Continents (see here). One suggestion to prevent the switch would be to enable Airplane or Flight mode and manually enabling Wifi prior to making the call(s). Doing so should prevent the app from switching to mobile minutes if the Wifi internet connection is not sufficient. However, it also means that your mother wouldn't be able to make WhatsApp calls using a mobile data connection.
As mentioned in my other post, mobile providers only know usage. They cannot divert calls from within apps to cellular calls. They have no control over how apps work.
@elderlyscammed wrote:
....why did no body at fido recommend blocking long distance calls? ...
I understand you feel Fido should have recommended blocking long-distance calls. However, no provider would monitor customers' call habits. For what anyone knows, a customer might intend to make long-distance calls. Some people might even consider such tracking of calls to be a breach of privacy.
That said, you can request Fido place an International call block on your mother's line. However, it should be noted that it is not possible to block calls with the same Country code (+1). For example, calls to the US would not be blocked by by the International call block.
@elderlyscammed wrote:
... no clue what the hell is 2030 but hey why have a clear digestable bill when you can tack on charges willy nilly?...
The #2030 charge is a special charge for toll-free directory assistance. Any time a toll-free number is no longer active, the system will notify the caller of its status and ask if the caller would like to forward the call to the new number. Though this link is from another provider, it lists the different pay-per-use service codes. As noted in their list, the #2030 is for Information. Since that list is from a different provider, I'm not sure if all of those service codes are available throughout Canada or only within their region.
Generally, that charge would be listed in detailed biil preceeded by, and then followed by, a toll-free number.
You can certainly choose to find another provider. However, if WhatsApp deems the internet connection to be insufficient for calls, it may also attempt to divert the calls to mobile minutes.
You should note these forums are community-driven and not intended as a venue for customer services. If you would like to discuss those charges, you would need to contact customer service. In addition, they can also be contacted via Live Chat, Facebook, or Twitter. Those methods can be accessed via the contact page posted above.
Hope this helps 😀
Cheers
