HELP ME!!! Stolen Mobile Phone Abroad -Liable for Fraudulent Phone Bill! PLEASE HELP!

Viksabix

Neillgb wrote: »

Sorry, I don't understand why the £30 should not be paid, surely those are the terms of the contract.

Neillgb, I don't understand why either, but that's the payment plan I'm paying. You can't make calls or send text messages whilst paying the balance, though. Maybe that's how it works?

deano27_2

I don't understand why you waited until you got back in the UK. Surely the police would have allowed you to use their phone. No doubt your network operator could have called you back to continue the security checks to get your phone barred. You were lucky your credit cards weren't used too.

I think a payment plan is your only option here..

Sid_Harper

Genuine question: why did you "have no means to contact the UK"?

The cost of a phonecall to the UK would have been far far less than your potential loss.

EDIT: just seen deano27's post - I was thinking the same when I typed my message at 9:30 but had to go away before hitting the post button!

melmassey

Sorry Deano27 and Sid Harper. You must have misunderstood my post. When my phone was stolen, so was my purse, this is why I had no means to contact the UK. The police would not even see me without my passport and when I did finally get my passport back, they simply said they had no bag in lost property, I doubt they would have been willing or able (with the language difference) to let me make a long distance call. Thankyou for your advice.

deano27_2

Ok. No doubt you are stressing. Did you request international access on your phone as if you didn't you may have some grounds.

Also you could ask if they have any high usage clause in their T&Cs as to why your phone was not stopped due to excessive usage in a short period of time.

Why did the Spanish Orange fraud team get involved? Surely it is the UK network that knows your spend? Also why did it take it reach £1000 before they acted!

Good luck.....

Rikki

Sid_Harper wrote: »

Genuine question: why did you "have no means to contact the UK"?

The cost of a phonecall to the UK would have been far far less than your potential loss.

EDIT: just seen deano27's post - I was thinking the same when I typed my message at 9:30 but had to go away before hitting the post button!

I'm sure you could have borrowed a friends phone to call home/family and report the mobile stolen.

melmassey

Thankyou Deano27. I will research and include this in my excessive letter that is builiding up. I have been told to fax it to Orange to appeal my case, however it is sounding rather good up to now, so Im tempted to send it to a newspaper and a local MP to generate as much publicity as pos! xx

bringmeshoes

deano27 wrote: »

Ok. No doubt you are stressing. Did you request international access on your phone as if you didn't you may have some grounds.

Also you could ask if they have any high usage clause in their T&Cs as to why your phone was not stopped due to excessive usage in a short period of time.

Why did the Spanish Orange fraud team get involved? Surely it is the UK network that knows your spend? Also why did it take it reach £1000 before they acted!

Good luck.....

With international calls it can be quite difficult to stop before it gets to a certain point. Also Orange would argue that it is not up to them to monitor the usage on a customers account. I work for a mobile phone company and countless times (when accounts used to have usage limits)we have had customers call us because their phone was barred due to excessive usage while they were abroad and as an advisor on the phones at the time I suffered all kinds of abuse for this and demands to lift the restriction right away.
I think the only thing you can do is go for the payment plan as orange are not in the wrong here, they did not know the handset had been stolen and as others have said orange would say that there would have been other ways to contact them such as a friends phone or calling card. Orange are not in the wrong, the calls have been made and if not covered on the insurance they will have to be paid for

piggeh

I don't really get the point of lecturing someone on what they could have done, it's not very helpful. Maybe some further advice on how they can get out of this mess would be much more productive.

I would ring Ofcom, and see what they advise.Also generally with debts you should show your income & outgoings to be transparent as to what you can afford and it would enhance your position if they took you to court as any judge could see what you can afford and that you were being reasonable.

melmassey

Thankyou so much Piggeh. Thats really good advice. i will definately do this. Melissa x