Masive mobile bill

sus4n

Hi
A family member has just received a massive mobile bill, nearly £4,000 for one month! it seems the Sim was lost (but they didnt realise/report it lost) and the network carried on letting it be used by at least 4 different mobiles and didnt try to contact the owner or block it or anything! they are claiming no responsibility what-so-ever for letting the bill get so high - does anyone know of a case where something like this happened? what was the outcome?
Hugely appreciated.

BettySpaghetti_2

It sounds a little suspicious to me - just how do you loose your sim? Ok, if it was in the phone which was stolen/misplaced fair enough but sims don't just fall out of phones. How do they know the bill was run up by different phones? Has this been verified by the network? You can swap your sim into any phone (same network or unlocked) and, unless you have put a PIN on your sim there's nothing to stop the sim working in another phone and certainly no verification process takes place. Are you sure it's not a case of someone running up a huge bill and then trying to get out of it?

If it is legitimate then unless the sim/phone was reported stolen/lost (and then the network would have blocked it) then, unfortunately, there is probably nothing that can be done other than negotiation to try and bring it down.

Jon_01

The T&C's on the contract say that if you lose your sim you are responsible for charges until you report it lost.
The networks don't offer to police your acc for you...

fatlad9

how easy is it to run up 4k bill in a month? we once had £200 and that was with vodafone calling for abroad along with being on a poor price plan. whoever 'found' your sim card must have being on the phone to those dirty ladies on the adult channels on sky quite a bit.

Jon_01

fatlad9 wrote: »

how easy is it to run up 4k bill in a month? we once had £200 and that was with vodafone calling for abroad along with being on a poor price plan. whoever 'found' your sim card must have being on the phone to those dirty ladies on the adult channels on sky quite a bit.

Its possible to run up a grand over night on a stolen phone, I see it all the time.

But you'd hope that usage of that kind would flag up on the networks security or fraud systems. . .

Snakeeyes21

Lost a sim? How do you lose a sim without realising? Did the thief replace it with a payg sim that he kept topping up so your relative didnt notice.

fatlad9

Jon_01 wrote: »

Its possible to run up a grand over night on a stolen phone, I see it all the time.

But you'd hope that usage of that kind would flag up on the networks security or fraud systems. . .

you would hope so wouldnt you.

sus4n

thanks to everyone - we are talking about an 18 yr old who says his phone is broken but obviously that is not the case as the bill has come in and with further questioning of the mobile company they have told us that it was used by at least 4 different phones - and I guess he hadnt put a PIN on the phone/sim!
I was just hoping that someone would have heard about a case where something like this happened and they managed to get the Co to take some responsibility for letting the bill get so high, I mean he's never called the US in the 3 yrs he's been with them and all these calls were made to the US......
thanks again:rotfl:

BritRael

BettySpaghetti wrote: »

It sounds a little suspicious to me - just how do you loose your sim? ....

I live mostly overseas, and have 2 simms. When going back to the UK I swap them over in the airport. The rest of the time I've got the other one in my wallet so I really wouldn't notice it until the time came to swap them back again. This wouldn't be a big problem for me though, as both are payg, and I never put on more than a fiver at a time, which lasts me most of the year!

sus4n

he says his phone broke when he was over his mates and he left it there.....according to him its still there....

macman

sus4n wrote: »

he says his phone broke when he was over his mates and he left it there.....according to him its still there....

And he left it there with the SIM in it? On a contract phone? Then no doubt his 'mate' has been lending the SIM out to his mates...
How did he manage to get a contract mobile at 15 out of interest?