Cancelling contract?

Licklelady

My son just signed a 2 year deal with Orange to get an iPhone. Unfortunately the phone has been lost/stolen. Is there anyway he can get out of the contract as he is now paying for a service he cannot receive?

mrochester

He can still receive service. He just needs to call Orange for a replacement sim, and pop it into any phone.

DarkConvict

No, the phone and contract are seperate.

The phone is a product

The mobile signal is a service contract.

You need to report the theft to the police and to the mobile operator asap. The operator is only required to send you a new sim card, as that is all that is needed on their end to provide you access. The network cant be held liable for a customers change in circumstances, this includes them losing, breaking or having the phone stolen.

Check your household insurance, mobile insurance, or any insurance such as that provided by Barclays bank that might cover the phone.

If you have no insurance, you will need to use an alternative phone to use the mobile service you are paying for. or pay for the service and not use it. I doubt you can sell the contract to someone else either. So you don't have many options. Did you son not take out the £13 a month insurance, been that IPhones aren't exactly cheap... i keep my Nokia 5800 insured and that's only a ~£200 phone. The IPhone is 2x-5x more expensive.

Orange would be £100's out of pocket if people could cancel contracts as the phones price (usually free) is subsided by the price of the monthly contract. i.e. Say your on a £40 a month over 24 months = £960. By giving you a £600 phone on day one they don't make a profit til much later in the contract, so they won't let you leave. Also for some advise do not try to cancel the DD (monthly payments) otherwise things will only get worse, as this means defaulting on a contract = debt collectors + tarnished credit file for 6 years.

paul17104

shame about losing such a nice phone just into a new contract, there is no way of yougetting out of your contract just because the handset is lost/stolen, as above got a replacement sim off orange and then buy another handset.

Licklelady

Unfortunately he thought I had cover for the phone has I had covered his previous phones on my bank account but the contacts were in my name. I went into the Orange shop to buy insurance for him as a Christmas present but they wouldn't let me. I also phoned Orange to pay for insurance up front for a year but they wouldn't let me. It is now being investigated by the police as he handed it to someone whilst he was doing karaoke and they left with it in their pocket but then realised and went back and gave it to someone to give him. It never got back to him. A hard lesson to learn but Ornage now want £360 for him to buy a another. They have blocked it but confirmed it hadn't been used since it last used it. I hoped Orange would let him have a new one at cost.

drbesty

The £360 probably is at or is pretty close to cost, iPhones aint cheap

DarkConvict

Depending on the IPhone model £360 is indeed very cheap.

You have to remember when giving out mobiles to people, would you hand them your wallet with £500 in it?

drbesty

Don't Apple offer an iPhone locator service through MobileMe? Obviously only works if the handset is switched on but it will pinpoint its location using GPS