Stolen phone, £7000 bill...please help

tboodhna

My contract phone was stolen whilst I was away in Mauritius and I called to cancel and block the phone. However, when I arrived back in the UK I was notified that I had an outstanding balance of £7000 to pay for the 2 months of stolen usage. They claim that they have no records of the call to block the sim card and have asked me to provide them with the number I called from to block the simcard so they can trace it. As I borrowed a phone from somebody on the street to call quickly to block it, I have no record of what that number was. They now tell me I am liable for the total bill and as a student I have no way of paying such an amount. Can you please help me? It appears Orange (my simcard provider) is profitting off criminal activity acted against me. Is there anything i can do to get the bill reduced? Can I appeal to them that there was obvious fraudulant activity taking place on my contract and that they acted negligently?

Trishal

DarkConvict

Did you secure your handset with a sim/pin lock code, this can reduce this happening.

As to orange, you are not the only person to get this someone called orange to cancel roaming but orange left it on, and they say they never received any requests to stop roaming. I am unsure of the outcome of their case.
Orange do profit from roaming calls but they do incur costs from other networks, so it is not all profit.
Try giving OFTEL a call and see if they will listen to your complaint, you problem here is a lack of proof, although if you used any phone (payphone in street) you are unlikely to have the number. Didnt the CS rep give you a reference number or anything?

tboodhna

I had no sim lock, but I did have a pin lock on my phone. i assume the person took the sim card out of the phone and used it in another mobile.

I am aware that orange arent totally profitting from my situation, and I am in acceptance that i will have to pay a certain amount towards the bill, but I just don't think its fair that they can charge me for the full amount. If I didnt call up to block the phone I would understand their perspective, but I did but the person taking the call didnt register the block. Was given no reference number as they said the block would go on as soon as possible (I should have specifically requested a reference number at the time but I wasn't in the best frame of mind after having the phone stolen and wasn't thinking properly).

Im going to give Otelo and OFTEL a call, but the person on the phone at Orange says I have no choice but to pay. It all seems very hopeless.

Jon_01

You need to call back and get a team leader (just keep asking until you get to one, don't lose your calm).
Any time anyone access your acc they leave an audit trail. Give the TL the date you called to have the acc blocked and ask them to check who accessed your acc on that date. That should give them the log in for the CSR that you spoke to. The TL can them grab them and see if they remember the call (or at least why they were in your acc).
You need a TL as no one else has access to that system.

Lets us know how you get on. . .

thommy

were you in mauritius for the whole time the sim was fraudulently used? it may help your case, or reduce costs, at least, if you were back in the uk, or another country, when fraudulent calls were made and can show it thru passport stamps etc..

tboodhna

@jon 01
have been calling and they have been passing messages on to team leaders, but they are maintaining that the burden of proof is on me, despite the fat that they acknowledge the fact that they don't provide reference numbers with requests to block sim cards. They cant find any sort of records to see if anyone has accessed my account during the period that I phoned and it seems that we have reached an impasse.

@Thommy
I was in Mauritius the whole time, I returned home yesterday to discover the bill and when I phone up Orange, they only then put on the call bar. Maybe if calls were made during my flight/when I was in the UK I may have some grounds for proof that it was being used fraudulently, but they still want proof of me making that call and wont budge otherwise.

Jon_01

They're looking on the note pad on your acc. If the CSR didn't notepad anything they won't find it (obviously).
But every time someone access your acc they leave a footprint. That's what they should be looking for now...

Fine, write to the exec office. They're there to sort these things out.
They may take a bit of time to get back to you as they do research into the issue first.

Orange Executive Office
St James Court
Bristol
BS32 4QJ

Email: [EMAIL="executive.office@orange.co.uk"]executive.office@orange.co.uk[/EMAIL]

KEM

Did you report the theft to the police while away? A crime reference from them might help you.

tboodhna

@ Jon01
I will email the executive office now and I'll let u know what happens. Not expecting an expedient reply, but who knows

@KEM
I did report it to the police over there, but they didnt give me a form or reference number. I will look into getting some form of reference back from them though, thanks for the idea.

tboodhna

just to update you all

Orange have called me today saying they are going to waive all the fee's!

They realised my genuine distress and on believed the calls were fraudulent and have found it within themselves to not charge me for them. There are thieves out there as this situation proves, but there are some great people out there too.

T

KEM

Pleased to hear you sorted it all out.