o2 Carphone Warehouse on Dont Get Done Get Dom

I_luv_cats

Cautionary tale where a CPW o2 contract mobile phone was stolen abroad and the subscriber contacted o2 online thinking he was doing the right thing.

He had a £200 credit limit but that didn't set alarm bells like with credit cards! He rec'd a bill over £3k !

Why Ofcom hasn't done anything before now, were silent on the issue but now say they will look into it.

Cpw were in hiding at their HQ too.

Common sense prevailed in the end and the bill was wiped!

This is a huge worry for consumers as they have no protection.

madnes

Hi, I watched this on the Iplayer last night. It does seem shocking that this can happen. I have a current spend limit of £0 with Three outside of my contracted usage and they have allowed me to spend £10.00 on internet usage.
(Small amount but shows there is no control - Spend level set at my own choice)
I was more concerned after seeing that Guy from Otelo he did not seem to have a clue! and they are meant to be the ombudsman.
A good point was raised though in the show if ones bill is £5.00 then raises to £3300 then surely the operator should be concerned.
I would be interested in hearing Carphone Warehouse views, you never know what editing the BBC has done;.

MrRincewind

The problem with mobiles stolen and used abroad is that the call information is not recieved straightaway by the network, It filters through and can take weeks at times to be received by the persons home mobile providor,

So just how are the networks supposed to detect this real time?, they are reliant on the network the person has "roamed" onto.

Also if relating this to credit cards, They are protected by chip and pin/signature, for the most part people never bother to protect their phones with a pin code, its such a simple thing to do too.

Yet when something like this happens they scream blue murder and take no responsibilty on them selves, theres multitudes of threads on here, with people not reporting their phones lost until they come back from trips and others with no protection on the phones.

If you protect the phone and sim with pin numbers, no one can use it. Why should people be excused because of laziness or ignorance because they haven`t take the duty of care to protect themselves, You don`t actually think the networks carry the cost, they are always passed onto the people who take care not to be stupid.

in_the_Cotswolds

I'm not sure but I read somewhere you can get a programme/app to put on your phone so if it gets stolen you send a text to the stolen phone and it will shut it down.

Trouble is can't remember what it is or where I seen it.

Jon_01

The guy was roaming (which the programme didn't go in to at all), which is completely different to racking up a huge spend on the home network.
The home network has no control as the billing info is only sent once a day to them and can lag as much as 24 hours.
They said that the networks don't call you if they see high roaming usage, total rubbish. I'm calling people who are roaming all day to check they have their phone and are aware of their spend.

The guy could have got it sorted on his own if he'd done the right things at the right time. He said that he'd had letters from debt collectors, so he'd obviously left it rather than doing anything about it. It takes months to get to the point it's passed to an agency.

The whole thing was a rant piece to be honest, just an excuse to have a go at the big bad networks. It had nothing to do with consumer issues.

I_luv_cats

You have the right to your opinion BUT he did contact o2 by their email and got an acknowledgement.

o2 could have passed on his details to Cpw if they couldn't deal with it. His T & C's did say to contact his network. Considering all his bills etc. had o2 on the top right, was it not unreasonable to assume that!!

He had tried to get a resolution and had contacted all parties and others and it reached a dead-lock.

Come on, what more could he have done?????

Jon_01

I'm not trying to defend the actions of CPW and O2 (god forbid !).

But the way the programme used generalisations for the problem, like calling it fraud for example, and claiming all network act the same way. That guy from Otelo didn't know what to say as roaming doesn't come under their remit !

He should have been treated a lot better (although I have to say I would have called the network rather then using the website, but that's another matter). He'd reported the theft to the network, that should have been the end of it, sending him a bill for over 3k was completely wrong.

MrRincewind

I just don`t see how this guy was not to blame for his own downfall...

If he could contact the network via the website, then surely he had access to a phone line also, If i had been that concerned about my phone being stolen (and i would be), i`d want to speak to someone.

He could have even called a relative to call the network and explain the issue and tried to remedy it this way, and lets not ignore the fact that people do report phones stolen after they themselves have used them abroad and don`t want to pay the bill.

Its yet again, people complaining because they have`nt taken the relevant precautions, What amazes me is that people always seem to know the correct ways to complain and request refunds/compensation, but not the correct way to protect themselves from this type of situation in the first place.

it wears very thin for me when people cop out of taking any responsibilty for their own actions.

I_luv_cats

Reporting my lost/stolen mobile



If your mobile has been lost or stolen you'll need to contact us as soon as possible so that we can bar the service immediately. We can also replace your sim card free of charge (there may be a charge for Corporate customers).

• Pay & Go Customer Service
  0844 809 0222
• Pay Monthly Customer Service
  0844 809 0202
• Business Customer Service
  0800 977 7027
• Corporate Customer Service
  0844 826 0288
• International Customer Service
  +44 844 809 0200

We advise you to ring us as this is the quickest way to place a bar on your phone and our customer service teams are available 24hours a day.

If you're unable to ring, you can email us using our online form. Please note however that this team is not available 24 hours.


Really would the "BBC" risk raising a false issue if it wasn't in the public interest and risk of being sued??

madnes

I do believe joint responsibility should be taken by both the consumer and the mobile phone network.

If there was a £200.00? limit on the phone the operator should have stopped charges after this amount. (Once the charges had been called in)
He chose to email the operator rather than called them therefore no block could had been placed on the immediately.
If a pin was on the handset then if the phone was turned on this would had been useless unless the sim was switched to another phone or turned off then back on again.

Debts are not passed to Debt collection agencies immediately all companies will have a procedure to follow so months must had past before the balance was passed. I would have been making token payments of a £1 per month rather than ignoring the situation)

(I am far from being a fan of CPW)

Jon_01

madnes wrote: »

I do believe joint responsibility should be taken by both the consumer and the mobile phone network.

If there was a £200.00? limit on the phone the operator should have stopped charges after this amount. (Once the charges had been called in)

But they couldn't that's the point. The guy was roaming, his network (O2) only receives the billing data once a day, forwarded from the roaming network.

They said (in the programme) that networks don't let people know when they start to go into high usage. This is just plain wrong (but I don't work for O2).

It's one of my jobs to go through these reports every morning and call people if I see high usage (there called 'high usage reports' !).

You just can't help some people.
I've called people and been complained at for making them do a security check while their on holiday ! You get comments like 'Its my phone I'll do what I like with it!' and then when you tell them they've used £100 they come out with "Why have you let me do that !'