Huge bill on Orange stolen phone.

petrgill

Hi,

I had a mobile contract with Orange for my student son. I have had the contract for about 4 years and updated with various deals. My son lost the phone (or had it stolen) and didn't own up to it for 8 days. The result was a phone bill for around £1800.00 for that month. On the bill, after the lost/stolen date the calls immediately and obviously ramped up due to lots of long international calls to Nigerias, USA, and others. No amount of pleading with Orange staff changed their mind from insisting I pay in full, otherwise court action would unsue. I know from browsing that this is pretty common and some people's bills are far higher - £10,000 and more.

Now, I know that I signed up for this in the contract, and apart from expressing resentment that these companies PROFIT from stolen phones, I would just like to warn those who seem pretty pleased at the deals they get from mobile phone companies that when they sign a contract they are signing up for UNLIMITED LIABILITY. (Any caps such as credit limits, are just ignored by these companies as the charges mount up - also they can't warn you - remember you don't have the phone anymore).

I have moved all my family's phones to PAYG.

Good Luck

Gleeful

Your problem lies with your son not telling you the mobile was stolen.

As soon as you report the phone stolen, the network will immediately bar it, preventing further calls. It is your sons fault that the huge bill was created, not the network.

Jon_01

Well, yes, But if you don't notify for 8 days, I'm sorry. but what do you expect?

It's clearly stated in the T&C's that you are liable for all calls made until you report the phone lost/stolen.

No network is going to back date the clam, that's going to get abused by people making a stack of calls and then saying the phones been stolen.

DanielleNic87

I had the exact same problem from Orange. My old phone that i was still paying for was stolen from my bedroom. I had only realised when i had the bill through.
All the calls were made when i was on holiday. I knew who took it and the police were involved and yet i still had to pay the bill.

Safe to say i swiftly left orange as soon as my contract was up!

gjchester

DanielleNic87 wrote: »

I had the exact same problem from Orange. My old phone that i was still paying for was stolen from my bedroom. I had only realised when i had the bill through.
All the calls were made when i was on holiday. I knew who took it and the police were involved and yet i still had to pay the bill.

Safe to say i swiftly left orange as soon as my contract was up!

Why?

One question is (and this applies to the OP's Son) why not have a PIN code on the phone so it has to be unlocked. Simple, pretty effective and also on pretty much every phone. It's just people don't want the hassle so don't bother.

Orange acted no differently to any other network. The calls made cost money and someone has to ear that cost. I understand it wasn't you but your actions (or inactions) caused them to be made

Gleeful

Also, with regards to 'unlimited credit', the networks cannot win. If you're capped and get cut off, you'd moan and whinge, if you're not capped and run up a huge bill, you'd moan and whinge.

MyRubyRed

Got to feel sorry for the OP but I agree with the posts above. The son should have owned up straight away. The result is expensive. Perhaps Orange will accept a payment plan?

petrgill

Hi
I understand the lack of sympathy here and I wasn't looking for it. I did pay the bill. But the point of the post was to emphasise the unlimited liability which you sign up for. There also seems to be no checks and no caps on usage, as eg in the case of credit cards. Note also that most of the costs were in fact incurrred in the first couple of days, so if it takes you that time to decide your phone is gone, not mislaid, (or it takes you that time to actually get through to someone) you are screwed. Also if the phone is kept charged and never locked, does the pin still apply?

Jon_01

But the liability is only until you report the phone stolen, so therefore it's not unlimited.

Very many phone get stolen and in most case's it's reported within hours, the phones blacklisted the sim's blocked and very little if any usage is run up.

You seem to be putting all the emphasis on the network to police your acc for you? The networks have never (and couldn't) do this. Its a matter of talking responsibility for your own actions.

MyRubyRed

petrgill wrote: »

Hi
I understand the lack of sympathy here and I wasn't looking for it. I did pay the bill. But the point of the post was to emphasise the unlimited liability which you sign up for. There also seems to be no checks and no caps on usage, as eg in the case of credit cards. Note also that most of the costs were in fact incurrred in the first couple of days, so if it takes you that time to decide your phone is gone, not mislaid, (or it takes you that time to actually get through to someone) you are screwed. Also if the phone is kept charged and never locked, does the pin still apply?

I see where you are coming from re the monitoring Credit card companies do to manage unauthorised use of cards. In your boy's situation it may have raised alarms that there were calls being made out of the norm. Maybe something to push for?
Re PIN's. Ive set a PIN but it only comes into play when I switch the handset on so if there's sufficienct charge who ever has access to the handset can use the phone. Minefield really:eek:
Perhaps others can give more protection advice?

petrgill

Jon_01 wrote: »

But the liability is only until you report the phone stolen, so therefore it's not unlimited.

Very many phone get stolen and in most case's it's reported within hours, the phones blacklisted the sim's blocked and very little if any usage is run up.

You seem to be putting all the emphasis on the network to police your acc for you? The networks have never (and couldn't) do this. Its a matter of talking responsibility for your own actions.

A bit harsh Jon01. I am not avoiding responsibility. I've paid the bill. I'm was only trying to make those aware who might not already be of the liability. I think people should be made aware that if you, say, cant find you phone and think, "oh did I leave it at Joe's last night", or its stolen in the evening and you only find out in the morning, then in that time many thousands of pounds can be racked up (its happened). I do think also that the mobile companies could do more in terms of capping. There is no voluntary capping made available, for example, which I certainly would have taken advantage of in this case.