Huge bill on Orange stolen phone.

sporedude

So how would you prevent people taking the mick? Or abusing measures to get out of paying? I.E "Oh I didnt notice it was stolen/lost/insert other sob story here"

Jon_01

sporedude wrote: »

So how would you prevent people taking the mick? Or abusing measures to get out of paying? I.E "Oh I didnt notice it was stolen/lost/insert other sob story here"

You couldn't which is why they don't.

You still get people trying on even now, but it's fairly easy to see.

And in answer to emily1504 observation above, yes I work for one of the networks.
I've never hidden that fact, many people on here know that. But that's not the point. I post here to help (if I can) or to answer questions and point people to the right depts ect. I'm not posting on behalf of the network and when their in the wrong I say so.
Only the the network reps post officially for the networks they represent.

boliston

I'd like to see mobile operators offer the facility to set a credit limit, as this has never been a problem for payg phones where your credit limit is whatever your topup is.

I've never had to wait more than a few seconds for a call or text to be itemised on my online billing screen so all this talk of billing not being "real time" is just bluff.

MyUserNamesTaken

emily1504 wrote: »

I am starting to think that maybe the people here work for mobile phone companies? For a start I wasn't negligent, I was a human being! I am sorry about that, I am sorry that I have some social skills and am not continually checking my phone like some kind of moron. And as is continually ignored, was the rape or robbery victim negligent when they didn't report their phone missing straight away?

Finally, my point has nothing to do with the issues here. My point is that the companies do win, they profit massively from the victimisation of their customers and they do nothing to prevent it from happening except write in miniscal small print that most people ignore, but as I keep saying why would they when they make so much money from it?

All I can say is that the comments on this forum clearly show how marketing and advertising has done it's job in this country. We are all actually like moronic robots incapable of realising when a company is taking the !!!!. Orange, and all the other companies, are laughing all the way to the bank when they don't do their bit to prevent this victimisation and no one will ever convince me that that is okay.

So let's hope no one here ever gets attacked or mugged, or simply even decides to take time off from their mobile and have an actual real life conversation, because god knows you'll pay for it

Judging by your posts here, I'd actually disagree that you have social skills. You certainly can't handle it when people disagree with you, resorting to petty insults and name calling as a means to distance yourself from any responsibilty you have in regards to your issue. Yes, you were negligent. You failed to inform your network provider in good time that your phone had gone. You think it's unreasonable that people are expected to be responsible for their own property? I think you need to grow up.

I don't need to continually check where my phones are (I have more than one contract mobile). My android phones are set up with 3 different tracking programs, as well as the ability to remote lock them and clear off the data from a remote location. On top of that, they are all pin protected (from sleep mode and also from sim change). So, if anyone does get their hands on my phone, I can turn on the GPS, I can track them to their location, I can lock the phone down so it can't take another sim and can't make a call. No, I don't work for any mobile phone companies. I'm just a responsible, mature adult.

You still haven't said who you think should foot the bill arising from your negligence.

By the way, if you were to get mugged, you'd be expected to report the theft of your handset to your network provider as soon as possible, just as you would be expected to cancel all credit and debit cards.

loracan1

Emily, I have sympathy for you and your son, I don't have my phone with me 24 hours a day and never intend to. I also have a son who is about to get his first contract phone (from his dad) and I shall be warning him about if it is ever lost or stolen, that he has to inform us straight away. I can easily believe your son thought it would turn up.

I do know that 3 has a call/text capping policy where if you go over your contract it bars any further use - since I don't have dying relatives in China or Russia I'll take the chance that I'm not about to need to make lengthy phonecalls to either country.

And for what it's worth I'm one of those ignoramuses who doesn't read every single letter of every single line on terms and conditions before I sign, quick skim/browse is all (there I said it!).

emily1504

I am not calling anyone names and I don't have a problem when people disagree with me but I still believe in my argument that there are all these wonderful things you can do to prevent victimisation, but why do they mobile companies not help you more when u set them up? Because they stand to profit. To be honest, I've never heard of these things being mentioned-remote locking etc, so would definitely need help. Of course they're an excellent idea, but why would your phone company at least not emphasise the importance of the features and making sure you check your phone regularly? As I said, because they profit and why would they

I don't expect anyone to pay for my 'negligence' although I find it astounding that no-one is interested in confirming why my phone was not reported immediately. Considering to prove negligence is not actually that easy as it covers a limited set of actions that are deemed as irresponsible in terms of normal human nature (rather than robotic mechanisms), I am surprised that people here automatically assume i'm negligent.

Further, I am not asking for the phone companies to necessarily compensate. I am asking why they don't do all they can to prevent it from happening to begin with, making the small print explicit when discussing your contract with you, alerting you to unusual usage, putting caps on potential spending etc. But of course, because they stand to make money!!! If these things had been done in the first place, this situation would not have happened, but of course orange would not have made all this money out of my theft. It's a shame when profit is put above human beings but I guess that's what happening in the world we're living in anyway, so why I should be surprised that it's happening now I don't know.

You say someone mugged should report it straight away, well actually i've been mugged at knife point before and I can assure you that cancelling your mobile phone is without a doubt the farthest thing from your mind and it takes all your strength to get yourself somewhere safe when you can begin to think about some things. Let alone (as has not been addressed) the rape victim who gets their phone stolen in an attack. I remain of the view that whilst mobile phone companies are in a customer focussed industry they should remain 'customer focussed'. Whoever the people are that make up these policies are firstly not considering most people don't read the small print and secondly aren't considering that most people may not notice their phone stolen straight away. But they could keep their policy intact if they just made these things clear. They made it very clear to me that I could set up a direct debit when that was also in the terms, so why can they not draw our attention to the other very important terms (but of course, direct debits save them money so they would be incentivised to encourage this)

As a general rule I am quite anti this Americanised corporate culture we live in, where profits rule and people are encouraged to act like robots, so maybe let's agree to disagree and be done with it. All I can hope is like the other people I have read about who have got their money back after it's confirmed the calls won't be made by them, I can as well. I will sure be writing to them until I do and if I don't get my money back I will make sure I cost them that amount in terms of man power!!

emily1504

loracan1 wrote: »

Emily, I have sympathy for you and your son, I don't have my phone with me 24 hours a day and never intend to. I also have a son who is about to get his first contract phone (from his dad) and I shall be warning him about if it is ever lost or stolen, that he has to inform us straight away. I can easily believe your son thought it would turn up.

I do know that 3 has a call/text capping policy where if you go over your contract it bars any further use - since I don't have dying relatives in China or Russia I'll take the chance that I'm not about to need to make lengthy phonecalls to either country.

And for what it's worth I'm one of those ignoramuses who doesn't read every single letter of every single line on terms and conditions before I sign, quick skim/browse is all (there I said it!).

I have found another person like me here, I thought for a moment I was the only person who didn't take their phone everywhere I went

Actually I am not the one with the son. What happened was I was out camping with friends when my phone was stolen but I didn't notice straight away. I have terrible irritable bowel syndrome and suffer badly from hemmorhoids. Over the trip I had a particularly bad case and started heammoraging, which required a blood transfusion in hospital. I noticed my phone stolen after my operation and by then a couple of days had past and the theives had managed to spend hundreds of pounds

Sorry for the detail but people keep asking me why i expect compensation for my 'negligence' despite not asking details of my situation. considering i was in a near death situation and had an emergency operation i was in no place to even notice a phone stolen, let alone report it

baldelectrician

I think the networks are partly to blame, but the op's son needs a reality check. I would have him doing 'work' until he paid it off

There is another point- the networks have options to permit international calls or not.
My mobiles are ALL set to prevent international calls.

This negates the problem

Silk

emily1504 wrote: »

Sorry for the detail but people keep asking me why i expect compensation for my 'negligence' despite not asking details of my situation. considering i was in a near death situation and had an emergency operation i was in no place to even notice a phone stolen, let alone report it

Hi Emily,
First of all I don't work for a mobile company ..God forbid I did :rotfl:

I would have thought that considering the "near death experiance" you should be glad to be alive

The few hundred quid that was run up by whoever should be the last of your worries

What worried me is why you should think that the network should pay for your loss ????
Is it because they make a profit from providing a service that you think is overpriced to the extent that it covers you for unexpected losses ???
Working on that principle when we went up to the house in the Lakes last month and somebody stupidly left the heating on constant for a couple of weeks in our house, do you think we should write to British Gas and say that as they make a huge profit they should credit the two weeks we were away ??? They should know that in Summer it's unusual for someone to have the heating on 24 hours a day ????:rotfl:
Was it one of your friends that stole the phone or was it one of your friends that left your phone unattended ??? Should they not have been held responsable for the loss ???

Going back to the OP's post ....what gets me is my OH's daughter who is a typical student teenager has her phone constantly welded to her wrist :rotfl:
So do all her friends and so does my DD ....I doubt whether any of them could go for longer than an hour without their phones ....to try and accept that a teenage student would manage to go to a day let alone 8 days before doing something about it is like believing my OH could spend 8 days in Monsoon without using my credit card ...it doesn't happen :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Which leads me to another point ....anyone know whats wrong with Monsoon sale stuff ???? It seems exactly the same as the non sale items so why can't we buy the sale stuff eh ??? :mad:

MyUserNamesTaken

Silk wrote: »

Hi Emily,
First of all I don't work for a mobile company ..God forbid I did :rotfl:

I would have thought that considering the "near death experiance" you should be glad to be alive

The few hundred quid that was run up by whoever should be the last of your worries

What worried me is why you should think that the network should pay for your loss ????
Is it because they make a profit from providing a service that you think is overpriced to the extent that it covers you for unexpected losses ???
Working on that principle when we went up to the house in the Lakes last month and somebody stupidly left the heating on constant for a couple of weeks in our house, do you think we should write to British Gas and say that as they make a huge profit they should credit the two weeks we were away ??? They should know that in Summer it's unusual for someone to have the heating on 24 hours a day ????:rotfl:
Was it one of your friends that stole the phone or was it one of your friends that left your phone unattended ??? Should they not have been held responsable for the loss ???

Going back to the OP's post ....what gets me is my OH's daughter who is a typical student teenager has her phone constantly welded to her wrist :rotfl:
So do all her friends and so does my DD ....I doubt whether any of them could go for longer than an hour without their phones ....to try and accept that a teenage student would manage to go to a day let alone 8 days before doing something about it is like believing my OH could spend 8 days in Monsoon without using my credit card ...it doesn't happen :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Which leads me to another point ....anyone know whats wrong with Monsoon sale stuff ???? It seems exactly the same as the non sale items so why can't we buy the sale stuff eh ??? :mad:

Careful there, Silk. She'll be saying you have no social skills next.