Lost sim - can we claim back

purpleapple

My husband lost his UK sim while on holiday overseas but thought he only misplaced it. Upon coming back to the UK and checking his mobile phone account online, he was shocked to see that somebody has used his sim fraudulently and his balance was more than £1500!

Unfortunately, the insurer would not cover the cost because it was not in the his phone when the sim was used. We also sent a complaint letter to the service provider that they should have sent a warning to his email address or stopped the service early on when they noticed that the usage is a lot more than usual (he usually just spends £35 a month) but has received no reply.

They have issued a new sim but have not allowed him to make phone calls until full payment of the balane is made. As he needs to use it, we decided to pay for the full balance instead. We still feel that the service provider has made an effort to stop it or warn us similar to what banks do in using credit/debit cards.

My question is: do we have a fight on this? Which government agency is in-charge of mobile phone providers complaints that we can go to raise our complaint (similar to FSA for financial services companies)?

pcombo

The obvious question is, Why did your husband have the sim card out the phone, Not like it could be used on anything else.

spiro

The other one is why did he not have a PIN on his SIM?

If you loose your phone or SIM, you are liable until such time as you report it lost/stolen.

In terms of why the teleco did nothing, details of calls made overseas dont get back to the telecon instantly it can take several days and in that time you can run up a huge bill on international or premium rate calls.

Sounds like and expensive lesson learnt.

gjchester

purpleapple wrote: »

My husband lost his UK sim while on holiday overseas but thought he only misplaced it. Upon coming back to the UK and checking his mobile phone account online, he was shocked to see that somebody has used his sim fraudulently and his balance was more than £1500!

Unfortunately, the insurer would not cover the cost because it was not in the his phone when the sim was used. We also sent a complaint letter to the service provider that they should have sent a warning to his email address or stopped the service early on when they noticed that the usage is a lot more than usual (he usually just spends £35 a month) but has received no reply.

They have issued a new sim but have not allowed him to make phone calls until full payment of the balane is made. As he needs to use it, we decided to pay for the full balance instead. We still feel that the service provider has made an effort to stop it or warn us similar to what banks do in using credit/debit cards.

My question is: do we have a fight on this? Which government agency is in-charge of mobile phone providers complaints that we can go to raise our complaint (similar to FSA for financial services companies)?

Have you tried your hpoliday insurance? or is that what you mentioned (not sure if it was holiday or phone insurance you mentioned)

Unfortunatly you are liable for all costs until it's reported so you may get a slight reduction for goodwill but your serive provider will have to pay the service provider where you were so you'll not get much off.

Billing overseas is not in real time, it's typically sent in a bundle 24 hours later, so it's possible the sim was used all day before it was reported back. I would asume you had asked for international roaming so they would not know if it's you or someone else making the calls.

Good luck but as you did not set a PIN code the blame does lay at your door (and yes it's easay to say that after the event) all you can do is ask for a reductions and a playment plan.

purpleapple

pcombo wrote: »

The obvious question is, Why did your husband have the sim card out the phone, Not like it could be used on anything else.

For the simple reason that he's using a local sim during our holiday to text and call local friends and have no need to use his UK sim during that time.

DUTR

purpleapple wrote: »

For the simple reason that he's using a local sim during our holiday to text and call local friends and have no need to use his UK sim during that time.

Sometimes logic has to overide emotion, the sim card could have been put in a safe or such like, pay the bill and be more careful in future :beer: