Vodafone charged me more than £2000.00 for calls made on stolen phone!!!

gjchester

Naf wrote: »

No, like a credit card they can cap your usage, and if you want to continue using it all you have to do is make a quick call to customer services (no problem on vodafone as their customer service is open 24/7)..

You miss my point, they may have called the phone and the thief acknowleged it, or sent a text.

It's also possible that the billing system had not caught up with the calls made at that point so no limit had been exceeded.

Naf wrote: »

Credit card companies manage... somehow. I can only assume they find this very difficult? Not.

Credit cards need authorisation when you go over a floor limit. That limit varies and may places now authorise all transactions so there is a real time link.

Call records can often lag behind, especially if there are international calls made. You would have thought there was a way to manage it, PAYG works it out, but to overhaul and re-write the entire contract billing system to do it is not worth it.

NFH

wantmemoney wrote: »

post the numbers here...the UK numbers should at least be traceable

This is a really good idea. If you have an electronic copy of the bill, perhaps you could copy and paste the full details of every stolen call, including date, time, phone number, duration and price. You'd be compromising only the thief's privacy who doesn't deserve it, and hopefully some resourcefulness by forum members will shed some light on the identity of the thief.

jamespir

its the same with any network if you dont report phone as lost or stolen then your liable you should have reported it lost straight away

gjchester

NFH wrote: »

This is a really good idea. If you have an electronic copy of the bill, perhaps you could copy and paste the full details of every stolen call, including date, time, phone number, duration and price. You'd be compromising only the thief's privacy who doesn't deserve it, and hopefully some resourcefulness by forum members will shed some light on the identity of the thief.

Actually you'd be compromising the person the theif called, who may or may not have known that the phone was stolen.

wantmemoney

@goldenbat666
post the numbers so we can look at them. Calls costing £2,000 in two days suggest 'premium rate'/'revenue share' numbers.

as NFH suggests post the dates times and duration of the calls and also the part of the UK the phone was lost or stolen....this crook is almost certainly a serial offender so people should post to try and build a pattern (A PATTERN THE NETWOKS ARE ALREADY AWARE OF)

Very often the 'international' numbers are not terminated in the actual country but instead 'short stopped' in London for example.

Naf

gjchester wrote: »

You miss my point, they may have called the phone and the thief acknowleged it, or sent a text.

If the thief did, then the network has failed to complete security correctly and cannot hold the account holder responsible.

gjchester wrote: »

It's also possible that the billing system had not caught up with the calls made at that point so no limit had been exceeded.

gjchester wrote: »

Call records can often lag behind, especially if there are international calls made. You would have thought there was a way to manage it, PAYG works it out, but to overhaul and re-write the entire contract billing system to do it is not worth it.

The bill lags behind on calls placed while abroad, not on calls initiated in the UK as far as I know, but they're fully aware of what numbers you are calling the moment you place the call anyway - like on PAYG as you say.

gjchester wrote: »

Credit cards need authorisation when you go over a floor limit. That limit varies and may places now authorise all transactions so there is a real time link.

Your phone doesn't work for placing calls if you don't pay, so they're authorising the call each time you place it, just like a transaction. All the networks offer a block on premium rate numbers and international calls (sometimes they put it on to start with, sometimes its something they include based on your credit score, and wont remove until they see you paying your bills), so clearly there is some form of authorisation process each time you dial a number.

NFH wrote: »

Because credit cards are a means of credit, i.e. a loan with an associated interest rate and a way of borrowing money. Contrast credit cards with charge cards (e.g. many American Express cards), which have no interest rate and require the amount to be paid in full every month, like mobile phone contracts, and which likewise are not subject to the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (including its useful Section 75).

Yeah, I didn't mean I really think they should be regulated the same way, and I do understand the difference. The only reason I brought up the concept of a 'credit limit', is because the networks do use your credit score, as well as your activity and payment history with them to assess your account. it's primary use can be to decide if they can offer you additional connections on your account (second lines/handsets or maybe an internet dongle), but in theory this stands as a limit they believe your situation can handle. It's not a credit limit in the same sense as on a credit card, but they won't give you a new connection if they don't asses you as being eligible in this way, so why allow you to spend even more than a new connection is worth on calls in one billing period?

gjchester

Naf wrote: »

If the thief did, then the network has failed to complete security correctly and cannot hold the account holder responsible.

Depends how they were informed. If they got a text saying something on the lines of " Are you aware your bill is high this month" theres no security to clear.

Naf wrote: »

The bill lags behind on calls placed while abroad, not on calls initiated in the UK as far as I know, but they're fully aware of what numbers you are calling the moment you place the call anyway - like on PAYG as you say.

Sorry as I understand it thats not always the the case, it can lag behind in the UK too. The way calls are made lets some of the nodes permit calls then forward them to the master billing computer later on. This means if the billing PC falls over the system is still working.

PAYG works differently

Vodafone

Hi goldenbat666,

I am sorry to hear that this has happened. I understand how awful it is to lose a phone, let alone have unauthorised calls made too.

So that I can take a look at your account for you, can you drop me an email to the address shown here with WRT135 FAO Heidi in the subject. Could you also please include a link to your post on here.

Once I have that, we can discuss this in more detail.

Many thanks,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK