Help, stolen phone costs - Feel sick

Flip77

Hi

Was womdering if anyone has some useful advice.

my wife lost her mobile phone on Friday. She always looses it and it turns up around the house or in the kids room etc.

Back ground info:
she had a contract of £5 a month as she is a very light user. she never ever went over this amount for the last 4 or 5 years. The phone is cheap and nasty and is pretty much 'just a phone'

She went away last week with the kids, her mum, sister and nan etc to a Haven holiday park (just to get away). She came back on the 19th August and could not find her phone. As a lot of people went they all checked there cases to make sure it didn't get put in there luggage.

We finanly decided that it was time to contact T-mobile and report the phone lost or stolen.

we didn't think there was a huge rush as she was not able to go over the £5 a month allowance without buying a top up.

However

a phone call to T-mobile first thing this morning revealed that my wifes phone was used on Friday and Monday for premium rate text messaging.

The numbers appear to be !!!!!! movies. Her phone does not support this type of conent (or any type of content)

The bill appears to be about £144.

I tried calling the suppliers of the text messaging and it just rings and rings.

I can't believe that T-mobile did not query anything after about 4 or 5 years of a £5 a month charge.

is there anything i can do or anywhere I can go?

Thanks

swimsink

If you have insurance you can claim back on calls etc, but if it is 'just a phone' i'm not sure that there is anything you can do! Sorry

Flip77

Thanks for your reply. I dont care about the phone. it's the call costs that worry me!

swimsink

Sorry my post didn't make sense - if it wasn't a good phone I assume you didn't have insurance? Because most insurance policies cover the handset, accessories and any call costs not made by you. Other than that I don't think that there is anything that you can do, apart from to ask your provider in hope.

Seems sad that somebody would find a phone and maliciously make expensive phone calls probably just for the fun of it. People suck.

victor2

Sounds like the SIM has been used in another phone to rack up that bill. You could appeal to T-mobile's sense of goodwill towards a long term customer, but I doubt if there's much else you can do.
Too late for this one, but consider a PAYG mobile to replace it if she's such a light user.

Flip77

swimsink wrote: »

Sorry my post didn't make sense - if it wasn't a good phone I assume you didn't have insurance? Because most insurance policies cover the handset, accessories and any call costs not made by you. Other than that I don't think that there is anything that you can do, apart from to ask your provider in hope.

Seems sad that somebody would find a phone and maliciously make expensive phone calls probably just for the fun of it. People suck.

hi

yeah no insurance as it was a rubbish phone, and we were under the impression the calls were capped at £5 worth of allowances.

I think either someone maliciously set it up on her phone and then binned it or they removed the sim card and used it in there phone which quite possibly would play movies etc.

Just dont want to be left with a £144 bill. bit stressful.

Flip77

victor2 wrote: »

Sounds like the SIM has been used in another phone to rack up that bill. You could appeal to T-mobile's sense of goodwill towards a long term customer, but I doubt if there's much else you can do.
Too late for this one, but consider a PAYG mobile to replace it if she's such a light user.

I think we will try and appeal to T-mobile's better nature. Even if they slash the cost by a decent % I would be a bit happier.

as you say PAYG would be a better option. It's just remembering to top up!

macman

Not a chance I'm afraid-the account holder is fully responsible for reporting the loss ASAP-and any calls made in the interim are chargeable.
I she knew she had lost it, why delay reporting it for four days? Half an hour is all it takes to run up potential bills of thousands.
Using the SIM lock feature will avoid unauthorised calls being made in case of loss.

Flip77

macman wrote: »

Not a chance I'm afraid-the account holder is fully responsible for reporting the loss ASAP-and any calls made in the interim are chargeable.
I she knew she had lost it, why delay reporting it for four days? Half an hour is all it takes to run up potential bills of thousands.
Using the SIM lock feature will avoid unauthorised calls being made in case of loss.

As i said in my previous post, we did not know it was 'lost or stolen' until we checked all bags and cars. we reported it lost/stolen the minute we found out that no one had it.

grumbler

When I 'lose' my mobile I just dial the number from a landline or another mobile phone. Very fast and efficient method to find it. And very obvious.

macman

Flip77 wrote: »

As i said in my previous post, we did not know it was 'lost or stolen' until we checked all bags and cars. we reported it lost/stolen the minute we found out that no one had it.

It may not be your fault. But it's still your responsibility, under the contract you agreed to, from the moment it went missing, until it's reported.
The time you became aware of it is not relevant.