Phone got stolen on holiday and Vodafone is demanding money

sugarbabe84

My young brother recently went on holiday and whilst he was abroad, his phone got stolen and the person who stole it ran up a bill of £380. Vodafone was contacted within 24hours and the phone was reported stolen.

When he got back, Vodafone told him he has to repay the £380 even though he had reported the phone on time. He wrote a softly softly letter pleading despite having I told him that the softly softly approach wasn't the right way to go about it as he had met his contractual obligations. Vodafone still insisted that he has to pay.

Now he really struggles with communication, if it was me, I would be fighting tooth and nail for my rights but unfortunately Vodafone will only communicate with the owner of the phone/ bill payer. He has been a pushover and agreed to pay it.

The whole thing makes but cross but I guess paying it is his only option at the moment because chances are that they will ruin his credit rating and send bailiffs to his door. I wondered whether the best move would for him to pay it and then when he has finished, we can start a motion to claim the money back via the small claims court?

Has anyone been through a similar situation?

The annoying thing is that I have been with Vodafone for four years, my young brother has been with them for five years, my sister and dad have been with them for three years. We all got contracts with them because they seemed to have good phones. I only started realising last year that they aren't actually a great provider as they initially appeared.

MissKeith

I'm not sure what 'rights' you think you would have here but unfortunately your brother is liable for the bill up until the moment he reported it stolen. I would check with any insurance polices he may have to find out if unauthorised usage is covered.

sugarbabe84

MissKeith wrote: »

I'm not sure what 'rights' you think you would have here but unfortunately your brother is liable for the bill up until the moment he reported it stolen. I would check with any insurance polices he may have to find out if unauthorised usage is covered.

Thanks, yes you are right.

I've just been reading horrendous stories about people who have had their Vodafone phones stolen and been hit with huge bills. I hadn't realised. Do all mobile phone companies have the same policy? I naively assumed that they operate the same way the banks do.

I guess 5 years of loyalty to Vodafone means nothing. It's a shame that all four of us have months to go before our contracts with Vodafone end, if only we had known.

sugarbabe84

MissKeith wrote: »

I'm not sure what 'rights' you think you would have here but unfortunately your brother is liable for the bill up until the moment he reported it stolen. I would check with any insurance polices he may have to find out if unauthorised usage is covered.

Do you think he can claim the money back via Travel insurance? Travel insurance already paid for the handset.

grumbler

sugarbabe84 wrote: »

I guess 5 years of loyalty to Vodafone means nothing. It's a shame that all four of us have months to go before our contracts with Vodafone end, if only we had known.

Neither it means at any other network. You can only appeal to their goodwill.
Next time he goes abroad (and even in UK) it would be a good idea to protect the sim card with a PIN.

sugarbabe84 wrote: »

Do you think he can claim the money back via Travel insurance? Travel insurance already paid for the handset.

You have already made one wrong assumption recently. Instead of guessing again check the insurance policy. I think some mobile phone insurances do cover unauthorised use up to a certain limit, but the majority of travel insurances don't cover this.

sugarbabe84

grumbler wrote: »

Neither it means at any other network. You can only appeal to their goodwill.
Next time he goes abroad (and even in UK) it would be a good idea to protect the sim card with a PIN.

Okay sure, I guess his softly softly approach was most appropriate.

Do all mobile phone providers have this policy? I'm thinking of moving to 3 when my contract ends. They now have a good range of phones, e.g. the iphone and at least they are cheap.

grumbler

sugarbabe84 wrote: »

Do all mobile phone providers have this policy?

Do you still think that it is possible that some behave like banks? Simple logic suggests that it cannot be the case at least because phones, unlike cards, are not protected even by signatures, let alone by PIN codes?

gjchester

sugarbabe84 wrote: »

Do all mobile phone providers have this policy?

Yes, all networks say you are liable until they are informed.

Why do they do this, stops someone using a phone then claiming it was stolen to avoid paying bills.

As grumbler has said a simple PIN code on the phone and SIM will stop theives using the phone, or swapping the card into another phone. The phone won't be returned but at least it should give you time to get the SIM blocked so you won't get a huge bill on your return.

macman

Every phone has a PIN SIM lock on it, if he had used that simple precaution then this would not have happened.
PIN's on bank cards are not optional, hence banks provide some guarantee as long you have not been foolish enough to record the PIN and keep it with the card.
In effect, this is exactly what your brother did by not PIN locking it-he gave free unlimited access to anyone finding it-and then waited 24 hours to report it. The bill could have been much higher.

grumbler

macman wrote: »

Why?

You seem to have misunderstood my post because my point was the same as yours: for phones PIN cods are optional, unlike for cards; hence mobile companies cannot offer a protection similar to the one that banks offer.

macman

Apologies, my comments were aimed at the OP, not at you. Post edited. We are in agreement.