daughters lost phone and big bill

trace80

my daughter lost her bag last Saturday night or Sunday morning when she was in a club. the bag had her purse with a few pounds her job seekers paper work and her phone.
she contacted the club monday and was told the bag was not there so she then know it had been stolen.
she reported it to the police on monday and a lady on the counter told her about contacting the network and canceling the phone which we did not know.
When I contacted the network they told me the phone bill was already £947 to calls to Korea and insisted i had to pay it in one go.
i am a single parent with a another younger child and my daughter has a 3 month old baby and we just can not afford this just befor christmas.

does anybody have any helpfull advice and is it right that people sould have to pay these stolen bills.

I contacted social secrutiy who had helped us in the past with bills and they said they would look into it.

McKneff

Social Security wont help you. There is no reason on this earth whythey would pay your daughters phone bill.



She lost a bag on Saturday and she had to be told on Monday to contact her phone provider. Why didnt she do it straight away.

Silk

You are liable for the calls up to the time you report it stolen so the Networks can block the phone
If you have insurance on it you may be covered for unauthorised calls.
The only option failing that is to try and cut a deal with the Network to reduce the bill and pay on instalments but you will have to beg

zagfles

I don't think you'll get anywhere if the calls were made before the phone was reported stolen. For the future, it is essential to have a PIN lock on both the phone and SIM for a contract mobile.

Emy1501

All you can do is try to argue that the unsual activity was obvious and therefore the mobile provider should have suspended the phone once the calls reached a £100 or so.

I would argue that the phone provider has not been reasonable here by letting the bill run to the amount it has. At the same time your daughter has not helped herself by leaving it as long as she did to report the phone lost.

In future though, report the phone lost as soon as you realise it is lost and make sure the phone has a phone and sim lock on it.

grumbler

trace80 wrote: »

my daughter lost her bag last Saturday night or Sunday morning when she was in a club. the bag had her purse with a few pounds her job seekers paper work and her phone.
she contacted the club monday and was told the bag was not there so she then know it had been stolen....

It's like losing a debit/credit card with a PIN written on it, then waiting for 2.5 days before reporting it stollen...:think:

Annie._2

Emy1501 wrote: »

All you can do is try to argue that the unsual activity was obvious and therefore the mobile provider should have suspended the phone once the calls reached a £100 or so.

There is a delay receiving data when calls have been made to an overseas destination. The network would not have had all the information and would have been unaware of the unusual activity on the account.

There could also be further charges still pending.

macman

Your daughter is fully liable for all calls made until it was reported. All you can do is plead with the network for a reduction, or an extended repayment period.
Why don't people SIM lock their phones?

zagfles

Ann_S wrote: »

There is a delay receiving data when calls have been made to an overseas destination.

Really? How do they cope with PAYG then?

And why would there be any delay for calls to an international destination? The network must be aware of the number being called when it's called - after all they connect the call!

I could sort of understand roaming, where a foreign network instigates the call, but this isn't roaming, it's making a call from the home network. And even roaming works with PAYG, so I don't buy this delay argument anyway. They seem to be pretty quick at stopping PAYG phones with no credit calling out while roaming, and there's no problem getting the balance immediately after the call has been made.

Emy1501

Ann_S wrote: »

There is a delay receiving data when calls have been made to an overseas destination. The network would not have had all the information and would have been unaware of the unusual activity on the account.

There could also be further charges still pending.

Even at £2 a min your talking about 8 hours worth of calls here. Do you really believe that delays are that long?

I personally find it stage that mobile providers will allow people who I assume are on benefits to be able to run up bills of nearly a £1000 without any real questions.

I highly doubt a judge would accept the provider was reasonable if the OP took the provider to court.

grumbler

Ann_S wrote: »

There is a delay receiving data when calls have been made to an overseas destination. ..

Maybe from overseas, but not to overseas.