Stolen phone- do we have to pay?

randdom

I hope someone can advise.

For the last couple of years my husband and I have paid for my younger brothers phone contract as he is a student. It is attached to my husbands phone contact. Today my husbands phone suddenly was blocked and when he called them up they have informed him that there are £2000+ worth of charges on my brothers phone. When we spoke to my brother he admitted that he had misplaced his phone for the last two weeks (his use is intermittent and he often won't use it for two weeks). He genuinely thought it was in his office. It turns out it has been stolen and used to call loads of 0909 numbers. It has obviously now been reported to the police as stolen and blocked.

My question is that they are saying that we have no option but to pay the full cost as it wasn't reported as stolen until now. I was just wondering if anyone knew of anything else that we could do. Between us we can afford it but it is a huge amount if money.

Obviously I am furious with my brother but that doesn't really help anything. We will obviously pay if we have to but I was just wondering if there is any other option.

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

Netwizard

Get your brother to pay it, and then make sure he sorts his own contract in future rather than your husband taking responsibility for it!

Not sure there is much you can do here apart from appeal to the network and hope they might offer a payment plan or goodwill.

Frozen_up_north

It's not the wrong forum, but the answer isn't going to please you.

All the phone networks put the onus on the user (and/or bill payer) of a contract phone to secure their phone and SIM card with a password or PIN to prevent it's use by unauthorised persons. With some phones it's easy to track a phone and remotely wipe it (iPhones for example with the free "Find iPhone" App).

Equally, it is not unreasonable to expect the network to have a usage cap of perhaps one months rental for out of bundle calls. However, from several similar threads on this forum, it appears to be something alien to most of the networks!

You will have to ask the network why they allowed the out of bundle calls to reach such an astronomic amount before they took action, you might find a sympathetic ear with customer services, but it might be a struggle.

macman

Correction; it's not your younger brother's contract, it's your husband's contract. He allows your younger brother to use the handset without restriction, and is fully liable for all charges on it, Unless the contract is in younger brother's name, in which case he is liable. Who actually pays the bill is irrelevant.
I can never understand why so may people take out mobile contracts on behalf of their adult offspring or relatives.

LondonGal

Yes, sadly you are liable for the bill and there is not really anything you can do about it. Had the phone been reported stolen earlier it would be different.

I don't feel comments about your husband taking out the contract for someone else are relevant, so please ignore them. People may not agree it, but your husband did and may still do, so each to their own.

I would appeal to the phone company's better nature and point out the sudden unusual usage to premium rate numbers and the fact the bill was so very high. I'd actually go straight to the CEO (I'm sure many on here may disagree with me), but if you want someone who will do something, the Exec's department will either take it on personally or hand it to someone capable of dealing with it.

Techhead_2

LondonGal wrote: »

Yes, sadly you are liable for the bill and there is not really anything you can do about it. Had the phone been reported stolen earlier it would be different.

I don't feel comments about your husband taking out the contract for someone else are relevant, so please ignore them. People may not agree it, but your husband did and may still do, so each to their own.

I would appeal to the phone company's better nature and point out the sudden unusual usage to premium rate numbers and the fact the bill was so very high. I'd actually go straight to the CEO (I'm sure many on here may disagree with me), but if you want someone who will do something, the Exec's department will either take it on personally or hand it to someone capable of dealing with it.

How do you know its unusual for the brother to call premium numbers ?

How do you know it was sudden? The phone was "lost" for two weeks, there could be a pattern of a steady build up over those weeks.

Going straight to the CEO, for some networks, will just result in a polite "Go through normal procedure first"

I think it is relevant that the contract should be in the brother's name ( with the OP's husband paying the normal payment if he wants to). That way the brother will look after the phone properly and secure it. There isn't much that can be done about the current bill so at least we should offer advice for the future.

dealer_wins

There is always a slim chance that the brother made these personal number/sex line calls himself, and is lying as he is embarrassed?

pepdavies

dealer_wins wrote: »

There is always a slim chance that the brother made these personal number/sex line calls himself, and is lying as he is embarrassed?

I think that's exactly what happened. Massive bill arrives, "oh yeah, my phone was stolen two weeks ago and I've only just realised"

mobilejunkie

Anyone not bothering to put sim AND phone locks on as soon as they get the contract is asking for it. You wouldn't leave your car unlocked (presumably!) so why leave phones and sims unlocked? That's assuming it was stolen.

randdom

Thank you for your advice everyone.

For what it is worth I genuinely don't think that my brother made the phone calls, we have been looking through the usage and it doesn't really fit with him having done it (e.g. he is a PHD student and basically works 9-5 and lots of the calls where at times where he would have to have been at work at uni). Plus I feel I know him quite well and while he is disorganised and can be slightly useless I don't think he would lie.

We will sort something out. Thanks again.

martin.cat

Does your brother share with someone whom may have used the phone?

I would imagine the network / police could verify phone location / where it was used