Phone was stolen, now o2 say I have to pay the bill!!!

tridentchain

I was on holiday last week, we were walking back from a new years party at 4 in the morning when I was approached by 2 men trying to give me a leaflet. Long story short they pinched my phone.


I had excursions booked the following 2 days so I got up and tried to call O2 early in the morning. I could get through to them after trying several times. I then had to go on my trip and tried again later that night to no avail. The internet was down in the apartments as well so I tried to phone again the next day but still couldn't get through. I had another trip planned that day which I had to go to. On the 3rd I had to look for an internet caf! and eventually I was able to speak to someone on the online chat who blocked my phone. However the people who stole the phone managed to get into my phone and run up and £850 bill in the space of the 2 days. O2 said that I have to pay the bill as I didn't block the phone right away.


Has anyone else been in this situation ? and is there anything I can do ?


Thanks


Jordan

Collabora

you are liable for all calls made until the point of reporting it stolen, this is the same with all networks

tridentchain

Even if I managed to call the next day I would have been in debt as they started using it straight away.


How is that fair ? the network companies surely have a responsibility to look after their customers especially when I have been a customer with them for years and this is the first time I have had a bill over £40.

Collabora

tridentchain wrote: »

Even if I managed to call the next day I would have been in debt as they started using it straight away.
How is that fair ? the network companies surely have a responsibility to look after their customers especially when I have been a customer with them for years and this is the first time I have had a bill over £40.

well how do they know you never made the calls, until you report it stolen to them, then as far as they are aware you made the calls and used the phone.

Thats why you should call them straight away or ASAP to get the phone blocked, but even if you get it blocked after 5 minutes of it being stolen you would still be liable for whatever calls/texts used in them 5 minutes.

so what you a re saying i can use my phone rake up a massive £10,000 bill and then say my phone was stolen and expect the provider to say fine we will wipe out the £10,000 bill. This will never happen.

thriftylass

There was just a watchdog programme about recently this were people had password protected phones stollen by gangs using them for premium rate calls to their own numbers and by the time they reported it the victim had a £6000 bill. Unfortunately the victims were liable for most of it apart from a good will gesture.

Check the bbc watchdog website maybe for more info?

mrcamp

Yes - util tghe phone is reported stolen, and eventually blocked, you are responsible for all charges until that time.

Let them know that you are a long-time customer and see if they can work out a payment plan or so.

tridentchain

well I have been an o2 customer for the last 10 years and not once has my bill been over £40 and not once have I ever called a Spanish number, so surely if they check their records they would see this is out of the ordinary behaviour and in fact it wasn't me who was using it.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

is this the Watchdog prog?

Collabora

tridentchain wrote: »

well I have been an o2 customer for the last 10 years and not once has my bill been over £40 and not once have I ever called a Spanish number, so surely if they check their records they would see this is out of the ordinary behaviour and in fact it wasn't me who was using it.

that means nothing to then, your phone, your contract, YOUR RESPONSIBILITY.

Until its reported stolen you are liable for everything on the phone, this will also be stated in your contract.

as other stated, call them and work out a payment plan

Marktheshark

Why did you "have" to go the excursion ?
Knowing what you know now would you have gone or stayed at the phone calling O2 until you got through.

wiogs

tridentchain wrote: »

well I have been an o2 customer for the last 10 years and not once has my bill been over £40 and not once have I ever called a Spanish number, so surely if they check their records they would see this is out of the ordinary behaviour and in fact it wasn't me who was using it.

How can they tell what you are doing from looking at your past records?

Answer - they can't.

They may have tried to get in touch once they noticed the abnormal activity but maybe not.

"the network companies surely have a responsibility to look after their customers especially when I have been a customer with them for years and this is the first time I have had a bill over £40" - customers also have a duty to minimise the chance of the phone getting nicked.