Cancelling a stolen phone contract

kartingmad

Hey all

So my brother was attacked and stabbed on Saturday night walking home from work. He had everything stolen including his phone which he has had only a few weeks.

We have spoken to Vodafone and they are saying that we have to pay £600 to cancel the contract.

The people who did it have been caught and are currently in custody awaiting to see whats going to happen.

Where do we stand on this one due to the circumstances. Seems a bit heartless of Vodafone to be doing this especially as its being dealt with by the police and looking likely that they will go to prison due to being on bail already.

I know what Vodafone can be like as I have had dealings with them in the past and refuse to use them now.

Any suggestions please

Maybe a letter to the papers???

Cheers

Marktheshark

They did not steal the contract, just the phone, which is free or £1 on the last payment.
They should cancel the Sim, block the phone and issue a new sim.
The contract will still run as it is a service contract for a calls package.
The phone is just hardware.

kartingmad

part of the monthly payments will cover the phone. its not all for the data and minutes

JJ_Egan

User could write a nice letter to Voda .
But its as above post network works no valid reason to cancel .

flashg67

Hope your brother's ok. Surely he'll want a new phone anyway? Buy one, get a new sim, and carry on.

Harsh as this may sound, looking as an outsider, I don't think you can expect Voda (or any other network) to cancel a contract just because the phone has been stolen, regardless of the circumstances. If he had lost/damaged it himself, would you be asking the same of Vodafone? Did he have separate insurance for the phone?

kartingmad

well what are the grounds to cancel contracts on

ConsumerGuy0016

Did he have insurance on the phone? If so, claim off that and once you've received the replacement phone continue the contract. Then apply for a pro rata refund of the line rental costs for the days you couldn't use the mins/data etc - network may then apply a goodwill gesture of credit on the account

grumbler

kartingmad wrote: »

part of the monthly payments will cover the phone. its not all for the data and minutes

Well, it's not Voda's fault that the phone was stolen. That's what insurances are for.

kartingmad wrote: »

well what are the grounds to cancel contracts on

Read the contract and you'll see.
A stolen phone is certainly not a ground.

tyllwyd

If your brother had bought his phone outright from Argos and a sim only contract from Vodaphone, he wouldn't expect to be able to get Vodaphone to cancel the contract and to go back to Argos and claim a full refund.

JJ_Egan

kartingmad wrote: »

part of the monthly payments will cover the phone. its not all for the data and minutes

Not the way it works for most contracts .
You own the phone from day one as its in effect an inducement to buy the network contract .
Even if the monthly payments did include the phone they are still owed by the user.

Some guy got robbed and he now wants to rob voda .

kartingmad

so someone gets murdered, there still liable are they