Help! Vodafone want me to pay for calls made when my phone was stolen.

Stav_2

Hey guys.

I'm posting this on behalf of my sister who's having a little difficulty to say the least in getting Vodafone to play fair with her. As the title suggests, my sister had her phone stolen recently in Barcelona (the strap of her bag was actually cut, allowing the thief to snatch it from her) and before she could get it blocked and reported as stolen, about £1200 worth of calls were made from it.

Here's what she says:

"I had my bag stolen in Spain. Tried to call Vodafone from Spain to cancel the contract but had no joy getting through. Tried to contact them when I was back but there was no reply; had no access to a phone for 24hrs as I was travelling the country and without cash due to stolen wallet, and finally got thru to them 48 hours later. By this point £1200 worth of calls had been made on my phone and Vodafone are holding me liable for the 24hrs when I couldn't call them saying I should have used a pay phone/borrowed a phone from a friend.
What can I do???????????? I'm very scared and broke. Any advice appreciated!"

Her phone was stolen on a Saturday night, and she tried to report it on the sunday evening, only to find out the lines were closed (despite her seemingly being on hold for 20 minutes). At the next opportunity she had (Monday evening) she tried to contact them again, only to find the lines shut again. She finally got through on Tuesday morning and had the phone cancelled.

For a week or 2, Vodafone seemingly lied to her, stating a replacement phone was on the way. She has now been told that no phone will be forthcoming until she pays the outstanding £1200 bill!

After my sister obviously complained Vodafone agreed to waive the cost of the calls made until Monday morning (about £170), but are insisting she pays the £1000 for the calls made on the Monday. Their arguement is that she had all day on Monday to cancel the phone. She didn't. At her first opportunity to contact them then she did, and the lines were shut.

Vodafone obviously know the phone was stolen, and that my sister didn't suddenly out of the blue rack up £1200 worth of calls in 2 days, they're just being !!!!!!.

If anyone can offer any advice on the best tactics she should employ to get Vodafone to relent, see sense and waive the charges, my sister (and I) would be immensely grateful.

mike_paterson

Tell her to check her travel insurance policy (or home insurance) too - it might cover losses such as this.

jf2404

Unfortunatley she is liable for the calls.

I don't see why she couldn't "get through" when she got back home ?, customer service is open mon-sun 8am-8pm, after those hours if you ring the same customer service number, there is an option to speak to the "network" where the phone can be barred from being used.

There is no excuse that she couldn't get through as above there is an option 24hrs a day.

She won't get a replacement phone unless she has insurance, or she upgrades.

She will still be liable for the monthly charges unless she writes in to cancel and pays off the remaining contract.

There is a department within Vodafone where you can arrange to pay so much each month of a debt if you can't afford the full amount.

I wish i could say she doesn't have to pay but she does. Even in the contract terms it states if your phone is stolen to report it stolen asap/ straight away to block the phone, and if you don't then you are liable for ALL calls made.

In the contract number 3 it states :-

3. Loss/theft of SIM card/mobile phone
You will be required to pay for all call charges up to the time you notify us that is it has been lost or stolen and you will be liable for the monthly (or other periodic) line rental charges thereafter until the Agreement has ended.


I used to be a customer service advisor for Vodafone and i know they stand firm on this.

After all it is not their fault she didn't phone straight away.

I hope you can sort something out and sorry for the bad news.

Darren21

hmmm I think it's unfair to have to pay still, so what if you were injured during the theft - you have to ring from the operation table???

It's just another instance of vodafone trying to bleed you dry, I bet they make a packet out of the £1,000!! Tell me, as you worked for them, are they EVER flexible over anything because I've never heard of a single instance!

jf2404

Darren21 wrote:

hmmm I think it's unfair to have to pay still, so what if you were injured during the theft - you have to ring from the operation table???

It's just another instance of vodafone trying to bleed you dry, I bet they make a packet out of the £1,000!! Tell me, as you worked for them, are they EVER flexible over anything because I've never heard of a single instance!

If you were injured (close to death) then they would probably give a good will gesture and write off the charge.

If you were in hospital but can't move then get a friend/doctor/patient to call and cancel, if you explain what has happened and they can't come to the phone then they will block it.

They are flexiable sometimes. If it's their fault (Vodafone's) then they will do anything to rectify the problem.

The way they see it is they basically have a 24hr line to an advisor, so an excuse of "i can't get through" doesn't wash, i could ring anytime in the day, yes i might be on hold, but if in the back of my mind i was thinking anyone could have my phone, anyone could be making calls that I have to pay, then i'd stay on that line until i got an advisor.

Vodafone is still the largest Network with the most customers and best coverage so you will get times where you are on hold for a while but if you need to speak to them then wait.

With saynoto0870 there are free phone options and local rate options so not having money is no excuse either.

It is harsh and yes they are out to make money but they have stated if your phone is lost or stolen, you are liable for any calls made until you get it blocked, i don't see how much fairer they can be ?.

Yes they could cancel the contract and not charge anything, but their a business and in this situation you will be VERY lucky if a company does that.

jf2404

Darren21 wrote:

Tell me, as you worked for them, are they EVER flexible over anything because I've never heard of a single instance!

I've seen cases where they have given £2,000 good will gestures.

I've seen cases where they have worked weeks and weeks to sort out a customers problem.

They are a good company and they know they wouldn't be where they are without customers , so they help them the best they can.

In this case, they didn't have to give £170 back but they did.

Stick to the T&C and you will be fine.

michaels

I am assuming your sister's bill is normally only a few tens of pounds a month - I think Vodafone were acting negligently in letting the account go to such a high level without at loeast checking that it was intended - credit card companies rapidly spot unsual transactions and telephione the card holder to query them, if vodafone were being responsible they would have done so. I would suggest contact in Citizens Advice Bureau.

jf2404

michaels wrote:

I am assuming your sister's bill is normally only a few tens of pounds a month - I think Vodafone were acting negligently in letting the account go to such a high level without at loeast checking that it was intended - credit card companies rapidly spot unsual transactions and telephione the card holder to query them, if vodafone were being responsible they would have done so. I would suggest contact in Citizens Advice Bureau.

It's in the T&C what the customer need to do to block the phone.

Citizans advice won't be able to do anything as Vodafone are not in breach of the T&C in any way.

Also calls from abroad are more expensive, for all Vodafone know she could have been calling her mother in Australia for 1 hour.

I wish there was a loopole, but at the end of the day your sister is liable, you could even take it to court, but Vodafone would win, not because the size of the company, but because it's not their fault.

michaels

I wonder what an hour from Spain to Autralia on Voda would cost - say £2 per min = 120 quid - 1200 quid is still a lot of calls - if one of my customers normally spent £30 per month I would be worried about advancing them 1200 quid of 'credit' and would check up on it. Only defence for voda might be delays in getting the billing info so that they are not aware of the size of the bill till after the event.
I am not disagreeing with the T&C, or that the person in question should have contactd voda as soon as possible but I think an arguement could be made that Voda were also negligent.

andy88_2

It is really unfortunate that there was no contact a lot sooner. I'd have been on to them as soon as possible.

Michaels has a point; last year I was abroad with friends and one had his Vodafone blocked when it reached a £200 'credit limit'. It wasn't a question of his creditworthiness to Vodafone though. He borrowed my phone to call them, and they said that it had reached an unexpectedly high level, and they'd blocked it in order to protect him as they were worried that it was stolen, . It was re-enabled and he spent £500, I recently learned (he should have got a foreign SIM like us).

So whilst jf2404 is correct in saying that Vodafone are not liable for the calls until informed, it would certainly be worth asking the question why they did not put a temporary block on, until they heard from the customer.

Darren21's disgust is not warranted; it's up to the customers to insure and protect themselves against eventualities, not the supplier. I wouldn't expect Citroen to fill my car up with fuel if it was stolen and recovered.

Stav_2

Thanks for the responses peeps.

I'm well aware that there would have been a clause in the T&Cs that stated that a cust is liable for all calls until the phone is reported stolen, as I imagine my sister is. I think the nub of the matter is that at some point concessions have to be made, and there has to be some flexibility on Vodafone's part, in order that they appear to be acting fairly towards the customer. That's what good customer service is all about.

I appreciate that my sister probably could have got her phone cancelled sooner had she really made the effort, which in a sense she did. As soon as her phone was stolen, she made a call to the only number she knew - my parents' landline - and left a message asking them to call Vodafone. Unfortunately they picked up the message a day or 2 later.

The point about the 'credit limit' to me is the most interesting and perhaps crucial one. Michaels assumption is right in that my sister's normal bill would only be marginally above her rental charges. What obviously has happened here is malicious use of the phone, with the pure intent of creating as large a bill for my sister as possible.

Basically, between Monday am and Tuesday am, about £1200 worth of calls were made! Assuming the number dialled was £1 per minute, the call(s) must have been connected for 20 hours in a 24 hour period. That Vodafone didn't find that odd, or that they perhaps don't deem it wise to monitor these kind of things, strikes me as insane.

I know (working for BT Broadband myself and having dealt with many situations like this) that getting this resolved satisfactorily is surely just a matter of the right person being made aware of this in the right manner. As you've stated jf2404, obviously Vodafone can waive some or all of these charges - plenty of people there have the authorisation to do that - but what's the best way to get to that person?

Again, thanks in advance.