Unauthorised calls

[Anonymous]

Hi,

This is my first time posting. I have been with 02 for quite a few years, I have always been generally happy. I had my phone stolen in Spain and someone managed to rack up £3000+ of calls before I realised my phone had gone and was then cancelled. I have a communication with 02 and my insurance company about getting this resolved and I found the guy I spoke to  - South African guy called Andre - extremely helpful. He went above and beyond to help me. My grievances are not with the first line customer service which was excellent but this:

1) the default position of 02 was that I was liable for all costs and that I should set up a repayment plan with the debt assistance team and be switched to incoming calls only. Making me feel like I was at fault for what are clearly fraudulent calls by a criminal. 

2) If strange activity occurs on my bank account, and my bank aren't 100% sure it's me - they immediately block my card and try to contact me. Why did 02 simply email me 3 times each email notifying me that my current bill had gone up £1000? I was in a foreign country with no phone and did not read these emails until 3 days after the event (at which time I was still of the opinion that I had simply lost the phone not been pick pocketed). It's peverse to think that they believed I was using my phone on EU Data Roaming tarriff non stop until I hit charges of £3000. And then to seemingly not want to consider anything other than making me pay in full.

Thanks to Andre I might - and it's not a certainty by any means - be able to sort this out without having to pay £3000 - money which I do not have. But I will be making sure 02 listen to my feedback about how they deal with such cases. 

[Bambino]

This is from the Terms and Conditions:

16. Loss or Damage to your Mobile Phone
16.1 If the SIM Card or your Mobile Phone is lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed you’ll be responsible for any Charges incurred until you’ve contacted us to tell us what’s happened.

16.2 You’ll be required to continue payments for the Charges relating to the Services Agreement even if your Mobile Phone is stolen. This Agreement will continue until it’s ended by you or us in line with paragraph 8.

Whether the phone was lost or stolen is immaterial. You seem to be saying two different things in your post. You at first say that £,3000 of calls were charged to your phone before you realised it, then you say that you received emails three days after you thought you had lost the phone. You should have reported the phone missing immediately. 

I hope you can recover some of your losses, but it doesn't seem as if O2 did anything wrong with the way they handled this.

[Anonymous]

Hi thanks for your reply.

I accept I left it far too long before I cancelled the phone. I believed I would be able to find it - I was also calling it and it appeared to me that the phone was out of battery/switched off. It was my firm belief that I had just put it down somewhere.

Obviously I now know this wasn't the case and that was a bad decision. What I was not aware of was that £3000 of calls had been made until today when I read my emails.

I also am aware of the terms and conditions but it seems more than strange to me that phone companies don't put an automatic block on a phone spending that amount of money that quickly. Just as any bank would do. But anyway I appreciate you spending the time to answer my post and as you say hopefully this will be resolved. 

[Bambino]

I honestly do feel bad for you. I know I'd be gutted myself if it were me, and I agree with you that the phone companies should put a block on much sooner than they do, but they did try to contact you before the figure reached £3,000. It's just unfortunate that you weren't able to be contactable sooner than you were.

Best of luck with your negotiations. Please come back to the forum and let us know what the result is. It's obviously going to be an expensive lesson for you, but maybe your experience can help someone else in the future, and will prevent them from making the same error you did.

[Anonymous]

I would speak to your insurance as they may also cover the cost of these calls.

[perksie]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi thanks for your reply.

I accept I left it far too long before I cancelled the phone. I believed I would be able to find it

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You have my sympathy, but an unlimited mobile phone is like a gold strike to a thief.

Better than a credit card in some cases.

[Anonymous]

Lin is correct - definitely worth checking your insurance company if they cover it.

£3000 is horrible, I feel bad for you. And I understand that it must be difficult checking your emails when you are away - without a mobile phone you are rather limited on holiday.

It's a shame the phone wasn't blocked sooner - good luck with getting it sorted!