lost phone do i have to still pay big bill?

[Anonymous]

i lost my phone and reported it to 02 the next day when i realised. However just had my freindly text from 02 letting me know my bill is £243.45, after i picked myself up off the floor and rang them to see if i could have some of this wavered, bearing in mind i have been a customer for over six years and they could check my usual bills have never exeeded £30 the average £25 why could they not appreciate i had not incurred this bill and give me something off they said no and said i could pay over an amount of time( how helpful they are)but i would only be able to receive calls and messages not answer them ! my gripe is ,why did they not spot this icredibly high usage IN THE SPACE OF ONE DAY and put a barr on the phone and contact me by email or home number i know this is do able as my credit card company rang me when i booked a holiday on my card and within five minutes of putting down the phone they rang me to check if it was me that had purchased this as it was unusually higher than my normal spend. I am FUMING and going to cancel whatever my contract is up with them in may anyway thank God. anyone else had this ?

[perksie]

Sadly lost phones are like a free bank account to finders/thieves, and you are liable for all charges up until you report it missing and get the sim card stopped.
They like a lost credit card must be reported immediately.

[sheepdog]

A bit late now but worth investigating the sim lock and other security options in your phone that restrict unauthorised use.
As for the credit card usage monitoring, I can assure you that is flawed! I've had several large purchases made and not a single query but small and even regular recurring ones get a phone call. Given that there is a delay in some charges, that kind of activity would not register immediately so a temporary bar would not work. All it would take is several small calls to rack up charges without question and avoid any pattern monitoring. Data usage for instance would do this and has been an issue with owners inadvertently having used it ending up with a large bill.
Given the nature of mobile usage - short calls etc, the system would probably come to a grinding halt if such a system came into existence. Then us users would be complaining of privacy issues. We could pay that bit extra for such a system but then again, us mobile phone users would be complaining about the cost and would not pay for it.

[Anonymous]

i lost my phone and reported it to 02 the next day when i realised. However just had my freindly text from 02 letting me know my bill is £243.45, after i picked myself up off the floor and rang them to see if i could have some of this wavered, bearing in mind i have been a customer for over six years and they could check my usual bills have never exeeded £30 the average £25 why could they not appreciate i had not incurred this bill and give me something off they said no and said i could pay over an amount of time( how helpful they are)but i would only be able to receive calls and messages not answer them ! my gripe is ,why did they not spot this icredibly high usage IN THE SPACE OF ONE DAY and put a barr on the phone and contact me by email or home number i know this is do able as my credit card company rang me when i booked a holiday on my card and within five minutes of putting down the phone they rang me to check if it was me that had purchased this as it was unusually higher than my normal spend. I am FUMING and going to cancel whatever my contract is up with them in may anyway thank God. anyone else had this ?

As others have already posted you're liable for the cost of any calls up until the point where you bar the handset and sim. Protection against these unauthorised call costs is offered by mobile phone insurance.
Although o2 do have a system in place for barring phones that have a high usage level it can take 12-24 hours for the calling data to be processed by the billing system, by then a customer can have a very large bill.

[Anonymous]

if you didn't notify o2 when you phone was lost then you are liable for any charges made, however if you did, then they will have it in the notes of your account and should credit back any charges made.
hope this helps, Steph

[perksie]

if you didn't notify o2 when you phone was lost then you are liable for any charges made, however if you did, then they will have it in the notes of your account and should credit back any charges made.
hope this helps, Steph

Already said that Steph, they didn't report it until the next day!

[Anonymous]

ahh sorry, must have that lol.
then unfortunately you're viable for the charges. O2 do also provide a 24 hour service if a phone is lost/stolen even in early hours.