Has anyone ever experienced success against a phone company for calls made when a phone was lost? ?

Question

I noticed my phone was missing at the end of my holiday after switching it off earlier on in the week and putting it in my hand bag. I reported it lost - I didn't know where it had gone so i was wary about saying it had been stolen. I received my phone bill yesterday which said someone had made £900 of calls to something called EU roaming. The phone company says I am liable to pay this as it happened beofre the phone was reported lost. They won't reduce the amount even though I am a 'select' customer spending a reasonable amount and paying on time every month for the last 3 years. They said if they do it for me they would have to do it for everyone and that I hadn't taken precautions such as using a pin code on my phone.

I have had to opt for bad credit and incoming calls only until I pay it off as I couldn't afford the lump sum.

This has absolutely sickened me and if I didn't have to pay for an 'ending a contract early charg' I would cut off all ties with this company straight away.

Has anyone ever had a similar experience or do you know of what I could do to try and fight this?

Thanks,

Answer 1

They are more than right. Adding a PIN code would have saved you the troubles. A lock code for the entire phone would have been smart too.

And if the calls were made before you reported the phone as lost/stolen then you're good to pay. Why would they believe that it is not you who made the call. I don't necessarily believe you either, sorry!

The only thing that you might want to ask them is the detailed list of phone calls so that you can try to identify who used your phone and try to recover the money from that person. Good luck with that, it is unlikely that you will get anywhere.

Answer 2

Your phone service provider is absolutely correct and within their rights.  All calls, data, etc are valid charges until the device is reported to them as being lost/stolen and it usually is written into their contract.  If you still have your copy of the contract you might want to read it very carefully

Answer 3

This is gonna be the most successful word you would hear for this subject.SUE em get a solicitor next time get pay as you go then they have a limit and you have no bill smart eh?

Answer 4

Oh dear. This is bad news. Nearly £1000 :O OMG! noway! I always have a pin on my phone so you can't call off my phone without a password. I set it up that way just incase it got lost. It's annoying everytime I make a call, it asking for PIN but if you wanna stay safe, then thats the way. Tell them to shut it down. I've recently had fraud and yup, precautions have to be taken seriously these days. I sympathise with you. Any ideas where you're phone may be at the mo? Why not ring it and see who picks up. If you recognise the voice, then you might have an idea if it is your own close friends or family making you're life a misery or just random person being an a s s.