*WON* £5800 mobile phone charges following theft in BCN ** WIPED !!! **

[Tools]

Re: £5800 mobile phone charges following theft in BCN If anyone can advise me ; (

That's a good idea, I wonder why no one has thought of that

[Mabel]

Re: £5800 mobile phone charges following theft in BCN If anyone can advise me ; (

Tools -Its been explored

[Mabel]

Re: £5800 mobile phone charges following theft in BCN If anyone can advise me ; (

Hi 23135591 and everybody
I've just finished work,

Interestingly, a manager of a telephone switchboard has been in touch ( via a friend) It was really good of him.

He reported to me that their switchboard had got hacked into and someone had phoned a number, I think it was in The Caribbean
for a whole weekend, Friday night until Monday morning, he said the bill had been absolutely extortionate,
They got their lawyers involved and found that PHONE COMPANIES ARE NOT ALLOWED TO MAKE PROFIT THOUGH ILLEGAL ACTIVITY ( I have highlighted that ; ) in terms of large text .
and he said their bill was substantially reduced, he said their bill calls became pennies rather than hundreds of pounds .for hour on hour on hour..
INTERESTING News ( He said he hoped this information would serve me and other folk well : )
I thought I'd update you all and thank you for your great question 25135591
Mabel

[leclerc]

Re: £5800 mobile phone charges following theft in BCN If anyone can advise me ; (

I have a question in relation to overseas mobile phone calls. Is there a profit margin in relation to the direct cost of the phone call? If there is, then would the phone company be better off taking off the profit margin and simply charging what they would be charged for the call rather than say adding on VAT which they may not have been charged. For example, different company o2 is owned by Telefonica which is a Spanish telephone company. Would they charge a subsidiary of the company flat rate or not?

Mabel the above post DOES raise the question since clearly there have been investigations over the cost of making overseas calls. Would your bill be any different if they had used the same rate as if it had been made in the UK? Remember, we are in the European Union which is about FREE TRADE......interesting angle perhaps that others might want to look at....

[Mabel]

Re: £5800 mobile phone charges following theft in BCN If anyone can advise me ; (

leclerc - Thank you for your post , the information does raise a number of integral questions about telephone companies and illegal activity and profits the telephone companies may make from the illegal activity . and where mobile companies sit within this place within the UK and Europe.


I still stand with my individual experience ...The international number for vodafone wasn't working on the 17th May
from Barcelona ..

[Tools]

Re: £5800 mobile phone charges following theft in BCN If anyone can advise me ; (

Mabel, Miles is of the opinion that

how can a consumer be expected to carry unlimited liability in these cases? If I knocked you out and stole your phone and you were shipped off to hospital for a week, and I used your phone night and day - you would be liable. At some point the mobile companies owed their customers a duty of care.


To me the phone companies know this is an issue but don't want to pay to introduce systems that would prevent it. PAYG phones stop working when the credit runs out - contract phones could stop when say £500 is reached - very easily.

I do tend to agree with that perspective

[Amethyst]

Re: £5800 mobile phone charges following theft in BCN If anyone can advise me ; (

''6.2 Customer shall use all reasonable endeavours to ensure that SIM Cards are only used with Customer’s authorisation and shall inform Vodafone as soon as is reasonably practicable after Customer becomes aware that a SIM Card is lost, stolen or damaged.''

If that is satisfied, if there is evidence of reasonable endeavours as soon as is reasonably practicable the charges should be ditched from the point that either, you tried to contact them, or the time the SIM was stolen if you evidence you were incapacitated from that point ... IMO.


(incapacitated by being unconcious / in hospital etc rather than too pished to notice for a couple days )

Mabel's case has Witness Statements saying attempts were being made almost immediately but were unable to get through to Vodafone. I'd say thats a reasonable endeavour as soon as is reasonably practicable.

Its the second bit of that 6.2 term thats sticky.

[Mabel]

Re: £5800 mobile phone charges following theft in BCN If anyone can advise me ; (

Thanks Tools (and Miles)
I tend to agree too.

I want to raise that Credit cards have a £50 cap and vodafone along with 3 other companies met with a minister last year and apparently verbally agreed that by Spring 2014 they would place a £50 cap on all bill charges from phones stolen abroad
Hello. ( O2 didn't sign up to this verbally ) Mabel

[Mabel]

Re: £5800 mobile phone charges following theft in BCN If anyone can advise me ; (

Thanks Amethyst
I hope you got the PM
Mabel

[leclerc]

Re: £5800 mobile phone charges following theft in BCN If anyone can advise me ; (

Amethyst, would the police report in Barcelona be what you could call reasonable ie that they would have a time that the crime was reported to them and so therefore, Mabel would have that clause of reasonable endeavour, ie crime reported immediately so technically at that point VF should cease charges from. If they argue that they have to be told FIRSTLY, then that makes them think that they are the police........

I agree btw with a cap being placed on mobile phones but that HAS to be publicly shared and that might involve having to set up a helpline number IF that cap is reached. From a banking perspective, you have no idea how many times people complain if the bank stop a card when the person is overseas.

[Amethyst]

Re: £5800 mobile phone charges following theft in BCN If anyone can advise me ; (

Thanks Amethyst
I hope you got the PM
Mabel

Yes I did thank you xxx

[Vodafone Company Rep]

Re: £5800 mobile phone charges following theft in BCN If anyone can advise me ; (

Hi Mabel,

I've got your email and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Kind regards,

Lee

Social Media Comms

Vodafone UK

[Amethyst]

Re: £5800 mobile phone charges following theft in BCN If anyone can advise me ; (

Thanks Tools (and Miles)
I tend to agree too.

I want to raise that Credit cards have a £50 cap and vodafone along with 3 other companies met with a minister last year and apparently verbally agreed that by Spring 2014 they would place a £50 cap on all bill charges from phones stolen abroad
Hello. ( O2 didn't sign up to this verbally ) Mabel

Story from the Guardian in December 2013


An agreement with EE, Three, Virgin Media and Vodafone (O2 was noticeably absent) had been done, she said, and a cap would follow. "Government, Ofcom and the mobile operators will undertake detailed work to determine the level of the cap and the conditions that will apply to it with the ambition of introducing it in spring 2014," says the formal agreement, since published by Miller's department.

Despite the promise, mobile phone insiders are already questioning whether it will be ready that soon. The providers have been desperate to avoid a cap and fought off the regulator's half-hearted attempts to introduce one in the past. Guardian Money understands that the exact terms – the size of a liability cap and whether it should be linked to a time limit – are undecided and being hurriedly looked at.

[Mabel]

Re: £5800 mobile phone charges following theft in BCN If anyone can advise me ; (

Hi Tools

I haven't mentioned the particular details of how my phone was stolen, It was in my hand, a man on a bike came round a corner, hit me the round the head and me and my phone went flying, ( man on bike, cycled on and caught the phone and cycled off with it) BCN police were aware of this and did ask if I needed medical assistance, and this is in their report about the call made to them.

Miles has a very interesting point to make here


It took awhile to get the record of the call from BCN police. Ombuds were sent a copy of it as well as friends statements about all the attempted calls to vodafone.

[Mabel]

Re: £5800 mobile phone charges following theft in BCN If anyone can advise me ; (

Hi All,
Its Friday and what an interesting couple of days.
Lee phoned from SocialComs Vodafone today- ( Thanks Lee) to say Vodafone can't over ride an Ombudsman decision, although he did say it was confusing VF had received two calls from Ombudsman, and it wasn't clear- on the 2nd, one to say, for VF to offer the 10 % goodwill gesture ( apparently it gets taken away if you go to the Ombudsman) and another call about VF offering a further £100
Its very confusing. and Lee said it was confusing. My account is still on hold and I've had nothing in writing or formalized from VF or Ombudsman- Lee advised that I should chase up the Ombudsman, as VF wouldn't ?????

What have I learnt from my journey since May 17

1) Don't Trust your phone company ( even if you have been with them for 16 years)
2) Don't trust that your phone company's international number will work when you are abroad
3) Don't take your contract phone abroad, (in fact don't sign up to a contract with any terms and conditions with a mobile phone company -
apparently ( from my experience you will be liable for everything) take a pay as you go or get a pay as you go whilst you are in that country ?????? if you do need a phone. You may think this won't happen to you, I've been traveling abroad for years with my contract phone.
4) Phone companies do not appear to have a duty of care towards their customers even when they have witness statements re international number not working and police statements about the thug who knocked you round the head and got away with your phone and a number of customer services staff saying over the months, that all will work out well, they can see it's fraud. me the client isn't responsible and charges will go to the " leakage team" ??
5) It is illegal to make profits from illegal activity Phone companies continue to make profits from illegal activity
6) Don't go to the Telephone Ombudsman if you are ever unfortunate to find yourself in my position
7) Finally, VF and my bill reveal -phone calls made and then put on hold, whilst other calls were made- how is this possible ??
The thief was probably part of a Fraud group, my sim was probably multi produced in the hours ( before calls were made) so that multiple calls could then be made, Do not ever think your SIM is Safe ( especially when your phone company cannot be relied on to have a working number to get through to )

and heaven help you if you are mugged and knocked out for a few weeks( it appears you would be liable)

I want to thank everybody who has supported me and posted ( especially Amethyst and Tools)
I have now spoken with Miles Brignall ( of The Guardian ) and my experience of VF alongside a Primary School Teachers will be in The Guardian tomorrow

I want to thank Legal Beagle and Miles for fighting causes THE DEEPEST RESPECT AND THANK YOU

Where I can support folk on this site I will

Mabel



( Mabel is my alter for this site )