Vodafone charging me £1300 after phone was stolen!!

[sonnyboy]

Re: Vodafone charging me £1300 after phone was stolen!!

Thanks :-)
The police are taking it quite seriously, as they are considering it to be a burglary. I have sent them everything they need, inc the vodafone bills, phone serial numbers etc and hope they have a result. I dont expect the phone back but I hope they find the person that stole it.
I'm still hoping Lee will have some results and will let you all know when he has been in touch.
SB

[bluebottle]

Re: Vodafone charging me £1300 after phone was stolen!!

Good to hear the police are doing what they are paid to do. Once Vodafone were told of the theft, they should have blocked the handset immediately. If they did not/failed to do so, they must accept fully responsibility and liability for all and any calls made on the handset thereafter. They cannot expect customers to pay for calls the customer was not responsible for making and after they had reported the handset as stolen. Vodafone are not alone in trying to make customers pay for such calls - all networks are guilty of this - and there needs to be a crackdown on the practice across the board.

[sonnyboy]

Re: Vodafone charging me £1300 after phone was stolen!!

Good to hear the police are doing what they are paid to do. Once Vodafone were told of the theft, they should have blocked the handset immediately. If they did not/failed to do so, they must accept fully responsibility and liability for all and any calls made on the handset thereafter. They cannot expect customers to pay for calls the customer was not responsible for making and after they had reported the handset as stolen. Vodafone are not alone in trying to make customers pay for such calls - all networks are guilty of this - and there needs to be a crackdown on the practice across the board.

Am with you (but, of course I would be! :-)
Having spoken to Lee a few times on the phone now, he seems to be genuinely wanting to help and I must give credit to Vodafone for having someone like him deal with such problems. Up until speaking to him, I was fighting a faceless company who seemed to have little interest or ability in helping me. My fight would have been relentless even so, as I felt I had made silly mistakes (not writing down reference numbers or reporting it to the police back then) but had actually not done anything wrong. I now feel that they are trying to fix the problem which I am very pleased to know. I hope to hear back soon, and will keep you all informed when I do.

[jon1965]

Re: Vodafone charging me £1300 after phone was stolen!!

I do genuinely think that Lee wants to help. He certainly sorted me out .
I suspect however like in any business his power is limited but here's hoping

[sonnyboy]

Re: Vodafone charging me £1300 after phone was stolen!!

Here's hoping!!
I do have faith that all will be ok, but I am also prepared to fight this if I have to. I have a good feeling that Lee will find the info he needs and it wont come to that :-)

[Vodafone Company Rep]

Re: Vodafone charging me £1300 after phone was stolen!!

Hi SB,

Thanks for keeping the thread up to date.

I'll call you later today to discuss your case further.

Kind regards,

Lee

Web Relations

Vodafone UK

[bluebottle]

Re: Vodafone charging me £1300 after phone was stolen!!

The law applies to everyone and businesses are not exempt. They have to obey the law, too.

[sonnyboy]

Re: Vodafone charging me £1300 after phone was stolen!!

Hi All,
Just an update on the situation. Lee is still on the case and am hoping for news of some kind soon. Because of the time delay, he cannot access the call I made on the 15th from carphone warehouse to see if the stolen phone was mentioned when the PAC code was requested. They have a record of that call being made, but not what was said. They contacted carphone warehouse to see if they recorded their calls, but they do not do so with outgoing calls unfortunately. I spoke to the police to see if they could get more involved in accessing the BT records of the phones in the close area to where my phone was stolen on the 13th, but they can only do this if the phonebox was directly involved with the crime.
So, no news as yet and I am hoping Lee can find something his end to help resolve this soon.

[Hurricane Puffrose]

Re: Vodafone charging me £1300 after phone was stolen!!

hoping for a good result hun

[Vodafone Company Rep]

Re: Vodafone charging me £1300 after phone was stolen!!

Hi SB,

Thanks for your time yesterday.

As promised, I'll be back in touch as soon as I have further news.

Kind regards,

Lee

Web Relations

Vodafone UK

[Amethyst]

Re: Vodafone charging me £1300 after phone was stolen!!

http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...587#post564587

Hi,
Its been 2 years since I posted, over an issue with Vodafone for a stolen phone and a £1300 call bill from the kind thieves that took it.

A brief summary, in bullet points to make it easier to go through -

I was doing some building work in East London when someone walked into the shop and stole my phone.
I went to a phonebox and called Vodafone to report it stolen.
2 days later, I went to Carphone Warehouse and spoke to Vodafone to ask for the PAC code.
I recieved a bill for £1350 for calls made during the two days (continuous calls to Romania)



The whole situation was quite stressful, even trying to expain my situation in the original post to this forum. Some members questioned me, as I never reported the incident to the police (was told it was a waste of time in Hackney) and I never recieved a code from Vodafone when it was reported. Both of these seem obvious in hindsight but not when you are walking around lost in a strange area. Other members were very supportive and I really do thank them for this.
Having to explain a situation that sounds implausible to some is hard, especially when you know you have not done anything wrong in the first place. But, I also was aware that I had not done some things right (like reporting the phone stolen, which I did later on, and not asking for the code)

Anyway, that is not the reason for this post.

When I put my case out there, I was contacted by Lee, who works for Vodafone's Social Media Communications and posts here on this forum. Over the following months, he took my case on board and dealt with it personally.
Because there was no record of my initial call or a recording of the conversation during my susequent call two days later, the case was left as unresolved. However, due to Lee, he has managed to have the charge waivered as a gesture of goodwill, and I wanted to publically thank him for this.
Large companies come across as faceless and personal cases get overlooked and dragged through generic rulings which are often unfair. Even though my situation was not my fault, I know that I made mistakes and have to hold my hand up and accept that the problem I had with Vodafone could have been avoided if I was thinking straight at the time. There was no way I would have ever paid a bill that I know was not my fault, but the thought of having to drag this through any legislative process was not pleasant and quite daunting.
I am sure Vodafone are set up to cope with such things and so their goodwill gesture is purely due to Lee and his understanding and sympathy to my particular case as for this I am greatly appreciative.