@vodafoneuk Stolen phone charges, is goodwill the only way to reduce my bill? **RESOLVED**

[msutherland]

Hello, this is my first thread on this forum and I have a question which I fear I already know the answer to, based on reading similar stories on here!

 

Last week I was on a business trip to Johannesburg, South Africa, where I was beaten by a gang and robbed of my phone in broad daylight on a busy street. I was taken to the police station to file a report and recover from my injuries, all of which which took many hours.

 

At the earliest opportunity I called Vodaphone and reported my phone stolen, and the person on the line reported that no unexpected calls were made, much to my relief.

 

Unfortunately I have now received notice from Vodaphone that there were actually over £500 of charges that occurred during the hours between the mugging and my call. I called Vodaphone about this, and the customer service representative was unwilling to consider reducing the charges. I have done everything in my power to minimise the risk - the iphone was PIN protected, and I called the Vodaphone at the earliest possible opportunity given the circumstances.

 

I understand that people lose their phones and run into this problem on a regular basis, however this situation is particularly difficult since it was not a case of simple carelessness or negligence, but the result of a violent assault that is being investigated by the police.

 

My question is whether goodwill on Vodaphone's part is the only way to reduce these charge, or is there some other arbitration arrangement that I might investigate? Thanks for any advice.

[locutus]

Follow this advice

Hi CAG members,

We thought it would be nice to introduce ourselves and to assure you all that our presence on CAG is with the very best of intentions.

vodafone UK has recently introduced a dedicated Web Relations Team which is keen to seek out customers who’re having difficulties with their accounts and feel that they have no other place to turn to than CAG and other consumer forums and blogs.

Naturally, it’s not possible for us to help directly with account specific queries on CAG and as such we would encourage those members who feel we can help them to contact us privately at customer.care@help.vodafone.co.uk quoting ‘WRT135 – CAG Forum’ in the subject line to ensure that it reaches the Web Relations Team.

When emailing us we would also ask that you either provide us with a link to your post or thread – if you’ve posted in another member’s thread please also provide your CAG username so that we can check what your query is.

and let the web relations team look into things.

[BankFodder]

If you deal with Vodafone directly on this then we would be grateful if you would keep us informed.

It is important that customer service standards of all companies be kept in full public view as this is the nly way to ensure that standards are kept high and that consumers will understand what their rights are.

 

If Vodfone are going to do an honest job then they would not object to this.

 

My own view is that although the phone has been stolen from you, the service and the money has been stolen from Vodafone. It would be quite wrong for them to expect to recoup their stolen money from you whan it appears that you are an innocent victim.

 

What do the Vodafone T&Cs say about this?

[BankFodder]

Predictably Vodafone pass the buck to the customer

Pay monthly and Business

You will be charged for all calls made on your phone until you contact us and we place a bar on the phone.

 

When your phone is barred, you will still be charged your monthly line rental.

http://help.vodafone.co.uk/system/selfservice.controller?supportSearch=stolen&buttonSupportSearch.x=0&buttonSupportSearch.y=0&CONFIGURATION=1000&PARTITION_ID=1&CMD=BROWSE_TOPIC&USERTYPE=1&LANGUAGE=en&COUNTRY=us&DISPLAY=SEARCH

 

 

I think that this is unfair. It is Vodafone which is the victim of crime here. They are the victim of the equivalent of obaining by deception - the deception being that they were deceived into faciltating a series of calls because they believed the calls to have been initiated by the legitimate owner of the phone. Actually, they've been conned.

Banks are regulated in this respect now and very properly, they are no longer allowed to pass the loss on to their customers. It is clear that as Vodafone still have the old-fashioned and flawed notion that they can pass their losses on to the weaker party even though their customer has been the victim of violent attack - and even though as I have set out above it is most likely that it is Vodafone which is the victim of crime on the basis which I have described.

 

 

I suppose that you will end up - maybe - getting a "gesture of goodwill" from Vodafone so that they give you enough bonbons to keep you quiet without having to agree that there is a valid principle here and that they are in the wrong

[goodwill]

Unfortunately I have now received notice from Vodaphone that there were actually over £500 of charges that occurred during the hours between the mugging and my call.

it's almost certain that the SA telecom company that is billing Vodafone UK haven't actually passed any of this 'charges' onto any third party yet (they do have billing periods).

 

By the way it's this SA telco that Vodafone UK wants to send the questionable monies to

 

http://www.vodacom.co.za/personal/main/home/

 

you are being mugged (but South Africa?)

[BankFodder]

 

you are being mugged ...)

 

Yes great point. You are being mugged again by - Vodafone

[msutherland]

Thanks for the helpful comments! Yes, I do feel a little like I'm being mugged again, it was a traumatic enough experience without the £500+ additional bill. I've initiated contact with Vodaphone customer care on the web and I can only hope they see fit to make an exception here, but I'm not overly optimistic. I'll keep you informed as to how things progress.

[BankFodder]

Yes, please do keep us updated. We have come accross cases where Vodafone want confidentiality. This is unfair to the rest of their consumers and I hope that you will resist this.

[msutherland]

The customer service team has been in touch with me to verify details of the case. They want the police case number, which is fair enough. I'm able to provide this, along with the details of the detective in Johannesburg who is investigating the crime. Now I just wait some more I guess.

 

In another thread a user posted a link to an interesting article that appeared on the mail online, describing how Orange offered a 50% reduction in the bill for a phone lost in Brixton. If Orange is willing to reduce the bill from a phone lost on a night out by this amount, then surely Vodaphone could do better for a phone stolen in a violent crime?

[BankFodder]

Thanks for keeping us informed.

 

It will be amzing if they offer you a full refund - but very good for you - and for them if they do.

 

Negotiate the best refund that you can and then consider claiming for the rest. We wuld support you all the way. I think that there is an important principle to be established here.

[dt3000]

After reading this horror story there's something to be said for PAYG

[msutherland]

Well, the customer care people got back to me and asked me to contact the Vodaphone insurance division. As I didn't have Vodaphone insurance on the phone, I thought this was odd, but I called anyways. Of course there is nothing they can do and they have referred me back to the customer care team. We'll see what happens next.

 

I did have travel insurance through my employer, and they have agreed to cover the cost of the handset and my glasses which were also stolen. They won't however cover the calls which they deem 'incidental loss'.

 

I agree with the above poster with regards to pay as you go. I've always preferred a monthly contract as I found it convenient, but now I am seriously questioning whether this is the best arrangement.

[BankFodder]

Don't necessarily accept the word of your insurer. It is in their interests to deny loss as well. Get their T&Cs and lets have a look at them. I find it very difficult to accept that this is incidental loss. It is utterly predictable and is not just a consequence of the theft but is itself a theft. Get the T&Cs. Nice isn't it, that when you are down everyone wants to leave you in a lurch.

[msutherland]

This is a good point - I never thought of this. I will have a very careful look at the T&Cs over the weekend and see if there is anything I can do with my travel insurance.

[BankFodder]

Point us to the T&Cs here so that we can give our opinion

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi msutherland,

 

I'm sorry to read about what happened to you during your time in South Africa and wish you a speedy recovery from your injuries.

 

I can certainly understand your concerns about the charges incurred and am happy to review your case further.

 

To enable me to do this could you update the thread with your email reference number from our automated reply and I'll get back to you as soon as possible?

 

Thanks,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations Team

 

Vodafone UK

 

 

[msutherland]

Hi Lee, the email reference number is #9161345.

 

Thanks,

 

Michael

[msutherland]

After a holiday weekend trying to forget about the massive bill I'm facing, I got a call from Vodaphone this afternoon with some terrible news. More charges are still coming in on my account, since the billing can take weeks to sort out. I'm now up to £1600 and counting. They are considering the situation and are trying to work towards some sort of solution.

 

In the meantime, some of you have suggested I pursue my travel insurance. The insurance company I am using is Royal and Sun Alliance, who are provided by my employer, a British University. In the travel insurance memorandum that was sent to me, the part that applies to personal possessions and baggage reads:

 

"BAGGAGE

If the baggage of an employee (or other person authorized to use the policy) is lost damaged stolen or destroyed the insurer will indemnify the University for the cost of repair or replacement and the University will pass on the money or replacement property. See excess information in the exclusions list below. The sum insured is £5,000 in respect of any one Insured Person (subject to claims excess)"

 

Under exclusions it goes on to say:

 

"EXCLUSIONS

Baggage Claim – first £50 of any claim for loss of personal possessions and the first £500 of any claim which includes the loss of departmental equipment is not recoverable."

 

I don't have any more detail than this unfortunately, but I have written to the University for more clarification.

[goodwill]

I got a call from Vodafone this afternoon with some terrible news. More charges are still coming in on my account, since the billing can take weeks to sort out. I'm now up to £1600 and counting.

Unfortunately I have now received notice from Vodaphone that there were actually over £500 of charges that occurred during the hours between the mugging and my call.

firstly you are only liable from the time the phone was stolen till the time time you contacted Vodafone UK. Have you seen the itemised bill with the dares and times that these calls were made.

 

It's possible Vodafone SA continued billing these calls after you told Vodafone UK and are leaving it for you to notice. If this is the case then it is a bloody disgrace.

 

ps. The 'international' numbers that were called were actually 'international premium rate' numbers. The revenue that was generated on them is shared between the mugger, the number supplier, Vodafone SA and Vodafone UK.

[goodwill]

sorry double posting

[msutherland]

I haven't actually seen the itemized list of calls yet - the bill has not been produced, but from what the customer service rep said on the phone today it is £1600 and growing. I simply can't afford that and I don't know what I'm going to do. I'll look closely at the timings of the calls, and make sure I am not getting billed for any after I called to cancel.

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi Michael,

 

Thanks for updating the thread following our conversation yesterday.

 

I think it's important to clarify that the charges in question were incurred prior to the theft being reporting to us.

 

As goodwill correctly points out, any charges incurred afterwards we would adjust without question.

 

As discussed yesterday we'll review your case further and get back to you later in the week.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations Team

 

Vodafone UK

[msutherland]

Hi Lee,

 

Thanks for confirming that.

 

Regards,

 

Michael

[besssmart2001]

Sorry to butt in on your thread but my hubby is going to Johannesburg on Sunday to work for 3 months, he phoned Vodafone and was told by the customer service advisor to leave his data roaming on!!

 

I always thought he would incur huge charges of he did this,, please can you tell us what you did whilst our there (obviously before your phone was stollen) to stop yourself incurring huge monthly bill?? Sorry again for hijacking your thread.

[locutus]

TBH this is a question better aimed at the webteam. Start a thread and follow THIS advice