Got my mobile phone stolen by some pasty-faced charver who approached me for a cigarette while I was sat outside a cafe in Richmond. Giving fags to the poor and needy is one of the very few charitable acts I regularly engage in. However, it seems my urban outreach programme may need a rethink if they’re going nick your mobile while you’re distracted.
But that’s not who I’m talking about.
I got online straight away to find the phone number for reporting it lost. I bought it from Carphone Warehouse with an O2 account. The phone number published on their sites is wrong. “You bought your phone through a third-party. Please use the number published on your last statement. bleep”.
Got home. Found the statement and phoned the number for lost phones. No answer. Phoned the customer service number. Got through to a nice chap who put a bar on the phone.
“So how long is it since your phone went missing?”
“About three hours.”
“Ah. I’m afraid you didn’t take out the insurance, so you’ll be liable for any phone calls made since then.”
“Oh… It’s quite hard to report your phone stolen when you haven’t got a phone. And the number on your website it wrong.”
“Hahaha. I can see what you’re saying. Anyway the computer system I use is 48 hours behind so I can’t tell you if any calls have been made on the phone. The best thing is that you phone back tomorrow.”
“Why? I can’t do anything about it can I?”
“Hahaha. Well, it’s always better to know, isn’t it?”
O2 generally get quite good press on customer service, and I know this cunning wheeze of charging customers for getting their phones stolen is not unique to them. A friend of mine received a £300 bill from fellow highwaymen Orange after realising his phone had gone missing after a drunken night out.
Mobile networks. Getting robbed is quite unpleasant. Why do you make it so much worse by treating us as potential criminals by charging for calls made with our stolen phones?
