So a cell phone was stolen from the city of boston. By the time it was noticed and a pay phone that worked located it was about 90 minutes later. Over 400 dollars in charges had already accrued, the calls being placed to Guatemala, Ethiopia, and some other country. The cell phone company insists these charges be paid. I realize I am legally responsible, but it seems morally reprehensible to me. If they charged me just their expenses I MAYBE could see it, but they are looking to profit from my misfortune. Is there any legal recourse? Any arguments that they may listen to? I mean, someone could charge a car on my stolen credit card, and the most I would be responsible for is 50 bucks. I also find it curious that with all the competition out there for cell phone service, they are doing something that will clearly piss me off enough to change carriers. What is the deal with this?Needless to say, a search through 7 years of cell phone charges would show I never called overseas before in my life.
My advice:
Read your service agreement, and contact a lawyer.
Change carriers, but since you never call overseas, ask that your service be limited to domestic calls.
Get one of those clip-straps for your next cellphone, and use the lock-code all the time… inconvenient, but there’s no extra charge.
You’re almost certainly responsible for the cell phone charges according to your contract. So your cell phone company probably doesn’t have to do a thing for you. The company’s expenses may very well be close to what they’re charging you – the have to pay for long distance if it’s through another company, and probably foreign companies for incoming calls.
Un-downer: you can try to be reasonable with them. Ask them to elevate your call if the agent isn’t cooperative. Tell them how long you’ve been a customer. Point out that you’re never late and that you’re worth retaining as a customer. But don’t be a jerk about it, since they’re in their right. If you approach them the right way they may forgive the debt.
Also, since your phone was stolen, I’m going to assume you filled out a police report, right? If so, let the phone company know you can provide a copy of the report. Also if your home insurance deductible isn’t too high, you may be able to claim the loss (although I don’t know anyone with $0 deductible these days).
Good luck.
dauerbach, what service was this? I know that my Sprint service does not allow me to make (but does accept) international calls. I think I would need to inform them to activate it if I needed to make the calls.
I am a little surprised that another carrier is laxed in not doing the same.
The carrier is Verizon. I am sure that according to the contract I am responsible, and I know that I could have done more to make sure this didn’t happen. I left the phone unattended for about 30 seconds, it was not locked. I didn’t know that I could lock out international calls, but that is not their fault either. Their response that they had no way of knowing that I didn’t make the calls sort of pissed me off though. And I am sure they are making a profit on it. If they would explain to me exactly what their costs for this was I would not mind nearly as much paying only their costs as I do knowing they are making an unknown amount of money too.
Needless to say, if they do not make some adjustment, I will certainly be going to a new carrier.
dauerbach doesn’t say that he didn’t make international calls. Due to fraud most carriers by default disable overseas calling and only enable it when asked.
Having worked in the Customer Service department it may be possible to ask for charges to be cut. Typically the charges are cut in half if your “profit” margin is good enough. Basically my company we take all the money you have given us in the last 12 months and apply a percentage to it to get the amount of leeway we have (we take 25% but we’re in Canada, for the US it could be 10-15%). If you’ve been a good, rather higher paying customer, you might have a chance.
And blaming your cell carrier is rather silly. Someone made those calls using your phone. You are responsible for your phone. Next time, lock your phone (I use a key guard) and disable long distance calling if it’s something you don’t do much of.
Actually Badmama he did say he didn’t make any international calls. That is why I found it strange that it was not disabled by default.
Ooops. I assumed that he meant “international” when he said overseas. Obviously he could have called Canada, Mexico etc and not called overseas.
Actually, I did mean international. I have never called outside of the contiguous 48 states. And I do not think that the phone company is at fault. The phone was my responsibility until I called and informed them that it had been stolen. However, I did not make the calls and would like to see them meet me half way. I admit that I would love to have them say to just forget it. I honestly doubt that their cost is anywhere near the charges I received and think that offering a charge reduction so that they would simply break even would be a fair thing to do. So I was asking two questions. First, was I correct in my assumption that I was legally responsible, and secondly, what tact would be best to get some reduction of the charges. I think badmana has offered the best advice as far as that is concerned.