Meteor- bill & theft issue

Misticles

My sister was on holidays and her apartments was robbed, including her and her boyfriends phones.

She had to go to the police over there etc the next day her boyfriends mother knocked at the door explaining everything and my sister asked that I go get her sim blocked.. I went to meteor in Liffey Valley immediately and did this, brought a copy of her bill just incase for proof. I explained what had happened, I gave the name and phone number, the guy said I can only block the sim but not the phone, I said thats grand.

Roll on to last week, she gets a bill for 400e!! Looks at it and the calls were made the day it was stolen, obviously not her. They were also made at a time before she knew that the apartment had been broken into. 1 call lasted 2 hours nearly and cost 150 euro.

She went into Liffey Valley, they told her to ring customer care, she did, only to be told that there was no record of this blocking etc and she would have to pay it as she is contracted to, they also threatened legal action. They also said that because it wasn't reported straight away, she had no numbers and frankly I'd say looking for a number to call over that was the least of her problems. She has the Spanish police report and a garda one ( something they sign when it's a foreign case)

When we came back off holidays, she went into the same meteor shop and asked fr a new sim as hers had been blocked and they did this for her so surely they could see something on the computer that said it had been blocked due to theft.

Has anybody has any similar issues like this??

mikedragon32

They can only block the phone from the time the loss/theft is reported and is not liable for any charges incurred up to that time.

Would her phone insurance cover this? Unlikely but worth asking them.

drunkmonkey

mikedragon32 wrote: »

Would her phone insurance cover this? Unlikely but worth asking them.

That's nearly standard cover with any phone insurance unless you've it tied to your house insurance rather than it's own policy.

Misticles

Na, she didn't have a smart phone or anything fancy do she didn't bother with insurance.

The calls that were made were before I got it blocked, before she even knew it had been stolen. It's outrageous that she would have to pay for the calls the thief made!
She's obviously wanting to pay what she has used but in no way is she willing to pay for those calls.

theteal

sorry OP, she's responsible for the phone so is unfortunately liable for the charges. her home network will get a bill from the foreign network, should they be liable for something that was not their responsibility?

on a side note, insurance in this situation would be irrelevant as the phone was not in the possession of the user when it was stolen - the fact that it was left in a room unattended would be in breach if the insurance t+cs

foggy_lad

Misticles wrote: »

Na, she didn't have a smart phone or anything fancy do she didn't bother with insurance.

The calls that were made were before I got it blocked, before she even knew it had been stolen. It's outrageous that she would have to pay for the calls the thief made!
She's obviously wanting to pay what she has used but in no way is she willing to pay for those calls.

Check the time difference between when the phone was reported missing and supposedly blocked here and the time in the place the person was holidaying as it may give an extra one or two hours of calls that should be covered by meteor? (If calls were made in Spain at 4pm local time that could be 6pm here so if phone was reported here at 4pm those calls at 4pm Spanish time should be covered.)

BrianD

foggy_lad wrote: »

Check the time difference between when the phone was reported missing and supposedly blocked here and the time in the place the person was holidaying as it may give an extra one or two hours of calls that should be covered by meteor? (If calls were made in Spain at 4pm local time that could be 6pm here so if phone was reported here at 4pm those calls at 4pm Spanish time should be covered.)

The time of the block would still be the same. If I block a phone now it's in theory blocked in all countries now irrespective of local time. No calls can be made after this time.

The question is really did her network block it a timely fashion? You should really document everything and timeline it.

foggy_lad

BrianD wrote: »

The time of the block would still be the same. If I block a phone now it's in theory blocked in all countries now irrespective of local time. No calls can be made after this time.

The question is really did her network block it a timely fashion? You should really document everything and timeline it.

Ah I was thinking they were getting the time of the call off the handset which is gone, will the account call history be at the correct time? will calls made in Spain at 5pm Irish time be detailed in the call history at Irish time or will they give the local time?

Max Power 2010

I'm surprised they blocked the account as your not the account holder, they would of had to speak to your sister in order to block the account.

Misticles

She didn't have any numbers to do it herself and only had 1 number that she could remember to call here.

I brought her bill incase any questions were asked.

The apartment was broken into whilst they were on a day trip, they only noticed when they returned in the evening to find everything turned upside down, the safe had even been pulled off the wall! They spent many hours in the police station and then called back here to inform us.

I was informed the following day and was instructed to get both phones blocked.

My point is.. All the calls were made before they even knew they had been robbed.

lala88

Misticles wrote: »

She didn't have any numbers to do it herself and only had 1 number that she could remember to call here.

I brought her bill incase any questions were asked.

The apartment was broken into whilst they were on a day trip, they only noticed when they returned in the evening to find everything turned upside down, the safe had even been pulled off the wall! They spent many hours in the police station and then called back here to inform us.

I was informed the following day and was instructed to get both phones blocked.

My point is.. All the calls were made before they even knew they had been robbed.

That makes no difference what so ever. The way Meteor look at it whos to say they didn't make them calls and then just blocked it after? Also they let the phone in the room so in theory its there own falt for letting it there

Would travel insurance cover this?

sunnysoutheast

foggy_lad wrote: »

Ah I was thinking they were getting the time of the call off the handset which is gone, will the account call history be at the correct time? will calls made in Spain at 5pm Irish time be detailed in the call history at Irish time or will they give the local time?

All roaming and internal call and data records come off the network timestamped to UTC, effectively the successor to GMT. The operator may convert them to local time for bill presentment purposes.

Why anyone would not protect a credit mobile phone with a SIM PIN is beyond me.

SSE

java

Misticles wrote: »

My point is.. All the calls were made before they even knew they had been robbed.

Meteor aren't going to know that and are obliged to provide a service. So I'm afraid the bill will still stand. The same thing happens if a bank card is used before being reported stolen and blocked - the charges stand.

Africa

Contact Comreg, they will know what to do. Meteor will pressure everything until you actually know your legal standpoint on this. Evil company. Glad I left them.

bestleftfull3

meteor have caught me for two bills the last 2 months trying to charge me for meteor textx that i have free in my plan only i checked they were trying to screw me for alot of money !!

YumDeiseMum

Max Power 2010 wrote: »

I'm surprised they blocked the account as your not the account holder, they would of had to speak to your sister in order to block the account.

In circumstances like these an account can be blocked by someone other than the account holder. However no details can be given out. And if the phone was recovered only the account holder can unblock it

lala88

Africa wrote: »

Contact Comreg, they will know what to do. Meteor will pressure everything until you actually know your legal standpoint on this. Evil company. Glad I left them.

What good will that do? Meteor aren't responsible for anything before the phone is blocked. For all they know it wasn't stolen at all

BrianD

Meteor provide the service in good faith and it is up to the victim of crime to take action quickly. The same as if your ATM cards were stolen.

However, there is strong grounds that the networks should take action to limit losses. If the activity on the account dramatically increases then it should be flagged for possible suspension.

The operators took action over the voicemail passwords so what not give options to PAYG customers who roam? One could be the imposition of a cap so they can't go beyond a certain expenditure or perhaps that they can send/receive SMS but can only receive incoming calls and so on.

This is worth a read about another operator in the UK:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/aug/05/vodafone-stolen-sim-cards

belle2e

burnt

Plek Trum

Contact Com Reg and have a chat with an advisor there www.comreg.ie
You have a responsibility when you take on a phone contract and I imagine (but dont know) that Meteor will probably be justified in insisting for payment.

Its unfortunate and 'not fair' to a degree but your sister should have (a) had a PIN SIM on her phone (b) kept the phone on her person or (c) Kept the phone in the safe. - You said the safe was taken off the wall. Surely this should be impossible?

Did your sister and her boyfriend pay the hotel for use of the safe in the room?
If so you 'may' (and its a very VERY long shot) have grounds to take this bill up with the hotel. You paid them for a service (e.g security safe for valuables) and it didnt do what you paid for (protect them from theft). Therefore, you should be compensated for charges incurred as a result?

Its a stretch and I would imagine nigh impossible but may be worth considering.
Check their travel insurance too (if they had it)

Awful experience and while I know its not their fault they were broken into, its not Meteor's fault either that calls were made on that number.

Hope it all works out - let us know how you get on...

Misticles

She had a pin code for starting up the phone but not a key guard one.

She has contacted comreg so we will see what happens there.

I agree that there should be a flagging system. I know that some banks will contact you if they see what they seem to be suspicious activity on your account.

I think they were told not to use the safe as it was indeed unsafe but it was ripped off the wall anyways. Will have to clarify this with herself.

Will update.

theteal

Misticles wrote: »

She had a pin code for starting up the phone but not a key guard one.

She has contacted comreg so we will see what happens there.

I agree that there should be a flagging system. I know that some banks will contact you if they see what they seem to be suspicious activity on your account.

I think they were told not to use the safe as it was indeed unsafe but it was ripped off the wall anyways. Will have to clarify this with herself.

Will update.

when roaming with a phone, the home network had no immediate access to the call records. the home network receives a batch report every day or so (possibly longer - roaming charges for a trip abroad are known to appear on a bills quite a while after returning from said trip) from the foreign network so a flagging system, which would be ideal, would be very difficult if not impossible to implement for something that happened within such a short space of time.

ShaShaBear

Well if they went and used the safe when they were told not to....

Also, since she got a bill, did she think of getting it itemized to find out what number was called? Perhaps use it to find out who was called and through this possibly the person who stole it? I know it might not be much use, but it seems AWFULLY stupid that someone would break into an apartment, destroy the place, steal stuff from a safe and the hotel/apartment security have no visible record of it. First thing I would have asked to see was security footage so I could take this to the police. Second, I wouldn't use a safe that the management deemed "unsafe" (since, to me, that's them deeming the entire apartment unsafe).

Meteor only have your word to go on that the phones were in fact stolen and it was not a case of her working up a ginormous bill and then claiming they were stolen in order to get out of paying it. I'm not saying that's the case - but they have to consider the fact that she could be hoodwinking them.

sunnysoutheast

Misticles wrote: »

She had a pin code for starting up the phone but not a key guard one.

She has contacted comreg so we will see what happens there.

I agree that there should be a flagging system. I know that some banks will contact you if they see what they seem to be suspicious activity on your account.

I think they were told not to use the safe as it was indeed unsafe but it was ripped off the wall anyways. Will have to clarify this with herself.

Will update.

If you can get the itemised call records (and bear in mind they might not all have come in yet when roaming) you can identify the country and destination of the calls made (I assume they were calls not data) and perhaps Meteor will waive any charges above the interconnect charges. Perhaps. Bear in mind though that if a phone was used to call a third country when roaming, particularly to a mobile number, the interconnect charges will often be astronomical. This may also support your assertion that you didn't make the calls.

SSE

Misticles

She has an itemised bill and it shows the numbers called when it was robbed. What's weird is that she got a all from said number dialled when have was home a day or 2.

I think the phones were buried in the cases - they didn't use the unsafe safe.

She said the hotel were extremely unhelpful as we're the police. She did get a police report frim them.
The hotel told her to stop making a scene as she was distressing other guests, she was telling them what had happened as they asked, ie making them aware that there was a burglary.

My sister asked that nobody including hotel staff enter the room for the duration of her stay as she wasn't trusting anyone. One guy working for the hotel just appeared in the door one day, and the same happened the next day too. Claiming to be fixing a light that wasn't broken.

Anyhoooo comreg hav said there is nothing to be done. She has to pay it in installments.