Thread: Phone Stolen Abroad - Big Bill - O2 - Moorcroft

The title just about says it all. I was mugged in Barcelona in December of last year around 4am and lost my iPhone, £1250 Rado watch (which I know I shouldn't have been wearing out at night in Barcelona, but when you've worn something every day you don't really think), and £200 cash. I didn't really mind about the money or phone (was shaken up but unhurt) but was gutted about the watch as my wife bought it for me as a wedding present.

Anyway, the next morning (around 10am) I called O2 to report the phone. All I got was "This number has not been assigned to this client". I received this message from at least three different phones, yet was definitely the right number.

Anyway, I flew back that night (arriving at around 1am once I'd got the bus back from the airport) and called O2 at around 08:30 the next morning. They told me the phone hadn't been used.

About a month later I got the shock of a lifetime...a bill for about £1150 which was almost entirely made up of calls made after it had been stolen. I had travel insurance and mobile phone insurance. They gave me £300 for the watch, which was an insult but better than nothing but nothing for the calls made as I "hadn't contacted my provider in time". I was about 12 hours late.

I have been paying monthly amounts off to keep O2 happy just while my insurance company looked into it...when it came back to say they could do nothing, I wrote a letter to O2 explaining what a good customer I had been and that they could see from the bill that I could not have made these calls...my previous 24 months (ish) had been around £50 a month. I offered a settlement figure of around 50%...

Anyway, I never got a reply...the first I heard back from them (around a month later?) was from Moorcroft. I've dealt with these pirates before...but I'm shocked that O2 would pass it over without even so much as replying to my letter.

Moorcroft want a settlement of £780 which I can't afford or £50 a month until it's gone.

Any help???? Anyone been in a similar situation? Apologies for long post...

Direct from O2 in February 2009. Never missed a single payment.

They were made as soon as it had been taken off me (which I discovered when I received the bill). My point to the company was that I tried and tried to contact them from Spain within the 24 hour period but their system would not accept the call. I guess I could probably prove this from friends' mobile phone records but that would be a long-shot.

I had hoped that O2 would clearly see that I never used my phone abroad or ran up so much as three figures a month, let alone four in a day...

Any advice on how to deal with Moorcroft?

Thanks. I have emailed the people whose phones I used to see if they can still access December's bills and whether I can use them....hopefully shouldn't be a problem.