I lost my iPhone and had no insurance

franklymydear

Last week my iphone 3g was stolen.. Well lost anyway.. hell i was trashed i don't know what the **** happened. But it's gone now. And in spite of it being unlocked (so anyone who would care to put a sim in could easily trace me through the multitude of notes/contacts [i assume at least some are stored on the phone?]/ texts/ facebook/GPS locations marked) i don't think it's going to come home. I think i took it rather well.

Fair enough I thought. I'll just go to o2 and pay the 229 euro for a replacement and maybe get a little discount because i'm such a good customer. But **** no. O2 doesn't work that way. They want me to pay FULL speakeasy price to get a new one. 569 ****ing euro! This being an obvious setback to me I decided to pick up the pieces and approach it calmly and rationally. Can I get a discount because I've been a loyal customer? NO. I'm using a crappy nokia (I do say crappy but i'd say nokia's will last about 5 times longer than iphones) so I have no need for a data plan - so can I renegotiate the contract? NO. Can I cancel the contract altogether. YES.. but you have to buy out the remaining contract. None of these are good choices. I do realize that I signed a contract which is effectively legally binding but for customer relations purposes I think their intransigence is ridiculous. I now want to leave o2. I will try to get my friends to do the same. I will vehemently encourage all my friends not to buy an iphone with o2. I will badmouth o2 at every turn (their customer service is ****ing retarded.. i'm not just saying that, it really is). Even from a business point of view i'm absolutely sure that if I was given a cheaper phone I would pay way more money to them in the long run (my last two bills were double what the contract is) but now i'm gonna make sure I'm not so generous.

So as I see it I have a few options:
1) Pay their price (not going to happen)
2) Stick with the contract and use my nokia (pretty lame and waste of money)
3) Buy an iphone on ebay etc for cheaper (still pretty expensive)
or 4) Ensure that.. um.. payment doesn't reach their accounts.

So anyway - rather than just ranting I'm looking for help. Have any of you been in a similar situation? Do you have experience dealing with o2 when cancelling/renegotiating a contract? Anyone ever try option 4? Any input will be appreciated.

Cheers guys

Tom Dunne

I've always found O2's technical and customer support quite good. And I've found them to be generally quite good when bending the rules regarding upgrades. Having said that, there was no way I was paying through the nose for the iPhone, so I got myself one in the US last year.

However, all the mobile operators appear to be getting quite mean of late, tightening their upgrades and reducing incentives, I'm not so sure it is just O2.

On option 4, though, it will effect your credit rating, so think long and hard before you do anything silly.

Dades

The only reason phones were €229 in the beginning was because you were signing a new contract... this should have been obvious! Your handset was worth half a grand - phone insurance, man!

I recommend a course of gradual wearing down of the helpline. Calls. Emails. Letters. Don't think it'll work, but you never know.

Random

come on. You broken your phone. Buy a new one on prepay and put your sim in or else source one elsewhere and put your sim in. O2 offer insurance for this reason but you didn't opt for it.

What makes you such a good customer that o2 should give you discounts if you're not due an upgrade?

Your post really does not sound very reasonable at all.

120_Minutes

It O2's fault you lost your iphone?

no....

Is it O2's fault you didnt insure your iphone?

no....


its your fault mate, suck it up and live with it. bad mouthing O2 for your negligence is childish and immature.

godskitchen

Tom Dunne wrote: »

On option 4, though, it will effect your credit rating, so think long and hard before you do anything silly.

Off topic I know, but it is funny how people are still talking about things effecting your credit rating in this day and age. I really do not think the credit system will work/should work the way it has been over the last 10 years once we are out of this poo storm we are in.

I think by the end of this, if credit/phone companies use the same credit scoring as they do now, they will have 70% less customers.

Mr Bloat

While it's a harsh state of affairs you find yourself in, in fairness to O2, *you* were the one who was careless with your phone and didn't insure it. Phone insurance is very cheap, far less than the tariff you are paying and far, far less than what a new iPhone will cost you.

Again, I feel sorry for your predicament but look at it this way: I have an iPhone and I'm paying a lot each month for it. What's to stop me from ringing O2 and pretending I lost my phone and getting them to downgrade my tariff to something cheaper and then continuing with the iPhone? If they do it for you, why not me?

You knew (or should have known) the terms of the contract when you signed up. Bad mouthing O2 and their service because you lost your phone and they are sticking to the terms of the contract is a bit much, imo.

Tallon

It serves you right for buying an iphone....
I mean how much did you pay for it initially
Plus, you should have got it insured.

lickirishallsor

Ok you didnt say it but are we to assume the insurance offered on buying the phone was not taken?

If thats the case, of course its not O2's liability, its 100% yours, brand loyalty or not. You must realise its not in fact o2 paying for your new phone but o2s custmers, they are the ones providing the cash, its a business not a charity. However, please note each communication you make with 02 is noted on your account, if you get thick it will be noted, and so each time you call back they will know your form before you open your mouth.

If you play this right, and get to a good team leader or customer service rep, you may get a small credit towards your account and offset it of your new purchase.

But what I would do is this....

Buy a cheap used first generation phone, many for sale, (see adverts.ie) for instance I upgraded from generation 1 to the 3g and still have my first iphone in its box as a back up, many others have surplus iphones around. Then wait untill June, there will an either upgraded or new iphone out then, this will mean o2 will offer all existing customers an upgrade, you can then buy a new iphone at the attractive price the rest of us will be offered.

franklymydear

Ha yeah OF COURSE it is my fault. I know that, accept it and am just blowing off steam. I guess i just hoped o2 would be more reasonable about it. Cos over the course of the 18month contract they are now going to get less money from me. (more in the short term though i guess)

godskitchen

As an iphone owner, this would not be my worst mightmare.

Twin-go

Continue to use the nokia for a few months on iphone tariff. Ask to add insurance to your account. pay it for a few months. then claim against it because you lost your phone/it was stolen. Report it to gardai just before you go to o2. should be no problem getting a new phone.*

*But it would be very wrong to do this.

franklymydear

ha good idea twin-go but something tells me they'd be suspicous of the lack of data usage over the previous couple of months.

JDxtra

Surely Apple bringing out a new model is an iPhone owners worst nightmare.

Rsaeire

And here's me thinking realising you've bought a handset with more pros than cons would be an iPhone owner's worst nightmare.

Ah-Watch

Twin-go wrote: »

Continue to use the nokia for a few months on iphone tariff. Ask to add insurance to your account. pay it for a few months. then claim against it because you lost your phone/it was stolen. Report it to gardai just before you go to o2. should be no problem getting a new phone.*

*But it would be very wrong to do this.

No point in doing this, they will check what phone you're using at the time of "loss" and reject his claim as he's not using the iphone thus making it pointless to pay o2 for an iphone you doint have! pity about it though, just get a 1st Gen iphone instead and add the insurance to that phone... see where I'm going?

O2_Daryll

If you end up getting a different handset you can change you plan to another one if you wish, unfortunately though no insurance, no replacement thats the way the world works im afraid.

mkennedy

franklymydear wrote: »

Last week my iphone 3g was stolen.. Well lost anyway.. hell i was trashed i don't know what the **** happened. But it's gone now. And in spite of it being unlocked (so anyone who would care to put a sim in could easily trace me through the multitude of notes/contacts [i assume at least some are stored on the phone?]/ texts/ facebook/GPS locations marked) i don't think it's going to come home. I think i took it rather well.

Fair enough I thought. I'll just go to o2 and pay the 229 euro for a replacement and maybe get a little discount because i'm such a good customer. But **** no. O2 doesn't work that way. They want me to pay FULL speakeasy price to get a new one. 569 ****ing euro! This being an obvious setback to me I decided to pick up the pieces and approach it calmly and rationally. Can I get a discount because I've been a loyal customer? NO. I'm using a crappy nokia (I do say crappy but i'd say nokia's will last about 5 times longer than iphones) so I have no need for a data plan - so can I renegotiate the contract? NO. Can I cancel the contract altogether. YES.. but you have to buy out the remaining contract. None of these are good choices. I do realize that I signed a contract which is effectively legally binding but for customer relations purposes I think their intransigence is ridiculous. I now want to leave o2. I will try to get my friends to do the same. I will vehemently encourage all my friends not to buy an iphone with o2. I will badmouth o2 at every turn (their customer service is ****ing retarded.. i'm not just saying that, it really is). Even from a business point of view i'm absolutely sure that if I was given a cheaper phone I would pay way more money to them in the long run (my last two bills were double what the contract is) but now i'm gonna make sure I'm not so generous.

So as I see it I have a few options:
1) Pay their price (not going to happen)
2) Stick with the contract and use my nokia (pretty lame and waste of money)
3) Buy an iphone on ebay etc for cheaper (still pretty expensive)
or 4) Ensure that.. um.. payment doesn't reach their accounts.

So anyway - rather than just ranting I'm looking for help. Have any of you been in a similar situation? Do you have experience dealing with o2 when cancelling/renegotiating a contract? Anyone ever try option 4? Any input will be appreciated.

Cheers guys

Sorry to hear that.
But if you were using the Mobile Justice app on a gps-enabled WM device you'd have been able to track your lost/stolen phone down and it'd be back safe in your hands again.

This is ANY smartphone owner's worst nightmare btw.

Ardent

mkennedy wrote: »

But if you were using the Mobile Justice app on a gps-enabled WM device you'd have been able to track your lost/stolen phone down and it'd be back safe in your hands again.

That's fairly useless information for someone who's just had an IPHONE stolen, don't you think?!!

OP: best bet is to buy a second hand iPhone on fleabay or, better still, get yourself an N95. They're going cheap now and they're still the best phone on the market.

flywheel

thread seems to have run it's course, closed - title updated for relevance