$3000 on my cel phone

[varmint]

haven't seen my cel since saturday. called the company to order a new one. they accused me of making $3000 worth of calls to gautemala, and refused to reinstate me til i paid the bill.

looks like i'm going to have to fight this out. have any of you all been through anything like this? any tips? procedures? i am not paying, and know i don't have to pay. but expect the company to make me wade through five hours of crap before i figure out how it all works. i'm looking for the magic word to get me to the right department.

[Dottore]

Read your contract carefully. Mine requires me to notify the provider within 48 hours of any loss of cellphone. If I notify within that timeframe the costs are covered. If not - then all bets are off.

[968rz]

Originally Posted by varmint

i'm looking for the magic word to get me to the right department.

Lawyer

Originally Posted by Dottore

Read your contract carefully. Mine requires me to notify the provider within 48 hours of any loss of cellphone. If I notify within that timeframe the costs are covered. If not - then all bets are off.

"I've been trying to get though voice prompt hell since I lost it but either get stuck on hold for hours or hung up on in seconds, make this right, right now"

One of these might work

[VINMAN]

Fight it. Put in a call to your local Public Utility Commission. Dottore is right. most co's have a time limit to report a loss or theft. The phone co. can do a look back to see your past call history over the years and see your calling patterns.
That will help your case.

Of course if it's a VZ phone, just pay up!

I remember one time I worked in an dept with three West Indian women. One month there was about $2200 in calls to Jamaica and Trinidad. My boss walks in and hands me the phone bill with all the calls, and asks me if I made them. I look at her and say"youre fuchin kidding me right"?? She puts her head down and says "I had to ask, you know the deal". She then walk over to the women, and I see them pointing over towards me. Of course nobody fessed up.

[Palum6o]

If you have an LG phone, you can lock it by holding and pressing the pound key but make sure you know how to unlock it. That recently happened to me thinking I was putting it on vibration mode, but locked it instead. I couldn't unlock it. A simple Google search later, turns out the code to unlock the phone is the last 4 digits of your phone number.

Another thing you can do is obtain your cell phone ID by calling [ *#06# ], write down that 15 digit number and keep in your wallet. Supposedly your cell phone company can disable the phone remotely if they have that number. I was able to do this with my T-Moble phone, but havent' figured out yet with my Verizon LG phone yet.