‘Police destroyed my phone but I’m still on the hook for £1k Vodafone contract’

Dear Katie,

I unknowingly filmed a horrible illegal act involving my very young child on my mobile phone which led to my device being held by police.

I’ve been told it will soon need to be destroyed, due to the nature of the offence committed.

The phone is on a contract with Vodafone and has just shy of 30 months remaining of the contract. I have contacted Vodafone, with whom I also have phone insurance, but it is not willing to help me. The insurance company is refusing to allow me to put in a claim as technically the phone isn’t damaged. At a time of great distress, I feel further victimised by being denied the eligibility of being able to claim for a replacement phone from Vodafone and being forced to continue paying for a contract. I have offered to be further out of pocket and pay the £100 excess to claim through the insurance, but Vodafone will not process this.

I do not have the funds to continue paying for a phone I do not have alongside the cost of trying to replace my phone either with another new handset or contract. I feel incredibly penalised for something that is already very upsetting. I want to forget all about this ordeal, without being pushed further into debt and stress.

– Anon 

Dear reader,

I asked you how you accidentally came to video an illegal act involving your child on your phone, and what you told me shocked me to the core. It is not for repeating here due to an ongoing police investigation, however it is safe to say you have been through a deeply distressing time. Keeping going as a single mother throughout this ordeal, and with significant money struggles to contend with, cannot have been easy.

I wanted to help in any way I could, so I agreed to approach Vodafone on your behalf with your crime reference number.

This is not the first time I have come across insurers being unwilling to treat “seized” phones in the same way as they would if they were stolen or lost, which is deeply unfair. However, Vodafone has in place a policy which is supposed to ensure that customers in these circumstances receive immediate support and a new device. In your case, it seems it made an error, as you should have been transferred to its specialist care team and been dealt with swiftly.

Instead you were transferred to Vodafone’s insurance provider, which then told you that your policy did not cover “seized” phones. For this, Vodafone has now apologised and provided you with a like-for-like replacement phone.  You’re extremely grateful and relieved to be able to move on without the ball and chain of an expensive phone contract with no handset attached. I wish you the best of luck and sincerely hope the person who perpetrated this heinous crime gets the justice he deserves.

A Vodafone spokesman said: “We’re sorry this was not handled correctly in the first instance. When a customer faces unique circumstances such as this, we work quickly to support them so they can stay connected. Unfortunately this customer was transferred to our insurance partner, rather than through the correct channel. When we were notified of this error we worked quickly to resolve the issue and we are pleased we were able to get a new phone for the customer.”