My daughter was assaulted and robbed – but EE won’t refund her £260 phone bill: CRANE ON THE CASE

Last autumn, my 14-year-old daughter was the victim of a serious attack where she was sexually assaulted and robbed. I reported her as a missing person and feared for her life.

When she was found, my priority was looking after her, getting her medical attention and reporting the incident to the police.

Some time later, I realised the attacker had made around £260 of digital purchases on her phone which he stole. The phone was in my name, but was used by my daughter.

Attack: The reader’s daughter was subjected to a serious assault, and shortly after the perpetrator also stole her mobile phone (stock image)

I approached the mobile network, EE, to explain what had happened and ask for the charges to be refunded.

It told me it would not refund me, because I didn’t report the phone as stolen within 24 hours.

Clearly, I was not in a position to do that at the time. It also seems arbitrary, as even if I had reported it that night or within the 24 hours the charges would have still been incurred.

If you could offer any assistance in this matter l would be very grateful. Anon, Staffs. 

Helen Crane, This is Money’s consumer champion, replies: I am so sorry to hear that your daughter endured such a traumatic incident. 

You told me you feared she had been kidnapped, or worse – and my heart goes out to her and the rest of your family.

In the hours and days following this shocking crime, you were obviously focused on taking care of your daughter’s emotional and medical needs, and reporting what had happened to the police. 

Unsurprisingly, checking her mobile phone bill wasn’t on your mind. 

You did tell EE the phone had been stolen several days later, but you didn’t even notice the extra charges until you got your bank statement at the end of the month.

It turned out your daughter’s Sim card was put into another phone, where the criminal racked up £257.88 in extra charges – mostly by making in-app purchases.

In just a couple of minutes on the night of the attack, they made 12 transactions totalling between £2.99 and £34.99. You don’t know exactly what was purchased, but the transactions were made on the app store.

EE’s policy is that, if your phone is stolen, it will refund you for £100 for ‘any unauthorised usage that’s not part of your allowance’. 

However, it will only do this if you report it as stolen within 24 hours.

The network may be able to claw back some of the money by cancelling the products and services.  

But you didn’t inform EE, albeit in very extenuating circumstances – so when you spoke to the network you were told you couldn’t get any of the money back. 

You also told me that you contacted Apple and it also refused to refund the app store purchases.  

It would have cost EE relatively little to show some compassion to you and your family. 

Refusal: EE still said it would not refund the charges racked up by the thief, even after a heartfelt letter from the victim’s father 

It calls itself the ‘UK’s best network,’ but that certainly wasn’t your experience.  

I understand call centre staff are just following the rules, and the person you spoke to on the phone probably didn’t have the discretion to write off charges.

As soon as you mentioned the tragic circumstances in which the phone was stolen, though, your call should have been passed up the chain to someone who could.

You even gave the firm a final chance to do the right thing and wrote it a letter pleading for it to look at your case ‘not through your T&Cs but on a humanitarian level,’ which you have shown to me. 

I couldn’t believe that didn’t elicit a better response, so I contacted. 

I am pleased to say it has now agreed to refund the full £257.88, as a goodwill gesture due to the circumstances.

It has also said that it would review your initial call and take on board any learnings from what had happened – a good move in my opinion. 

A spokesman said: ‘We’re very sorry to hear about what happened to your reader’s daughter. 

‘We have contacted him and agreed to refund the charges fraudulently raised on his daughter’s mobile. He has accepted this as resolution to his complaint.’

I am glad EE has done the right thing, and wish your daughter all the best. 

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk