Review of Carphone Warehouse Lifeline Phonecare Insurance

My policy to cover my iphone was/is £7.99 a month.

I recently had my phone stolen whilst in Bulgaria. I reported it stolen to Phone Care and Orange my provider in the UK. I was told to go to the police in Bulgaria and to get a crime reference number. I tried to do this the first time I went to the police but  they could not understand me and told me to get a translator.

I returned the next day with a translator and told them my phone was stolen and the police told me to return in 7 days to re-register the crime in order to get a crime number which I was unable to do as I had to fly home before this. I was therefore unable to get a crime reference number from the Bulgarian Police

Due to the fact I was unable to get a crime reference number in Bulgaria the Carphone Warehouse insurance are now refusing to honour my stolen phone claim. They are trying to say my phone was lost and not stolen and that their policy does not cover lost phones....even though I keep telling them the phone was stolen!!!

It is like talking to a brick wall, they are really unhelpful, unsympathetic and try to use any loop holes in the policy wording to try and refuse a claim. My claim is for a genuine stolen phone, it is their word against mine and they appear to have no mechanism for honouring a claim if you are unable to provide a crime reference number! I tried for 2 days to get a crime reference number for Carphone Warehouse Phone Care Insurance whilst I was in Bulgaria and I have even offered to return at the insurance providers expense to try again but they haven’t taken me up on this.

One of their complaints managers who I had to demand to speak to told me I would need to prove the phone was stolen, (excuse me but if I witnessed the phone being stolen then I would probably have got the phone back and wouldn’t need to be making this claim!!) WARNING - If you try to speak to a manager you are told they are not customer facing, the top line managers are not available, you have to demand to wait on the phone until they put you through to a manager.

No one seems to be able to use any jurisdiction other than to try as hard as they can to reject a claim. Anyone who has had a similar experience with Carphone Warehouse Mobile Phone Care Insurance ( GEEK Squad ) please write to or contact BBC Watchdog.