BEWARE T-Mobile early termination fee when useing pac code...

corum_uk67

Unbelievable.

After being told on two separate occasions that the dubious balance on my account made up of a spurious and vaguely named end of contract charge, would be cancelled, today I get home and surprise surprise, yet another demand for overdue payment, this time threatening to pass it across to a debt collection agency.

Called their 0845 number (after swapping it for an 0808 number via 'saynoto0870' website) and spent 20 minutes being transferred around whilst the muppets tried to make sense of the reams of account notes.

They eventually went away then called me back and have now promised, for the third time, that the amount will be written off and there will be nothing to pay.

Have just checked my account online and although it still shows a bill value of £20.07, when I click on 'make a payment' the current balance has now changed to -£0.01, so it looks like this could finally be it.

Wow what a mighty pita that was, total fail as far as customer service goes, but at least I got there in the end.

Maybe I should send them an overdue letter in a couple of weeks for the 1p credit now showing on my account

bignred05

well looks like the idiots at EE have hit with the dreaded early termination fee, this is despite making the point over 2 phone calls several times

the facts, I have 3 sim only contracts, all where due to finish on the 23.Nov.2013

so I phoned up on the 23.Oct.2013 (obviously this was my 30 day notice period starting) however I was speaking to a cross between an idiot and a bare faced liar
the reason being he refused to give me my PAC code, when I asked, he told me I had to call back in 30 days to ask for this or there would be a charge, despite my protests he was very adamant on this, so I clearly told him i was giving my 30 day notice to quit my contract's, I also made the point about "NO EARLY TERMINATION FEE" as i was sticking to the T & C's of my contract.

having taken advice and checked with various people including other network shops, I was informed they must give me my PAC code when I ask for it etc (hence I'm calling the guy I spoke to an idiot)
anyway I called back several days later, not in a very good mood, I explained what had happened a few days earlier, the fact I had dealt with an idiot who told blatant lies, end result I got my PAC codes there and then, I also gave notice yet again to quit/cancel my contract

I was even told how much my balance would be, the balance due to the date of bill being set and the days left on the contract was minimal, so a credit was put on my account (which appears on my bill)

however either the idiot I originally spoke to or EE themselves have put 3 x early termination fees on my account


btw,

despite giving 2 people on 2 separate days notice of my account closure, not only have I been charged 3 x early termination fee, I have also been charged for my forthcoming month's line rental (in full & rather bizarrely some with discount, & some without) the reason why I cancelled was because they would not renew with the discounts ???

I can see a heated phone call on |Monday to customer service

corum_uk67

Good luck with getting the charges cancelled!

The advice their cs reps give out over the phone is definitely dubious at times however in this case I think the original adviser got it right.

Although you are entitled to a PAC code at any time, if you request one before the end date they will slap an etc on your bill, even if you don't use the PAC code.

The best way seems to be to give them the 30 days notice a month prior to the contract end, specifying that you want the contract to end exactly on the end date (so its on record) then get a PAC code on the last day and use it immediately, telling them that you only expect to be billed for the days it takes to transfer the number (took three days for me as it was over the weekend). Still no guarantees but from my own experience this seems to be the best option that would require the least number of angry phone calls (maybe 1 or 2 rather than 5 or 6).

Anyway, good luck.

bignred05

corum_uk67 wrote: »

Good luck with getting the charges cancelled!

The advice their cs reps give out over the phone is definitely dubious at times however in this case I think the original adviser got it right.

Although you are entitled to a PAC code at any time, if you request one before the end date they will slap an etc on your bill, even if you don't use the PAC code.

The best way seems to be to give them the 30 days notice a month prior to the contract end, specifying that you want the contract to end exactly on the end date (so its on record) then get a PAC code on the last day and use it immediately, telling them that you only expect to be billed for the days it takes to transfer the number (took three days for me as it was over the weekend). Still no guarantees but from my own experience this seems to be the best option that would require the least number of angry phone calls (maybe 1 or 2 rather than 5 or 6).

Anyway, good luck.

what a shambolic company Tmobile/EE are

you never know exactly how good something is until its goes wrong and you need help/assistance etc

after a number of telephone calls

where advisor's (in foreign call centre's) tell blantent lies, and refuse to transfer you to a supervisor (despite many.many requests to do so)

any way to cut a long story short, yes I have had the early terminations fees cancelled, after being refused to be transfered to a supervisor

now I'm trying to sort out my line rental charges on my final bill

the saga continues

one final point, you only seem to get any sense when talking to someone in an English call centre, and this can take several attempts

Ferris

after reading this thread i was dreading what would happen when it came time to transfer my number out of t-mobile and cancel my contract. my contract ended on 14th nov, so i called on 14th oct to ask when i should request my PAC to avoid any charges. the CS rep gave me the code then and there and assured me there would be no charges. however the PAC she issued expired on the 12th nov, so if I used it i would be terminating my contract early by default... hmmm.

my last but one bill arrived, and i was charged £22 for early termination. when i called to query this i was assured that once the number was transferred out, the final bill would arrive and settle the account so that i pay nothing except the line rental to the 14th.

the final bill arrived, and it did indeed credit me with the majority of the line rental, but did not even vaguely begin to refund the ridiculous early termination fee (£20 for two days).

another call, and they claim to have set the wheels in motion to credit the fee back to me at the same time as the line rental refund. my account balance on the website is showing as -£43.04, which is the correct amount owing. so maybe i'll get this in a week or two.

i'll believe it when i see it.

Zebrdee

I still don't fully understand all the ins and outs of this but yesterday I contacted T-MUK again because they sent me yet another bill. 'Andr!' (pronounced Ahndray) said, "How would you like to pay" in his best 'Asian' accent. I explained I'd spent half an hour previously going over my bill and to look at my account notes. So after much clacking of keys he confirmed my contract had now ended and there was no more to pay. :j

ric3vic

An update on my experience. Despite confirming with the rep (in a call 'recorded for training purposes') exactly when I could use my PAC without an early termination penalty, the penultimate bill charged a penalty. Because I had PACd out the line I did not have access to this earlier bill until phoning in. Very sharp, if not unfair, practice.

I called customer services, using saynoto0870 to avoid the premium rate number, and formally disputed bill. The early termination fee was 'adjusted' off the bill, which is probably a face saver to avoid having to admit that it was wrongly, even fraudulently, applied in the first place.

Advice to all. When you get the pac ask the rep on record to confirm the dates when you can use the pac without penalty.

itisallinyourhead

I was hit with the dreaded Early Termination Fee (ETF) today, but have managed to get it cancelled after a lengthy call to customer services.

My contract ends on January 4th, so yesterday I called to give my 30 days notice and to request my PAC Code. The lady I spoked to confirmed that I would not have to pay an ETF, only my final bill which would be produced 4th January 2014.

I got my bill for this month, today, and there was an ETF charge of £21.87. After speaking to customer services for about 20 minutes, to query why I have been charged an ETF, when I would be paying for the final month of my contract 4th Dec - 4th Jan, the customer service agent finally relented and said she would credit my account with £21.87.

However, this was only after I had asked to speak to her manager. What a headache. I was actually about to give up, before I played the manager card.

FairComments

From the internet you can see similar complaints going back years ago. But nothing is being done to protect consumers' rights.

Basically, you need 30 days notice to end contract, but when you ask for PAC 30 days before end of contract, they will still charge you early termination fee. Their computer system takes the notification date as the termination date, then the billing system starts churning out ETC charges.

If you call on last day of contract to terminate, they will slap you with 30 days' Period of Notice charge.

Either way, they still win.

Many people who don't check their bills carefully, they get ripped off.
Then those who check their bills but did not pursue the matter, also get ripped off.

I myself get charged ETC, called and haggled to get a refund; subsequently they charge me again for Notice Period. I have to call again, going through their nonsensical explanation (one consultant even tell me it was a refund amount not a charge! I have to teach her how to read the bills they issued!), before eventually they agreed to refund the Notice Period Charge. All in all, my phone calls to them is probably already £20, not to mention my precious time.

But I've done all the right things, I called them for PAC code 30 days before end of contract, applied PAC code on last day of contract, yet they still charge me, twice!

I have another mobile contract number with them ending in August, I asked them when that time comes, will I be charged the same way, despite doing all the right things, they said Yes!

Maybe it is just an amount of £20-£40 for one person, but heck with every thousands of leaving customers who do not fight back, it is a significant amount of steal by TMobile! This is also a matter of principle.

Don't forget that T-Mobile increased their price twice during my 24 months of FIXED price plan.

So, why is the authority not clamping down on this kind of rogue business practices?
Why must there be legislation before large organisations learn to behave?

Greeniron

corum_uk67 wrote: »

Good luck with getting the charges cancelled!

The advice their cs reps give out over the phone is definitely dubious at times however in this case I think the original adviser got it right.

Although you are entitled to a PAC code at any time, if you request one before the end date they will slap an etc on your bill, even if you don't use the PAC code.

The best way seems to be to give them the 30 days notice a month prior to the contract end, specifying that you want the contract to end exactly on the end date (so its on record) then get a PAC code on the last day and use it immediately, telling them that you only expect to be billed for the days it takes to transfer the number (took three days for me as it was over the weekend). Still no guarantees but from my own experience this seems to be the best option that would require the least number of angry phone calls (maybe 1 or 2 rather than 5 or 6).

Anyway, good luck.

I tried this, gave them 30 days notice and asked the chap I spoke to how to avoid future charges, he said to request a PAC on the final day of my contract (today). I've just done this and was told that requesting a PAC automatically adds 30 days onto the contract, so they'll be taking another month's fee.. I went ahead as I have a new deal set up with another provider and gave them the code straightaway. I've drafted a complaint letter asking them to waive that charge as they misinformed me and I won't be using any more services but without escalating matters I doubt I'll get anywhere.