EE switched off my mast!

swedgehog

I'm hoping someone can give me some advice.

When I took my Tmobile contract at the start of this year, I had good signal at home. Early this summer this disappeared, and I now have one bar upstairs and generally nothing downstairs.

EE have confirmed that they switched off a local mast. They said over 2 months ago they'd send a signal box for me to connect to my wifi router, but am told they're STILL out of stock.

Having no signal is no good; I'm not getting what I signed up to. Does anyone have any advice as to what I can do? The end of the contract in January 2015 is looking a very long way away...

Thanks

grumbler

Demand cancellation without any penalties.

NFH

EE have been doing this everywhere, including in my area. I now have two Signal Boxes but they're not reliable. They often go down (even in the middle of a call) and display a continuous red light, which is one reason I have two of them so that one still works and gives me service. I'm amazed that Ofcom is allowing EE to degrade its coverage so badly.

EE have deliberately turned off masts to save money, creating new coverage blackspots which did not exist previously. They need to use that saved money either to provide free Signal Boxes or to take a loss on allowing customers to exit their contracts early.

I'm on a SIM-only contract and can leave at any time. However, the £9/month they charge me for 325 minutes, 150 texts, 800MB and unlimited calls to landlines or Orange numbers cannot be beaten. Otherwise I'm tempted by Giffgaff.

tissot

NFH wrote: »

I'm on a SIM-only contract and can leave at any time. However, the £9/month they charge me for 325 minutes, 150 texts, 800MB and unlimited calls to landlines or Orange numbers cannot be beaten. Otherwise I'm tempted by Giffgaff.

THE ONE plan simonly 12 month contract on 3 is £15/m (under £10/m with quidco) and it is almost unlimited min/sms/data/tethering. better than giffgaff if 3 is good in your area

NFH

tissot wrote: »

THE ONE plan simonly 12 month contract on 3 is £15/m (under £10/m with quidco) and it is almost unlimited min/sms/data/tethering. better than giffgaff if 3 is good in your area

Thanks, but Three's coverage is even worse than EE's degraded coverage. Three has no coverage in my area, whereas EE has a very weak signal. All my friends on Three complain about coverage, even in London.

swedgehog

grumbler wrote: »

Demand cancellation without any penalties.

Thanks, I'll give it a go and see what they say.

simax

No network will guarantee indoor reception though, so good luck trying...let us know how you fare

NFH

simax wrote: »

No network will guarantee indoor reception though

This is irrelevant; it wouldn't make a difference even if the OP lived in a basement in a valley. The point is that the OP made a reasonable decision to enter into a 24-month contract based on the coverage existing at the start of the contract. EE subsequently removed coverage deliberately, thereby failing to carry out the service with reasonable care and skill in breach of Section 13 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982.

Buzby

Nonsense! They are allowed to configure their network as the see fit, and this is explicitly mentioned in the T&C's - there is no magic 'right' to permit exit.

However, there is a long established practice that where such network changes or faults occur, the customer is given the opportunity for a fault-free departure. Initially this is with a full rebate to cover service loss, then if the situation does not improve (where it is not a fault, but a site relocation) the departure is green-lighted.

As a mobile service, some customers are only marginally effected by a signal loss at their home - as the service is accessed when they are away from base for most of the time. I've never come across a network that has unreasonably insisted on a minimum-term completion when they have re-sited a BTS.

NFH

Buzby wrote: »

Nonsense! They are allowed to configure their network as the see fit, and this is explicitly mentioned in the T&C's

Regardless of what the T&Cs say, they cannot charge for a service and deliberately withdraw the service from large groups of customers. If the T&Cs do say that they are allowed to do this, then they would fall foul of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.

Buzby

Of course they can. No network guarantees the availability of its signals and only if the network itself was unavailable would you stand a chance. The fact it doesn't work in a area the user would like is an irrelevance.