Mobile Phone Contract - Price Rise Refunds

delboy9

Hi, I first posted yesterday (22nd April) on #204. After sending 3 email's I finally have a reply from EE in the form of a postal letter? Not sure if anyone else has received this as the first reply is usually an email?

I used the templates to send the 1st email on the 10th April (no reply) then another 7 days latter on the 17th April (no reply) and finally another yesterday (22nd) to which iv now received a letter through the post dated 22nd April. it reads:

22 April 2014
Dear Mr Sutton
EE Ac No: xxxxxxxxx

Thank you for your email, received in the Executive Office, I have been asked to respond on behalf of EE.
I am sorry you are unhappy with the recent Price Increase. As a company we are committed to offering the best value for service which is why we have kept the increase to a minimum. The increase is a result of the rising costs to our business and is in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI), which is a measure of inflation.

We are obliged, as are all UK operators, to abide by General Condition 9.6 of the Ofcom. This condition sets out what we must do if a change is of material detriment to a customer, which is to provide 30 days' notice and allow a customer to end their agreement free of charge. When the changes are not of material detriment, the customer does not have the right to end their agreement. In the case of this price increase, the change is not of material detriment to customers

The increase is in line with the Terms and Conditions of your contract specifically clause 7.1.4. As the increase is less than RPI should you wish to close the account early in accordance with clause 7.2.3.3 you would be subject to an early termination fee.

While I understand this is not the outcome you were looking for, I trust I have clarified EE's position regarding this matter.

Yours Sincerely

Victoria Hunt
Executive Office, EE

What would you recommend for my next step?
Thanks

Mikmonken

delboy9 wrote: »

Hi, I first posted yesterday (22nd April) on #204. After sending 3 email's I finally have a reply from EE in the form of a postal letter? Not sure if anyone else has received this as the first reply is usually an email?

I used the templates to send the 1st email on the 10th April (no reply) then another 7 days latter on the 17th April (no reply) and finally another yesterday (22nd) to which iv now received a letter through the post dated 22nd April. it reads:

22 April 2014
Dear Mr Sutton
EE Ac No: xxxxxxxxx

Thank you for your email, received in the Executive Office, I have been asked to respond on behalf of EE.
I am sorry you are unhappy with the recent Price Increase. As a company we are committed to offering the best value for service which is why we have kept the increase to a minimum. The increase is a result of the rising costs to our business and is in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI), which is a measure of inflation.

We are obliged, as are all UK operators, to abide by General Condition 9.6 of the Ofcom. This condition sets out what we must do if a change is of material detriment to a customer, which is to provide 30 days' notice and allow a customer to end their agreement free of charge. When the changes are not of material detriment, the customer does not have the right to end their agreement. In the case of this price increase, the change is not of material detriment to customers

The increase is in line with the Terms and Conditions of your contract specifically clause 7.1.4. As the increase is less than RPI should you wish to close the account early in accordance with clause 7.2.3.3 you would be subject to an early termination fee.

While I understand this is not the outcome you were looking for, I trust I have clarified EE's position regarding this matter.

Yours Sincerely

Victoria Hunt
Executive Office, EE

What would you recommend for my next step?
Thanks

I too, received this via post today, word for word the same, except name (where they spelt mine wrong, but never mind that.

they seem to have clearly not responded to each of the points though from my original email RandomCurve template post #99

RandomCurve

Mikmonken wrote: »

I too, received this via post today, word for word the same, except name (where they spelt mine wrong, but never mind that.

they seem to have clearly not responded to each of the points though from my original email RandomCurve template post #99

See post#175

ulaggy

Having sent the second email yesterday, if I'd waited one more day, I'd have had the same letter as the previous user has had.

I was going to attach a photo of the letter so people know what to expect but I'm too new to be able to post links apparently. It seems that they are going for generic postal responses to go with the generic email responses!

"Dear XXXXXXX

T-Mobile Account Number: XXXXX

Thank you for your email, receiving in the Executive Office, I have been asked to respond on behalf of EE.

I am sorry you are unhappy with the recent increase to our prices and some of our services. As a company we are committed to investing significantly in our network and work hard to give the best value for our service, we have in this instance tried to keep these increases to a minimum. However due to rising business costs linked to inflation we have had to revaluate our pricing structure.

In this instance, the increase to price plans is in line with RPI at 2.7 percent and compliant with the Terms and Conditions of your contract. Our Terms and Conditions give us the right to increase the cost of our services and this change does not give you a right to terminate your contract. Please refer to clause 7.1 in your Terms and Conditions.

Whilst I understand this is not the outcome you were looking for, I trust I have clarified EE's position regarding this matter.

Yours sincerely

Victoria Hunt
Executive Office, EE"

However, sending the second email yesterday wasn't completely without merit - I've had an email back from Ofcom:

"Ofcom reference: XXXXXXX


23 April 2014

Dear Mr XXXXXX

Thank you for contacting Ofcom.

We are currently waiting for further advice regarding your complaint. Once we have this, a response shall be sent to you as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience.


Yours sincerely

Jessica Eyles
Consumer Contact Team"

Do we need to send the email in Post 175 now, adjusted to say we received a letter rather than an email?

Thanks in advance RandomCurve!

Edit: Just seen your replies to the other folk. Next email it is then, editted to say I've received a letter rather than email. Thank you!

Edit #2: Do we want to CC the Ofcom lady into the email in Post 175?

Edit #3: The email in Post 175 mentions section 15.1 of our contract - my contract V59, only goes up to 9.something. Is that a typo? I don't want to send the email with inaccurate information as they may try to use that against me!

Mikmonken

Email as per post #175 sent, changed words to refer to via post and also attached a copy of the letter.

don't forget to add in a date at the bottom of the email that's highlight in red, i nearly missed it.

I await another letter in a weeks time.

Mikmonken

Am i being pedantic here, but what does this actually mean?

I'm assuming the quote below is a typo created by Victoria Hunt, as it is the same in my letter, but not in the T-Mobile letter (which although from the same person has different content, my letter for example doesn't reference the 2.7% increase.

"We are obliged, as are all UK operators, to abide by General Condition 9.6 of the Ofcom."

"of the Ofcom." is it a typo?, does it matter?, does it help us in any way?

ulaggy

Mikmonken wrote: »

Am i being pedantic here, but what does this actually mean?

I'm assuming the quote below is a typo created by Victoria Hunt, as it is the same in my letter, but not in the T-Mobile letter (which although from the same person has different content, my letter for example doesn't reference the 2.7% increase.

"We are obliged, as are all UK operators, to abide by General Condition 9.6 of the Ofcom."

is "of the Ofcom." is it a typo?, does it matter?, does it help us in any way?

I'd imagine it is just a typo - if they're doing slight variations with their letters, the odd one or two will creep in!

Martinmal1

No Response received on either mine or the wifes accounts so Email number 2 is now on it's way.

Hopefully we have flooded the executive office and will make them think twice (although i doubt it) over doing this again. As lets be honest the price rise has no other purpose than to help EE and Mr Swantee hit the 25% Profit margin they have so long craved for.

Cheers for the email RandonCurve

Satu7nine

I too, have sent the first e-mail to the EE executive office. I received the standard reply from Victoria Hunt as is detailed above.

I've now replied with RandomCurve's second e-mail, which I've addressed to Olaf Swantee and the Executive Office's e-mail addresses, for the attention of Ms. Hunt.

Regardless of the legal situation, surely any price rise (also regardless of RPI and CPI) is materially detrimental? Paying £41 for 18 months then ~£42 is £1 more per month, and that £1 is of material detriment to me. A common sense interpretation will tell you that. In my opinion, their defence on this is extremely weak and surely an independent arbitrator such as CISAS would be likely to rule in our favour?

ulaggy

I think it's about what's "reasonable". I read a website earlier and it's like £1 extra per month would probably be considered reasonable but £10 wouldn't be.

The big problem is that they have this clause that says Material Detriment, but then they refuse to acknowledge that there is such a thing as Material Detriment. It's such a vague statement.