VENT - EE have lost me as a customer

Malmo

I have been a customer with what was initially One2One, then T-Mobile and now EE since 1997. I have kept the same number since 1997 and have owned a variety of devices during that time, starting with the brick-like Motorola Graphite.

As a result of a series of operational and customer service errors, I wrote an email to personally inform the CEO, Mr Olaf Swantee & the Chief of Customer Service, Ms Francoise Clemes, that EE has lost my custom and I won't be renewing my contract. Given the poor customer satisfaction scores that EE is associated with (source: YouGov Smix Survey), this comes as no surprise since EE has been aggressively focussed on the activation of new 4G accounts and forgetting what customer service actually means.


Description of issue
In March 2013, my wife was contacted by an EE representative, who offered a free migration from T-Mobile's 3G network to the overhyped, overmarketed and wholly underwhelming EE 4G network, at the same rate as her existing T-Mobile contract, which included a retention discount. My wife was also informed that I could also be migrated on the same terms as her. We both proceeded with this "offer".


With regards to the migration of my number specifically, what happened next can only be described as farcical, frustrating and ultimately, a loss for EE. Here is a chronological sequence of events:

1. Firstly, I was sent the wrong size SIM card for my smartphone. I called EE to sort this out.
2. I was subsequently sent the correct sized SIM card, but for a phone number that I didn't even recognise. It transpired that instead of migrating my existing number from T-Mobile to EE, a new line was incorrectly activated under the same account. Hence the phone number that I didn't recognise. I called EE to sort this out and get this new line closed down immediately and to re-instate my existing line.
3. Eventually, my existing number was migrated correctly but I was overcharged. Instead of being charged the expected discounted rate per month as agreed and confirmed with the EE representative, I was charged the standard rate per month. I called EE to sort this out and was offered 1 month's free service as goodwill.
4. Then, in November 2013, I noticed some irregular activity in my bank account. I was being debited twice a month by EE; once for my existing number (at the discounted rate) and once for the incorrectly activated new number (at the standard rate). I called EE to notify this issue as I should have been debited just for my existing number at the discounted rate. I was informed that although my number was migrated, the debit for the new line hadn't been stopped at their end at the time and had incorrectly continued. This amounted to £288 that was fraudulently debited from my account by EE. I was informed that this amount would be fully refunded in the next billing cycle in December 2013.
5. In December, I checked my bank account for the £288 refund I was expecting. No credit was apparent.
6. I called EE to follow this up. I was informed that although the debit for the new line had been stopped, the refund had not been actioned. I have no idea why. I was informed of the option to contact my bank directly to recover the money immediately via the Direct Debit Guarantee. I therefore called my bank that same day and asked for the £288 to be recovered immediately. At least the bank carried out their instructions in an efficient manner.
7. I received a letter from EE dated 01-JAN-2014, demanding an outstanding, overdue sum of £258.97. This demand was in relation to the sum mentioned above that I had recovered (I don't know why there was a discrepancy in the amounts and frankly, I don't care). I called EE on 13-JAN-2014 to understand why I was receiving threatening correspondence like this and to ensure that any further recovery action was stopped immediately. I was assured that the EE Collections team would now be notified to cease any further action and that I should expect no further correspondence regarding the matter.
8. I then received a formal demand letter dated 14-JAN-2014 from a Debt Recovery firm called Buchanan, Clark & Wells, acting on behalf of EE, demanding an outstanding, overdue sum of £286.81 including an administration cost of 10.75%. I called this firm on 16-JAN-2014, who informed me that they had not received any notification from EE to cease action. I called EE immediately afterwards and I was informed that the recovery firm had not yet been notified to stop the action as the notification can take a few days to filter through.
9. I received yet another letter dated 30-JAN-2014 from Buchanan, Clark & Wells. This latest letter demanded a sum of £27.84, which presumably equated to the "administration costs" that the recovery firm had originally applied. I called EE on 03-FEB-2014. During this phone call (which incidentally lasted 52 minutes according to my call log), I was passed from one representative who was unable to deal with my issue to a second representative, who told me that he was part of T-Mobile and I had been incorrectly transferred, so I was passed on to a third representative in the EE Collections team. She eventually dealt with my issue and informed me that her colleague would contact the recovery firm the next day to cease further action. As goodwill, my data allowance was increased from 1GB per month to 3.5GB per month. This does nothing whatsoever to make up for the continual harassment & poor level of service.

It takes a lot for me to lose my patience and I am normally willing to give the benefit of the doubt. However, as you can see from the sequence of events above, the situation has become so untenable that EE has made it extremely easy for me to decide to leave and look for an alternative provider when the opportunity arises. The wording in the last letter in particular, in which it states "...we can only assume that you do not wish to settle this matter amicably", is particularly infuriating given the numerous opportunities afforded by my calls for EE to remedy the situation.
I do not expect anything from EE, but hopefully the company will take my message as real customer feedback and try to understand & fix the root causes for the service issues that blight the company, which is the worst I've ever had personal dealings with.

Weyoun

They're utterly hopeless. A few months ago I bought a new handset from the Orange (part of EE) website. It took no less than eight phone calls to Customer "Services", three visits to an EE shop and over a dozen messages via Facebook, just to have my old number transferred to the SIM card that came with the handset, and get the credit I'd bought with the handset applied to my account.

I wrote a letter to Francoise Clemes at the peak of my frustration but didn't bother sending it, assuming it would just be ignored. Let us know if you get a reply from them.

The only reason I stay with them is that, being an infrequent mobile user, it wouldn't be worth the effort of changing - besides, they barely get £10 in top-ups out of me every six months at best!

Nice_Weather_For_Ducks

I left T-Mobile last month after 15 years. Since they merged with Orange I suffered dropped calls, really bad voice quality, slow internet etc and had enough.

T-Mobile/Orange/EE are not fit for purpose IMO.

RosiPossum

It took me months and months to get a refund from T-Mobile.
I was told on every phone call that it would be in my account within 14 days but it wasn't.
I eventually told them I'd be taking it to the ombudsman if they couldn't settle the matter. They repaid the money but didn't really answer my letters at all.

They're just useless and it feels like they just tell people that the refund will be with them so many times that they just give up and the company can keep the money.

EE

Malmo wrote: »

I have been a customer with what was initially One2One, then T-Mobile and now EE since 1997. I have kept the same number since 1997 and have owned a variety of devices during that time, starting with the brick-like Motorola Graphite.

As a result of a series of operational and customer service errors, I wrote an email to personally inform the CEO, Mr Olaf Swantee & the Chief of Customer Service, Ms Francoise Clemes, that EE has lost my custom and I won't be renewing my contract. Given the poor customer satisfaction scores that EE is associated with (source: YouGov Smix Survey), this comes as no surprise since EE has been aggressively focussed on the activation of new 4G accounts and forgetting what customer service actually means.


Description of issue
In March 2013, my wife was contacted by an EE representative, who offered a free migration from T-Mobile's 3G network to the overhyped, overmarketed and wholly underwhelming EE 4G network, at the same rate as her existing T-Mobile contract, which included a retention discount. My wife was also informed that I could also be migrated on the same terms as her. We both proceeded with this "offer".


With regards to the migration of my number specifically, what happened next can only be described as farcical, frustrating and ultimately, a loss for EE. Here is a chronological sequence of events:

1. Firstly, I was sent the wrong size SIM card for my smartphone. I called EE to sort this out.
2. I was subsequently sent the correct sized SIM card, but for a phone number that I didn't even recognise. It transpired that instead of migrating my existing number from T-Mobile to EE, a new line was incorrectly activated under the same account. Hence the phone number that I didn't recognise. I called EE to sort this out and get this new line closed down immediately and to re-instate my existing line.
3. Eventually, my existing number was migrated correctly but I was overcharged. Instead of being charged the expected discounted rate per month as agreed and confirmed with the EE representative, I was charged the standard rate per month. I called EE to sort this out and was offered 1 month's free service as goodwill.
4. Then, in November 2013, I noticed some irregular activity in my bank account. I was being debited twice a month by EE; once for my existing number (at the discounted rate) and once for the incorrectly activated new number (at the standard rate). I called EE to notify this issue as I should have been debited just for my existing number at the discounted rate. I was informed that although my number was migrated, the debit for the new line hadn't been stopped at their end at the time and had incorrectly continued. This amounted to £288 that was fraudulently debited from my account by EE. I was informed that this amount would be fully refunded in the next billing cycle in December 2013.
5. In December, I checked my bank account for the £288 refund I was expecting. No credit was apparent.
6. I called EE to follow this up. I was informed that although the debit for the new line had been stopped, the refund had not been actioned. I have no idea why. I was informed of the option to contact my bank directly to recover the money immediately via the Direct Debit Guarantee. I therefore called my bank that same day and asked for the £288 to be recovered immediately. At least the bank carried out their instructions in an efficient manner.
7. I received a letter from EE dated 01-JAN-2014, demanding an outstanding, overdue sum of £258.97. This demand was in relation to the sum mentioned above that I had recovered (I don't know why there was a discrepancy in the amounts and frankly, I don't care). I called EE on 13-JAN-2014 to understand why I was receiving threatening correspondence like this and to ensure that any further recovery action was stopped immediately. I was assured that the EE Collections team would now be notified to cease any further action and that I should expect no further correspondence regarding the matter.
8. I then received a formal demand letter dated 14-JAN-2014 from a Debt Recovery firm called Buchanan, Clark & Wells, acting on behalf of EE, demanding an outstanding, overdue sum of £286.81 including an administration cost of 10.75%. I called this firm on 16-JAN-2014, who informed me that they had not received any notification from EE to cease action. I called EE immediately afterwards and I was informed that the recovery firm had not yet been notified to stop the action as the notification can take a few days to filter through.
9. I received yet another letter dated 30-JAN-2014 from Buchanan, Clark & Wells. This latest letter demanded a sum of £27.84, which presumably equated to the "administration costs" that the recovery firm had originally applied. I called EE on 03-FEB-2014. During this phone call (which incidentally lasted 52 minutes according to my call log), I was passed from one representative who was unable to deal with my issue to a second representative, who told me that he was part of T-Mobile and I had been incorrectly transferred, so I was passed on to a third representative in the EE Collections team. She eventually dealt with my issue and informed me that her colleague would contact the recovery firm the next day to cease further action. As goodwill, my data allowance was increased from 1GB per month to 3.5GB per month. This does nothing whatsoever to make up for the continual harassment & poor level of service.

It takes a lot for me to lose my patience and I am normally willing to give the benefit of the doubt. However, as you can see from the sequence of events above, the situation has become so untenable that EE has made it extremely easy for me to decide to leave and look for an alternative provider when the opportunity arises. The wording in the last letter in particular, in which it states "...we can only assume that you do not wish to settle this matter amicably", is particularly infuriating given the numerous opportunities afforded by my calls for EE to remedy the situation.
I do not expect anything from EE, but hopefully the company will take my message as real customer feedback and try to understand & fix the root causes for the service issues that blight the company, which is the worst I've ever had personal dealings with.

Hi Malmo

As I mentioned on the othr thread I apologise for the issues you have faced since joining EE.

If there is anything I can do to resovle any outstanding issues, or to raise a formal complaint for you, please email me at jade.taylor@affiliatewindow.com with the details in this thread and a contact number.

Thanks
Jade- Representing EE

EE

Weyoun wrote: »

They're utterly hopeless. A few months ago I bought a new handset from the Orange (part of EE) website. It took no less than eight phone calls to Customer "Services", three visits to an EE shop and over a dozen messages via Facebook, just to have my old number transferred to the SIM card that came with the handset, and get the credit I'd bought with the handset applied to my account.

I wrote a letter to Francoise Clemes at the peak of my frustration but didn't bother sending it, assuming it would just be ignored. Let us know if you get a reply from them.

The only reason I stay with them is that, being an infrequent mobile user, it wouldn't be worth the effort of changing - besides, they barely get £10 in top-ups out of me every six months at best!

Hi

I do apologise for the issues you have faced with both Orange and EE.
If you would like me to speak to customer services and resolve any outstanding issues, or if you would like to raise a formal complaint, please email me directly on jade.taylor@affiliatewindow.com outlining the issues you have faced and a contact number.

Thanks
Jade- Representing EE

bod1467

EE wrote: »

Hi Malmo

As I mentioned on the othr thread I apologise for the issues you have faced since joining EE.

If there is anything I can do to resovle any outstanding issues, or to raise a formal complaint for you, please email me at jade.taylor@affiliatewindow.com with the details in this thread and a contact number.

Thanks
Jade- Representing EE

You might try reading before posting - you're a year too late.

Likewise for Weyoun.

Zero_Gravitas

My employer moved their mobile phone contract from O2 to EE about 3 years ago. This year they are moving it to Vodaphone.

I'd like to think that part of the reason is that people stopped referring to EE (Everything Everywhere) and started calling them FN (****all Nowhere) as a description of their sevice.

ZG.

somethingcorporate

Haha, epic customer service there EE.

A year late, what a response!!

Paul_the_Painter

Well I was an Orange customer for 15 years, the last 9 or so on a contract. Bought myself a rather nice Motorola Moto X 4g phone, and due to the carp reception at home on the 3g (but being aware that 4G uses different technology and frequencies) asked if they would be kind enough to send me a 4G PAYG sim with a minimal amount of credit on it to test the reception and data speeds at home and office.
Computer says no
I said "l Look I've been with you on contract for nearly a decade, I'd rather not have the hassle of changing network. Go on send us a sim"
Computer says no
I said "your choice, either send the sim or I try the other 2 networks first and the first one that works well for me gets my contact, only if they are useless ill I try EE"
Computer says no
OK says I
3 worked a treat getting 25MB down at home, 45MB down at work, with a very simple pricing plan - unlimited everything for £28/month
3 got my business
When contacting Orange/3G for my PAC code, they transferred me to "retentions" by this time they had already lost me.

Empower your staff to think outside the box, empower your staff to make decisions, empower your staff so that you do not need a retentions department.

Because I WILL believe what your staff tell me is your company decision on a matter, and I WILL act on that information.

I CANNOT be "retained" if I have already left and signed up somewhere else.


Also putting my bill up part way through a contract really !!!!ed me off.

Nodding_Donkey

Paul_the_Painter wrote: »

Also putting my bill up part way through a contract really !!!!ed me off.

There's a whole thread on here where quite a few of us got penalty free cancellations and compensation from EE due to that little scam