Billing arguments and EE - you can win!

bigfrankblue

I just wanted to let people know of a terrible practise I encountered with Orange/EE.

I had originally been an Orange customer with 2 business handsets. They were not bought at the same time so ran out of sync slightly not heir contracts. When my contract was up on my first handset I was told I had to move to EE.

The price per month was actually about £50 cheaper which was great. I did however have some concerns about managing both accounts centrally. Up to this point I'd had one paper bill for both. No problem they said. The second being that I'd always continue to get a paper bill, as my accounts are audited. I was told there'd be no change at all. "We're all one company so there's no issue."

Shortly after this move, say 2 weeks after, I had a letter from Orange, stating all paper bills were going the way of the Dodo.

I rang and complained and this was flat out refused. No it could not be reinstated over and over again, unless I paid for it! The online billing however didn't work. I would try every week for about 6 weeks.

So i called back to complain. They refused to escalate my complaint, "Sorry they won't give paper bills", "It's just tough" "No one will be able to do anything for you." I did however persevere, always getting peoples names and clarifying if they were refusing to escalate my complaint specifically . Eventually they did.

EE then tried to say I'd made up this claim of continued paper billing and both accounts being centralised. EE don't offer paper billing. They gave me some bull about it being part of the ecological policy as a world business. Orange and EE are totally separate, you've got your facts wrong." They argued paper bills are not contractual so it wasn't technically a mis-sale.

Today it came to a head on the phone. After lots of rubbish I argued on my central point of being promised a central bill and continual paper billing at no extra cost. They refuted my claim of a mis-sale and argued and argued and argued.

It wasn't until I said I was going to raise this as a director level complaint and that I'd recorded the call that a sudden change occurred on the phone....Melanie, the senior team leader, the lady I'd been escalated too suddenly had a change of heart. She told me she wanted to take ownership and resolve things for me. This was after 25 minutes of calling me a liar.

All of a sudden I was being offered the Orange paper bills back at no charge and the EE bill charges were being credited for the remainder of my contract. I said, if they'd just done this in the first place it would have saved a lot of time, stress and arguing. The inflexibility of it being impossible to sort without charging me just evaporated...just like that.

She even removed the non-working online accounts, which had never at any point worked and reset them so all was working. She even seemed genuinely bad for giving me the run around, was it self preservation who knows?

So to sum up, if you've been told something by either Orange or EE and then they renage on it, fight your corner. Don't be fobbed off. Argue your central points clearly, politely and persevere . I will think long and hard before continuing with EE once my contracts are up.

frenchybab

I have been experiencing a huge amount of billing issues with Orange / EE.

In november 2013. I got a text advising me that my bill was £530 for my £25 contract. I got a shock as at the time, my phone was not being used as I have a professional mobile phone.
I contacted Orange/ EE who advised me that they were experiencing billing issues and that my account was actually sitting at £25 with only 4 minutes used and 5mb of my allowance (which made sense)

In december my bill came through for £120. I contacted them asking how this could be to which they replied that they had experienced billing issues for over 6 month, that it was finally fixed however the bill reflected my "over" consumption for the past 6 months!
After disputing this, I managed to get it waived.

However a week later they took the whole amount out of my account. I contacted them again for them to tell me that "the person" I spoke to never credited the account. All I can say, thanks for Direct Debit protection.

I cancelled my direct debit and paid the amount I owed.

You would think this would be it! No ladies and gentlemen....

In January 2014, I got a bill for £70. I contacted them again to query those extra charge. This time I got the explanation that I had gone over my data allowance.... Again, I explained that this specific phone does not get used.... at all! I was waiting for the end of my contract to cancel my contract....

No apparently "someone in my household must be using my data allowance".... My allowance is 500mb and I had used 680mb. I asked for this to be put into dispute as I did not agree with this and that I was willing to go Ofcom with this. And requested a full report of the data allowance location (ie which mast I was pulling from)

To which the agent pipped us saying "I will simply upgrade your allowance to 1gb and this will ensure you dont go over"....
1 - How cheeky! I do not use the phone
2 - How generous of you! Which makes me think, this billing issue which is "fixed" isnt and is more serious!

I can tell you I cannot wait for May to come for me to say to them "Cheerio". However I still feel that Ofcom is due to investigate this billing issue as surely I am not the only one worrying monthly about having to battle with EE...