EE mobile phone sim only 12 month contract

sasparillo

I expect you'll all laugh at my naivety - but I used to have an EE contract sim only 12 month contract which included 5000 texts and cost around £7.

My usage has been consistent and I never went over my limits. I had a loyalty discount. I overlooked the renewal date and my price went up, so I queried this with EE. The chap at the end of the line said he worked out that it would still work out better for me if I swapped to an £8.99 package so I agreed. But the amount taken out of my account the next month was more. I rang up again and was told it hadn't been explained to me that because this was all done in the middle of the month, I had somehow gone over my usage which rather bemused me. However because it all hadn't been explained to me, they agreed to give me a partial refund for my next bill.

I was away from home (not abroad) for a month or so and when I came back, I realised over £50 had been taken from my account! And now apparently my next bill is - £186 something! It turns out that although my usage hasn't changed I only have 500 texts and have gone over the limit! I obviously hadn't realized about this and whenever I had phoned up about the tariff, I realize now the EE operators didn't check my previous usage. This has now all gone to billing, as EE has admitted my usage is consistent with my previous usage and I shouldn't have been recommended the £8.99 tariff and I am waiting to hear back from them. However I have now been told I will get a text if I near the limit.

To me there are two separate issues - being recommended the wrong tariff for me. And now I learn that it is possible to have text warnings. As I pointed out about the latter, if EE are able to do this 1) it should do it automatically 2) it can also do this when a tariff is about to expire, advising the customer to phone about it.

I am of course gnashing my teeth because Three, Tesco, Giff Gaff and Virgin, all have £10 and less sim only deals which are less than EE mobile £11.99 plan.

matelodave

Never let anyone else do the working out - check yourself before agreeing any changes. Half the complaints on theses forums are due to people not knowing what they've signed up for and then getting bitten.

sasparillo

matelodave wrote: »

Never let anyone else do the working out - check yourself before agreeing any changes. Half the complaints on theses forums are due to people not knowing what they've signed up for and then getting bitten.

Yes, I know that now but it wasn't just "someone else". It was EE and they had access to my previous usage. And I was told that I was getting the equivalent of what I'd got before but the price had gone up. I'd already got a discount on the £8.99 because of the lack of explanation, so there has been some admission.

As I've said my usage is still consistent with my previous usage. And suddenly (although I appreciate it's a separate matter) I've been told by EE I'll get a text if my text usage approaches the maximum. But it's made me think, why don't the mobile phone companies, including EE, automatically do that in any case and also alert customers when their contract is about to expire. And I still don't know why my loyalty discount has "expired" since I'm still with EE and haven't had a break!