EE/Orange/T-Mobile - Reclaim ALL price rises AND cancel contract re T&C change

RandomCurve

PLEASE BE AWARE OF TEH BELOW. This is a Gross breach of contract AND breaks the unsolicited goods and services act. Include it in your CISAS case if this happens to you.




If in your communication with EE you at any point get a message from the Executive office, with words to the effect of:

To prevent you contacting our Customer Services Team, I have taken the opportunity to provide your PAC below for both of your numbers.

No: 07xxxxxxxxx & 07xxxxxxxxx
PAC: Oxxxxxxx
Expiration Date: 07/09/2014

As advised, should you use the PAC provided above, early termination charges will be applied to your following bill.

CALL EE IMMEDIATELY - I got this on a few days ago (9th August), emailed them to say I would not be using it (i made it very clear in my email) but didn't have a chance to call.

Today i have had my account suspended for exceeding my credit limit (there isn't a chance with EE my data is capped at 2gig and i get reminders, any everything else is unlimited) and are holding me to a £220 ransom to get my account unlocked.

RandomCurve

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RandomCurve

As promised on the EE.T-Mob.Orange. Change T&C From 26th March 2014 thread:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...88862&page=103
And Mobile Phone Contract - Price Rise Refunds Thread:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...818999&page=71


This new thread is to launch a NEW campaign with the following aims:

• To have all sums paid over and above your original contract price under the price variation clauses refunded
• To have contrast cancelled PENALTY free (from 30 days after you first contact EE/Orange/T-Mobile

and as a side issue

• Try and get Ofcom to take some action!

• On the first aim we have won cases in the past (I have 100% record in my own cases, we have a 75% success ate overall) and during March this year EE have effectively admitted that their price variation clause in contacts before 26th March was unenforceable! - so I expect a very high success rate
• On the second aim we have a 97% success rate BUT that was on claims made within the 30 day claim limit - success on this is dependant on proving that EE have not used correct procedure when notifying the change in T&Cs - if we get past that hurdle than another 97% success rate should be possible!

The side issue - OFCOM have consistently sided with EE even when consumers have won 97% of cases heard by adjudicators trained in Telecommunications/Contract matters. No matter what evidence is produced to show OFCOM should be taking action they "ignore it". So my hope here is that if enough people send them emails (copying in the media) eventually a media outlet will pick up on the story and OFCOM will be shamed into action. - you can help by sending email "Ofcom FMI-5-x" from the following site:
http://fightmobileincreases.com/pressure-ofcom/

In addition to refund and cancellation, depending on how EE respond we may also be able to obtain some compensation for EEs behaviour (£50-£100 being typical amounts).

I will post details later on what needs to be done, but rest assured this is RISK FREE and costs you NOTHING! and for the aim of having previous price rises refunded - you do not even need to still have a contract!!

RandomCurve

I should say right up front that I have no legal training, and any action you take from my posts is at your own risk. However that risk should be ZERO as the cost of following the advice is ZERO and the worst that can happen is that you do not obtain the refund or contract cancellation.

I will refer to EE, Orange and T-Mobile collectively as EE (Oh my God I’m sounding like an EE contract – heeeelp)

The steps you need to take are as follows, I am assuming that EE will be true to form and try to dismiss your claims –which works to your advantage in the long as it is EEs responses to initial emails that generates the case for compensation.


Step 1

• Email EE requesting a refund of all sums taken over and above the originally agreed contract price (applies to all contracts – even those that have finished)
• And if applicable – Contract cancellation due to the change in T&Cs effective 26th March (contract cancellation is not applicable to those whose contracts ended before 26th March 2014 OR T-Mobile customers on V58 of the contract (contracts stared pre 30th October 2012)).
• EE will probably respond with a polite "No" and quote some legal jargon regarding GC 9.6.

Step 2

• Email EE restating your position and request that they send you a deadlock letter so that you can take a case to CISAS (the independent adjudication service) Again I will provide a standard Email for you to use.
• At this point EE will either:
• Still attempt to ignore you – in which case I will supply further template emails
• Provide a deadlock reference (they usually need to be “harassed” 3 or 4 times before grudgingly saying that they will not communicate further (which acts as a deadlock reference anyway)) OR
• (And I’m 99% sure this won’ happen) EE will give in and process your refund/cancellation or both.
• Assuming EE will not comply with regulation without a CISAS decision then we need to move to step 3

Step 3

• I will post a statement (claim) for you to email to the adjudicator
• EE will submit a response (defence) to the adjudicator
• you then respond to that defence (again I will provide a standard email) It is vital you respond to the defence as the adjudicators take everything that EE will say as being factually correct – even when it is not! So you have to discredit their arguments or you will lose!)
• The adjudicator makes their decision - you win or you lose.

If you lose than you have lost a little of your time sending some emails, but you would have also learned a little about consumer law - and will see for yourself how weak and ineffectual Ofcom is. But more importantly you can feel happy that by taking EE to CISAS you have cost them around £300 – which is more than they were ever going to get off of you on their price rises!

If you win you will be a few quid better off than you were before (better the money is in your pocket than the Mobile companies fat cat directors bonus)! But more than that you would have come away feeling the elation of hitting back at EE who so smugly told you that you could not escape the price increase and that it is “only equivalent to the cost of a can of beans”.

And if you think that it is not worth fighting for relatively small sums of money then remember that the 2013 price increase for EE is estimated to be worth £52,000,000 (yes £52 MILLION). So if you don't need/want the money then when you win donate it to a local children's hospice or some other worthy cause because they need it more than phone companies!
Here is my suggestion: http://www.havenhouse.org.uk/

And if you are also in the position of cancelling a contact then you will be saving a good sum of cash each month by switching to a SIM only deal

RandomCurve

First of all a big THANK YOU to MSE for "reserving" the first 32 posts for me. The intention is that I will post the relevant emails, CISAS case and Defence responses in these posts as we go through the process so they are easy to find! I will still "join the debate" in the posts below #32.


An important document that EE may have sent you that will almost guarantee a victory in reclaiming your previous price increase is available on the FightMobileIncreases.com website ( http://fightmobileincreases.com/complete-camapaign-against-ee/ ), it is the document titled "Clearly and ad ex 21" (Clearly and adequately explained). This was the document which I presented as evidence to CISAS that had my price increases refunded AND £50 compensation awarded as it was deemed to be so misleading.
Basically for the price variation clause to be enforceable it needs to have been "clearly and Adequately" drawn to your attention. As you will see the "welcome Letter" claims to show the important points in my contract so that "..there are no surprises..." and guess what - no mention of a price variation clause. If you have a similar document you have as good as won the refund already!


If anybody more technically skilled than me wants to post that document on the MSE forum please feel free to do so.

RandomCurve

Okay the first email to send to EE. I have kept it brief as we will develop the argumenst as we progress, this is partly to give EE some room to come up with excuses which can use to against them to claim compensation

Update the Green text to suit you circumstances and delete the RED text if you do not have a welcome letter (see post #37). Do not delete the rest of point one unless the price variation WAS clearly and adequately drawn to your attention. The Welcome letter is merely documented proof - there is plenty of other evidence we can use too!

Send to:[EMAIL="executive.office@ee.co.uk"]executive.office@ee.co.uk[/EMAIL]; [EMAIL="Olaf.Swantee@ee.co.uk"]Olaf.Swantee@ee.co.uk[/EMAIL]

DATE:
Phone Number(s) 07XXX-XXXXXX

Dear Mr Swantee

Price Rise Refunds and Penalty Free Cancellation.

The purpose of this email is twofold

1. To request the all sums taken from my account which are over and above the originally agreed contract price are refunded for any price increase that has been applied to any contract that I have held with EE at any time over the six years. My request is based on my belief that the price variation clause which EE have relied upon would fail the test of fairness under several headings of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations1999 (UTCCRs) the list below is not exhaustive:
1 The price variation clause was not clearly and adequately bought to my attention at point of sale (see attached welcome letter);
2 the price variation clause is not narrowly nor precisely defined
3 due to the constituent elements of the contract an RPI increase cannot be a true reflection of cost increases incurred by EE, and therefore the price increase has been used to suit EEs own needs which is strictly forbidden under the UTCCRs
5 the price clause is discretionary – there is no reason given in the contract as to the circumstances in which a price rise can be applied
6 EE cannot pass the risk burden of inflation to me in a short term contract
7 EE have informed Ofcom that they can predict future cost increase with some certainty - I therefore have no way of knowing what inflationary factors were already taken of account of.

2. Secondly I request that this email is deemed as my 30 day notice period for a Penalty Free contract cancellation following EEs change in T&Cs which was effective 26 March 2014. As the change clearly purports to give EE the right to increase my contract price by a larger amount than was previously the case (Exclusive use of RPI in the new contract rather than lower inflation rates such as CPI as was the case previously) and therefore under both the UTCCRs and Ofcom GC 9.6 I am entitled to cancel my contract penalty free and I request a PAC code is provided by return. I would further point out that I believe the notification received via text of the change in T&Cs is so misleading in its phrasing that the true implication of the change was not clearly and adequately bought to my attention and is evidence of EE not applying the level of duty of care expected from a company of its size and experience and demonstrates a lack of operating in a sprit of Good Faith.

Please refund all sums taken over and above the originally agreed contract price under your price variation clause, and provide a PAC code (Penalty Free) for my use within the next 30 days.


Regards

RandomCurve

I have posted various versions of EE T&Cs on the FightMobileIncreases.com website for ease of reference, plus details of the notification of the change in T&Cs and a table showing al price increase the have been applied.
http://fightmobileincreases.com/figh...nd-conditions/


Email 1 is also available to download:
http://fightmobileincreases.com/figh...gn-against-ee/