EE broadband- no, just no!Aaaargh!

Mrs_Ryan

Just a rant. It probably won't achieve much but it will make me feel better
I switched from EE broadband to Sky in late May- a family member got me a good deal.
Just after I supplied Sky with all the info, I got a call from EE asking me why I wanted to cancel and I explained why. They were fine with this and said ok they would get my account cancelled. I also cancelled the DD at my bank after the last payment had gone.
Sky went live as planned and all was fine until a couple of weeks ago I got an automated call which said I hadn't paid my bill. Naturally I was confused so I rang them- this is where the problems begin.
I have mental health problems and telephone calls for me are difficult, particularly if it's a man who answers. (To do with my PTSD) normally if that's the case I either hang up or ask to speak to a female colleague but I had waited ages to get through and was quite worked up so I went ahead. I first said I had a MAC code (I had switched from BT originally with one and just got mixed up) that turned out not to be the case- ok, fair enough. I explained to him that I have mental health problems and just to be patient with me. Normally that isn't an issue but to this one guy it was. He was very aggressive and kept repeating over me 'you said you had a MAC code. You didn't. Now you have to pay and we will keep ringing you until you do.' I was getting more and more distressed and was crying. He was so aggressive and horrible I hung up on him without getting anywhere. He kept calling me a liar basically.
I rang the next day and spoke to someone else, once again I explained but this time was different. He said that I didn't owe anything actually, the DD was cancelled and he would get someone to call me back regarding the behaviour of the previous person (no one rang surprise surprise)
I just happened to check my account to find that someone (I think I have a fairly good idea who) has re-activated the DD and attempted to take £48 which has bounced and therefore I will get charged! This was after being assured the DD was cancelled and I had cancelled it at the bank!
I'm having issues with an old phone account with EE as well and they have to be the most incompetent, cold, disrespectful company I have ever come across. I note MSE publicised an offer to switch to them recently but obviously aren't aware of EE's painful levels of total incompetence... :mad:

macman

If you cancelled the DD at the bank then only you can reactivate it. If the bank have subsequently made an unauthorised DD payment, then invoke the DD guranteee and they must immediately refund you.

MataNui

macman wrote: »

If you cancelled the DD at the bank then only you can reactivate it.

This bit isnt quite true. What can happen is the DD can go through with a slightly different reference number so the bank processes it as usual. I got confused with my car insurance policy one year. It was the first time i had encountered an auto-renew policy and i hadnt realized. I cancelled the DD after the last payment thinking that was the end of it. The insurance company auto-renewed and took another DD. The bank basically said once you give authorisation for a DD there is NOTHING you can do to stop that company debiting money, you only cancel the DD with the active reference which doesnt always work as some companies will use a different ref no if its an annual thing. You can of course claim it back and its a virtual instant refund but you can t actually prevent them doing it again with a different reference.

Pincher

This is why I usually pay annual auto-renewal insurance using credit cards used for stoozing, and so are marked for cancellation. By the way, the Costco Amex Annual Travel Insurance auto-renews.

I was tempted to go for the EE deal through MSE two weeks ago, but I'm still in contract. It does look as if EE will simply repeat the same deal to entrap more customers, so MSE will do another deal when I come out of contract. So switch with a MAC code to EE, get the Amazon voucher, but set up the DD using a sacrificial TESCO current account. Next year, get a MAC to switch, cancel the DD, and move the TESCO account to Nationwide as a FlexDirect for the 5% interest. Let's see how they re-open the DD, then. Hehehe.

EE

Mrs_Ryan wrote: »

Just a rant. It probably won't achieve much but it will make me feel better
I switched from EE broadband to Sky in late May- a family member got me a good deal.
Just after I supplied Sky with all the info, I got a call from EE asking me why I wanted to cancel and I explained why. They were fine with this and said ok they would get my account cancelled. I also cancelled the DD at my bank after the last payment had gone.
Sky went live as planned and all was fine until a couple of weeks ago I got an automated call which said I hadn't paid my bill. Naturally I was confused so I rang them- this is where the problems begin.
I have mental health problems and telephone calls for me are difficult, particularly if it's a man who answers. (To do with my PTSD) normally if that's the case I either hang up or ask to speak to a female colleague but I had waited ages to get through and was quite worked up so I went ahead. I first said I had a MAC code (I had switched from BT originally with one and just got mixed up) that turned out not to be the case- ok, fair enough. I explained to him that I have mental health problems and just to be patient with me. Normally that isn't an issue but to this one guy it was. He was very aggressive and kept repeating over me 'you said you had a MAC code. You didn't. Now you have to pay and we will keep ringing you until you do.' I was getting more and more distressed and was crying. He was so aggressive and horrible I hung up on him without getting anywhere. He kept calling me a liar basically.
I rang the next day and spoke to someone else, once again I explained but this time was different. He said that I didn't owe anything actually, the DD was cancelled and he would get someone to call me back regarding the behaviour of the previous person (no one rang surprise surprise)
I just happened to check my account to find that someone (I think I have a fairly good idea who) has re-activated the DD and attempted to take £48 which has bounced and therefore I will get charged! This was after being assured the DD was cancelled and I had cancelled it at the bank!
I'm having issues with an old phone account with EE as well and they have to be the most incompetent, cold, disrespectful company I have ever come across. I note MSE publicised an offer to switch to them recently but obviously aren't aware of EE's painful levels of total incompetence... :mad:

Hi Mrs Ryan

Sorry to hear you had some issues with EE Home Broadband.

I will ask MSE to contact you privately to ask for some information, so that we can contact you directly to resolve any outstanding issues.

Again we apologise for any upset or inconvenience caused
Thank you
Jade- Representing EE