Pay EE 50p per call to get your call answered promptly!

baby_frogmella

I recently moved to EE from Vodafone and had to call EE support a few times to get porting issues sorted. Each time i was kept on hold for at least 50 mins before someone answered the phone. The final time i called, i chose the 'pay 50p to get your call prioritised' option and my call was answered within 10 seconds. Surely this is an illegal/immoral/nefarious practice which OFCOM should clamp down on? EE customers are already PAYING customers, EE's revenues should cover the costs of getting enough support staff to keep wait times to a minimum. Of course there will be times when long wait times are unavoidable (eg weekends) in that case, EE should take a leaf out of Vodafone's book and call back the customer without them losing their place in the queue. But to charge them 50p per call to jump the queue smacks of sheer profiteering and is very Ryanair-esque. I could understand it if the bargain basement operator Giff Gaff had such a policy but for the UK's biggest mobile operator to do this....Hopefully BT will get rid of this two tier service if/when they take over EE.

grumbler

Welcome to EE.

MSE article: EE introduces customer services queue jump

Discussion: EE customer services

baby_frogmella

Thanks grumbler. In the meantime i'll console myself with the fact that i saved a few bob on roaming charges by using their wifi calling on my iphone 6 free of charge when abroad by using a VPN.

grumbler

Don't get over-excited. O2 and Three offer wi-fi calling too.
Why did you need a VPN for this?

baby_frogmella

grumbler wrote: »

Don't get over-excited. O2 and Three offer wi-fi calling too.
Why did you need a VPN for this?

I'm not talking about an app for wifi calling (which is what O2 and three offer) and is not something new. I'm talking about native wifi calling which EE recently launched on select handsets (incl iphone 6). You need a VPN when using wifi calling abroad to fool EE into thinking you're still in the UK.

http://ee.co.uk/ee-and-me/network/wifi-calling

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/wi-fi-calling-everything-you-need-to-know-1267445

nidO

Regardless of the fact that o2 and three route their wifi calling via an app though, his point still stands that you can quite happily do wifi calling on those networks, this isn't a feature limited to EE, all they've done is get rid of the need for the app, assuming you happen to be using one of the very select phones that support it.

For the purpose of roaming, o2 and three's solution is clearly easier, as firing up their app to make your call is a lot easier than having to get hooked up to a VPN.

d123

nidO wrote: »

Regardless of the fact that o2 and three route their wifi calling via an app though, his point still stands that you can quite happily do wifi calling on those networks, this isn't a feature limited to EE, all they've done is get rid of the need for the app, assuming you happen to be using one of the very select phones that support it.

For the purpose of roaming, o2 and three's solution is clearly easier, as firing up their app to make your call is a lot easier than having to get hooked up to a VPN.

It is a feature limited to EE at present, the others offer wifi calling via a separate app at present, but Three at least, has already announced they will launch proper native wifi calling by year end.

You are also a little confused, the VPN is to mask the fact you aren't in the UK and would still be needed if using the Three InTouch app if abroad as it also officially a UK only app.

Perhaps a little further research into the benefits of built in WifiCalling and the negatives of using an app (and how they work) is in order before posting inaccuracies again?

nidO

d123 wrote: »

You are also a little confused, the VPN is to mask the fact you aren't in the UK and would still be needed if using the Three InTouch app if abroad as it also officially a UK only app.

Perhaps a little further research into the benefits of built in WifiCalling and the negatives of using an app (and how they work) is in order before posting inaccuracies again?

Thank you for your un-necessarily childish and patronising tone but i'm fully aware of the fact that the use of a VPN with EE is to mask the fact that you're abroad, i'm not sure why you would believe from my post that i'm not aware of this.

This is a requirement that neither the Three or O2 apps have, as they both work abroad (the Three app originally did not work from non-UK connections but no longer has this limitation, or at the very least works fine from countries that're part of Three's Feel at Home program, I haven't recently explicitly tested using it from outside of these countries).

Therefore perhaps you would like to grace me with your infinite wisdom and describe exactly how these apps work (beyond achieving exactly the same as EE's wifi calling, but via 1 whole extra screen tap, and working anywhere, on pretty much any phone) in the way I seem to be oh-so-obviously missing?

MikeWhite

d123 wrote: »

You are also a little confused, the VPN is to mask the fact you aren't in the UK and would still be needed if using the Three InTouch app if abroad as it also officially a UK only app.

Don't forget Virgin Smartcall:

"Using SmartCall abroad

You can use SmartCall wherever you have WiFi access, including outside the UK. So, you can make SmartCalls to any number in your home talk plan from abroad. You just need to remember that your inclusive calls are set according to UK time."

nidO

MikeWhite wrote: »

Don't forget Virgin Smartcall:

"Using SmartCall abroad

You can use SmartCall wherever you have WiFi access, including outside the UK. So, you can make SmartCalls to any number in your home talk plan from abroad. You just need to remember that your inclusive calls are set according to UK time."

I suppose if we're going to be all-inclusive we have to add BT to the list as well, their SmartTalk wifi calling app works perfectly well abroad without the use of a VPN connection to the UK as well.

baby_frogmella

nidO wrote: »

Thank you for your un-necessarily childish and patronising tone but i'm fully aware of the fact that the use of a VPN with EE is to mask the fact that you're abroad, i'm not sure why you would believe from my post that i'm not aware of this.

This is a requirement that neither the Three or O2 apps have, as they both work abroad (the Three app originally did not work from non-UK connections but no longer has this limitation, or at the very least works fine from countries that're part of Three's Feel at Home program, I haven't recently explicitly tested using it from outside of these countries).

Therefore perhaps you would like to grace me with your infinite wisdom and describe exactly how these apps work (beyond achieving exactly the same as EE's wifi calling, but via 1 whole extra screen tap, and working anywhere, on pretty much any phone) in the way I seem to be oh-so-obviously missing?

One major advantage of built-in wifi calling over a wifi app is that once VoLTE goes live on EE (~Sept 2015) calls can be transferred without interruption between the two. Wifi apps are a temporary solution, all networks will eventually adopt native wifi calling.