Roaming charges - EE are trying to rob me!

jimjiber

I went to Australia on September 17th of this year and got back home on October 5th. Before I went I paid for two roaming add-ons to avoid insane charges.

One was for 60 global roaming minutes at £10 and the other was for 250 "Anywhere Texts", also for £10. These extras were added to my September bill on the 20th and and came out of my account on September 28th.

When I got back, I cancelled the two add-ons, as instructed by the online chat, otherwise they would automatically renew and I would have paid for useless add-ons (not many of us are on rolling holidays!).

Imagine my surprise when my latest bill came through with £24.40 of charges outside of my contract, for texts I made while in Australia!

I chatted online again and someone checked my account. They said they could see no evidence of me ever having the 250 texts from anywhere add-on. I could see it clearly on the pdf bill for September. The next advisor I chatted to admitted it was there and said they would get the bill recalculated.

I just got a text to say they had recalculated and the charges were correct!

What should I do next? I am guessing cancel the standing order with my bank and contact the ombudsman??

:mad:

grumbler

I guess it's a Direct Debit, not a Standing Order. Cancel it if you want a missed payment reported to the CRAs and later, possibly, a default.

Before going to the ombusman you have to exhaust EE internal complaints procedure. Do this in writing, not over a phone.

NiftyDigits

How many texts did you send? Some people write long texts and are then surprised when it they are charged for multiple text messages. Where there pictures contained in the messages?

reddwarf2002

Some phones automatically convert long text messages into picture messages. If you bought a text pack it would not cover the picture messages. You need to clarify with EE what it is you have been charged for and why your add-ons were not taken into account.

jimjiber

No long texts and certainly no photos. I paid up front for 250 global texts and used about 100.

They are basically saying that because I cancelled the addon when I got back it never existed. Even though they told me I had to do that to stop it auto renewing!

What a joke system.

tyllwyd

Maybe the add ons got added for September and paid for in September, but that expired at the end of September and you needed a new add on for October, but you cancelled it?

jimjiber

I think this is what has happened. My billing cycle ends/begins on 19th of each month. I started the addons on the 15th or 16th of September as I was flying out on the 17th. This is what the guy on the chat told me to do. He said I would pay a percentage of each addon for what was left of that cycle and then they would renew automatically.

That's what it looks like on my bill for September. Totally as I expected. I then said to him that I don't want them to auto-renew when the next cycle came around on October 19th, as I would be back in UK on the 5th October. He told me I had to cancel the addons when I got back, to stop them auto-renewing.

I actually asked if it would be easier for him to set it to not auto-renew, just in case I forgot, but he said it was not possible on their system (how convenient).

So I did as instructed and cancelled both addons once I was back in the country - I had a note on my calendar and everything.

And now all this hassle...

reddwarf2002

Ok, so what you need to do now is lodge a formal complaint and ask them to listen to call if it has been recorded. If you've followed their advise and something has gone wrong you shouldn't be expected to foot the bill.

grumbler

tyllwyd wrote: »

Maybe the add ons got added for September and paid for in September, but that expired at the end of September and you needed a new add on for October, but you cancelled it?

jimjiber wrote: »

I think this is what has happened.

https://ee.co.uk/content/dam/ee-help/Help-PDFs/EE-PAYM-ADD-ONS-24-MONTH-PLANS.pdf

Add-ons seem to be charged pro-rata for billing months. If so, the allowances most likely aply pro-rata too, that can explain extra charges.

Are you sure that it was the full amount in the bill?

jimjiber

Yes, the add-ons are definitely charged pro-rata, so on my September bill there was a small charge for a day or two of each add-on, then a full charge for the following month.

It is way more complicated than it needs to be. Why can't I just pay for 250 global texts to use as and when I please? Same with the roaming minutes.

simax

You can add an add-on at any time. The charge will be pro-rata on the next bill but you will always get the full allowance, so even if you add the 250 text add-on 3 days before the bill date, you will get the full 250 text allowance even though you are charged for 3 days. This changed in the spring.