EE contract cancellation

ivington

Hi, there.

I took out an 18 month contract with EE back in about 15th February 2020 for mobile broadband. So near the end of the contract I wanted to make sure it wasn't extended.

However, because it was a mobile broadband contract it was not an easy task to contact EE to cancel because I was not aware of any actual phone number I could quote them and without a mobile number the telephone system would just not allow me to speak to an advisor. Anyway, eventually on the 2nd August 2021 I was able to use the chat service via their website and cancel. During the chat, which I still have a transcript of sent to me by EE, I specifically asked if there would be any additional charges beyond when my contract was due to expire and was told 'there will not be any cancellation fee.' As I wasn't aware of their 30 day cancellation policy at the time I believed that meant that I would not have to pay anything extra beyond my last of the 18 months payments that I had made on the 14th of July 2021. So, for me that was the end of it. I even recall having some kind of conversation (not sure how) along similar lines where I asked if everything was settled and was told, yes it was. The reason I recall this was because I remember asking about the mobile broadband device that I still had and asking them if they would need it back and being told it was not necessary.

Anyway, fast forward to about 3 weeks ago, with absolutely no contact from EE during this time regarding any outstanding balance and I receive a letter from them along with an additional letter in the same envelop from a debt collection agency for £24.29. In other words, over a whole year later. So I have contacted the debt agency on 2 occasions. The 2nd time being today and have now discovered that they extended my contract beyond the expiry date, until 02 September 2021, because of this 30 day cancellation clause.
Am I in any position to dispute this because of the online chat I had with one of their helpline staff members, and also because of the lack of any kind of contact from them to inform me of said outstanding balance?

I am able to provide the online chat transcript if that would help.

Thanks in advance.

Peter

tightauldgit

If your contract says you have a 30 day notice period and you gave them the notice less than 30 days from the end of your contract then you have to pay whatever is owed for the additional days you were connected to the service in line with the terms of your contract. 

Why have they not been able to contact you for a year to bill you? Did you change address/email address? Did you cancel your DD?

If they've added fees to the bill because of late payment then you might be able to query them but with regards the actual connection fees I think you will need to pay it unless you want to take the chance that they wont bother pursuing you for £20 odd quid.

ivington

No idea why there was zero contact in a year. Have not moved and they definitely had my address as they were able to send me the letter along with the debt collectors letter.

Yes, I did cancel my DD, but that was after talking to them after my final payment had been taken and I was advised to do so by them, if I recall.

As for the 30 days notice period. It seems a rather rigged game because you cannot cancel more than 30 days prior to your contract ending or you will incur charges anyway even if you want to leave early. Therefore you have to be in touch with them bang on the 30 days to go, otherwise you are going to incur charges either way, and like I said, I found it a real struggle to find out the exact day my contract ended because I had no way of getting access to this information. I still don't know the exact date it ended.

Also, my credit score has tanked. Presumably because of this and the fact I was not made aware of the situation for a whole year.

born_again

Credit score is a meaningless figure made up by CRA's. Lenders do not see it. 

eskbanker

ivington said:

As for the 30 days notice period. It seems a rather rigged game because you cannot cancel more than 30 days prior to your contract ending or you will incur charges anyway even if you want to leave early. Therefore you have to be in touch with them bang on the 30 days to go, otherwise you are going to incur charges either way

Surely you can give them more than 30 days notice, i.e. contact them more than 30 days before expiry of the contracted minimum period, advising that you don't wish to continue beyond that?

ivington said:

I found it a real struggle to find out the exact day my contract ended because I had no way of getting access to this information. I still don't know the exact date it ended.

How did they issue you with the contract in the first place, i.e. was it paper or email, and what happened to that?

ivington

born_again said:

Credit score is a meaningless figure made up by CRA's. Lenders do not see it. 

Are you sure? Earlier this year I could have easily borrowed thousands of pounds with just a few clicks. A couple of months ago I tried to borrow just 50 pounds and it was declined.

ivington

eskbanker said:

ivington said:

As for the 30 days notice period. It seems a rather rigged game because you cannot cancel more than 30 days prior to your contract ending or you will incur charges anyway even if you want to leave early. Therefore you have to be in touch with them bang on the 30 days to go, otherwise you are going to incur charges either way

Surely you can give them more than 30 days notice, i.e. contact them more than 30 days before expiry of the contracted minimum period, advising that you don't wish to continue beyond that?

ivington said:

I found it a real struggle to find out the exact day my contract ended because I had no way of getting access to this information. I still don't know the exact date it ended.

How did they issue you with the contract in the first place, i.e. was it paper or email, and what happened to that?

Yes you probably can give more than 30 days notice. However, I was blissfully unaware that this could even be a problem. I have cancelled various contracts over the years without any additional charges, regardless of when the contracts were cancelled. This is the first time that I have been caught out when it comes to cancelling anything, because I failed to realise they had a 30 day notice period in their Ts & Cs.

Bear in mind that I do have a transcript record that EE emailed to me of an online chat with one of their support team and I specifically asked if I there would be any additional charges once my contract ends. However, the support person was very clever in their response. They did not say there would be no additional charges. They said there would be no cancellation fees, which unfortunately for me, I took as there would be no additional charges.

As for setting it up. Everything was done via the internet and email. Unfortunately, seeing as the contract had long been terminated I thought it was finally safe to delete those emails. Towards the last couple of months of the contract I tried many attempts to go online to see if I could log into my account, but it kept asking for an EE phone number which, because it was a mobile broadband account I did not have a clue as to what that number could be.  The same when it came to trying to phone them. There was nothing attached to any of the email correspondence that provided that info.

However, I am pretty sure I did eventually get to talk to someone because I distinctly recall asking what was to be done with the broadband router and being told that I could keep it. And during that conversation I am sure I was told to cancel my DD just to be on the safe side now that the final payment had been taken. 

paulttt

Nobody should be putting up with this kind of mess around anymore. Nor should anyone "need" to contact the provider.

For future reference, all you need to do is the following


https://www.carphonewarehouse.com/switchinginfo

On a mobile broadband sim, putting the sim card in a phone would suffice 

born_again

ivington said:

born_again said:

Credit score is a meaningless figure made up by CRA's. Lenders do not see it. 

Are you sure? Earlier this year I could have easily borrowed thousands of pounds with just a few clicks. A couple of months ago I tried to borrow just 50 pounds and it was declined.

That maybe due to missed payment (credit History) Score & History are 2 totally different things. One is factual (History) the other is a fairy tale (Score) Or how else can experian offer to Boost your score?
Given the current situation many people who could get loans before are not now... lenders have lost their appetite for risk. Especially for someone wanting a small amount.

littleboo

paulttt said:

Nobody should be putting up with this kind of mess around anymore. Nor should anyone "need" to contact the provider.

For future reference, all you need to do is the following


https://www.carphonewarehouse.com/switchinginfo

On a mobile broadband sim, putting the sim card in a phone would suffice 

The link is for switching providers, the OP was seemingly just wanted to cancel the service. 

ivington

Anyway, I still have their original router in perfect condition and after a bit of research last night, discovered that selling one of these unlocked, which I did in less than 15 minutes as well, can go for a few quid, offsetting the nearly 25 that they are saying I owe them. So I'll brush myself off and be a bit wiser next time. Making sure I double-check all the small print when it comes to contract cancellation in the future.

Thanks to all those who posted advice.