EE Treating Customers as Fair Game

MOgilby

I have just realised I am paying nearly full price on my kids' mobiles despite their compulsory contracts finishing last August.  EE is ripping me off by still charging me virtually the full price, £28 per phone. A comparable SIM only deal is £10 per month. That amounts to over £350 overpayment in the last 10 months. Shocking way to treat customers. I've also just found out the reminder that their contracts were coming to an end, was sent to THEIR phones and being kids they of course didn't know the significance. I have complained to EE, but they don't seem to want to accept any responsibility. Of course, strictly speaking they havent done anything legally wrong, but other companies' contracts are not set up this way and EE know fine rightly this will catch people out. This is bad business practice and puts ALL responsibility on the customer to monitor the contract. Yes, I took  my eye off the ball and legally EE don't have to to take responsibility, but that doesn't stop EE from acting in bad faith. Making your cutomers 'fair game' is bad business. Does anyone know if I can get this money back somehow? Thanks.

Neil_Jones

MOgilby said:

I have just realised I am paying nearly full price on my kids' mobiles despite their compulsory contracts finishing last August.  EE is ripping me off by still charging me virtually the full price, £28 per phone. A comparable SIM only deal is £10 per month. That amounts to over £350 overpayment in the last 10 months. Shocking way to treat customers. I've also just found out the reminder that their contracts were coming to an end, was sent to THEIR phones and being kids they of course didn't know the significance. I have complained to EE, but they don't seem to want to accept any responsibility. Of course, strictly speaking they havent done anything legally wrong, but other companies' contracts are not set up this way and EE know fine rightly this will catch people out. This is bad business practice and puts ALL responsibility on the customer to monitor the contract. Yes, I took  my eye off the ball and legally EE don't have to to take responsibility, but that doesn't stop EE from acting in bad faith. Making your cutomers 'fair game' is bad business. Does anyone know if I can get this money back somehow? Thanks.

The answer to your question will almost certainly be no. It's not EE's problem you didn't renew the contracts onto new deals at the time because you've "only just realised" ten months later.

It has always been the case that the customer is responsible for ensuring they are on the right deal for them and if they don't renew it and end up paying full whack, that's their problem.

And I think you'll find most communication providers work this way.

MOgilby

Actually no, the last 2 providers I have had automatically reverted to the SIM only charge after the mandatory contract period - that is good and fair business practice. You've missed the point about the difference between what is legal and what is good and ethical business practice. 

Neil_Jones

MOgilby said:

Actually no, the last 2 providers I have had automatically reverted to the SIM only charge after the mandatory contract period - that is good and fair business practice. You've missed the point about the difference between what is legal and what is good and ethical business practice. 

Doesn't change the basic fact though that it took you ten months to notice in the first place...

sully1311

MOgilby said:

I have just realised I am paying nearly full price on my kids' mobiles despite their compulsory contracts finishing last August.  EE is ripping me off by still charging me virtually the full price, £28 per phone. A comparable SIM only deal is £10 per month. That amounts to over £350 overpayment in the last 10 months. Shocking way to treat customers. I've also just found out the reminder that their contracts were coming to an end, was sent to THEIR phones and being kids they of course didn't know the significance. I have complained to EE, but they don't seem to want to accept any responsibility. Of course, strictly speaking they havent done anything legally wrong, but other companies' contracts are not set up this way and EE know fine rightly this will catch people out. This is bad business practice and puts ALL responsibility on the customer to monitor the contract. Yes, I took  my eye off the ball and legally EE don't have to to take responsibility, but that doesn't stop EE from acting in bad faith. Making your cutomers 'fair game' is bad business. Does anyone know if I can get this money back somehow? Thanks.

Simple answer to this question is no, you won't get your money back. 

EE do split contracts (where you pay for the phone and network service separately) however I believe you can only sign up to these via telesales. 

MOgilby

Neil_Jones said:

MOgilby said:

Actually no, the last 2 providers I have had automatically reverted to the SIM only charge after the mandatory contract period - that is good and fair business practice. You've missed the point about the difference between what is legal and what is good and ethical business practice. 

Doesn't change the basic fact though that it took you ten months to notice in the first place...

That's right, I took my eye off the ball, as I acknowledged in my first post. I've had a lot on my plate lately. That doesn't change the fact that EE deliberately have this baked in to their policy, knowing full well they are overcharging. It's shady to say the least. But lesson learned, I will never be a customer EE again. I don't expect a company to shaft me just because I'm not all over something.

eDicky

MOgilby said:

I've also just found out the reminder that their contracts were coming to an end, was sent to THEIR phones and being kids they of course didn't know the significance.

Where would you expect the reminder to be sent to, other than the relevant phone number? The agreed contract continues as before until cancelled or ported away from, as is usual, your being unaware of that is hardly EE's responsibility.

Neil_Jones

MOgilby said:

Neil_Jones said:

MOgilby said:

Actually no, the last 2 providers I have had automatically reverted to the SIM only charge after the mandatory contract period - that is good and fair business practice. You've missed the point about the difference between what is legal and what is good and ethical business practice. 

Doesn't change the basic fact though that it took you ten months to notice in the first place...

That's right, I took my eye off the ball, as I acknowledged in my first post. I've had a lot on my plate lately. That doesn't change the fact that EE deliberately have this baked in to their policy, knowing full well they are overcharging. It's shady to say the least. But lesson learned, I will never be a customer EE again. I don't expect a company to shaft me just because I'm not all over something.

They are not "overcharging".  It's almost certainly out of contract/full price, which doesn't make it "shady" and you would have agreed to happened when you joined, its probably in the T&Cs and you go onto a rolling contract.  That's normal because the alternative is to say we'll give you x, y, z for 18 months and then we'll cut you off regardless.

Doing the latter would just cause problems all over the place and so the default position for many years has been to fall onto a rolling contract in the assumption that the customer still wants the service - and if they don't they need to intervene/say that they don't want it either by cancelling, by switching or by speaking to them.  This applies to all manner of services and providers.

MOgilby

Neil_Jones said:

MOgilby said:

Neil_Jones said:

MOgilby said:

Actually no, the last 2 providers I have had automatically reverted to the SIM only charge after the mandatory contract period - that is good and fair business practice. You've missed the point about the difference between what is legal and what is good and ethical business practice. 

Doesn't change the basic fact though that it took you ten months to notice in the first place...

That's right, I took my eye off the ball, as I acknowledged in my first post. I've had a lot on my plate lately. That doesn't change the fact that EE deliberately have this baked in to their policy, knowing full well they are overcharging. It's shady to say the least. But lesson learned, I will never be a customer EE again. I don't expect a company to shaft me just because I'm not all over something.

They are not "overcharging".  It's almost certainly out of contract/full price, which doesn't make it "shady" and you would have agreed to happened when you joined, its probably in the T&Cs and you go onto a rolling contract.  That's normal because the alternative is to say we'll give you x, y, z for 18 months and then we'll cut you off regardless.

Doing the latter would just cause problems all over the place and so the default position for many years has been to fall onto a rolling contract in the assumption that the customer still wants the service - and if they don't they need to intervene/say that they don't want it either by cancelling, by switching or by speaking to them.  This applies to all manner of services and providers.

They are overcharging. Other companies revert to the SIM only charge on the rolling contract. And just because it's in the T&Cs doesn't make it bad business practice.

MOgilby

eDicky said:

MOgilby said:

I've also just found out the reminder that their contracts were coming to an end, was sent to THEIR phones and being kids they of course didn't know the significance.

Where would you expect the reminder to be sent to, other than the relevant phone number? The agreed contract continues as before until cancelled or ported away from, as is usual, your being unaware of that is hardly EE's responsibility.

I would expect it to be sent to me, the bill payer.

Neil_Jones

MOgilby said:

Neil_Jones said:

They are not "overcharging".  It's almost certainly out of contract/full price, which doesn't make it "shady" and you would have agreed to happened when you joined, its probably in the T&Cs and you go onto a rolling contract.  That's normal because the alternative is to say we'll give you x, y, z for 18 months and then we'll cut you off regardless.

Doing the latter would just cause problems all over the place and so the default position for many years has been to fall onto a rolling contract in the assumption that the customer still wants the service - and if they don't they need to intervene/say that they don't want it either by cancelling, by switching or by speaking to them.  This applies to all manner of services and providers.

They are overcharging. Other companies revert to the SIM only charge on the rolling contract. And just because it's in the T&Cs doesn't make it bad business practice.

What other companies do at this stage is irrelevant to this discussion.  Its what EE do (or don't do as the case may be) is what you need to look at, and your contract is with them so that's what you've agreed would happen.  If you didn't read your T&Cs then that's not EE's fault.  But that's your contract and if it says we will continue to charge you full/out of contract price until you advise us otherwise, that's what will happen.  And that is probably what has happened.