EE falsely told me final bill was paid - worth going to the Ombudsman or not?

Cherryx

Thank you for all of your responses and for anyone reading this or who is in a similar situation.

I’ve continued going back and forth with EE over this as they replied to some emails today from yesterday.. most not very good, some even a bit rude. But at the end of today a very kind woman from their credit reference department reviewed my emails and screenshots and immediately fixed the issue despite 3 others from her department saying there was nothing they could do as this was in a deadlock. My credit file has now been amended, which I’m very relieved about.

That said, I am still left feeling uneasy. It took multiple attempts and several weeks to get this resolved, despite my screenshots clearly showing the balance as paid and obviously very misleading. There was no apology or explanation for why their system showed it as paid when it wasn’t, and several of the earlier responses I received from EE were quite dismissive with no advice or help offered.

I’m still considering escalating to the Ombudsman — not because I’m chasing compensation, but because I think this is a serious process failure. If I hadn’t spotted this on my credit file myself, the missed payment markers could easily have escalated to a default and even a CCJ, which would have been catastrophic for me as a freelancer. I imagine there must be others in the same situation, given the way EE’s billing portal displays final bills.

Would anyone still recommend pursuing this with the Ombudsman, even though the markers have now been removed?

outtatune

How much hassle is it to report to the Ombudsman?

If EE's billing software can't tell the difference between a bill that has been paid and one that hasn't, that could cause a large amount of distress to a large number of people; an Ombudsman report could provide a path to forcing EE to fix that, or give other people in the same position a better chance to get a positive resolution.

But that is not your responsibility, so if it was a simple 20 minute job to report it and 20 more minutes to follow the process I would probably make the report, but not if it'd be more hassle than that.

born_again

Cherryx said:

amandaleeds said:

This happened to me over 10 years ago - was on a rolling contract so not tied in, and called to say I was leaving and called again to check it was definitely processed. Months later I saw missed payments on my credit score where they had tried to take money by direct debit (which I'd cancelled). 

They claimed to have no record of the phone conversations despite me being told at the time 'all calls are recorded' and the only way I managed to sort it was writing a letter to the CEO! 

A total face for a small amount of money but I got there, so definitely contact the ombudsman 

Very interesting they claimed they had no record of your conversation!! Yes they are meant to record all calls, that is so crazy to me. I honestly think refusing to back down pays off (obviously when its you that is in the right).

I'm proud of you for going for the CEO, needs must sometimes!

For me the staff weren't even acknowledging my evidence, it was ignored in the email entirely with them skirting around it with other things and were just telling me the bill was outstanding! No explanation offered whatsoever or apology. How is a customer meant to know anything is owed when they've been told its clear!?

Records of conversation being entered on the notes system (slack staff) & call recording are totally different.
As a aside, call recordings are not kept forever. They will be deleted depending on server space. The more calls, the quicker they get deleted.

Cherryx

outtatune said:

How much hassle is it to report to the Ombudsman?

If EE's billing software can't tell the difference between a bill that has been paid and one that hasn't, that could cause a large amount of distress to a large number of people; an Ombudsman report could provide a path to forcing EE to fix that, or give other people in the same position a better chance to get a positive resolution.

But that is not your responsibility, so if it was a simple 20 minute job to report it and 20 more minutes to follow the process I would probably make the report, but not if it'd be more hassle than that.

Thanks for your reply, I ended up submitting it to the Communications Ombudsman in the end!

Honestly, I was prepared to go to war with EE over this because nobody seemed willing to remove the markers despite the evidence being crystal clear. I had all my screenshots and emails organised because I knew I’d need to escalate — I was never disputing the balance if it was genuinely owed (and it’s now paid), but their billing system showing the bill as paid caused significant chaos and I can't see how anyone can argue against. Given I'd paid my April bill there wasn't anyway for me to know anything else was owed from my end. Had I not spotted it in time, this could easily have escalated into a default or worse over just £10, which could have cost me work as a freelancer for the next 6 years.

The Ombudsman process wasn’t too bad, it probably took me about 30 minutes to write everything up since I had all my evidence ready. It might take a bit longer if you have to dig it all out, but it was worth it to make sure there’s a record and hopefully stop someone else going through what I did.

You’re right, it’s not my job to fix their process.. but I just didn’t want other customers to face the same nightmare. That could be the difference of someone getting a mortgage or not because of their own system failure. The staff I dealt with were so unhelpful despite my portal clearly showing the bill was paid. I’ve never had service quite this bad; it honestly felt like they didn’t know what to say or do with the evidence I’d provided or didn't want to be caught agreeing with me or that their system wasn't working.

Cherryx

born_again said:

Cherryx said:

amandaleeds said:

This happened to me over 10 years ago - was on a rolling contract so not tied in, and called to say I was leaving and called again to check it was definitely processed. Months later I saw missed payments on my credit score where they had tried to take money by direct debit (which I'd cancelled). 

They claimed to have no record of the phone conversations despite me being told at the time 'all calls are recorded' and the only way I managed to sort it was writing a letter to the CEO! 

A total face for a small amount of money but I got there, so definitely contact the ombudsman 

Very interesting they claimed they had no record of your conversation!! Yes they are meant to record all calls, that is so crazy to me. I honestly think refusing to back down pays off (obviously when its you that is in the right).

I'm proud of you for going for the CEO, needs must sometimes!

For me the staff weren't even acknowledging my evidence, it was ignored in the email entirely with them skirting around it with other things and were just telling me the bill was outstanding! No explanation offered whatsoever or apology. How is a customer meant to know anything is owed when they've been told its clear!?

Records of conversation being entered on the notes system (slack staff) & call recording are totally different.
As a aside, call recordings are not kept forever. They will be deleted depending on server space. The more calls, the quicker they get deleted.

That is fair, I had assumed they had to keep them for a certain length of time due to disputes like this.

eskbanker

I don't believe there's any obligation on any company to record calls, or to preserve them for any specific length of time, but if a company has recorded a call that you're party to, and if they still have that recording at the time of submitting a subject access request, then they're obliged to provide that recording to you if you ask for it.

user1977

And there is of course nothing to stop you recording your calls at your end.

Jumblebumble

Cherryx said:

Thank you for all of your responses and for anyone reading this or who is in a similar situation.

I’ve continued going back and forth with EE over this as they replied to some emails today from yesterday.. most not very good, some even a bit rude. But at the end of today a very kind woman from their credit reference department reviewed my emails and screenshots and immediately fixed the issue despite 3 others from her department saying there was nothing they could do as this was in a deadlock. My credit file has now been amended, which I’m very relieved about.

That said, I am still left feeling uneasy. It took multiple attempts and several weeks to get this resolved, despite my screenshots clearly showing the balance as paid and obviously very misleading. There was no apology or explanation for why their system showed it as paid when it wasn’t, and several of the earlier responses I received from EE were quite dismissive with no advice or help offered.

I’m still considering escalating to the Ombudsman — not because I’m chasing compensation, but because I think this is a serious process failure. If I hadn’t spotted this on my credit file myself, the missed payment markers could easily have escalated to a default and even a CCJ, which would have been catastrophic for me as a freelancer. I imagine there must be others in the same situation, given the way EE’s billing portal displays final bills.

Would anyone still recommend pursuing this with the Ombudsman, even though the markers have now been removed?

The probable  reason that most of the EE people being unhelpful is that EE have recently sent their business support overseas 
It is clear that some of the staff there are far more interested in being "right" than keeping customers happy
I suspected that they have far less leeway to deal with customer satisfaction than the old Glasgow team who have provided excellent support to us for about 15 years whereas one call to the new cheaper regime  has sorely tempted me to leave EE
I have put in a complaint and will see if they care or not.