EE customers given second chance to leave penalty-free over out-of-bundle price hike - MSE News

Former_MSE_Megan_F · 14 August 2018 at 3:56PM

Ofcom has stepped in to order mobile provider EE to give customers another 30-day window to leave penalty-free after it upped out-of-bundle call charges by as much as 100%...

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'EE customers given second chance to leave penalty-free over out-of-bundle price hike'

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WillPS · 15 August 2018 at 10:07AM

So can you leave penalty free or not? The article seems to suggest so multiple times until you get to:

As the price rises were only to out-of-allowance charges, not 'core' services, they are unlikely to be of material detriment to most customers. Only customers with material detriment (those whose total bill value after adding the new out-of-bundle allowance rates exceeds 5% of the bill value) are allowed to terminate their contract.

We have asked EE for a comment, but are yet to hear back.

smc1978 · 15 August 2018 at 10:43AM

I’ve had my bill raised from £24 to £26.70 per month. This will hopefully put me in the bracket where I can leave my contract, I’m guessing that I may be exempt as it was a special offer - it’s not completely clear who will get a letter.

I'll have to just wait and see!

Redfoo · 15 August 2018 at 6:13PM

How does the 5% caveat work, my bill is 32.99 per month. This month I have spent 10.00 in out of allowance calls and spent 8.00 in july

Ian011 · 16 August 2018 at 9:30AM

What sort of "out of bundle" calls are you making?

If you are exceeding your inclusive allowance of calls or texts to numbers starting 01, 02, 03, 071-075 and 077-079 consider moving to a call plan with a larger allowance - likewise if you are exceeding the data allowance.

If you are calling numbers starting 084 or 087, stop doing that. Usage of these numbers is now banned for customer services, financial services and public services. If you are looking online for contact numbers, be aware there are thousands of "call connection service" scam websites promoting tens of thousands of fake telephone numbers that purport to connect to various well-known organisations. Avoid this scam, do not call those numbers.

Where a legitimate business continues to advertise an 084 or 087 number on their official website, try calling the matching 034 or 037 number first, and, if that is unsuccessful, try searching on sayNOto0870.com for an ordinary number.

If you are calling international destinations, make sure you are doing this at the cheapest possible rate. By using dial-through providers it is possible to call at least landlines, and sometimes mobiles, in a large number of countries at no additional charge.

If you are calling 09 numbers to vote on TV talent shows, stop doing that and call the cheaper five- or seven-digit mobile shortcode instead.

If the additional charges are incurred in some other way, please post the details and I will attempt to find a way to minimise those charges.

boatman · 16 August 2018 at 11:18AM

I think 'all' EE customers should be allowed to leave. EE are already benefiting from an annual RPI rate rise, which is somewhat pushing the rules, but sadly allowed.

To increase other charges within the contract would to me meet the requirement that customers 'may' suffer material detriment, just because they haven't used those services yet, doesn't mean they won't in the future of their contract. On this basis I believe 'all' customers should be able to leave if they choose.

Sadly it would appear OFCOM don't have much of a clue. In their 'news' section about EE they have provided a link to guidance on the subject, but if you read footnote 6, it says it doesn't apply to 'non-subscription prices', which are exactly the ones EE are increasing, and is the whole point of the article!

6. Without prejudice to those matters to which it does apply, this guidance does not apply to any increase to non-subscription prices, which will continue to be subject to the current regulatory protection provided by GC9.6 (but not the guidance)

EE customers given second chance to leave penalty-free over out-of-bundle price hike - MSE News

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