MAJOR COMPLAINT Barred Phone due to fraudulent charges - Pay Up or Stay blocked!

WorstFor13Years — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 03:14:43 GMT

Hello,

Best network 13 years on the trot apparently... EE are that good they don't even need a viable complaints procedure!

Since you have no contact details for an electronic complaints procedure are non-existent. Your AI chat bot repeatedly told me to fill int eh complaints form instead. This only allows for 500 characters. It is not possible to complete a full formal complaint.

Please see attached my written formal complaint for the public to see. With personal information omitted.

A couple weeks ago received a text from EE on a Monday 14th September at roughly 19:00.

The message read;

"Hi from EE. Heads up - we've noticed your phone usage is higher than usual. If this continues, you might not be able to make calls or send texts. Please visit ee.co.uk/go/login or call 150 to check your balance or make a payment. Thanks."

My phone was barred immediately I was unable to make any calls or send texts. Zero prior warning.

I went into an EE store in North West England (EE-NW) to discuss what had happened. They made me aware that there was £250 of charges on my account that I am unaware of. I mentioned that I put a £20 spend cap on when I took out the contract only a few months prior (April). I questioned how a £240 charge was even possible given the cap. Apparently this is a different spend cap to charges to mobile phone. Severe lack of knowledge / honesty / transparency from the EE staff selling me the contract.

A couple of months ago I was having some issues with my coverage strength. I went to a local EE store in North East England (EE-NE) to resolve the problems. The member of staff put another phone number on my phone to boost signal strength. The staff member told me it would just disappear after a week or so. This second number is still there months later. I am unable to remove the number unless I share all my contacts with the second number. (I am a hospital Doctor and have very private contacts in my phone as you can imagine). EE-NW traced the number back to a name and email matching that of the member of staff at EE-NE who had put the number on my phone. EE-NW phoned EE tech support to help remove the number as they couldn't in store. I had to reset my phone. I am still unable to remove the second number. Resetting my phone as caused issues with my mobile banking app and I am now having to do telephone banking. Not that easy when you have no phone - I need the phone to make payments because of your staff. I can't use my phone until I make a payment. Ridiculous.

EE-NW managed to get the bar removed but were unable to raise any fraud claims etc. on the charges as they had not appeared on my bill yet. (Billing date is 23rd of the month). I was told to go back into EE or phone EE on the 24th of September the dispute the charges and remove any bar, I have had a temporary lift on the bar until then. The moment it turned 00:00 on the 24th the phone was barred again immediately. Not ideal for a Doctor who may well be on On-Call shifts!

Further to the above point my billing invoice date and bill payment date is is the 23rd and 1st of the following month respectively. EE and the consumer (myself) have a legally binding contract that all monies for bills are paid on the 1st of the month. Bills may include extra charges such as use abroad or premium rate numbers etc. These charges in any given month are to be accounted from the 23rd of the previous month up to and including the 22nd of the current month. The charges will be added to the bill and paid on the first. Using my fraudulent charges as an example - Charges were start of September. They will be totalled and added to the bill for invoicing on the 23rd of September. This invoice is paid by direct debit mandate on the 1st of October. This is where EE have broke the law AGAIN. You are demanding the monies or at least a substantial part-payment prior to my billing date. Essentially holding my telecommunications to ransom and barred all access to services without any prior warning. I am not even able to call EE with the bar!

I decided to go to the EE website. The charges page is down so I can't pay it even if I want to. I have screenshots. The complaints procedure form iis a 500 character limit box word box with above written; "Tell us about your complaint. Please give as much detail as possible. Do not include sensitive information such as passwords or bank details". How anyone could write a proper complaint in that I do not know. I tried to speak to the AI bot regarding the issue to have the bar lifted tonight until I went to EE tomorrow. It thought I was talking about roaming. There are no contact numbers out of hours for personal nor professional/ business customers.

Summery of complaints

1. EE store staff not explicitly explaining the different types of spend caps no making me aware of there being 2 different types of when I took out the contract - miss-sold telecoms product including it being linked with a 24 months legally binding financial agreement. The above matter requires serious input and scrutiny from; The Communications Ombudsman, Trading Standards and the Financial Conduct Authority.

2. EE members of staff putting phone numbers onto customer phones - major security breach in terms of GDPR.

3. Demanding part-payments prior to legally agreed, binding and arranged payment dates. No payment resulting in total loss of essential services. A service which I am paying for. The above matter requires serious input and scrutiny from; The Communications Ombudsman, Trading Standards and the Financial Conduct Authority.

4. Lack of warning time to initiating bar. Unable to sort major problems out like patients and banking.

5. Lack of 24/7 out of hours help for serious situations such as this one.

6. Your complaints procedure is woful. You should provide an email which is easily visible and accessible. without a character limit.

I look forward to your response with an email address I can forward this onto.

Re: MAJOR COMPLAINT Barred Phone due to fraudulent charges - Pay Up or Stay blocked!

Chris_B — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 06:44:46 GMT

@WorstFor13Years Here’s that compliment procedure they don’t have. CLICK HERE

Re: MAJOR COMPLAINT Barred Phone due to fraudulent charges - Pay Up or Stay blocked!

Christopher_G — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 07:19:42 GMT

Hi @WorstFor13Years

Welcome to the community.

I'm really sorry to hear of your experience with this so far. I'm going to send you a private message to get a little more information from you. Please check your private message inbox and get back to me.

Thanks

Chris

Re: MAJOR COMPLAINT Barred Phone due to fraudulent charges - Pay Up or Stay blocked!

WorstFor13Years — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 11:44:56 GMT

Hello Chris,

Thank you for your hasty, passive aggressive response. You clearly have a passionate affinity with EE. In fact, your lack of attention span bares resemblance to that of the EE- disputes / tech team who put the complaints page together.

As you did not take the time to read the full extent of what I wrote, I will summarise. Apologies, I can't provide a crayon-esque font for you to better understand.

1. EE blocked me being able to call this number "07953 966 150" or any EE landline number. Initially I was unable to manage anything via "150" until I paid a substantial contribution.

2. In regard to the "complaints page" you linked me to. The complaints form in the above link you provided has a 500 character limit box. This is inadequate for a formal complaint with a plethora of problems to the extent of mine. They only provide a written correspondence address.

If you got to the end of this message, well done Chris.

topic Re: MAJOR COMPLAINT Barred Phone due to fraudulent charges - Pay Up or Stay blocked! in Mobile Services

MAJOR COMPLAINT Barred Phone due to fraudulent charges - Pay Up or Stay blocked!

Re: MAJOR COMPLAINT Barred Phone due to fraudulent charges - Pay Up or Stay blocked!

Re: MAJOR COMPLAINT Barred Phone due to fraudulent charges - Pay Up or Stay blocked!

Re: MAJOR COMPLAINT Barred Phone due to fraudulent charges - Pay Up or Stay blocked!