topic Re: Wrong advice given on sale in Contracts & Billing

Wrong advice given on sale

MattyLeeT18 — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 16:29:25 GMT

So I took out a new contract and the woman who sold it said it’s easy to transfer a number from another ee account to mine, they gave us a new contract with a sim, however because I cancelled my Apple Watch last month they said it won’t drop off till 12th of Jan and the number they gave would have to be treated as number 3 and the number I’m transferring from another ownership to my name would be a 4th and that’s not allowed. Why did the store make out like the number chance would be simple internally but customer service are claiming a 4th number would not be allowed. It means that my gf who wants to keep her number can’t use it now due to this issue and is having to watch for the Apple Watch to drop off, just so that the number they sold which will then turn to a payg number as the number we will be transferring will be used as the contract number. And that it appears as 3 numbers and not 4 numbers. Anyone got any advice

Re: Wrong advice given on sale

Chris_B — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 17:47:02 GMT

@MattyLeeT18 It’s allowed it just might not be allowed for you. You can’t just just go adding lines to your account you have a limit, basically EE are not going to allow you to spend what they believe is beyond your limit. You do have a limit that EE are not prepared to let you go over. From trying to work out what you put you want to have 5 lines on your account but one of these lines ( Apple Watche ) is being taken off on the 12/1/26 so you’ll then have 4 lines.

Im just concerned that you say last month you cancelled this and it’s being removed next month. You can only give 30 days notice of termination, Last month November to January the 12 is over 30 days. You might want to double check this.

Re: Wrong advice given on sale

MattyLeeT18 — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 18:09:34 GMT

I currently have three lines on my EE consumer account:

• Line 1: a mobile contract running until October next year

• Line 2: an Apple Watch One Number line – this is out of contract and was cancelled last month, but EE have confirmed it will not fully cease and be removed from the account until 12 January

• Line 3: a new mobile contract taken out two days ago in store

At the point of sale, I was advised that it would be straightforward to transfer an existing EE number from someone else’s account onto the new contract to replace the number it was issued with. This advice was a deciding factor in proceeding.

Customer Services have since said this cannot be done until the Apple Watch line fully drops off on 12 January. The reason given is that internal EE-to-EE number transfers are processed as “add first, remove later”, meaning the incoming number is temporarily added to the account before the unwanted number is detached. Because the Apple Watch MSISDN still exists until billing cycle end, this would momentarily create four active numbers, which the system blocks.

They’ve also said that even if the new contract’s issued number were converted to PAYG, it would still count during the process, so the account would still be seen as having four MSISDNs at once.

What I’m struggling to reconcile is:

Why an external number transfer (PAC from another network) can overwrite the issued number instantly without breaching any limits, but an internal EE transfer cannot.
Why this limitation was not mentioned in store, especially given the presence of a cancelled but still-active Apple Watch line.
I’ve been told I’m “eligible for up to five lines”, yet at the same time I’m being blocked because a temporary fourth line is apparently not allowed. That feels contradictory unless “eligibility” refers to a different account structure than the one I’m currently on.

To be clear, I’m not asking to cancel contracts or take risky steps. I just want clarity on whether this is:

a hard technical limitation of standard consumer accounts, and
whether the in-store advice was incorrect given my existing setup.

If the answer is simply that nothing can be done until the Apple Watch MSISDN fully ceases on 12 January, I understand that — but I’d appreciate confirmation of that when taking out the contract.

@Chris_B

Re: Wrong advice given on sale

garybs29 — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 21:46:35 GMT

TBH, it sounds like the store has mis-sold you am addituinal line. If your partner has an EE number a change ofnownership can be done, no need for a new sim & number

Re: Wrong advice given on sale

bristolian — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 22:44:35 GMT

@MattyLeeT18 wrote:
At the point of sale, I was advised that it would be straightforward to transfer an existing EE number from someone else’s account onto the new contract to replace the number it was issued with.

EE as a rule do not transfer mobile numbers between pay-monthly lines, changing phones and/or plans on an existing line should follow the upgrade process. This is different to a legal change of ownership, whereby a particular subscription/line is transferred from the existing account holder to a new one - either on a pre-existing account or a new one.

A PAC can be used at any time.

Re: Wrong advice given on sale

MattyLeeT18 — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 04:49:01 GMT

What was meant to happen is the contract after taken out was meant to be on her number once it transferred via change of owner ship the store was admitment this is possible to do as they just have to transfer the number to my account the can assign the contract to that.

what actually happened is ee customer service can’t do it to the 12th of jan due to 2 many lines which was not mentioned by the store.

Re: Wrong advice given on sale

MattyLeeT18 — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 04:49:36 GMT

Wrong advice go have there as customer service said it is possible just not till the 12th of Jan for me.

Re: Wrong advice given on sale

Peter_W — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 14:04:33 GMT

Good afternoon @MattyLeeT18.

Welcome to the EE Community!

@bristolian is spot on here when it comes to number transfers - moving a number from one pay monthly line to another active pay monthly line isn't something that has ever been normal process, and our Guides should never sell a new contract around this basis.

Normal process would always be a standard upgrade on your number, or a legal change of ownership from one account to another.

The latter would move the whole contract and price plan, not just the number.

My recommendation here would be to return to the store itself and request to speak to the manager, as whilst we don't normally process change of mind cancellations on retail purchases, if you believe this was mis-sold they may be able to help.

Once sorted, if you then wanted to bring your partner's number over to your account, you can follow the change of ownership process.

Peter

Re: Wrong advice given on sale

MattyLeeT18 — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 16:58:20 GMT

@Peter_W managed to get it returned today, at first the store would not accept the return. Quoting that store products can’t be returned however, I do have a lawyer in consumer law who’s looking into this issue and the store soon was willing to accept the return then. In a way the store lost ee month.

30 pound for the iPhone and unlimited data deal they had + the internet at 25 pounds as the phone was apart of the deal. Total lost for is 55 pounds now.

Re: Wrong advice given on sale

Peter_W — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 17:01:38 GMT

Thanks for the update here, @MattyLeeT18.

I'm glad to hear you managed to get that resolved in the end, even if your experience isn't what we would expect.

You take care,

Peter

Re: Wrong advice given on sale

MattyLeeT18 — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 17:17:47 GMT

Thanks @Peter_W , I know when I did phone cancellations to cancel the internet as that can’t be done in store, the agent did say what should of happened first is

1. they do the change of ownership form. Which would have being the 3rd line.

2. they then set up the deal as that’s how it should have worked and they should of advised that beforehand.

i know they also said that because they never did that that’s where the issue lies as obviously the contract was setup with its own number which then meant even with a change of ownership it would of meant I have 4 numbers.

1 for my existing contract

2. for my Apple Watch which they confirmed the cancellation was only processed on the 12th of this but that’s in itself need to be investigated as the notice was filed in October. And realsitcally if it was cancelled on time it should have ended that number on the 12th of December rather then 12th Jan. which obviously could of helped avoid this issue

3. the new number they created

4. the number transferring in via change of ownership.

@Peter_W

can you confirm if this is correct what I was told for the future

In the event something like this happens ever again then we can change the contract over from the number it was sold with to the number transferring in regardless of if it’s internal via change of ownership or transfer however for change of ownership it’s always worth checking how many account lines the system will allow first.

Re: Wrong advice given on sale

Peter_W — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 17:42:16 GMT

@MattyLeeT18 When it comes to what should have happened here, it largely comes down to what you were trying to achieve.

If you were simply trying to consolidate both of these numbers on the same account, the change of ownership can take place provided the relevant eligibility checks have been completed.

Each EE customer has an internal credit class that determines how many lines they can take, and you would need to have another line available in order to accept the transfer to your account.

As for the Watch cancellation - it would come down to how you requested cancellation.

The minimum commitment period is simply how long you're in contract for, the plan doesn't automatically cancel once this comes to an end.

When you contact us to formally request disconnection, this will cancel 30 days from the point of contract.

Peter