topic Poor service in Contracts & Billing

Poor service

Jhd7 — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 15:37:01 GMT

Shocking service from ee today, recently found out that a direct debit for £44 pound a month has been taken from my account since 2020, for an account/number/sim that was not received so not activated .

ee have offered 6months line rental as compensation.

unbelievable!!

anyone know the best way forward with this?

Re: Poor service

BrendonH — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 15:42:58 GMT

EE are not liable to refund ou anything really. It's been 4 years and you are telling me you didn't know there was money coming out of your bank for the sum of £44 every month?

Sorry it is your job to look after your finances. If this was an old number you didn't cancel its on you to give EE 30 days notice. If it was a fraudulant number it should've been picked up back in 2020, waiting 4 years EE has the case that you knew about it and now you just want some money back.

I'd accept the 6 months line rental and move on with your life.

Re: Poor service

Jhd7 — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 16:01:52 GMT

Thanks for your reply., I wasn’t “telling” you anything.

I see this as a service that I have been charged for, that I did not request or even know about.

I have 4 kids phones on my contract, also my partner and also my mum, all on my account, I was only made aware of the situation from an ee employee when I was upgrading a phone.

my bills are quite large as you can imagine.

i disagree that that it’s my “job” to monitor whether I am being overcharged.

My direct debits are paid in good faith that they are representative of the services requested and used.

Re: Poor service

BrendonH — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 16:07:17 GMT

It doesn't matter if you have 100 phones on your account that you pay for. I It's your job to look after your finances. EE is not your personal assistant.

My Mortgage payment is quite large but if they started taking more I'd know about it.

MY car lease payment is also large again I'd know if more was coming out.

You receive a bill every single month from EE outlining all the charges and any extra charges. It will have every phone number on the bill thats being charged for. So for 4 years not only did you not notice an extra £44 coming out you didn't open a single bill to read it to see what you are being charged for.

I am sorry but it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. EE doesn't even have to offer you the 6 months as its been so long so I suggest you take it and move on with your life.

Re: Poor service

Jhd7 — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 16:34:34 GMT

Not really sure that your argument would stand up to scrutiny in a courtroom , or how ee charging me for an account that I did not request relates , to your mortgage or car payments?

you seem to suggest that it’s ok for ee to overcharge a customer as long as they don’t notice?

As previously stated,

I did not request this additional account.

the number has never been ‘live’ (it was never activated by ee.)

Again, thank you for your response, is there anyone else that could suggest a more sensible approach to this?

Re: Poor service

BrendonH — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 16:38:33 GMT

You don't have an arguement yourself.

Is been 4 years. EE and any court room would say that as it's been 4 years you acknowledge the extra charge and agreed to it.

It's not EEs fault you seem to think looking after your own money isn't down to you.

If it been a couple months ok you'd have a case. But it's 2024 and this number was added in 2020.

It's not EE overcharging you it's your incompetence to check your bills when it's gone on for 4 years.

Re: Poor service

BrendonH — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 16:40:55 GMT

When EE was orange I had a 2nd line added to my account. I knew soon I had the money leave my account. I rang up straight away and got it sorted.

It must be nice having so much money you don't need to worry about what you're being charged monthly. How the other half live I guess

Re: Poor service

Leanne_T — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 16:40:42 GMT

Hi @Jhd7

Thanks for coming to the community.

Have you opened a complaint and had this looked into by our complaints team?

Leanne.

Re: Poor service

Jhd7 — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 16:56:26 GMT

Well, I guess we’ll all have to agree to disagree, regardless of anyone else’s scenario, the amounts involved or how long the money has been taken, I did not agree to it.

It’s my view that I have had money taken for a service that was not agreed to nor provided,

To be honest I was hoping for a sensible ee representative to see this and maybe offer a solution,

my thoughts at the moment are to make a subject access request to ee to see how and why the account was added and then an application to the small claims court, hopefully we will get chance to mediate before I put forward my case and hopefully i will have statutory interest added to my claim,

I will gladly let you all know how I get on.

cheers

Re: Poor service

BrendonH — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 17:00:48 GMT

This is a customer forum with few EE staff on all of which will have no access to your account so can't provide anything.

If you want to waste money going to Small Claims Court go ahead but 4 years is a long time to say I didn't know about this not agree to it. You been offered a goodwill gesture take it to court that'll be wiped away and you'll most likely walk away with nothing.

Re: Poor service

Jhd7 — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 17:16:30 GMT

I spoke to ee earlier and was offered the 6 month line rental, I was then referred to a manager who reiterated the offer.

Re: Poor service

Jhd7 — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 17:31:03 GMT

You are not a judge, and I’m guessing you have limited experience of court proceedings, I can assure you that even if it was established that I “would walk away with nothing “ the total court proceedings /mediation/ financial cost to ee would be considerably more than the amount that I would be pursuing, and small claims do not allocate costs .

hopefully then ee may learn from this, although I doubt it.

Sorry I don’t share your view on this, but I am a person of principle simply because an inflated amount has been debited from account without me noticing it does make it ‘just’.

Re: Poor service

BrendonH — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 17:35:01 GMT

I have a very good standing on court proceedings. I spent years helping my wife revise her Bachelors and Masters degree in law. She spent the year working in Matrix chambers one the top chambers in the UK set up by Cherie Blair. The very chambers helping the victims of the phone hackings.

My motherin law is a judge in the tax tribunals. So I cna assure you that thinking you have a case after 4 years of paying for something is naive.

Re: Poor service

bristolian — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 17:56:22 GMT

It's unfortunate that a mistake has been made for this length of time, but you have admitted to not checking your bank statements for 4 years - a fact not likely to be ignored by any judge.

I suspect you will struggle to find (m)any companies willing to refund that amount of charges in this scenario.

Re: Poor service

Jhd7 — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 18:02:01 GMT

For the benefit of this forum, perhaps you could consult your wife/law books and quote the legislation that outlines your argument?

or is just your opinion?

is it your view that it’s ok for ee to deduct money via direct debit for an unrequested non activated account for four years, and that there is no means to address the situation in law, because the victim didn’t stop the activity sooner?

what exactly is the deadline/timeframe as to when it would be acceptable to notify ee that they are taking money for such an account (stated in law) that your argument depends on?

Re: Poor service

BrendonH — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 18:16:08 GMT

FCA states 13 months.

Considerably lower than the 48 months it has taken you.

This doesn't mean they owe you 13 months worth of refunds this means you had 13 months from the first unauthorised payment to leave your account to tell EE about it

Re: Poor service

bristolian — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 18:17:27 GMT

There is an expectation in any legal action for both parties to mitigate their alleged losses. If you do pursue this through the courts, be prepared to explain why this went unnoticed for 4 years.

Re: Poor service

Jhd7 — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 18:40:35 GMT

Regarding mitigating costs, , I was only made aware of this account by a helpful ee employee, I pay my direct debits in good faith that I am not being overcharged for phantom accounts.

with regards to “fcs states 13 months” I was asking for the correct legislation that would defend a claim for an amount taken from a bank account for an unknown unrequested non active account phone contract.

obviously it would be different if the account had been requested a sim received or even activated.

I appreciate everyone can have a different view on this,

Regardless, representatives defending and mediating a claim are costly for ee I would hope that an agreement could be reached earlier.

Re: Poor service

BrendonH — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 18:43:29 GMT

It has been reached. They offered you 6 months free.

Re: Poor service

Jhd7 — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 18:53:25 GMT

It would only of been reached if both parties had agreed.

I think the sensible approach for anyone else who may be interested, is that I provide ee with a subject access request to hopefully establish how a contract has been created for the contract in question.

and we then establish how the service has been provided, difficult for ee as they have advised that the sim has never been activated by themselves.