topic Re: Contract has extended by a year in Broadband & Landline

Contract has extended by a year

nathan1231 — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 17:31:51 GMT

Hi all,

I switched to EE from BT in December 2023 and due to a billing error on EE’s side, I wasn’t actually charged for over a year. At the time the mistake was noticed and corrected I was told I wouldn’t owe them anything back and going forward I would pay my contracted amount. As I was in a 24 month contract, I checked my account for upgrade deals before I start shopping around and was surprised to find my contract doesn’t actually end until November 2026 with a start date of December 2024 showing.

Add to this when I spoke to EE at the time of taking out the contract I was assured I wouldn’t pay more than a new customer for my service and the deals are significantly cheaper than I currently pay. I can’t find any information about this promise apart from my confirmation email has a price promise but there’s no information anywhere as to what that means.

Re: Contract has extended by a year

Matt_124 — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 18:04:35 GMT

What plan are you currently on?

Any price promise offered in the past around renewals on BT would have been something to the effect of to not pay more than a new customer for the equivalent Halo packages offered when you come to renew your deal - it would have no bearing on what price you pay mid-contract or when compared to a different non-Halo package. This part of the Price Promise was a BT promotion/feature on Halo packages and is not something offered on EE.

I'm not sure whether that aspect is still something offered by BT even, as their Price Promise section at https://www.bt.com/halo/terms now only refers to maintaining the same contract price when your minimum term ends and you roll on out-of-contract (with the exception of CPI rises/Yearly price increases adding onto it yearly). This was always something included on Halo packages.

An equivalent package in that sense means a package with identical features and benefits. If you were on BT and had a Halo 3 or Halo 3+ package, then you received additional features over the standard Broadband packages and would have been offered the 'going rate' for Halo 3/3+ Packages on renewal of this type of package.

In a similar vein - if you are on an All Rounder or Full Works package (being rough equivalents to Halo 3 & Halo 3+ with some differences) on EE then you receive additional features over the advertised Essentials (standard) package, naturally coming at an extra cost due to the additional features - customers on an Essentials package would have to pay for these features/benefits separately as add-ons if they wanted them. The features of these EE packages are detailed here: https://ee.co.uk/content/dam/help/terms-and-conditions/broadband/plans/ee-essentials-all-rounder-and-full-works-broadband-plans.pdf

In the last 30-90 days of your minimum term you will be in your re-negotiation period where you can look to renew and change your package, unfortunately nothing can be done until then. Downgrading to an Essentials plan at that point would mean the requested return of equipment used for features that are not included on Essentials plans such as Smart WiFi or Smart Hybrid Connect, unless you took these as add-ons at that time.

Edit: Price Promise detailed on this page (https://www.bt.com/exp/halo) in regard to never paying more than a new customer when renewing - this is unlikely to apply to EE however as it is not a feature offered on EE packages. On BT it would have typically applied when renewing on a Halo package, as these are the plans it is offered on.

Re: Contract has extended by a year

nathan1231 — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 18:09:10 GMT

Im on Full Fibre Gigabit All Rounder.

As you can see from the attached image, my contract start date was 01/12/23 but my end date is showing as 30/11/26 in the app

The price promise was explained on the phone as me price never being more than a new customer but I understand the call would have to be found and listened to in order to substantiate that, and it doesn't change what the price promise actually is. Although had I known it may have impacted my decision to buy since it wasn't and still isn't the cheapest available in my area

Re: Contract has extended by a year

Matt_124 — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 18:35:19 GMT

You are on a Gigabit All Rounder - which would naturally be more expensive than Gigabit Essentials as it has the Inclusive Benefits you see in the email and here: https://ee.co.uk/content/dam/help/terms-and-conditions/broadband/plans/ee-essentials-all-rounder-and-full-works-broadband-plans.pdf

You're comparing two entirely different plans which aren't supposed to be the same price as they have differing features.

The benefits in question are Keep Connected Promise, Expert Visit from an EE Guide, and potentially Price Promise (although it is not detailed as a current feature on any EE documentation I can find). These are not included on Essentials plans.

The Price Promise here (if i had to assume based on what it was on BT) would only apply when you come to the end and possibly to renew your deal. Read my post above where I explain it in terms of what happens with the Halo packages, it would likely be similar here. When you transferred from BT, were you previously on a Halo plan? If not, then the Guide upsold you to the equivalent of one - ultimately you would have had to have agreed to this and could at any time have compared the prices and objected.

It doesn't provide any details on what the Price Promise is there, and it is not listed out in any current EE documentation.

Ultimately if you agreed to the package and were happy with the price at the time you are bound by the minimum term. You may want to consider dropping to an Essentials package next time if you are not happy with the cost, bearing in mind you will lose your included Guide Visit and Keep Connected Promise (and possibly Price Promise, although technically any customer can usually get a new customer deal when renewing at the end of their minimum term - but if you're on a All Rounder or Full Works package you will lose the additional features).

Re: Contract has extended by a year

nathan1231 — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 18:35:00 GMT

That's fine, but right now I can't even check my deals as my contract appears to have been extended by a year.

Is this an error or is there a reason the start date on my contract has moved forward by a year?

Re: Contract has extended by a year

Matt_124 — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 18:38:43 GMT

If the start of your service was delayed, including the associated billing, the contract term would have only kicked in on resolution of the issue.

In your contract you would have agreed to pay X amount for a 24-month minimum-term, so this would line up.

Re: Contract has extended by a year

JimM11 — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 18:41:42 GMT

@nathan1231 When did the correction happen looks like EE could not be bothered to go get the money off BT and just bumped you up to the 24month period to get there slice off the cake at your expense, which is WAY wrong!

Re: Contract has extended by a year

nathan1231 — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 18:42:02 GMT

I'm not sure I agree with that but I understand that's beyond the remit of what can be done here. Thank you for explaining

Re: Contract has extended by a year

nathan1231 — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 18:43:58 GMT

They emailed me on 27/02/25

The email I received said:

Hi,

We're sorry, due to a system error, we haven't been billing you for your home services as we should have.

We've fixed this now. Because this is our mistake, you won't have to pay any contract charges until your next bill.

However, any out of bundle charges will be backdated for up to 90 days. You'll see these on your next bill.

To keep an eye on your bills, just head over to the EE app or visit ee.co.uk/login for the latest info

Re: Contract has extended by a year

Matt_124 — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 18:44:48 GMT

No worries, apologies for the long replies and bluntness of any replies.

Extremely difficult to articulate the point with the limitations of text-based comms, especially after a long week at work!

All the best and let us know if you have any more questions🙂

Re: Contract has extended by a year

Chris_B — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 18:45:01 GMT

@nathan1231 basically you didn’t pay anything for a period of time so when this got sorted a tariff period was put in place. That tariff has a start and end date, Perhaps you should have called customer support and offered to pay for the time you didn’t pay so you could keep the tariff term you wanted. You got free internet after all and now you’re in a contract term when that free period got rectified.

Re: Contract has extended by a year

nathan1231 — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 18:56:01 GMT

I understand that I received the service with no payment and had I noticed I would have called sooner and informed them; however my understanding of the email I received was that as EE admitted it was their mistake they weren't asking for anything back. It wasn't clear this would change the dates of the contract. This is verbatim from the email:

Because this is our mistake, you won't have to pay any contract charges until your next bill.

Re: Contract has extended by a year

JimM11 — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 19:02:17 GMT

@nathan1231 But it is still a 24month of payments, so either 12 at double the price or 24 at the price you were given! You should also be able to upgrade but with NO payment history EE wait for six months before opening the upgrade window again for you!

Re: Contract has extended by a year

nathan1231 — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 19:08:04 GMT

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I can't find anywhere in the terms and conditions that says this; there is no mention anywhere I can find that explains what happens if a mistake or error is made on EE's part. If you can point it out for me I'd appreciate that.

Re: Contract has extended by a year

JimM11 — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 19:14:43 GMT

@nathan1231 Same rules for BB as Mobile.

Can I upgrade early?

Yes, we can let you upgrade early. But you’ll have to pay an early upgrade fee.

You need to be:

on an eligible pay monthly plan with EE
six months or more into your contract with more than 30 days until your current plan ends

Your early upgrade fee will depend on how long you’ve got left to run on your plan.

Re: Contract has extended by a year

nathan1231 — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 19:20:40 GMT

That's fine, but it doesn't answer the original question.

This shouldn't be an early upgrade as my contract should be coming to an end in November of this year.

In fact as far as I can see in the terms and conditions, my contract start date is the one listed in my order confirmation and the duration is 24 months from that date. There is no mention in the terms and conditions about errors on EE's part or what they would do.

How long does a service last and when does it start? Each service will last for a minimum amount of time (the minimum term), as set out in your order confirmation. The service start date is shown in your order confirmation. We start charging you from this date

Yes they didn't start charging me from this date, however the email I received to make me aware of the mistake said:

Because this is our mistake, you won't have to pay any contract charges until your next bill.

So to the average person, this would say that the charges they failed to collect aren't owed.

My argument is that my original contract start date and length should still stand.

I'll be contacting EE on the phone with this information and if needs be, escalating to OFCOM.

Re: Contract has extended by a year

XRaySpeX — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 19:34:51 GMT

As you rightly point out EE had no right to extend your contract term. It was their mistake & they admitted it by email in which they in effect waived the missing fees & made no mention of extending the contract end date.

OFCOM don't handle individual complaints. You can make a formal complaint to EE & if you don't get satisfaction after 8 weeks or come to a deadlock you can take it to EE's ADR provider. See Complaints code of practice and here is the Complaints Form .

Re: Contract has extended by a year

nathan1231 — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 19:42:52 GMT

Thank you, I'll get in touch with them to see if I can get it rectified. And thanks for the information on OFCOM, I hadn't looked into it so I'll follow the procedure outlined above

Re: Contract has extended by a year

XRaySpeX — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 20:01:45 GMT

@JimM11 : You are falsely extrapolating. There is no such thing as "early upgrade" à la mobile for BB. Nor is there a " early upgrade fee". You may upgrade to a more expensive / faster plan at any time. You can't downshift to a cheaper plan during min. term.

Re: Contract has extended by a year

JimM11 — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 20:15:50 GMT

@XRaySpeX I could not find a BB in the terms but it was somewhere at one time and also stated on the Forum, i for one could not upgrade during the initial period until EE released and allowed so! May be for new customers who knows, but you have been there way longer so bow to your knowledge on it!