topic Re: Frustrating Upgrade Experience in Orders

Frustrating Upgrade Experience

lewispope — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 13:27:50 GMT

I would love for an EE Forum Admin to get in touch with me if possible, please.

I managed to get online and log in at 1pm and process my anytime upgrade for the iPhone 15 Pro Max with no issues - happy days! I got the email from EE to say you have my order but you need to call the team - which I did.

I knew it was going to be busy, I'm a patient person but I got eventually through and spoke to Amy. Amy was great, but I could tell she was trying to fill the silence desperately because EE systems were running slow. She went through a few checks with me to confirm my order (and it seemed like she was having to process this all manually) - she was then asking me about other offers etc before placing me on hold to speak with her manager.

After 5mins, she came back and said everything is really slow while trying to do something, I don't know what - then suddenly she said that manager has informed everything that because I'm trading in my old handset, I will need to call back later or tomorrow because the system is down. Why do I need to call back? You have all of my details so I'm really confused about this.

I spoke with Ryan (Amy's Manager) just to provide feedback about EE's systems and that why hasn't this changed when learning from previous years for busy periods like this. It just isn't a great customer experience having to do this all online (because it should be convenient) then having to call up and being asked to call back again.

Ryan didn't filled me with confidence that my order will arrive at all come next Friday - as far as I'm concerned the order hasn't been completed, so I would like someone from the team to reach out to me to discuss this, please!

Thanks 🙂

Re: Frustrating Upgrade Experience

Pt088 — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 13:36:27 GMT

Nearly the exact same scenario - they said they would call me back when their systems were back up and running after ordering online at 12:59 and provided them with all of my info? After speaking to a service representative - it’s been 90 minutes since they said they will call back and shipping times are slipping by nearly a month via Apple’s website.

Re: Frustrating Upgrade Experience

Radeon85OCUK — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 13:41:20 GMT

Same, bloody awful experience, website down, app down, 40 mins to get through on the phone, and of course EEs internal systems are down. Its pathetic, they know there is a massive demand every year so why don' they plan properly for it.

Damn frustrating.

Re: Frustrating Upgrade Experience

jwilson2 — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 13:46:16 GMT

I have two phones on upgrade anytime plans, have been a customer of EE for 10 years and it is easily the worst upgrade experience I have ever had. The customer service rep I was dealing with was nice, but you could tell was very junior and was asking other members of staff what to do next.

Unfortunately, after going through all of this for 20 minutes he told me the systems were down and he'd call me back. To be honest I am thinking of cancelling with EE and just going through Apple and going sim free. This has pretty much solidified that idea in my mind. If I am called back and it's going to be a couple of months until I get the phone I'll give it a pass this year, and move to Apple's upgrade program.

Re: Frustrating Upgrade Experience

Radeon85OCUK — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 13:52:01 GMT

Managed to make it through checkout on the app, went to place the order after entering my info and it said details not saved, yet I just received an email saying order complete with the info I entered and need to contact EE to verify some details and the item is still in my basket, so who knows if its gone through or not.

Hell knows how long it will take to get through and if EE can confirm anything with their systems seeing as they can't even login, last time I had this the order never went through despite the email, EE really needs a new system when confirming orders because the current one has been crap for years.

Re: Frustrating Upgrade Experience

XRaySpeX — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 13:56:14 GMT

@lewispope : There's nowt this forum can do about the progress of your order. This user discussion forum can have no access to your specific account. You need to raise this with CS.

Re: Frustrating Upgrade Experience

Penguinjen — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 13:57:45 GMT

Same here.

This an awful experience.

what details for an upgrade anytime on a similar contract agreement.

Re: Frustrating Upgrade Experience

lewispope — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 14:00:47 GMT

Correct me if I’m wrong, but are there EE Admin’s on this EE Community Forum?

Re: Frustrating Upgrade Experience

XRaySpeX — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 14:06:19 GMT

Yes, but they administer this forum only. They are not CS. They, & we users, can give general advice but not anything that is specific a/c related. They will tell you this as well if & when 1 responds to your appeal to them.

Re: Frustrating Upgrade Experience

Christopher_G — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 15:16:20 GMT

Hi @lewispope

I'm really sorry to hear of your experience. You did the right thing in registering a complaint and feedback with Amy's manager. I hope you manage to get your order processed soon.

Chris

Re: Frustrating Upgrade Experience

david_hughes_uk — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 17:18:31 GMT

Your not alone,,,,I paid my early upgrade fee go over £600 which was taking out of my account balance as pending,,,,I got a confirmation email for my order and the usual can I call customer services to run through some details (excuse my exact email wording). When I eventually did get through the gentleman I spoke to run through the checks and went to speak to his manager numerous times,,all I was told is they can't access their system to see orders to see what is going on...Then asked if I could call back in a couple of hours time when I had already been waiting on hold numerous times for well over an hour in total. So as it stands I have over £600 pending in my bank balance,,and no offer of a call back by themselves when it was resolved as they asked me to call them and undoubtably be in a cue for another hour to do so in order to ask them. I think this situation is utterly disgraceful and totally not acceptable. The saga continues for me tomorrow as I am not spending my evening on hold again.

Re: Frustrating Upgrade Experience

Radeon85OCUK — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 17:22:32 GMT

Same issue, confirmation email at 2:34pm asking to call, I called the long 0800 956 number for 1hr 40mins and gave up, called 150 and got through to upgrades in 30mins. As this was a different department they transferred me and I assume to the 0800 department. Got through in 15 mins and well, well the systems are down and the person I spoke to who was very nice said he would get back to me before they close.

I have very low expectations of that, this is the worst upgrade experience I've ever seen from EE, site down, app down, internal systems down, bloody hell EE.

So at his rate I have no idea if a phone magically shows up launch day or before Christmas 😠

Re: Frustrating Upgrade Experience

lewispope — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 17:34:17 GMT

So just an update to this.

I decided to call back around 2:40pm and was in the queue for about 1hr 40min before I got through to the Upgrades Team - spoke to a guy called Connor who was really helpful. I asked him if their systems were still down for him to say that they were, but depending on what it is I want, he may have a workaround.

So I told him exactly what the deal was I opted for, the phone etc - sent me a secure text to go through the contract aspect of things and all got done and dusted. He even reiterated on a number of occasions that the phone will arrive on launch day (checking online at this time, it's still showing within 14 days which I believe was the standard messaging even at 1pm).

So after all of that, it's got sorted... but my word EE, in today's age... please update your systems to cope with this demand!

I hope everyone else who has had trouble manages to get sorted!

Re: Frustrating Upgrade Experience

Khan1993 — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 19:48:44 GMT

Have you had any email to confirmation I placed and got text saying there was a error to call back then I placed an order advisor said it was all done but not heard anything since

Re: Frustrating Upgrade Experience

Radeon85OCUK — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 19:59:01 GMT

Had a callback just before the call centre closed but the system is still down so they still can't process my order! They are now going to call me tomorrow, absolutely unbelievable.

Re: Frustrating Upgrade Experience

mbdrake76 — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 20:07:22 GMT

I can understand that things can go wrong even with the most well-organised plans. But even so, with all the extra money coming in from the March price rises and inflation, you'd think they'd invest more of that money in their backend systems and not just the main 4G/5G infrastructure as everytime I've spoken with customer services, the system is *always* slow or playing up.

While I was not planning on upgrading via EE - I wanted to see what the upgrade prices were, but repeatedly told I was not eligible for upgrade and redirected to a hostname which doesn't exist in DNS (yes, really!). Tried the ordering processes of O2 and Sky Mobile and found them very glitchy too - but managed to get an order in with Sky Mobile after about 20 minutes. O2 constantly bombed out with system errors galore.

I've even heard that Apple had some problems with their web site too.

Re: Frustrating Upgrade Experience

Radeon85OCUK — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 20:25:02 GMT

Really amazes me after all these years no one ever seems prepared for the insane amount of traffic the sites will be getting. The dates are close to the same every year so you would think they would be prepared to get the equivalent of DDoS in a matter of minutes.

Re: Frustrating Upgrade Experience

Jared_C — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 07:13:08 GMT

I called at 8AM this morning and they are already having issues with the upgrades / trade in. 🙃

Re: Frustrating Upgrade Experience

Seanyj — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 10:16:28 GMT

Sadly, things appear no better in September 24. Trying an anytime upgrade to a 15 pro max. All appeared fine apart. Today I received a text saying that I changed the address on the account and to call 150. I've tried calling twice so far and had to move on after waiting 20 minutes.
In the past the upgrade process was efficient and generally a next day delivery. I've noticed that delivery is now 7 days.

i understand that companies are continually trying to increase profits, but please EE have more guides on the phones and less trying to push into AI systems devoid of human contact and efficiency.

I'll try sitting on the phone again now, concerned that someone changed my address!

Re: Frustrating Upgrade Experience

Katie_B — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 12:38:16 GMT

Hi @Seanyj.

Welcome to the community.

I am sorry to hear you have not yet been able to connect with an agent.

Please continue to hold and someone will be with you as soon as possible.

Katie