It's not just a case of being quick though, I placed my order 4 times, they took 4 lots of payment, then finally on the last try it went through, only then to receive 4 orders asking me to contact them. I do get that it's only a once a year thing, but I've never yet been able to log in, place my order and relax. There's always been an issue somewhere along the way, on the years the website doesn't go norks up, there's an issue with their ordering system. This is all because of creaky legacy systems sat in the background.
When a customer places an order online, it goes through a newer system, hence the XKO numbers, that then queues to go onto the mainframe, whatever that might be, once it's trickled through onto the mainframe, that's when you get the proper order number and it's confirmed. It's these bottlenecks that spoil it for everyone. When we ring up to do it, the operator is most likely able to access the main system, which is why they can tell you if it's definitely gone through or not.
I'm not sure if anyone has ever placed an order outside of these pre-orders, but when you do it's all pretty swift, you get the XKO and then within a minute or so you get an email confirming or declining the order.
Until EE invest in overhauling the entire internal network, I'm afraid it's always going to be like this. How do I know all of this? I've worked with legacy operators for a long time, the older networks like EE, O2 and Vodafone all have the same proprietary systems, depending on the seniority of the advisor you speak to, they sometimes have access to the mainframe, but as time goes on and people leave, less and less advisors are left who know how to put code directly into the network.
Charlie
