Charged full bill but no phone

[Tyoung2]

I upgraded my contract to iPhone 13 pro max, at the very end of my contract (it had 4 days remaining) but did not get the phone as none in stock. This was at the start of November. 
At the end of November, EE have taken direct debit for full old contract price despite the contract being finished, and no new phone being received. 
Even so, the new contract should be less(!!) than the old contract. 
So I’ve effectively paid £90+ for a phone contract that has finished, and will get charged the new contract bill if I receive the phone before the following bill date?

Please help, what is my interim bill cost??

[Katie_B]

Hello @Tyoung2. 

Thanks for coming to the community. 

I am sorry to hear the phone you wanted was not in stock. 

Regarding your current plan if you do nothing you’ll move on to a 30-day rolling plan and pay the same as you’re paying now.

Alternatively, you can upgrade or move onto a SIM Only plan.

I hope this helps, 

Katie 🙂

[Chris_B · Accepted solution]

@Tyoung2 you’ll not be changed the full cost of the new contract should you get the device.  You pay pro rata so your current payment will cover the new tariff if you get the new device before the next billing date and then EE will refund back any over payment you made to your EE account.  

[Tyoung2]

Thank you - I hope this is the case as when I finally receive the new iPhone, I’d be saving £20+ from my old 11 plus contract 

[mikeliuk]

Hi @Tyoung2 ,

I agree with your first impression and expectation that you have given instructions to upgrade within the minimum period of the old contract so the service provider should make the transition seamless and you should as soon as possible pay the new amount and not the old amount.

If you read carefully EE's input above, that says the same thing but obliquely.

I recommend that you check the start date of the new contract to ensure it's what you expect. The start date of the new minimum term period (sometimes labelled as contract start date) should not depend on when you receive a replacement device if you are upgrading and already have the SIM.

It's quite possible everything will be fixed up automatically pro-rata if the upgrade date is a few days after (why?) but I typically like to be proactive in setting out my expectations and requesting immediate refund if there's an inexplicable error.

On reflection, I think it's the raising of the Direct Debit that's done this. The Direct Debit date is likely to be much earlier than four days before the end of minimum term so would have been raised even earlier. It'll just need to be fixed on the next billing date. Good luck!

[XRaySpeX]

The start date of the upgraded contract will be when the new phone is despatched to you, despite the delay due to it being out of stock.

[Tyoung2]

Thanks for this - I'm going to go in store.

In the meantime I have cancelled my direct debit as I don't want to be charged in December as it is seeming unlikely that the device will be in my hands before 2022!

[mikeliuk]

Hi @Tyoung2 ,

I do not recommend that you cancel the Direct Debit as missed payments may be reported by service providers to credit reference agencies and this will impact your ability to obtain credit in the future (e.g. applying for credit cards, buying a car, and buying a house or flat).

It's very important to be clear about what you are billed and owe, versus what is debited. The clearest example is utility bills where most people over-pay for gas and electricity but any amount that you do not owe you will eventually get back. The danger is that a red mark is put against you if you do not make a payment which you owe, hence my recommendation not to cancel the Direct Debit. Instead, any overcharges should be properly credited back to you by EE voluntarily (keeping transcript records that they admit you have been charged when no service could be provided).

I've been impacted by two examples of this recently. I was offered the Unlimited Data Add-On by text message for GBP 5 but I was charged GBP 10 instead. I had that cancelled and corrected but then was charged GBP 20 for two further months and needed to get that refunded back to me again.

Absolutely, it's painful to be on top of the calls and paperwork to get the finances right but I think when one keeps track of the on-time payments on clearscore.com it's worth doing things the right way and not taking shortcuts.

Just as a sanity check, when visiting the Plan link below, do you see your old plan or the new plan?

[Tyoung2]

Thank you for this info. 
I did see the old plan, though as of yesterday the new plan. Yet to receive the phone though