Hello,
I had spoken with an agent over the phone who claimed that he was going to contact the unlocking team regarding my second-hand iPhone to be unlocked. Except that, some 72 hours later, I had received no correspondence(s) from E, either via email or call/text, regarding this matter and so I chased this up with another customer service agent, who said they would contact the unlocking team.
Whilst someone did call me subsequently from the unlocking team (i.e.: to make the relevant payment to unlock the device), he had done so at a time when I was at work and so he left a voice message stating he would try again later. Although, this seems all well and good, however, I had contacted the customer service team shortly afterwards stipulating that I would be unavailable during these so and so hours and so therefore to request the unlocking team to contact me instead during these so and so hours when I would be available to make payment. Despite the representation from the customer service agent that she would do this, rather predictably though, the agent from the unlocking team had conveniently contacted me during the hours I expressly stated I would be unavailable. In consequence, the agent from the unlocking team left a voice message stating that he had cancelled my initial request since he had attempted to call me on two occasions but to no avail.
Accordingly, I had to contact the customer service team again to request for my device to be unlocked, except that I encountered a difficult agent stating the terms and conditions regarding an EE device being unlocked during this Covid-19 period had recently changed, whereby the original purchaser had to request the phone to be unlocked and so therefore I was unable to request this. Barring the obvious constraints that Covid-19 may have on the human resources available at EE: the statement itself is baffling and misguided because the pandemic has very little, if anything, to do with actually getting the device unlocked. Furthermore, and more compellingly, this would to be contrary to the following advice that was provided on a separate EE community forum regarding this exact submit matter (https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Unlocking-your-device/How-do-I-unlock-my-phone-during-coronavirus/td-p...), in which one of your (unsurprisingly) disgruntled customers did in fact get his device (eventually) unlocked during the Covid-19 situation. Additionally, and somewhat of an ancillary point: to alter the terms and conditions of a contract subsequent to the contract being formed (unless a term in the contract states otherwise) would prima facie be contrary to English contract law principles.
Nevertheless, what is your actual policy about getting a second-hand EE device unlocked during this pandemic situation? Inasmuch that, the above forum unequivocally indicates that it is still possible for a second-hand buyer to do so, and so therefore, the agent provided fallacious advice! Or is it simply the case, as it ostensibly seems to be, that your outsourced customer service agents make ad hoc policies as and when they desire, like in the above EE community forum where your customer in question was provided mendacious and incorrect information; and this is perfectly acceptable within the EE culture?
Against the backdrop of this, when the agent advised me of the above: I wanted to speak to a manager, not least because I had various EE representatives indicating that I could get my device unlocked - including an agent from the unlocking team reaching out to me - but unfortunately, due to being at work at the time this was not possible. Nevertheless, I did speak with another customer service agent afterwards and initially who stated I was not able to get the device unlocked for some unbeknown reason other than I was not the account holder. However, having pleaded and (quite literally) explain to the agent about EE’s own policy concerning second-hand devices and getting it unlocked (i.e.: the device being over 6 months old, the device was not blacklisted and so therefore all I had to do was to pay a fixed fee, etc), thereafter the agent spoke with a team leader (so he says) whom had authorised the customer service agent to request my device to be unlocked by the unlocking team. Infuriatingly though, despite requesting the customer service agent to request for the unlocking team to contact me during so and so hours (bearing in mind he had also repeated these hours back to me after I asked, such was the lack of trust with these EE outsourced agents because of their misleading, fallacious and convenient lies they had told me), however, lo and behold: the agent from the unlocking team had contacted me during the hours I expressly stated I would be unavailable.
Notwithstanding this, the agent (Shelar) from the unlocking team had left a voice message stating she would contact me again later on in the day, except that (and predictably) this was never actioned. So now, I am back to square one still waiting for my phone to be unlocked.
Consequently, it feels like I have reached an impasse with EE. In that, whatever I am telling your customer service agents to pass onto the unlocking team is either evidently being distorted or ignored in its entirety. As such, this issue is proving to be far more troublesome and time-consuming than this allegedly 'simply' process was supposed to be as professed in some of your other EE community responses regarding this subject matter. Accordingly, I have resorted to the EE community for some help because of the incompetence I have thus far experienced, and rather understandably, I would like this saga to end as expediently.
