Just had £695 removed from bank acount by Direct debit for EE 4G service

[treez]

Hi,

On 13th september, EE took £695 from my direct debit bank account.

My monthly fee is only £35.

Do you  know what's going on?

I am currently trying to get through to EE on the phone , but i cannot get through as there is a "high number of calls ".

I have an EE 4G router.

...OK i ahve now got through, and they are going to look into it...in the meantime, they have asked me to call my bank and  do a "direct debit indemnity claim".

Please help, how can such a large sum of money have been taken out?

Because i dont know whats going on, i have had to cancel my EE direct debit, for the time being.

[Chris_B]

@treez  first of all don’t cancel the direct debit as that will affect you.  The money has already been taken.    

change your EE account password. 

EE will reimburse any money that has been taken this will get sorted.    Sounds like someone purchased a phone via your EE account. 

[treez]

Hi,

I had to cancel the direct debit, in case it happened again.

I dont think i had any choice there.

I will contact EE to re-do the direct debit once the money has been refunded.

EE , at this point, have only asked me to  try and reclaim the money via my bank.....they have not sorted out whats happened with the £695....the EE person on the  phone says she has emailed the manager, but he is not at work today.....

Hi,

Do you know how i change my EE account password?

I set the password in the first place, by speaking it over the phone to the EE guy who set me up with  the EE 4G account

[mikeliuk]

Hi @treez ,

I would recommend that you secure your EE account by, for example, changing the password; and secure all devices which may have access to that account.

You should report this as a security issue to your bank as it seems like it could be an incident of fraud or identity theft if it does not turn out to be a harmless mistake which you cannot bank on.

Usually I would agree that Direct Debits are safe to leave in place on account of the Direct Debit Guarantee, but in this case I agree with your action to sever the link between EE and your bank account so that you are demonstrating you have taken all possible measures to prevent the fraud or identity theft continuing and this should help recover current losses more quickly.

[bristolian]

The direct debit guarantee is at this web page and it's worth being aware of the reference to "full and immediate refund" in the third clause.

It's certainly worth checking whether this additional debit to your account was on your regular monthly EE charge (in which case the error was made by EE), or if it's a separate charge - which could point at an error within your bank.

It's true to say EE can only issue a D/D refund if the mandate is in place, and this is another reason for the guarantee to be so unequivocal.

[treez]

Hi,

When i saw the £695 had been (Wrongly)  taken by EE, i  i then cancelled my direct debit, meaning it as a temporary response, so EE could find out what the problem was and no more  incorrect moneys would be taken from my account. (£695  is a lot of money)

I then reported it to EE.....they advised me to get Direct debit reclaim....the money then came back into my account...however, for some reason, the £695 has now been taken back out of my account for an unkkmown reason.

i am now trying to get my direct debit back online, and get the £695 refunded by EE...Howver, i am having difficulty getting through to EE on the usual number. Ive been waiting for 15 mins on the phone, and just getting the "we are receiving a large number of calls message..."

Do you know how i can resolve this quicker, and get my £695 back?...(and get my Direct debit re-instated)

Just phoned EE and they say they didnt take the second £695 sum...so i should now phone my bank...as it appears that they must have taken it(??).

..Just phoned my bank, they say that EE have challenged the Direct debit indemnity claim........and thats why the bank have taken the money back out of my account.

Basically, i am trying to get the £695.71  refunded to me, since EE wrongly took this money in the first place.....i am then wishing to get my EE direct debit re-instated, do you know how i can do these things?

[to summarise, EE incorrectly took £695.71  from my bank account on 13 sept......then the bank refunded this money back to my account on 20th sept, after i contacted the bank...........but  on 24th sept the bank took the £695.71 back out of my account, and the bank  are holding the money, because they say that EE challenged the direct debit indemnity claim.]

People are kindly saying that i should not have cancelled the EE direct debit, but when you see £695.71  wrongly coming out of the direct debit (its supposed to be £35/month) you wonder if any more will be taken, and this is a big sum of money.

[treez]

I am phoning EE back  so i can get back the £695.71.

EE are now saying the  £695.71 was a cancellation fee....but i never asked to cancel anything. 

I did  canceel my EE direct debit but that was because they wrongly took  the £695.71 from my account

EE now agreed to refund the money.........its taken a while , but that was because i was taken up at work and couldnt phone EE in the week......EE basically resolved the issues pretty quickly in the end.....after 3 phone calls..........so i just have to wait the 7 days to get the money back into my account..

EE said it was basically an accidental "early termination" charge.

[Leanne_T]

Morning @treez

Thanks for coming to the community. 

I've sent you a private message on the community for some extra details. 

Thanks. 

Leanne