Dad moving from Plusnet to EE and needs help

[OriginalBigBri]

So, my 86 year old non-technical Dad is being moved to EE apparently on Friday, so he can keep his home phone. He's had a new router delivered and literally nothing else. He's phoned EE and got to talk to someone he couldn't understand very well and basically only learned that:
- he's not getting an engineer out to help him
- he's going to be billed separately for (something?) by "green bay"
- they would send him an email with a bunch of info and a video (they haven't)

So, here are some questions I'm really hoping one of you lovely lot can answer:

- If his internet and phone are being switched over on Friday, will both start working properly straight away, or will his phone take days ?
- will the EE router have been pre-configured with his account info ? I'm fairly sure my latest Plusnet one was.
- what will happen to his Plusnet email addresses? he has NOT been told he's moving to Greenby, so we have no idea whether his email will just disappear
- if he does move to Greenby, will they be charging him for it? 

He has had literally no communication from Plusnet other than "we're chucking you out" after more than a decade.
So, as it stands I'm doing a 400 mile round trip at the end of the week to try and help him out.

Thanks in advance to for any help you can give.

[OriginalBigBri]

Well this has not gone well. EE say it's an Openreach problem and booked him an appointment. Openreach came round and did "something", moaned about how crap the cables were (apparently he touched one and it snapped - no idea whether he bothered to fix it) then said it was working on their equipment and EE need to send a new router.

He got the new router today, plugged it all in correctly and is getting exactly the same problem.

I'm at my wits end now. He's been without internet or landline for 5 days. EE are sending him emails, which he has no way of reading. After my 400 mile round trip, I'm back home, and EE won't talk to me about it, because he's not sitting next to me to allow it. 

Tried to contact EE on X and just get an automated reply sending me back here.

Is there any way of getting them to actually sort out the damn problem ?

[JimM11]

@OriginalBigBri Get's very difficult even if you had registered the vulnerable status for your dad so you could speak on his behalf, reasonable though it does seem not all EE Guides respect that and will just not speak to you. Anyway that is too late now as you have to be next to your dad to even kick that can down the road. All you can do is raise a formal complaint and push it down the HELP route, He has another EE Hub now, so time to get the Engineer back and go at it all again. Few off the EE Forum guides may reach out but that will be more hope than anything. @Leanne_T @Christopher_G have tagged some so they see the posting. 

Would be helpful to known if the Engineer happened to say what the speed was when he tested the connection to your dad if he does remember, that would indicate if he was moved off the real slow ADSL up to the FTTC cabinet and far better speeds?

Do try to get the e-mail address changed on the EE Account ID, it may help to see, but that might be an EE CS implement at the account level and take a day or so.

[OriginalBigBri]

So, I can read the emails - Plusnet moved him to Greenby, so I can check it online, but he obviously has no internet. His phone is very basic and has no internet ability.

He's spoken to EE who have got him to go through the same damn things AGAIN and are sending Openreach back out on Friday.

The previous Oopenreach guy was there yesterday and fitted him a new 5C master socket with the extra filter section and said he was getting 57mbps - he was on about 7 on his old ADSL router. This suggests that it is physically connected OK, although it does sound like most of what the guy said was BS. 

EE have said I can only speak to them about his service if I have power of attorney. **bleep**. I am FURIOUS. Someone is either lying or incompetent or both. 

I wonder if there's a way of charging them for the hours of my time this is costing.

[JimM11]

@OriginalBigBri Plugged in to the 5C socket, the hub is still flashing orange waiting to connect, that can be down to EE now as a connection path through to him, is his mobile registered on the account? If so and he can do a text and it does go out, then HELP to 66033 get's the whole line tested all the way up to the EE Hub...

Been there done that and MOVING away from EE for my sister starting 26th Sept, last month off her contract and she is in a wheelchair the Vulnerable status falls over first step and POA is just B S if EE are saying that YOU are NOT trying to change his contract just trying hard to get what is broke fixed....

You do have to be 100% with your dad to setup the Vulnerable Status and there is NO WAY round that just now....

[OriginalBigBri]

His phone is with O2, very basic phone, so no use there.

The router flashing orange is exactly as it was since last Friday. I logged onto the router web UI last Friday afternoon and it said "connected to internet", so I think it's always been an EE problem. I explained this all very clearly to them.

On the Friday evening, once my Dad had asked that I be allowed to discuss it on his behalf, we went through all my details - name, DOB etc - to set me up on his account. Saturday morning I tried to to talk to them and they refused. When I said I had been set up as an authorised person, they said that wasn't even a thing they do. Absolutely incompetent.

I'm fairly sure they just don't want to talk to me as they are happier bu11sh1tting an old man.

[JimM11]

@OriginalBigBri Had a look, unfortunate i do not have a screen shoot of the EE Smart Hub 6+ version when it was connected on the old FTTC connection, got FTTP but way different parameters for that. If the hub is saying it's connected then EE's HomeView+ test software should be able to get to it no problem and see why it's not authenticating on the connection.

Did you happen to get your mobile number registered at the time when doing all the status on the account, if so then you can also do the text HELP to 66033 and EE should call your mobile back at the end off the test.

[XRaySpeX]

You don't need to be on an EE mobile to text 66033. I've texted it many times from O2. It's only 3 & 4 digit shortcodes that are network specific.

[JimM11]

@XRaySpeX Where did i say anything about being on an EE mobile?

[OriginalBigBri]

@JimM11 I can't check his router now, as I'm home. He hasn't got the first clue how to text someone, so I doubt that would be any use. But he has spoked to them 4 times, and I've spoken to them 3 times and they keep blaming Openreach, so I'm not sure what I can do.

I definitely did register my number when I spoke to EE last Friday night, but by Saturday morning they were denying that was even possible. Honestly, the customer service is so bad I'm sure they and Plusnet are the same people.

[XRaySpeX]

@JimM11 : Then why do you say it has to be registered to EE a/c? Also you have said that elsewhere.