EE moved me to BT with promise of no outstanding cancellation charges

[PTG]

Hi Everyone,

On the 16th May 2023 I enquired about moving from my 'Fibre Broadband with Landline' package to the new FTTP service as my street is now connected up.

As I wanted to keep my landline I was told EE couldn't offer me FTTP and a landline service, but were happy to move me to their BT counterparts on the Fibre 500 with BT Digital Voice package, starting a new 24 month contract. I specifically asked about the 11 months left on my EE contract and was told that I wouldn't have to pay anything in regard to the early cancellation charges as EE are part of the BT group. The EE agent arranged my new contract and sure enough the emails confirming the new package arrived and I waited for 2 weeks until going live on the 31st May 2023, during which time I received my new equipment and also a letter from EE confirming disconnection on the 31st May 2023. Their letter had a 'What happens next?' section in which I was informed, '...we will complete the necessary tasks to close down your account and calculate your final bill....there's no need to cancel your direct debit or recurring card payment, we'll do this for you once we have received payment of your final bill'.

As my EE billing period runs from the 25th of the month to the 24th of the following month, the May 25th bill was taken on the 9th June for the full amount (£33.31). I thought OK, payment is always for the month ahead, so I should be due a refund when I receive my final bill statement, since I have only had 7 days of service (25th - 31st May 2023)

Time ticked on. When logging in to my online EE account, I noted my EE plan was still showing as live in early June. I contacted EE customer services and was told it just takes time - wait until your next bill, which I presume would be my final bill and all would be OK.

Low and behold today, the 25th June, I've received another bill for the 25th June -24 July for the full amount (£33.31) even though my service was disconnected on the 31st May! I've contacted EE customer services again only to be told that my account hasn't been closed down and my account is still showing active!? How can this be when the landline number was ported to BT Digital voice which immediately ceased the Broadband with EE? Not only that, but surprise surprise, when my account is officially closed down I will now be charged early cancellations fees which EE allege, BT are to pay me back.

Now I categorically only accepted the switch to BT on the confirmation that I would have no cancellation fees to pay. I didn't take out the BT services, an EE agent did, so after speaking to BT just now, they have informed me that EE need to waive the fees as  it wasn't me who ordered their service and so a 'customer contract buyout' will not apply. Plus, BT would only cover up to £300 as credit in a customer contract buyout, so my 11 months left would more than likely exceed this -  but, since I haven't had my final bill, I can't be sure what the total amount will be. 

 I feel quite aggrieved and let down by EE. I have been a customer of theirs since way back in 2010 (when it was Orange'). 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Has anyone else been in a similar position?  It would also be nice if anyone reading his from EE customer services could look into and help resolve this matter.

Thanks for reading!

Kind regards,

Phil

[Mustrum]

@PTG   alas no one on this forum has account access, so even the EE staff are unable to help directly, but one may be able to take some details and get someone else to help.

In the mean time I would get in touch with the Broadband Care Team and you should get someone to help resolve your issue.

In the mean time you may want to have a look at the Complaints process.

[bristolian]

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@PTG wrote:

I specifically asked about the 11 months left on my EE contract and was told that I wouldn't have to pay anything in regard to the early cancellation charges as EE are part of the BT group

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Do you have any proof of this claim? Either the date/time of the call with the agent's name, or better still - anything in writing?

That could potentially be crucial when you raise this with CS.

[XRaySpeX]

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@PTG wrote:

my account is still showing active!? How can this be when the landline number was ported to BT Digital voice which immediately ceased the Broadband with EE?

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Does your EE BB & phone still work? Do you get a dial tone? Does it announce your old EE no. when you dial 1470 17070?

[PTG]

Hi,

No, the old copper line now has a new number assigned  which I can determine from using 17070. This happened the following day after my number was ported to BT. I thought the line would go dead following the number port.

Interestingly, if I try to call it - it says, 'This persons phone is unavailable'. Also, when trying to make outbound calls, it always says, 'this number is not available' regardless of the number dialled.

[PTG]

Hi,

Yes,  I spoke with an EE agent called Paul from the Plymouth call centre on the 16th May (in the morning). Not long after, the BT precontract documents came through.

[bristolian]

See if you can norrow down "in the morning" to a specific time. Any complaint you submit or query you make, will be strengthened by being sure over when & where this assurance was made.

Hopefully there will be an account footprint by this agent, otherwise call recordings (if available) may prove pivotal.

[skullshrinker]

Hi,

I have had a similar issue. I phoned up to sort out mobile phone upgrades and the EE rep saw we had Full fibre max 500 without landline. He said that they could reduce our monthly bill by moving us to BT whilst giving us a speed increase. I agreed and asked for price etc. No mention of early cancellation fee.

Yesterday EE have sent a bill through for £197.32 for early cancellation.

I am disgusted. I was moved to BT on EE's advice to save us money. I didn't instigate this they did.

I am wondering how many others this is happening too.

[James_B]

Hi @skullshrinker,

Welcome to the EE Community. 🙂

I'm sorry to hear a cancellation charge has been incorrectly applied to your account.

Please get in touch with Customer Care so we can put it right.

Thanks

James

[PTG]

Hi Everyone,

So quite a bit of time has passed since posting previously and I've had numerous conversations and, for me at least, it looks like my issue has finally been resolved. My EE account has been closed and a refund of just under 2 monthly payments is heading back to me and there are no early cancellation fees on my final bill.

For anyone having a similar issue, the reason my account wasn't closed properly was down to Openreach not correctly closing down the job after the new FTTP service was installed. Apparently there are 3 stages with Openreach. KC1 - Receive order. KC2 - Date for Completion. KC3 - Order updated/completed.

I had a 'KC 3' fault in that the order was not closed down after completion properly. I suppose this may be due to me switching from my analogue landline over to the new digital system and perhaps the Openreach systems not inter-operating as they should (I am just surmising here). As Openreach did not close down the job at the time, this prevented the EE system from starting the 'Pending Cease' account action. As such, the EE systems would be quite happy to continue billing away despite the fact that my landline number was with BT on their digital voice system and there was no service actually with EE any more! Now why, after 7 days when I contacted EE initially and asked if this was normal, I was informed by an operator that 'everything is fine' and to 'just wait for your final bill' they didn't realise there was a problem - I don't know.

EE have a dedicated 'Open Accounts' team who deal with such issues, apparently, so this must be occurring quite often. The operative I spoke to was Ryan and he was very good and actually started to delve into this and to take decisive action. First step was to open a case with Openreach to have this 'KC 3' step closed down properly. It should have taken 7 days. Guess what? It didn't - but that's Openreach for you! Ryan had to escalate it further and a further 7 day wait was needed. In the meantime he kept me updated and called me back during the day on several occasions giving me updates, which was excellent. Finally, when this was sorted, my EE account status changed to 'Pending Cease' and then 5-7 days later 'Ceased'.

True to the word of the original EE sales operative who moved me over to BT, he had typed up notes on the system to ensure that any fees were to be waived and Ryan found this and assured me it would be (It had to be added and then waived) on my final bill - which it was.

So hopefully this can help someone else in a similar situation. I did have to make approximately half a dozen phone calls and wait on hold for what seemed like an eternity at times (45 minutes at 8.15am on a Saturday morning at one point), but once I was handed over to 'Open Accounts', things started to progress as they should, so please do stick at it if you are experiencing a similar issue. Do check your online account to see if your account status changes following a switch away and if not (within a week or so), phone up and see if you can speak to the 'Open Accounts' team to ensure Openreach correctly closed down the job.

Thanks for reading!

Kind regards,

Phil