Good afternoon, everybody…
Maiden post. A long one. Sorry for that.
Unfortunately, I already have some nagging doubts about the decision to move from BT to EE (notwithstanding they are two sides of the same coin).
Briefly, our existing BT contract matures 14th February 2025 and despite best efforts on my part to secure a satisfactory renewal cost of service, this has proved impossible to achieve. We will be exiting BT after continuous connection in three properties over at least fifteen years, so it’s not an idle decision to close this account.
This package is:
BT Full Fibre 150 with Halo 3
700 Minutes Call Plan
TNT Sports on Sky
TNT Sports HD
After discussions with BT broke down, I checked alternative options with Sky, Plusnet (another BT company, but one without full access to BT’s systems) and EE.
On Friday evening, 24th January 2025 I eventually concluded a satisfactory cost of package with an EE sales adviser as follows:
EE Full Fibre 500 Essentials
TNT Sports Pack on Sky (incl. Discovery + Premium and full HD/UHD capability)
Analysis of our BT landline (digital voice) usage over a significant period of time has resulted in the culling of this product and the associated call package. The nett saving over a full month to switch providers is around £18.00, with superior download/upload speeds and improved minimum speed guarantee. Note: savings are calculated prior to the imposition of the published mid-term price increases due 31st March 2025.
At this point, I will say that my partner is first named on the outgoing BT account (although I handle all administrative matters) and the move to EE is based on a completely new account in my name as opposed to migrating the existing account profile from BT to EE.
We received our latest BT bill today, 28th January 2025 and I can already see the removal of the TNT service as this was triggered before the bill’s production. As this is advance paid, a pro-rata refund will obviously follow later.
Why the concern?
Due to the lateness of the hour last Friday evening in agreeing terms, the four follow up confirmation emails that arrived after signing off on the new contract were read much later that evening after returning from a meal at the local pub. Of these four, three emails presented my first name with a spelling error. The fourth did not address me by name at all. I assume the sales agent keyed my name into his order form incorrectly and unfortunately this wasn’t picked up by either of us during the screen share approval process. The eye generally sees what it expects to see (unless you’re a proof reader, of course).
“No problem,” I thought, “I’ll ring EE on Saturday morning and get this corrected.”
The adviser in the Billing and Accounts team immediately saw the error and offered to correct it herself, advising that it might take up to 24 hours to populate on my side. I accepted this offer and confirmed I understood the potential dwell time.
I also mentioned that the error also appeared in the Direct Debate mandate instruction – my first name again spelt incorrectly, but also it failed to contain my partner’s name as the account we use for household bills is a joint account. I mentioned I’d made it clear to the sales adviser that I was providing bank details for a joint account. The Billing adviser said that she would need to send me a paper mandate form in the post as it was not possible to override the error any other way. I thought that was odd, but accepted what she said. At the time of writing (Tuesday 28th January) I have yet to receive this paper form and our local postie has already been to our address today.
I then turned my attention to setting up my EE ID and downloading the EE app to my iPhone. I established my login credentials for the EE ID and signed in on my usual web browser on my laptop. I was immediately confronted with “Good morning” and my name….still spelt incorrectly. As I’d been told that this might take a while to filter through I was not overly concerned by this.
I then decided to select the “track order” option on this landing page. The response to this request advised that “Sorry, this service isn’t working right now. You can try refreshing the page or contact us if it’s urgent.”
Again, I wasn’t overly worried – it was the weekend after all and I had only just placed my order the previous evening. However, I did have my VOL order reference listed on one of the received emails, so it should be on the system, right?
Pressing on, I decided to “activate Discovery +” as after all, I had already successfully used the app under the BT relationship, viewing content on our Sky Q master and mini boxes and iPads via the app using the BT account login details.
Despite Friday evening’s agent enabling the viewing of TNT Sports content immediately via the Sky Q box (repointing the Sky viewing card number to EE, disabling and cancelling the service from our still active BT account) and being told I could sign in to Discovery + with the BT credentials, the app blocked me from continuing and I am currently locked out of Discovery +. This experience applies to the activate button buried in the welcome email, on the web portal and in the mobile app.
The agent I spoke to on Sunday 26th February after that event advised that until the VOL status on the system changes from “open” to “closed” access to Discovery + content via the app (incl. TNT Sports channels) will remain blocked. Again, understandable but this was not made clear at the point of sale.
My EE service is slated to go live sometime on Monday 10th February 2025 with the smart hub due for delivery around 8th February.
Conversations with EE continued into Monday 27th January as I was still in the same position as I was last Saturday morning concerning the incorrect naming convention and the lack of visibility of order tracking.
As a result, some progress was made with the opening of a “Bridge Case” as I was advised the reason that I cannot see the correction of my first name or be able to track my order, despite both being visible on the other side of the fence within EE, is that the systems used internally differ from the customer’s experience and the link (or “bridge”) between the two is broken, preventing, as with a physical bridge, “traffic” flowing in both directions.
Again, this seemed a logical explanation and I was advised during that call that an IT support agent had already been assigned to the case and I was to expect a full resolution within THREE working days, starting with immediate effect. As of now, theoretically Day Two, nothing has changed as I was told to login periodically to see if the problem had been resolved as there will be no further communications from EE confirming the problem has gone away. Indeed, I was told there would only be further communication should there be a need to quiz me in greater detail about the problem from my perspective. I haven’t heard anything more in this regard.
In more years than I care to remember I cannot recall getting so tied up in knots with BT and I wonder whether I have made an error of judgement in selecting EE as the incoming service provider. I’m also somewhat concerned by various day to day user experience problems reported recently on this community group that may subsequently affect my service as well.
If anyone can offer any comments, suggestions or support here, particularly concerning the “bridge issue” I would be most grateful. I’m not quite at the banging of my head against a brick wall stage just yet, but this isn’t too far away.
Many thanks.
