I recently switched from Lit Fibre to EE and unfortunately have had some unexpected issues when dealing with EE regarding their promise of paying early termination charges from a previous provider.
Initially I went on to the EE website to enquire about switching as I had seen the TV advert stating EE would pay up to £300 termination charges from the previous supplier when you switch to EE.
This was confirmed by the salesperson on live chat and subsequently, I signed up with EE and cancelled my services with Lit, my now previous provider.
I confirmed with Lit the early termination charges which came to a total of £110. I informed EE of this with proof via email, at which point they said they would not do anything with it until the 14-day cooling off period with EE had passed. I thought that was fair enough and waited until I was out of the cooling-off period.
Once out of the 14-period with EE and locked into my contract, I sent the Switch Team at EE documentation confirming the termination charges of £110, the documentation at this time was two separate PDF files from Lit, stating the total fees of £110 for ending my contact early.
EE then came back and said it was not sufficient, that they needed an invoice/bill stating my name, address, account number and total termination charge listed.
I went back to Lit, who were happy to provide this. Although their method for showing these details were a little odd, they sent the documentation over to me. It was split into three invoices.
Invoice 1 - £43 for termination of 'WiFi Pack 1' Services
Invoice 2 - £38 for termination of 'Lit 1000' Services
Invoice 3 - £29 for termination
I found this a bit of a strange way to word it, so I did confirm with Lit that all three charges were a result of cancelling my contract early. They confirmed this was the case.
I then sent the three invoices to the EE Switch Team along with the confirmation from Lit that these were the total termination charges.
EE then emailed back stating that the total termination charges of £29 had been credited to my account. I immediately went back to EE explaining again that the total charge was £110, not £29 and received no reply.
I then went back to Lit and asked them to generate a new, single invoice stating the total termination charges in one file. Again, they were happy to provide this and promptly sent me a new PDF invoice.
Invoice - Total Termination Charges - £110
So, I then sent this over to EE Switch Team, who then e-mailed back stating that as the credit of £29 had been applied, they cannot amend it and suggested I call customer services to discuss.
I then called customer services, who after an hour of questioning me and asking me to resend the documents, said the only thing they can do is escalate it to the Switch Team on my behalf. It was painful hour-long phone call, the line was bad, the advisor was clearly not confident in his role and when I asked to speak to his team leader an hour into the call, I was informed I couldn't at that time. I was then told I would be called back with 24 hours. I asked to raise a complaint as this point as I feel the experience had reached a point where I am not only out of pocket, but it's now cost me time and stress.
I was insured a complaint had been raised and I would hear back regarding this.
Three hours later, I received an e-mail to say my complaint had been resolved. I logged onto the EE website to see if I could view any bill credit, assuming common sense had prevailed and the £110 had been applied. I could see no bill credit at all on my account, not even the incorrect amount of £29 that was previously stated had been applied.
I did send one final email to the Switch Team and they replied stating I should call customer services and sent me a link to their terms and conditions for switching providers.
The only reason I switched to EE at the time was because I was promised my early termination charges would be covered. Once I had switched and was out of my cooling-off period, it really felt like they 'got' me.
As customer services don't seem to know what to do about it, and consider the Switch Team almost as a different company that they can't speak on behalf of, and clearly the complaints system does not work, I am now forced to go down a different path.
I have now contacted a reporter for the national press who has heard of a similar story and is willing to publish the story. Not an avenue I ever wanted or expected to go down but feel I am now out of options.
It's now a matter of principle and not so much about the money. In a time where corporate greed seems to be running rampant and people are struggling to make ends meet, I can't just let this one go as other people I'm sure will suffer the same fate.
I couldn't be more disappointed with EE's handling of this and I write this in the hope that it helps at least one other person avoid suffering this poor treatment.
