Appalling Service and Let Down by EE.

[Calcykid]

Hi,

We have four mobile contracts with EE within my family, having been with them since the start. But, my experience today with EE was poor and I would like to raise the issue of buying insurance through EE with potential future customers and advise against this and this is why:

My son treated himself to a phone contract when he started his apprenticeship. He took out insurance with this. A couple of weeks ago (towards the end of his contract)  he went on holiday and jumped in the pool with his mobile in his pocket - Muppet! The phone no longer works so he took himself off to EE Shop. He returned with a new phone and contract, not claimed for on the insurance when the paperwork was checked!?  He went back down and pointed out that he had wanted to claim on the insurance and after speaking with the manager the new contract was cancelled and they explained that when the contract reverted back onto the old one on the EE App he could make his claim. 
Once this had happened he phoned EE to make a claim but it was declined. It would seem that the IT system the call taker had access to was showing different information to what was on the EE App with this resulting in both insurances being cancelled despite the insurance showing as being up to date and paid for on his billing.  The person dealing with us said there was nothing that could be done and hung up.
My concerns are:

1.  Should EE sell you a new contract when insurance is already clearly in place and ignore a claim?

2. Why are EE systems (My EE App and system call takers use) not talking to each other?

3 Why would EE with the claimed best customer service put the phone down on a polite and calm customer wanting to resolve a situation? 

4. Why haven’t customer service people working from home no access to a supervisor who can look further into the issue? 

5.  Why is exactly the same insurance with Apple £3 per month cheaper?

The positive out of this experience today is that we have found that purchasing the phone directly from Apple on their 0% finance with insurance and going SIM only with EE will save my son £14 per month. The IPhone is also not locked so makes it much easier to move to other networks which given today’s experience may well be on the cards at the end of his and my SIM only contracts. Cheers! 

[reddimackem1]

I'm leaving too.

Been with you years but not putting up with your anti male crap you have recently come up with ...

You really are idiots .

For the record sexist hate doesn't always start with men ..  

[kcurrie65]

Surely your issue is with the manager of the shop. Who issued the new phone. If he was able to stop the new phone and contract I would have been confident in letting him sort out the insurance claim that he didn't do in the first place. 

As for saving money going forward I have been sim only for many years and buy a new phone when my current one gives up. They do last longer than a year one of my work mates seems to need a new phone every time one is launched. Hope you get it resolved 

[Northerner]

Hi @Calcykid @

The missing point here seems to be your son as as an adult decided to upgrade rather than claim on his insurance. That seems to be the better option if he was entitled to an upgrade. 

Once you upgrade any previous account add one will be null and void with the new add-ons.

That said if insurance cover was in place and paid for then they should honour the claim although it may not be covered. Your son insurance policy will have a complaints process, which I suggest you follow and ultimately you may have to escalate to the financial ombudsman service.

EE complaints process is here: 

https://ee.co.uk/help/help-new/safety-and-security/protecting-your-information/complaints-code-of-pr...

Thanks 

[Calcykid]

Right or wrong when returning to the shop the manager said that insurance claims need to be made over the phone? 

[wardi]

This is the equivalent of having your car stolen, buying a new car then putting the insurance claim in afterwards.  Your son should have submitted an insurance claim before he visited the shop for a new phone - I'm surprised you didn't advise him about this.  Insurance claims need to be checked and assessed for obvious reasons.

Whatever, I do hope you can sort this out as he did at least have cover - I'm surprised at the number of people who buy expensive phones/tablets and don't bother insuring them.  Good luck. 

[Calcykid]

This is more equivalent to buying a car with insurance included as many car companies now do. Smashing the car up and taking it to the dealership when your insurance is in place. Showing it to them and walking away having purchased a new car. Admittedly, my son got a flea in his ear  but where is the honestly and integrity with EE? Would for instance Tesla provide you with a car and insurance and ignore an insurance policy under the name of the customer when presented with a completely damaged car at their forecourt? This is down to EE systems and potentially driven by sales performance indicators rather than customer focus. 

[dj19]

Having a similar problem. Gone yo claim on iPhone11 to find insurance is on a Samsung 9 ? ? 5 days in 5 different ppl spoken to 5

ppl saying call back in 24hrs yet still waiting on call 1 

[Chris_B]

@dj19   Did you take out insurance when you purchased the iPhone 11 ?   It doesn’t carry over when you upgrade you need to take it out again.  

[Chris_B]

@Calcykid  I’m surprised no one here has said this.   But device purchased from any network are no longer network locked and haven’t been since December last year.