Poor service

[Jhd7]

Shocking service from ee today, recently found out that a direct debit for £44 pound a month has been taken from my account since 2020, for an account/number/sim that was not received so not activated .

ee have offered 6months line rental as compensation.

unbelievable!!

anyone know the best way forward with this?

[Jhd7]

I spoke to ee earlier and was offered the 6 month line rental, I was then referred to a manager who reiterated the offer.

[Jhd7]

You are not a judge, and I’m guessing you have limited experience of court proceedings,  I can assure you that even if it was established that I “would walk away with nothing “ the total court proceedings /mediation/ financial cost to ee would be considerably more  than the amount  that I would be pursuing, and small claims do not allocate costs .

hopefully then ee may learn from this, although I doubt it.

Sorry I don’t share your view on this, but I am a person of principle simply because an inflated amount has been debited from account without me noticing it does make it ‘just’.

[BrendonH]

I have a very good standing on court proceedings. I spent years helping my wife revise her Bachelors and Masters degree in law. She spent the year working in Matrix chambers one the top chambers in the UK set up by Cherie Blair. The very chambers helping the victims of the phone hackings. 

My motherin law is a judge in the tax tribunals. So I cna assure you that thinking you have a case after 4 years of paying for something is naive.

[bristolian]

It's unfortunate that a mistake has been made for this length of time, but you have admitted to not checking your bank statements for 4 years - a fact not likely to be ignored by any judge.

I suspect you will struggle to find (m)any companies willing to refund that amount of charges in this scenario.

[Jhd7]

For the benefit of this forum, perhaps you could consult your wife/law books and quote the legislation that outlines your argument?

or is just your opinion?

is it your view that it’s ok for ee to deduct money via direct debit for an unrequested non activated account for four years, and that there is no means to address the situation in law, because the victim didn’t stop the activity sooner?

what exactly is the deadline/timeframe as to when it would be acceptable to notify ee that they are taking money for such an account (stated in law) that your argument depends on?

[BrendonH]

FCA states 13 months.

Considerably lower than the 48 months it has taken you.

This doesn't mean they owe you 13 months worth of refunds this means you had 13 months from the first unauthorised payment to leave your account to tell EE about it

[bristolian]

There is an expectation in any legal action for both parties to mitigate their alleged losses. If you do pursue this through the courts, be prepared to explain why this went unnoticed for 4 years.

[Jhd7]

Regarding mitigating costs, , I was only made aware of this account by a helpful ee employee, I pay my direct debits in good faith that I am not being overcharged for phantom accounts.

with regards to “fcs states 13 months” I was asking for the correct legislation that would defend a claim for an amount taken from a bank account for an unknown unrequested non active account phone contract.

obviously it would be different if the account had been requested  a sim received or even activated.

I appreciate everyone can have a different view on this,

Regardless, representatives defending and mediating a claim are costly for ee I would hope that an agreement could be reached earlier.

[BrendonH]

It has been reached. They offered you 6 months free. 

[Jhd7]

It would only of been reached if both parties had agreed.

I think the sensible approach for anyone else who may be interested, is that I provide ee with a subject access request to hopefully establish how a contract has been created for the contract in question.

and we then establish how the service has been provided, difficult for ee as they have advised that the sim  has never been activated by themselves.