Unable to view bills

[MaryN2]

Hi,

I have been unable to access our business account for a few weeks now. Every time I try to log in to view our current bill, I get this error message:

"We're unable to retrieve your account details right now

Log out and then log in again."

I contacted EE a couple of weeks ago. They advised that they were aware of the problem and were working on getting it sorted. Surely it should be fixed by now? I tried downloading the app to see if I could view the bills that way, but that didn't work either. I have tried texting BILL to 150 but that hasn't worked either, even though I have had a text saying "You can view your bill at ee.co.uk/bill or reply BILL to this message". Could you please advise? 

Thanks

[Chris_B]

@MaryN2  call customer services and request that they reset your online account. 

[MaryN2]

Thanks, I will give this a try.

[cpharvey]

I have exactly the same problem both web and app. I also called and got the usual useless answers, the best one is “it should resolve itself”. 
They tried doing a network reset, why I don’t know as it’s unrelated to the network, and of course that has not worked. 
Let me know if you find a resolution. 

[Katie_B]

Good morning @cpharvey. 

We're aware of a small number of users who are having problems accessing their bills online. Our support teams are investigating this and working to fix it as soon as possible. In the meantime, please try using the EE App and the EE Online desktop site. If you still can't access your bills, and you need more information urgently, please give us a call on 150. 

Katie

[cpharvey]

Katie, please read my post again, you will see I say that I did call and got the usual non helpful answers. 
I spoke with first line of support who put me through to the second line, neither of which could help. 
Second line did a “network reset” for some stupid reason, because clearly it’s not my phone so why they did that is beyond me. 
In the end they said “can’t do any more, it should resolve itself”, clearly it will not, it’s an account error that they don’t know how to resolve. 
When threads pop up on forums with a consistent issue, it’s never a “small number of users”, these forums are the canary in the coal mine. 
I asked if someone could email me my bill and was told “we cannot, that’s insecure”. Also an idiotic policy. Email is no less secure than old fax or VOIP phone calls. It’s a fallacy to say that’s insecure. 

[Katie_B]

Hi @cpharvey. 

It's correct that our agents are unable to email copy of your bills, however, you can request for a bill to be sent via post.

The problem with not being able to access your bills online is being looked into by a different team to our front line staff. 

If you have any questions about your current bill amount or you wish for a bill breakdown our customer care team on 150 can help with this. 

Katie

[cpharvey]

Post does not help me for my situation, I need an electronic version. Let’s also not ignore the fact that post is broken in the UK. I’m still waiting on a cheque after months that I can’t get recreated. 
So if the billing issue is handled by a different team than that which I spoke to how do I reach them? Calling 150 and saying “Katie told me to call” isn’t going to work. 
In my support request I selected the account and billing team, so I would hope it’s them that called me back, but they didn’t specify (they should btw).

So how do I reach the correct team? 

[chrisjepson82]

I have been, and still am, suffering from the same issue using desktop and smart phone browser.  Extremely frustrating to say the least, especially with financial year end approaching.  If I can't access them with the next 7-days I'll be sending EE an invoice to remiburse the last 3 months bills that I can't access or submit electroncally to my accountant.

[cpharvey]

Don't hold your breath on getting money out of EE. I said to the escalation rep that called me yesterday that EE is playing with fire here and I'm sure there's a lawyer that would love to take this on. given this issue is going to be affecting more than "a few people" as they keep saying. Her response was "I can send you a copy of your bill in the post, after all we offer the electronic bill as a FREE servuce". I laughed.

The care reps are so ingrained in their talking points they don't seem to realise that this FREE service is saving EE millions. Let's do the math. 

There's about 22 million customers in the UK. If we say 50% take paper bills and 50% electronic (no idea on that number, it's just a guess). Let's also assume bulk mail rates are about 20p per letter. So 50% of 22 million multiplied by 20p is £2.2 million per month, or £26 million per year in postal savings. Yeah "FREE" is highly beneficial for EE and of course I should be grateful.

If every EE customer demanded a paper bill, it wouldn't be too long before EE added a surcharge to your bill for having it posted to you, encouraging this "FREE" electronic service, that apparently is broken for "a few" customers. When you have 22 million customers, "a few" is likely measured in 10's of thousands or 100's of thousands. Given this issue isn't something any of us created, this is a back-office muckup, it likely affects a lot more people than they are willing to admit.

Oh and finally, and yet another nail in the coffin, the escalation representative after offering to send me a paper bill (which is useless to me and likely won't even arrive anyway given the state of the postal mail service) said "ok well I'll close the complaint, thank you very much". Not sure why telling me that "it is a problem effecting a few people that will get resolved automatically", and "I offered to send you a postal mail" resolves my complaint, but hey, what do I know, I'm just the customer with a very expensive monthly bill, that i'm pretty sure other carriers would like to have.