EE's data gifting policies are broken

[Tony1044]

This bothers me for two reasons, and I've raised complaints about both of them.

I've been an EE customer for years, and last January (2023) I decided to make some changes to my account and add a second one on for my son.

My account is unlimited data, his has 25GB per month. I wasn't too fussed because at the time I was told I could gift up to 100GB out of my allowance to my son.

What was never made clear was that that 100GB comes out of the *first* 100GB of my allowance. So if I were to forget to gift some and use, 10GB for example, I would then only be able to gift 90GB.

If I'd been told this up-front I'd have probably chosen a different level for him.

I complained about this but the message was lost in translation and all I could get out of either EE or even the ombudsman was that it was explained that only 100GB could be gifted...this was never the crux of my complaint.

Secondly, though, it turns out I can't actually ever gift him the full 100GB because in the app it's in 550MB chunks. Which means every month, I can only gift 99.5GB. I cannot gift any more as it says there isn't enough.

It may sound trivial, but over the 24 month contract, it works out at 13.2GB that I am unable to gift. Now multiply that by however many customers EE have and that's actually a LOT of data they're effectively keeping back off of customers.

So, either the app is wrong/is calculating it in an odd way, or I am not actually getting what I am paying for, and it's a breach of contract.

I'd like someone from EE to explain this anomaly to me, please.

Edited to add - the app won't allow me to gift 99.45GB either, which would possibly solve the problem. I cannot remember the message it gives but next time round I will try to note it down.

[XRaySpeX]

550 MB chunks? You sure?

See Data Gifting Terms and Conditions :

Data is gifted in increments of 500MB.

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[Tony1044]

Unfortunately I can't get a screen shot without buying more data to gift this month. You're right in that I *can* gift up to 99.5GB (which is a multiple of 500) but *not* 100GB - it says there isn't enough.

Once that 99.5 is gifted, the error is that you need to have at least 550MB to gift, so yeah - not really in 550MB increments, as I said originally, but the point remains that you cannot gift the full 100GB. Only up to 99.5.

[Tony1044]

So just to clarify.

• I log into the app and the app tells me that I have 100GB of data available that I can gift.
• If I try to gift 100GB, it throws an error saying I don't have sufficient data to gift.
• If I then gift the 99.5GB, it does it and shows 500MB remaining to gift.
• If I then try to gift the remaining 500MB, the app throws an error saying the minimum you can gift is 550MB.

The end result is that every month I am cheated out of 500MB of data gifting.

[Leanne_T]

Hi @Tony1044 

Thanks for coming back to the community. 

If you get an error when gifting data and have the full 100GB available, please call us on 150 and our tech guides will get this looked into for you. 

Leanne.

[Tony1044]

Yeah that's a practical solution every month... why not fix the issue?

[XRaySpeX]

Isn't it just possible that before trying to gift the whole 100 GB you yourself used a tweeny-weeny bit of data, say just by running up the app in preparation to gifting & so left the remaining giftable data a smidge below 100 GB? Thus leaving the last wedge just slightly below the min. chunk size of 500 MB.

You could probably get around this by doing the gifting under your EE a/c but from your son's mobile or online from a PC; anything but from your own phone that has the unlimited data.

[Tony1044]

Possible, yes, but unikely.

I've previously actually tried it at the moment after midnight. And when only on WiFi. 

Either way it highlights the issue ar hand. EE lied when they said you can gift 100GB. What they should have said was the first 100GB. They've since updated their documents but at the time not even their sales and support personnel knew about the caveat.

It doesn't ultimately matter. After being with EE for over a decade I'll be leaving at the end of the contract. That's how strongly I feel about being missold, and this is just the straw that broke the camel's back.

EE have had thousands of pounds out of me over the years.

[XRaySpeX]

It's highly likely, indeed to be expected. You've only need to use 1 Byte yourself to render null and void the last 500 MB chunk.

I remember when Unlimited Data plans were introduced & it always stated that gifting data was only from the 1st 100 GB (or 120GB for 5G plans) of all your data each billing month.