Five days of this, and still no end in sight

[dave_101]

So, for the past five days now, the service has been crap.

All we get in the way of detail from EE is

What the hell is the point of this. Occasionally, we get an update saying that the problem will be fixed in 13 hours, but then next morning we're back to this.

Does anyone know who to complain to in order to get a refund?

[bristolian]

It's encouraging that EE are aware of the issue in your local area and are actively seeking to resolve it - unfortunately not all fixes are as quick as operators or end-users would like.

No network guarantees a fault-free service, but if you want to discuss your individual account you can call 150.

[dave_101]

You could call 150, if there was a working mast in the area.

And even if you can make the call, it then relies on someone on the other end actually answering it.

There is little point in having a status checker that lies to customers. It would be better to remove the ever promising, always missed, 16 hours. I would prefer honesty, rather than something that will continually disappoint.

[bristolian]

You don't even need another working site to call EE C/S - you could use WiFi-calling to call 150 or any working phone to use 0800 0798586. Although if the cause of the fault has been logged, the CS agent is likely limited in what they can advise.

What make you so confident the status checker is lying? It's a feed from the EE faults database.

[Mustrum]

Do both threads need to be combined?

https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Mobile-Data/Has-something-gone-wrong-with-EE-Mobile-Broadband-routing/... 

[dave_101]

Well, WiFi calling is great if you have a working broadband connection... oh, but wait, the whole problem here is that the only broadband connection available to us is via EE mobile broadband... and the tower is down.

And if you lived in the sticks, with miles to the nearest telephone exchange, you'd understand that landlines don't necessarily give an audible signal.

But anyway, how do I know that the status checker is lying? Well, my wife eventually got through to a technical support rep (calling from London), and he confirmed that the mast is (a) broken, (b) needs hardware components replacing, and (c) that EE have no intention of returning to the mast until the 13th.

Now I can do basic maths. Any time on the 9th of December + 16 hours does not get you past the 10th of December. In other words, three days before they can fix the tower.

I do not mind, per se, that the mast is broken. I do care that EE doesn't have the guts to tell their customers the truth.

[dave_101]

Maybe, but not really.

There are two issues which are probably unrelated.

One, the mast is broken and the status checker does not provide information that bears any resemblance to the truth. The other is that EE route customers' internet traffic via a US military server.

If you're happy that they're related, feel free to combine them.

[XRaySpeX]

I agree with you that they are 2 unrelated issue that should not be merged.

[XRaySpeX]

@dave_101 : You are managing to post these posts over the Net. So you must have  a working broadband connection. Try calling CS on the Freephone no. (Opt 2) in my sig. on Skype over WiFi. It should be free.

[bristolian]

There's a few theories in this, and the other, thread, that may be a little wide of the mark in network architecture terms, but I can sympathise with the underlying frustrations. It's a little hard to follow some detail with the competing threads.

The vast majority of customers who contact EE for network outage queries aren't interested in the technical details of service faults, they just want the service to work, so frontline info is generally geared to this. Data routing is configured at a core/central network level, not individual sites whose purpose is to provide radio coverage.

The same goes for service bouncing between different coverage layers - this is rarely caused by radio equipment going in and out of service, but often by the terminal device jumping between signalling priorities.