Disability Contracts are needed.

[Shashu]

Hello, i am autistic with social anxiety, i had an old windows phone that i used for years which i only paid £10-20 a year as that was all i needed to last a year as i barely text or call to anyone, i didn't even take any EE Deals that kept spamming me with as it was no point in them, it was more of an emergency phone.

Now however i finally got a new smart phone and am able to do so much more on it but most of it does require internet nowadays, i still don't call or text much but may use internet more often.

But we had trouble trying to find the right contract suitable for me, most deals came to £10-15 per month... to expensive for my needs. And the funny thing is the "Pay as you go" now is no different than a contract either way makes you pay £100 a year.

Atm am with BT and just got a deal on £8 EE sim (which suppose to be £9 as they were kind enough to drop £1) for 10gb data (doubled to 20gb) and unlimited calls and text per month but even so.. this is still to much what i need. Most people with disability barely call or text or use the phone as much so the unlimited calls and text is not really needed, it more used for emergency calls or help our needs in life (which requires internet).

Point is, it would be nice if there was such a thing (coughEEcough) a special contract (with proof of disability ofc) for people such as I. Unless there is one and yet to find it.

[Chris_B]

@Shashu  so you want to contract that has a set allowance of minutes a set allowance of text and a data allowance for less than what you’re paying now ie the £8.    You’re getting a real good deal at that cost as a sim only contract starts at around £12 with less data then what your getting.     It doesn’t matter if you don’t need unlimited calls/texts you’ve got it and you’re not paying more for it.   To purchase 10Gb of data on its own will cost you £20.  You’ve got a fantastic deal at only £8 for the allowances you get.   

[Shashu]

I may not be the best person to talk about this.. as am terrible at explaining or getting a point through as my mind works differently.

This deal is good for normal people yes.. but for disability people who are on benefits or unable to work or have social anxiety, not really. People with disability have a harder time with communication or use the phone far less than normally people would. So paying £8 a month is actually costly for the amount of use it will get out of it. Do mind there are many other things that require monthly payment stacking on top of this already.

As i said i was fine for 12 years topping up a phone for £10-20 a year, but now it feels like i gotta pay x10 that.

But this isn't just for me, but for the majority of other disability people as well who are far worse than me. Just like how we need to show proof or give papers to get a blue badge for free parking, disability scheme on cars or a disable card to get in free or discounts in certain places which helps disability get by.

I just think it be nice to have a disability Scheme for phones as well. Make it more flexible for disabled to help in certain areas and costs.

[Chris_B]

@Shashu  So you think that let’s say £20 a year is a perfect contract price ?   Contracts are a monthly payment and have to be paid monthly as any out of allowance charges have to be paid each month as obviously you don’t want to receive a bill at the end of the year and you’ll have no idea what that will be because of any out of allowance charges will be add to it.     The out of allowance charge’s could be more than the tariff at £20 at the end of the year.  And you’ll never get a contract at only £1.66 per month to cover that £20 per year price.    You say you want data and that has a monthly cycle so do calls/texts and you want to have a one of yearly payment,  your requesting EE to write software just for this and this doesn’t cover out of allowance charges that you could incur, do EE bill you separately for this each month?  EE would have to create software just for this purpose as it’s not there yet.    

A PAYG that doesn’t have a pack is available where your credit pays for calls/text but you’ll get no data so you’ll need to purchase a data add on that only lasts 30 days, and your credit for calls/texts lasts until used.  Just one call every 2 months keeps the SIM card activated. 

 I can not see EE creating a one off yearly payment contract that doesn’t allow for out of allowance calls/texts as you never know you just might need to make this call/text  you can not predict the future.   You’ll be billed monthly so you can keep a check on what you’re spending before it gets out of control.    

perhaps EE could do a £2 a month tariff and you get 20mins of calls 20 text and 2Gb of data per month.   But would this be enough for all customers who can request this type of tariff I doubt it.  More importantly and this isn’t trying to say it’s not fair or anything like that.   Who has to pay to cover what you’re not paying to cover the costs of this £2 tariff?    2Gb of data add on is about £7 for 30 days.  Do EE charge everybody else more to cover this cost ?   At £2 per month isn’t enough to cover the data let alone the calls/texts allowance.  

[Shashu]

I did not say anything about paying a contract of £20 a year... you are misunderstanding what i was trying to say. As i said am bad at explaining things or getting a point through. you are also giving me a hard time so this is my last reply to this post... thanks.

All i said that due to my disability i could get by with £10-20 top up a year, this is meant to say i barely use the phone or call / text at all while being limited going on internet outside of the house but it was fine and this can be said for others with disability, because it's used as an EMERGENCY PHONE but now i got a new phone which now requires internet much more than needed due to apps or things that could help in real life, i have no choice but to get a contract but it feels to much for what i.. or rather people with disability needs.

I would be fine if it was £40-70 a year with some flexibility in choices of what we can have. Am not saying reduce it to £2 a month but rather some sort of disability scheme with some benefits that only we can get. We have many disability schemes to help us in other things, this post was just more of an idea for EE to get into, or if any other people with disability agree this should be a thing or not.

Again this will be my last post, due to my anxiety i do not feel well continuing.

[Christopher_G]

Welcome to the community, @Shashu.

Thank you for your suggestions. I would recommend speaking to our Mobile Care team on our live chat service to see if there is a plan more suited to your needs.

Digital for All | How we help if you have a disability | EE

Chris

[Wrexham4eva71]

Chris il tell u who pays.....people like me who get ripped off saying I could have an add on for 10 a month where does my 40gb that I'm already paying for aswell as the unlimited which was 26! I too am disabled and vulnerable and reliant on a phone so yes what about us who are discriminated against. You're OK if you have universal credit etc strange I know of people who go on hols abroad parties etc cos they get that I'm in no way saying everybody does I just know of ppl. I've not even had a multi line discount I've been with ee since 2009. Yes it is a bit low what the person is asking for if I could I would gladly give them the data I'm paying for but not using as I got an add on unlimited so in effect I pay for the data I don't use Where's the justice in that? I've had free bt sport numerous times but not been able to watch it and yes contacted ee and no it wasn't resolved so I gave up! to the person who started the thread I'm with you should have disability help but to be honest you really wouldn't get anything that cheap even I'm getting ripped off. You are best looking at other companies supermarkets etc and get a pay as you go. I doubt I will get anything back so cut you're losses and get pay as you go. Good luck. Tina

[Leanne_T]

Hi @Wrexham4eva71 

I am very sorry to hear this, do you get an error message when setting up BT Sport? 

What did our mobile care team advise when you got in touch? 

Leanne.

[Shashu]

Hi, just saw this 🙂 it's a shame your having issues, it's hard for us to talk to customer service or get help since not all of us are able to talk or socialize like normal ppl and can be very scary for us or very troubling to get things sorted. Often get told to phone someone which i hate... as 90% i have trouble understanding them and get anxiety. x.x it would just be nice of websites start making a special side page for disabled ppl to easily understand, simple and easy to get things done without needing to TALK to ppl.

However i did go with the £8 per month which after while i guess it was as cheap as i could get and well had no choice, though they just recently put it up to £10. 😞

Even so if we can't get a cheap price, be nice to have some sort of extra benefit for us disabled ppl, something like a perma phone number (i often get msg's to get told to msg someone otherwise i lose my number.. i nearly did once) or a few special deals here and there.. again we can provide data.

But ya, thanks for sticking up for the disabled 🙂 hope you get your issue sorted >.< even though it will be a pain in the butt... body and mind. 😛