EE need to seriously look at their 3rd party service arrangements.

[Agent-Smith]

Just want ot express my extreme disgust at the arrangements for 3rd party services and allowing a contract mobile payment arrangement without the account holder knowing about it for a minor.

Got a bill recently for over 200 quid when my children are on an £11 pound contract, obviously shocked as I wasn't informed of any transactions and wasn't informed or asked permission.  Naturally complained about this and what has made it worse is that EE refunded the money and then suspended the lines of my kids and now want payment?

Seriously, if i wasn't on a contract with both of them, I would walk away right now. Absolutely Shambolic and you should be ashamed of yourselves.  This is not customer serivce, its a damn ransom.

[Chris_B]

@Agent-Smith  EE don’t sell contracts to under 18, if a parent should give a child a device on contract that parent takes responsibility. EE don’t I know who’s using that device. 
If that child has setup a payment method that uses the phone bill to make that payment this isn’t down to EE.    A parents has to make sure the device is set up for a child and that any 3rd party payment methods then have to have the approval of the parent.     You can go to any network and you will have the same issue as the device was set up to allow mobile phone bill payments on the device in question.    

[chrisjp1]

"Absolutely Shambolic and you should be ashamed of yourselves."

You need to be aware that you are not talking to EE on this Community - you are merely talking to other EE customers. So this sort of phrasing is inappropriate - EE customers have no reason to be "ashamed of themselves"

[Northerner]

Hi @Agent-Smith 

You should be able to disable or limit (via password) payment processes in the play/apple store on the devices to remove this issue in the future. 

Android:

Require Authentication: Go to Play Store settings > Authentication > Require authentication for purchases to set it to "For all purchases".

Apple:

Set Password Requirements: Go to Settings > [Your Name] > Media & Purchases > Password Settings to choose how frequently you must enter your password for paid and free items.

@Chris_B  is correct in that you as the bill payer are responsible for any charges becase EE does not sell contracts to minors. This is harsh yes but you can try and complain here: https://ee.co.uk/help/contact-ee/complaint

Alternatively contact the company who was paid and request a refund. 

Thanks 

[Northerner]

@chrisjp1 

I believe the OP maybe frustrated and I can see why, their choice of language is not an insult aimed at customers directly I am sure. 

Thanks 

[Agent-Smith]

Thank you Northerner, 

yes it was aimed at EE for allowing this to happen, I have been in touch with the 3rd party and they have fobbed me off at their end too so as you can imagine not particularly impressed.  The fact of the matter is, a child can set up a payment method without me knowing as the account holder.  I find that particularly worrying.  

One party blames the other and you as a customer are stuck in between.  Surely the default position of any child account set up that is a mninor would be to disallow any 3rd party purchasing or at least to have a limit on it?  its not that difficult!

This was made worse by then giving it back (it wasnt a refund, some sort of dispute but you cant tell from looking at your account) and then EE barring the phones and demanding that payment back.  I had no messaging to tell me what was going on, the first i knew was when my sons phone stopped working which in my eyes is very bad form.

I have since barred the 3rd party purchasing on the accounts and paid the amount back to EE but less than impressed.

[bristolian]

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@Agent-Smith wrote:

The fact of the matter is, a child can set up a payment method without me knowing as the account holder.  I find that particularly worrying.  

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So who gave the child, access to the phone in the first place? Some responsibility lies with them.

A spend-cap will not restrict all charges, but the account holder should make themselves aware of this too - https://ee.co.uk/help/mobile/manage-use/pay-monthly/set-up-and-manage-spend-cap 

[Agent-Smith]

this is more to do with them being able to set up a payment method without the account holders knowledge which i find particularly worrying.

[bristolian]

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@Agent-Smith wrote:

this is more to do with them being able to set up a payment method without the account holders knowledge which i find particularly worrying.

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I've never engaged in charge-to-bill so don't have first-hand experience of what security measures should be in-place, but my expectation would be...

The third party account or service in-question has password-protection to prevent unauthorised access to it. And when a particular phone number is first mooted as a payment method, that should be covered by a One Time Password (OTP) by text message to ensure valid access to it.

The account holder does hold some responsibility here, but passing that blame to others may be an easy excuse in some cases.

[Christopher_G]

Hi @Agent-Smith 

Welcome to the community.

I'm sorry to hear that you've received some unexpected charges on your bill. I know there's been a bit of discussion around this on the thread already.

You can see more information about charge to mobile services, including a code of practice, on our Charge purchases to your EE Mobile bill.

I realise you've already discussed this with our customer support team too, but if you're still unhappy with how things have been handled, I recommend filling in our online complaint form. That way a dedicated team will look into this and contact you directly to discuss it.

Keep us updated with what happens please.

Chris