UK to Ireland calls and texts (included in allowance or not?)

[ildr]

I've seen this statement in the footnotes (13) of page 9 titled "Calling abroad from the UK" of the current Plan Price Guide updated 1st July 2022.

it states that calls and texts from the UK to Ireland are included within your allowance.

Having added a new line to my account this week I find this not to be the case, as a test call to my own Irish SIM charges the 19ppm seen at the top of page 9 (yes the footnote number is incorrect here).

Exactly the same detail is in the version updated 25th May 2022.

To further confuse the issue, on page 7 the current MONTHLY PLAN TERMS AND PRICE GUIDE updated 3rd March 2022, this table also indicates that calls and texts are inclusive across all plan types.

Whereas the previous version does not mention Irish calls and texts as inclusive.

Can anyone confirm whether the documentation is incorrect or are they not billing such calls and text properly?

Luckily the main purpose of me adding the additional line was not to avail of the claims that my calls and texts to Ireland would come from my allowance, but it would have been handy. 

[Leanne_T]

Hi @XRaySpeX

This has been included as this does show Roaming information and not calling abroad from the UK. 

Thanks 🙂

Leanne.

[Schockwave]

Thank you @Leanne_T , as this has been quite confusing and should be clear for everyone.

[ildr]

Thanks for all the responses to my query.

I'm still puzzled why someone has gone in and taken the time to add apparently incorrect detail not once but three times to multiple "included in your allowance" tables when that detail did not appear in previous versions of the same documentation.

What on earth was the intent behind this? 

[Leanne_T]

Hi @ildr

This has been passed to the relevant team to get the information updated, thanks for the feedback. 

Leanne.

[XRaySpeX]

@ildr : Footnote 13 is certainly out of context & shouldn't be there.

However I would have thought that the inclusion of RoI in the "included in your allowance" table on page 7 the current MONTHLY PLAN TERMS AND PRICE GUIDE were intentional & that you have been charged contrary to it.

[ildr]

Having given the issue I've raised some further thought I can see why they have added Ireland into the "included in your allowance" tables, but the manner in which they have is both lazy and misleading.

Calls and texts to Irish mobiles and landlines being included in plan allowances is conditional, with that condition being that the SIM is roaming in some form of device in Ireland.

For that information to have been relayed correctly by EE they should have added sections like they have for the EU roaming zone countries as seen below, which in the case of Ireland should have the check marks to show the inclusivity of such calls and texts.

Showing calls and texts to Ireland in the tables as currently documented does not indicate this conditionality and instead states parity with calls and texts within the UK. 

[Leanne_T]

Thank you for this feedback @ildr

This has been sent to the relevant team to be looked into and updated. 

Thanks.

Leanne.

[XRaySpeX]

I can't agree with that. If the "Calls to UK & RoI mobile numbers" & the 
"Calls to UK landlines (numbers starting with 01,02, or 03 excluding Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man) and landlines in RoI" lines at the top of table were conditional on the SIM being roaming as you propose then they would also include all the other "countries listed in the roaming section above" as they are all in equal standing to the RoI when roaming. Then also that makes a nonsense of "excluding Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man".

Furthermore, if those lines were conditional on roaming where are allowances specified when calling from the UK? They are nowhere to be found.

No, those lines are talking only about calling from the UK & have nowt to do with roaming.

[ildr]

First let me correct myself after calling the Europe Roaming Zone the EU Roaming Zone in my previous post.

Ireland has been removed from the Europe Roaming Zone while Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man remain, no doubt to facilitate the difference in the way the daily charge is uniquely applied, therefore Ireland can't have equal standing with the other countries while roaming and requires its own section in the table to relay that information.

They have decided to lazily and misleadingly add Ireland into the three lines of the "included in your allowance" table in the current documentation.

Calls to UK & RoI mobile numbers

Calls to UK landlines (numbers starting with 01,02, or
03 excluding Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man) and
landlines in RoI

Text messages to UK & RoI mobile numbers

This doesn't change the status of Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man being included on those lines as they have been previously (see below), it is only Ireland's status that has changed.

I cannot see how EE can explain the current documentation they present as definitive otherwise.

I'm waiting on an official response to a letter I posted to Customer Services in Sunderland yesterday, and will update this thread with how they choose to clarify the issue. 

[ildr]

Had a response by email from the Executive Customer Resolution Team which didn’t address any of the issues raised with multiple pieces of current documentation and presented another undocumented scenario as an explanation. (see below)

Thank you for your letter to query calls made from  from an EE SIM card from the UK to Ireland. I have tried to call you but sadly never got the pleasure to speak to you.

What I can advise

When a call is made from an EE mobile from the UK to Ireland as long as the number dialled is in Northern Ireland this would be within the allowance and the calls would free, however if it is a call from an EE mobile from the UK to Southern Ireland this would be classed as an international call and charge would apply. I do hope this helps.

Totally unsatisfactory and missing the point entirely.