My phone has been broken for the last 3 weeks(ish), but I kept putting off getting it replaced. This week I decided that although it was actually bliss for a while not having a phone, I needed to get it sorted.
I knew I was well overdue an upograde, (about 2 years overdue), so I thought it would be simple to arrange an upgrade to replace my broken phone. (Oh how wrong I was).
Initially I tried to sign up to an upgrade deal on the website that looked ok but when I went to confirm the deal it told me that I needed to confirm a verification PIN that would be sent to my phone, which obviously wouldn't work because my phone was broken.
So I contacted EE on Twitter and got put through to their upgrades team and after spending approx 10 hours answering their questions, (and being verified twice by a single use PIN that was sent to the email address they had on file), as well as loads of other questions, they eventually told me that they couldn't help me because I needed access to the PIN in order to receive the phone from DPD. I thought this was madness because how can I receive a PIN when I haven't got my phone, but I was tired so I left it on Monday night and went to bed.
On Tuesday I tried again and was identified again and verified again, (including via the single use PIN to my email address) and was eventually advised that this couldn't be resolved online, but that if I went into my local branch then they would be able to help me there.
I wasn't happy about this because I'm recovering from hip-replacement surgery and I don't drive and it's a hell of a trek to the local store, (Rushden Lakes), because I live in a rural area with poor public transport. Anyway, I traipsed all the way in to the store and explained the situation to staff member Chelsea who explained that there was nothing she could do because they relied on the same PIN system as DPD. She did tell me though that EE could send the PIN via email rather than SMS message and she knew this because she had managed to do that in similar circumstances.
In any case, the best deal she could offer me was £120 more expensive than the deal I had picked online. What was I paying £240 more, (over the course of the contract) for exactly? For being made to walk into the store and mucked about?
I asked her what would happen if my phone was lost or stolen and she said that she would be able to issue a replacement PIN, use one of the phones in store and we would do it that way. Great I said, let's get started on that then! She said we couldn't do that because she knew my phone wasn't lost or stolen. I was astonished. Now I had to walk all the way home, (still with no phone), get the phone and then walk back to the store AGAIN.
When I got home I couldn't find the phone. (Remember I haven't used it for more than 3 weeks). I looked everywhere and don't know what I've done with it. Now the phone really is lost! I spoke to Linsey again and she blatantly refused to believe that I had been into the Rushden Lakes store because "nobody had accessed my account". I told her the name of the staff member I had spoken to in order to verify this, but she wasn't interested. She just said that nobody had been into my account so I hadn't been to the store.
What do you say to this? To be honest I was lost for words and just gave up.
Later on I contacted EE on their chat service again and spoke to Rosie in upgrades and explain the situation in great detail. She says she has a solution because there is a phone/plan that doesn't require a PIN. I ask her if she's sure because I was told there was no way around this and she assures me it will all be fine. She spend hours going through everything with me and eventually signs me up to a new 2 year contract and tells me the phone will arrive tomorrow and that no PIN will be required.
The DPD driver knocked on my door this morning and much to my surprise asks me for a PIN. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He politely checked with his office and confirmed that a PIN was indeed required and when I asked him if there is EVER an EE phone delivery where the PIN isn't required he said "not in his experience" and off he went.
So all that time I had spent online with Rosie supposedly coming up with a solution to my problem was just complete rubbish. I don't know if she was just incompetent or she lied simply to get another sale through, but either way I can't get a phone delivered from DPD because I don't have a working phone to receive the PIN.
I ended the chat by saying that I'm just going to cancel the DD and go and buy a Tesco mobile or something. I've just had enough.
I'm paying about £50 a month to a company who treat me like this? I'm just astonished.
I think I'm going to go back into the store tomorrow and give it 1 last try, (I'm too sore to walk there today).
In all my years I have never experienced anything like this. It's a poxy phone!
Oh 1 last thing. When I was initially getting frustrated on the 1st Day, (it's now the 3rd day), I raised a formal complaint. Great you would think. That will surely resolve it when that gets dealt with. No. They take a minimum of 7 days to respond to a complaint. Honestly, I've never even heard of anything like this. If someone told me all this I don't think I would have believed them.
I'm paying EE in excess of £600 a year and they are not in the slightest bit interested in helping me.
