EE cancelled my husbands phone account which was linked to our mortgage!

[NatSamson]

Help dealing with customer service and retrieving a number please.

My husband and I moved to Pay As You Go contracts as we are on extended working leave in NZ. Someone at EE made a massive mistake and cancelled my husbands account instead which also cancelled his mobile number. Not only was this number a long standing number relating to his work but it is also linked to our mortgage account as part of two -factor authentification.

Customer service have been less than helpful and basically said "we can't do anything about it". To be clear we specifically asked for Pay As You Go and triple checked on what we needed to do to retain both of our numbers. My EE number is fine. My husbands number cancelled. Without my husbands number we can't access our mortgage account from overseas.

I've rung and texted the number and its not going through, so its not been claimed by someone else. Yet the manager of the customer service person I was dealing with said they can't get the number back. This seems ridiculous.

Now the person I was dealing with in customer service is ignoring my emails.

Due to changing interest rates we are losing money because of this situation daily. How do I get EE to reply to my emails? How do I get them to admit their fault and retrieve my husbands number? What do I need to say to EE to make them listen? I dont think I'm being unreasonable asking EE to solve an issue that they have created.

Any help would be gratefully received.

[XRaySpeX]

@NatSamson : How do you know that somebody at EE cancelled your husband's a/c? They don't just cancel PAYG a/c's. You never owe money on them. So there's no reason to.

When did he previously make a chargeable action? EE PAYG SIMs are deactivated after 6 months of non-chargeable use. You then have a further 3 months period of grace to call EE to reactivate it before it is lost completely.

He needed to make a chargeable action like making a chargeable call or text, topping up or buying a Pack or Add-on, not just using his mins, texts or data from his pack.

[NatSamson]

Hi there,

We found out it was cancelled when he tried to make a chargeable text within four months of his last chargeable action. We knew about the deactivation after 6 months policy, so had set calendar reminders to make a chargeable text within four months for safety. 

When he couldn't complete that text he tried to login to his EE account and it said it was cancelled. I then tried to text him from my UK number and it wouldn't send. I then rang EE customer service on my UK number, and they confirmed his number had been cancelled less than a month after his request to go to Pay As You Go. 

[XRaySpeX]

OK, so maybe it wasn't hibernation, but ...

When was his SIM moved to PAYG? It takes 30 days notice to cancel a contract & before it is moved to PAYG. Had that change taken place while abroad he can't now use it at all while abroad. To be used abroad EE PAYG SIMs need 1st activating on EE's home UK network. If it wasn't he can't now use it until he returns to UK.

[NatSamson]

Thanks for all your information and help so far.  He transferred his phone from monthly contract to Pay As You Go while he was in the UK. He then used the number on multiple occasions on Pay As You Go while he was in the UK. Then 2-3 weeks after he departed the UK, someone at EE cancelled his number. So that means he activated the Pay As You Go in the UK no?

[XRaySpeX]

How long between cancelling his contract & leaving UK?

[NatSamson]

I've been told by EE they cancelled his contract in early June so approx 2 weeks after we flew out of the UK. But he'd requested the move to Pay as You Go approx two weeks before that. And used the Pay As You Go in those two weeks.

[XRaySpeX]

If he requested cancellation 2 weeks before you left UK then the actual cancellation wouldn't take place until he had served the 30 days notice that is necessary, which would take him to about 2 weeks after you left UK, which fits with what EE say. Only until then would the SIM be moved to PAYG. If he used SIM in the 2 weeks before flying it was as contract while in UK.

Request  <  2 weeks Contract   >  Fly  <  2 weeks Contract   >  Cancelled  <  PAYG .....            -> 

So it is not hibernation that applies here but the principle that new PAYG SIMS, as his became, must 1st be activated in UK before they can be used abroad.

A side effect of this is that his MyEE a/c would be closed at the same time as contract nos. & PAYG nos. don't mix under the same a/c. He needs a new EE a/c for that.