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Problems with poorly-designed anonymous top-up

winelight
Visitor

These are my experiences using anonymous top-up.
1. First I need to input the number (of course), so I copy and paste this from my contacts. This doesn't work, because you only accept the UK format with a leading 0, and the number in my contacts is in international format (+44).
2. I can't edit the number to change the +44 to zero because your field is restricted in length and has truncated the last few digits.
3. So I copy and past the number into a text editor and replace the +44 with a zero, and then copy and paste this into the field.
4. This still doesn't work because your input field validation has again truncated the number because it can't cope with the standard telephone number format of a space between the dialling code and number.
5. Let's move on to payment. EE does not accept any third-party payment such as Google Pay, PayPal, etc., and nor does it allow you to create an account to remember your credit card details. Given that you are likely to be having to top up someone's phone in an urgent situation, you could well be somewhere where you either don't have a physical credit card with you, or it's inconvenient or unsafe to get it out and start typing the number in.
6. OK let's suppose you're not standing on a rush-hour tube train trying to top-up the phone of your granny who's been rushed into hospital, but instead sitting at home in front of a PC with your credit card in front of you and have time to spare. Now it is likely that you have typed your postcode in before, and therefore you don't need to have to type the whole thing in again - autocomplete will do that for you. This doesn't work, and if you are very observant, and knowledgeable about poorly-written input field validation, you will spot that the reason your correct postcode is giving a 'postcode error' is because of a trailing space. Of course, if you do spot this, it's easy to fix.
So all in all a slow, tedious and painful process, which is rather unusual in this day and age when you are trying to give somebody your money. Most companies don't put obstacles in your way!

14 REPLIES 14
Profile closed
Not applicable

That’s the first thing I did prior to trying web online. I prefer top up on the phone it’s self. It’s easiest for me.

I tried that method it states not enough funds to send text . Have tried that for many hours too

 

 

James_B
EE Community Manager
EE Community Manager

Texts to 150 are free @Profile closed 

Is it definitely an EE plan you are using?

Has your SIM card been out of use for a while?

Could your account be in hibernation? - What is pay as you go and flex hibernation, and how do I stop it? - The EE Community

James

Profile closed
Not applicable

It’s not been long since I made calls. But can that happen anyway? What can I do about it. Is it easy to resolve?

James_B
EE Community Manager
EE Community Manager

Hi @Profile closed,

Yes, if you haven’t used your phone for any chargeable activity for 179 days, your account will go into hibernation and any credit will be removed. But don’t worry; at this point it’s not too late to reinstate it – just get in touch with our Customer Care team.

James

XRaySpeX
EE Community Star
EE Community Star

EE's not the only 1. Applied for Covid jab today with NHS. Entered my name as "XRaySpeX{space}" (from the Predictive Text seeing a word) & it said I was not known. When I entered "XRaySpeX" using back delete it recognised me straightaway.

Computers (incl. AI) are idiots & programmers are lazy not to add a few instructions in their code to remove all spaces from peep's names cuz we all know that names, fore & sur, don't have any spaces in them anywhere.😉 .

If you think I helped please feel free to hit the "Thumbs Up" button below.

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