EE have completely changed my tariff mid-contract

[koinophobe]

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Hello. I'm completely lost and don't understand what to do. I cannot get hold of EE. They do not answer on the phone, they do not respond on the App - I can only phone them from a hugely expensive US cellphone as my phone has stopped working.

I am on a tariff which included as an addon a roaming pass 200GB for all countries including the US. I had previously been on the same plan for a decade which included the same, and EE phoned me last summer and offered me a new plan with the same benefits for £8 less if I committed to 2 years, which I did. Now, 9 months into it, they've removed the international roaming and calls. 

I'm studying in the US. That's why I agreed to the tariff. They know this. Suddenly I need to spend a ton of money to be able to use my phone again. How can they do this? How can they completely renege on a contract less than halfway through? Why would they contact me and convince me to give up the tariff I had that worked fine to take one they said was the same if they were going to destroy it and make my phone unusable? 

I do not know what to do. I can't seem to contact them, and I can't use my phone. Please can someone advise as to what best to do.

Thank you. @EESUPPORT 

[bristolian]

Are you saying that your phone has stopped working? That it has no coverage and/or cannot make or receive calls, or send/receive text messages?

Any billing issues aside, this should never affect your ability to roam. The costs of doing so are a different issue. Can you clarify the actual issue you have?

Does your phone show coverage indicators? Are you able to make a call?

[koinophobe]

Any attempt to make a call results in call failed and the receiving of a text message offering me a link to pay. Any atempt to use roaming doens't work. I am stranded here. This is unbelievable.

I finally after 2 hours got thru to their support who promised me it would be immediately fixed and had me turn off my phone and back on. it is not fixed and now ee support and website are magically down for maintenance. 

I feel like i'm being conned, massively, and I'm completely trapped. This is completely awful and I am begging anyone reading not to join or use EE.

[bristolian]

What is the exact wording of the text message you received when you tried making a call?

Can you send text messages? Are the symptoms identical across each local network when you manually cycle through them?

[koinophobe]

Hi from EE. We've removed your Roaming Pass EU Inclusive Extra. Please head to the EE app or text PICK to 150 to switch up your Inclusive Extras. You can also visit ee.co.uk/go/roamingrefresh for more info around roaming options. Thanks.

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Hi from EE, welcome to The United States of America.

To access your UK plan allowances you can choose either a £5 24-hour or £25 7-day Zone 1 Pass. Passes last full duration from the time you purchased them. Visit http://add-on.ee.co.uk for free to purchase.

If you choose not to purchase a pass, it will cost you £1.66 per min, 76p per text and you won't have access to data.

For more information on roaming, monitoring usage and managing spend and how to avoid unexpected charges: https://ee.co.uk/help/mobile/roaming (for free)

If you have a spend cap on your account, please note that many roaming charges count towards it. If it hits zero, we'll block roaming service to prevent any unwanted charges. If you're the account holder you can check your spend cap by logging into the EE app or texting SPEND CAP to 150.

Call +447953966250 for Customer Services or 112 in case of emergency.

Have a good trip!

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Hi from EE. You've made your travel more simple with the Roaming Pass EU Inclusive Extra. You can now use your UK allowances while in the EU. Please visit ee.co.uk/go/roamingrefresh for more info, and to see which countries are included. Thanks.

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Hi from EE. We've removed your Roam Inclusive Extra. Please go to the EE app or visit ee.co.uk/go/login to manage your extras. Thanks.

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Hi from EE, welcome to The United States of America.

To access your UK plan allowances you can choose either a £5 24-hour or £25 7-day Zone 1 Pass. Passes last full duration from the time you purchased them. Visit http://add-on.ee.co.uk for free to purchase.

If you choose not to purchase a pass, it will cost you £1.66 per min, 76p per text and you won't have access to data.

For more information on roaming, monitoring usage and managing spend and how to avoid unexpected charges: https://ee.co.uk/help/mobile/roaming (for free)

If you have a spend cap on your account, please note that many roaming charges count towards it. If it hits zero, we'll block roaming service to prevent any unwanted charges. If you're the account holder you can check your spend cap by logging into the EE app or texting SPEND CAP to 150.

Call +447953966250 for Customer Services or 112 in case of emergency.

Have a good trip!

Over and over and over. No way to use phone. No way to contact support. Deliberate, fraudulent, scam.

[bristolian]

As I suspected - nothing in there about "your phone has been suspended" or otherwise preventing from working, as you were alluding to. There's even a reference to "If you choose not to purchase a pass...."

My point being, that this is a billing issue, it should not be preventing your phone from getting network coverage or otherwise making/receiving calls or sending/receiving texts. The normal explanation for calls failing when there's no billing add-on, is the presence of a spend-cap preventing charges from being incurred.

As per my previous post - Can you send text messages? Are the symptoms identical across each local network when you manually cycle through them?

[koinophobe]

I’m sorry I do t understand your message and I am not able to answer. I’m in the US. I cannot use my phone outside of WiFi. I cannot make calls. I don’t want to send a text and find I’m being charged insane amounts for an overseas text. I paid for a tariff with an inclusive add on that they’ve suddenly removed while simultaneously upping the cost of the tariff while not explaining why while not letting me contact them while lying to me and I do not understand either the point or content of your question. You’re not engaging with the point. They have suddenly without notice removed the only reason I took on this tariff leaving me stranded. Your answer seems to ignore the fundamental point. 

[Matt_124]

If you previously had the Roam Abroad Pass as an Inclusive Extra on an All Rounder plan taken before 29th August 2024, you should be able to switch to the ROW Roaming Pass as your Inclusive Extra which will cover usage in the USA. By default when the Roam Abroad Pass was withdrawn customers were switched to the EU Roaming Pass, likely due to the majority of travel being to those countries.

You would need to contact Customer Services for them to change this across for you, as the option would be unavailable in your app due to the change taking place within the last 30 days.

You can contact EE Customer Services using a service such as Skype on the freephone number +44 800 079 8586

[bristolian]

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@koinophobe wrote:

I paid for a tariff with an inclusive add on that they’ve suddenly removed while simultaneously upping the cost of the tariff while not explaining why while not letting me contact them

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Your post is reporting, what I suspect are two separate issues.

Your billing issues, regarding the inclusive add-on, are one thing.

I don't believe they should be impacting your phone's ability to work. i.e. your phone should still be getting network coverage abroad, it should still be able to make & receive calls, it should still be able to send & receive texts.

The cost of those may be higher than preferable, and non-inclusive when they should be inclusive - that's a billing issue. But you should still be able to conduct the usage that incurs those charges. If you're not, then I think something else is awry. That's my point. Far too many users confuse the billing side of roaming with the ability to roam in the first place.