EE account-holder policy nightmare

[cameronbloch]

I have had a phone contract with EE for 9 years, same physical sim-card.

Yesterday afternoon the card broke and so I wandered merrily into an EE store naively hoping to get a replacement.

The phone number is registered under Cameron, I am Cameron, I have a driving licence in the name of Cameron, what could possibly go wrong right...?

I arrive in store and start to get nervous as the air is heavy with that stench of "computer says no" customer service peculiar to tech stores with teenage staff milling about with their iPads and weird island tables. Anyway I'm brave and go and ask if I can get a replacement sim card for my phone. "Ahahahahah no sir, not in a million years, not even if the Lord Almighty himself were to come down in human form and order me to supply you with the SIM on pain of death could I do that for you."

Apparently the reason why this feat is unperformable is because it requires the presence of the person managing the account in store with valid photo ID in order to collect a number which is not registered under their name, but mine. There are 5 numbers on this account as it is a family account. The person named as the primary account holder on the bill lives in another city and is about to go abroad - I am now left without a functioning phone and no way of getting one while I miss calls and messages and can't login to SSO accounts which require 2FA.

How on earth is there no system in place that allows me to collect my own f****** sim card?? Why even allow family accounts with multiple named users if you are going to make it entirely impossible for the users of those phone numbers to manage their own numbers?? Why is there any necessity for the person named on the bill to be present to collect a FREE REPLACEMENT of a sim card which is neither theirs nor has any bearing on the bill itself?

Please please please EE fix this ridiculous box-ticking rubbish it is wasting hours of your customer's lives.

Cameron

[Christopher_G]

Hi @cameronbloch 

Welcome to the community and thank you for sharing your experience in-store.

We have strict security protocol in-store for replacement SIM cards. Only the account holder can request a replacement SIM with their photo ID. I understand this is disappointing for you and that it meant a wasted trip into store, but those rules are there to protect our customers.

If you speak to our Mobile Care team, and pass security, they can organise for a replacement SIM to be sent to the account address.

Chris

[cameronbloch]

Hi Chris,

Thank you so much for your response.

I am still left wondering why it is that you have that policy and how it protects your customers?

As the person whose phone number it is surely I have more right than anyone else to collect the replacement SIM card and for the card to go through anyone else's hands must itself pose a real and unnecessary security risk?

As far as data protection and privacy are concerned, the person whose SIM card it is is the one whose data and privacy is at risk; why can they not be in charge of collecting their own phone number and why is there any necessity for the account holder to be involved, let alone present in the store?

Also, I'd like to point out that there is an obvious double standard in terms of security requirements because I can order a replacement SIM card or e-sim to any address (on file or otherwise) over the phone with nothing but the name of the account holder and the account password but for some reason that information is no use to me in person.

All the best,

Cameron

[XRaySpeX]

@cameronbloch : The a/c holder & bill payer of that no. is the owner of it, not you.

They could phone CS with both of you present & nominate you as a 3rd. party representative to discuss that no. with EE.

[cameronbloch]

@XRaySpeX I get that the a/c holder is the "owner" of the number, they are paying the bill, of course they own it.

I still fail to see why that is sufficient (or any) justification for EE having a policy in place that makes it impossible for the person using the phone number to pick up that card.

At the very simplest level of logic: the named user is going to end up with the SIM card in their phone because, well, they are the ones using it and they can't use it without having it, so why not have a system in place that would allow them to pick it up?

We could phone CS with both of us present but apparently 3rd party representatives are unable to collect replacement sims anyway so I'm not sure what the point in doing that would be.

Cameron