Old Number NOT Ported - Zero help from EE

[mehere]

I am disabled. Cannot speak. I was using 1 mth rolling £12 contract with Smarty/3 network but low data speed in my area. Switched to EE/BT for 5G speeds. I told Smarty I was moving. Requested a PAC. They sent it immediately. I applied for £37 pcm unlimited data 12 mth contract with EE. I filled out form to transfer my number and gave pac. So far so good. Today the EE sim arrived. No instructions in envelope about what to do to complete number transfer. Tried sim. Works but wrong number. Tried EE website. No clear instructions. Eventually found a link to a form to change my number. Filled out the form and it said it did not recognise the PAC. I went back to Smarty. They said PAC was correct. Went back to EE. Still no help. Being disabled, was pointed by EE to use BT Relay app that is meant to convert phone conversations to text. Found the app. Installed it. Tried to ring EE Technical Help. No one answered the phone. This is why Relay is a non-solution to disabled people and why we all rate the app as c**p. Meanwhile, I get an email from Smarty 'something has gone wrong with number transfer'. Checked Smarty SIM and it is still working but shows 'no number'. Tried to contact Smarty live chat but that is now turned off. Tried using EE again to get help but my browser would not load EE website pages. Every attempt says 'blocked'. Never had this happen before. Tried to get help through to this community using the new EE SIM as everything else no longer works. That was no use.  Had to set up and use a spare GiffGaff sim and link it to my laptop to write this. Absolute nightmare and no help whatsoever from EE. I sent in two complaints (second to update with info from Smarty) and received a bot-generated email acknowledging only the first. Six hours later. Still no help from EE. Still no one at EE can be **bleep**d to tell me what is going on. I am wondering if anyone else has suffered this and what they did to fix it. I also expect some employee of EE to read this and get off their **bleep** and fix this or at least tell me what is going on. Right now, I have lost my old number and that means access to everything registered with the old number for 2-step security so that means all my banks, shopping, email and other online accounts. I want this fixed within 24 hours or I will cancel the contract and start a complaint with the Ombudsman. How the hell I will get into my accounts to change the registered phone number now Smarty has stopped working I do not know. I am so angry. I better stop now before I type something I regret. HELP ME!!!

[James_B]

Hi @mehere,

Welcome to the EE Community.

I'm sorry to hear there has been an issue with your number transfer.

Did your old network give any details of what's gone wrong in their email?

James

[mehere]

Hi James

Thanks for getting back to me. Smarty email just said 'We're afraid there has been a technical issue porting your number. Please get in touch ...' Time 1:02pm this afternoon. This was after I used their live chat to say EE had rejected the PAC as invalid. I went back to Smarty to get new info and help but live chat was down and all I had was an email address to a bot. So I have no idea what the issue is. I might get more info if live chat is available again tomorrow. After the email, my Smarty SIM no longer has a number but shows as 'unknown' but it still links to the 3 netwrok and I have received SMS on it. 

I have had no contact with anyone from EE and have no idea what they think is going on. 

I am too ill for this sort of stress.

[James_B]

Hi @mehere,

While you are waiting to get in touch with your old network to see the what the next steps are, I'd recommend chatting to EE Customer Care online at ee.co.uk/contact-ee. They'll be happy to see if there is anything they can do to help from their end. If the port has already started, they may be able to liaise with your old network on your behalf.

James

[mehere]

James, I am disabled and cannot talk. I cannot 'chat with customer services' as you suggest. I cannot use a telephone. And the special disabled-access software Relay developed by BT to automate services to help customers like me does not work because no human picks up the ringing phone at EE. I have done all I can. EE has to make some effort too. 

I have been trying to fix this, trying to find ways to reset my registered phone number on all my accounts when I need the old phone number to verify my identity for almost eight hours. I am exhausted. I will try again tomorrow. 

But I bitterly regret switching to EE. Data connection speeds are very nice but it takes more than that to make a phone service that meets all a customer's needs. 

If I could switch back to Smarty and its lousy 3.5mbps download speeds, I would. At least it gave me access to my bank, utilities, shopping and similar accounts without worrying I would be locked out as I no longer have access to my old phone number. 

Tomorrow is another day. I will see what happens then.

[James_B]

Hi @mehere,

We offer a text based online chat service at ee.co.uk/contact-ee. Sorry if I didn't make that clear in my last post.

They'll be more than happy to look into this for you.

James

[mehere]

Replying to myself. 

No one at EE tried to contact me by SMS or email. Did they try phoning for a voice call? No idea. But my phone rejects boice calls as I am mute so they are useless to me. I may as well live in outer space for all the help I have received.

Good news is that EE finally ported my number today. It took them three days whereas all other services I have used in past took about 15 minutes. EE charges premium price for a lousy service.

Bad news is that my old Smarty account no longer works. Only my EE sim works now. Should be good news but as a mute person I rely on SMS and the SMS service on EE does not work. I rely on 2-step verification. I have this for email - Protonmail (Switzerland), Hushmail (Canada), my cloud service Mega (New Zealand), online shopping eBay (USA) and many other essential services. No email from outside UK reaches my handset with the EE sim. They were received without problem on my Smarty SIM. Curiously, if I send an SMS from my GiffGaff sim in my tablet to my EE sim in my phone the message does get through. 

What is the problem? When will it be fixed? No idea as I have no help whatsoever from EE. They do not respond to these messages on this forum. Their website points to live chat which is never active or tells disabled people to use the Relay app to call for help but no one ever answers the call. Customer care with Smarty includes live chat. GiffGaff has a user forum but also actual customer care people who respond to messages. Smarty and GiffGaff cost about 66% less than EE but provide much much better customer care. What does EE spend tge extra money on? Clearly it is not on reliable technology or sms would work on my phone. And clearly not customer care or they woukd obey UK law and provide accessible help for disabled customers. So does tge CEO just pocket the money in massive pay and bonuses? Does EE just ship our extra money overseas to a tax haven? Who knows? All I know is that BT/EE is the worst utility service I have experienced in years. And I regret becoming an EE customer. I will report this to the Ombudsman but that will change nothing. And meanwhile, I have no reliable communications.

Angry? Nope, does not begin to describe my feelings.

[James_B]

Hi @mehere,

I'm sorry to hear you've had trouble starting a live chat. What happens when you tap the 'Start conversation' button at ee.co.uk/contact-ee/account-billing/mobile?

James

[mehere]

Hi James

Nothing happens when I tap 'start chat'. 

I am using Samsung tablet running Android 11 and most recent Vivaldi browser. Ditto but Android 12 on my Samsung phone. Same thing happens if I use my linux laptop and Vivaldi browser. I use Vivaldi because it saves and auto-fills login/passwords for me.

That said, EE website frequently bounces me out and requires me to log in and verify myself repeatedly. Yesterday, for first time in using Vivaldi (which I have done for at least five years) all attempts to access EE website even via a search engine link not my browser bookmarks generated a blank page and a message "BLOCKED".

I turned off ad-blockers and vpn but still the same glitches. If chat works on other platforms, it does not work on mine. Please note most customised disabled access software runs on linux not Windows, Apple, Android or other propriatory operating systems. If EE means to help disabled people it has to run its services on the platforms we use.

[James_B]

Hi @mehere,

Our live chat function should work on all web browsers and operating systems. When pressing the start conversation button, the chat dialog box should open in a new window. Do you have your browsers set to block pop ups?

James