The DREADED EE

Whilst on holiday in Malta, my phone contract with EE was suspended. After much difficulty finding a Wifi spot, I queried my account via the EE app. It clearly said my account had been suspended. When I checked the balance, fearing a DD bounce, which had NEVER happened, I discovered, according to the app, that I owed £0.00! Curious?
Further investigations between the app returning error, try again later, I found an area that said I owed £750 plus VAT.

Onto the ‘Contact Us’ portion, which after many awkward questions, was told that I had exceeded my credit limit, therefore my account was suspended.

At this point, I could not understand how I had exceeded my credit limit, having taken out the extortionate Roaming Charge of £2.29 per day for each phone on the trip.

As there was no further help from the support section as they have no authority to do anything, and have the initiative a plank, I disconnected having been told it would be restored as there appeared to be a ‘problem’.

It was duly restored, but that was short lived as the next day it was again suspended, but on investigation, I now owed £10 159.82, plus VAT? Even on an extortionate level, this amount could never be explained.

Nevertheless, back to the trusty ‘Contact Us’, I discovered that I had been roaming on the maritime satellite network for Malta. Ok, fine, I did not CHOOSE this, but was merely ported onto it by Malta, and by extension, EE. Not my issue, but I was being penalised but having my account suspended.

Worth bearing in mind that my account consists of 6 numbers, all family. So 3 of us on holiday in Malta had no data, no texts or call facilities, and my son and daughter back in the UK had no access either. My daughter at uni required her data to access uber or the bus, which she used for transport to Uni, to work, and back home again. She’s in Norwich, and my Son in Brighton. Very concerning as I WANT to be connected to them if need be! EE does not give a toss!

The following days were a nightmare, requiring daily ‘what is the problem, what is your password etc’ on their online help forum. 10 days later, multiple challenging online conversations and extreme difficulties and stress, sometimes multiple times a day, the service was restored and told it would not happen again, only to happen within 40 minutes of that promise. When I asked for evidence that it would not happen again, I was told to take a screenshot of the conversation!

Obviously I am leaving out all the teeth gnashing and chest thumping, as well as the extreme intelligence of the online ‘agents’ but my level of frustration peaked on day 10!

What I want out of this fiasco, it to get the fuck away from EE, but to do that I must first pay them some £270 pound! I only pay them around £130 per month, but that is not the point. Take a look at their website to see how they ghost people with their customer swooning and other bullshit. The bottom line reality is they don’t give a shit about you, dear customer.

Sadly, EE is not alone in this. All corporate companies have the same ethos. In my investigations I discovered that EE is owned by BT! I did not know this. So let me make a point here, just because BRITISH is in the name does NOT make them great.

Of course I threatened social media etc, including legal implications, but speaking to a person only trying to make ends meet, it had no effect. At least until someone said would I like compensation for the cock up? At this point of the conversation, I was so annoyed, I simply ended the conversation! However, in retrospect, their offer may have been better than going via small claims. On another point, the small claims limit has been raised to £10 000, almost enough to pay the EE extortion charge!

Of course, even the small claims court is near impossible to process as you need information that no corporate company will let you have, so this is likely to be a massively lengthy exercise. However, it has to be done, until the ‘people’ start waking up and claim their rights in this great country, and start by making politicians accountable, and stop this pathetic two party system too!

I digress, at this time, 20/05/2023, 12.05, my service is on and until the next time, working. Normally, one would be grateful for small mercies, but I’m cynical!