BT to EE migration shambles

[farrellcsun]

I'm not even sure if this is the right place, but I will try to keep this rant short.

TL:DR - the migration from long time BT broadband and family SIM customer to EE has been a nightmare.

Story: Got a letter saying full fibre is now available at my address and to contact BT/EE to upgrade broadband.  Spent an hour with agent Amber setting up broadband package and moved two family SIMs over as well.  Thought all was well.

When two EE SIMs arrived, was not clear which sim went to which phone, so i called tech support.  Agent Alex said Amber didn't set up anything correctly and data-only sims were sent erroneously.  He promised to cancel those sims, making sure nothing is owed. Spent another hour sorting out broadband/SIM "upgrade" to EE.  New Sims coming and can bin the two erroneously sent.

Meanwhile, got a £30 bill in the post for the erroneous Sims.  Called and spoke to Agent Richard.  He said Alex didn't cancel them properly and ended up doing all kinds of credit/debit/re-cancellations, etc. and promised me that THIS time it should all be cancelled and fine.  We shall see.

New SIMs ordered by Alex arrived, popped first one in and "no service".  Called tech support and Agent Paul said the sims were not "activated" and needed to transfer me to "level 2" tech.  Transferred to Agent Casey.  She opened a ticket/case # and said within 5 days i should get a call once sims are activated and to discuss "next steps." - I said all of the sim packages should have been sorted and BT numbers transferreed and there shouldn't be a need to discuss "next steps" unless Agent Alex didn't do it right either.

Dear reader, each of these calls lasted at least 45 minutes each, meaning i have spent literally HOURS trying to sort this supposedly "seamless" migration from BT to EE - which THEY are encouraging.  I was happy sticking with BT but apparently that will not be an option for much longer.

Casey explained that due to the large number of people migrating over from BT to EE, the "system" might have been overloaded, agents not trained properly, etc. etc.  I basically complained with each call that each successive agent just blamed the agent before for the mess up.  But she "promised" that now they know what to do since many peeople have apparently been calling with the same issue - something to do wih an issue with the Unlimited All Rounder30 package that they are trying to get everyone on (unlimited call/text/data for £30/month reduced to £10/month for 24 months).

I am not even "done" with this ordeal yet - still waiting for these two useless EE sims in my hands to get "activated" so the PAC numbers can transfer over and then I am certain i will have to chase again to make sure the numbers port over and the package given is what was promised.

And don't get me started on the engineer visit for fibre set up on 10 March - who knows if he will even show up at this point.  

Basically, if you are considering migrating from BT to EE - I suggest holding off as long as possible until BT literally rip the BT router and Sims from your cold dead hands...the migration process is a shambles and I'm not looking forward to chasing up and spending additinal hours trying to get this done and dusted.  🙏💩😭

[JL123]

My problem started in July last year when they changed me from BT to EE for my new contract. Didn’t realise only half of the order went through as every thing was working. Till people who call us on our landline emailed to say our phone wasn’t working. Over the months of many many phone calls and orders being closed and reopened. Nice open reach engineer came out even spoke to BT from my house telling them everything was ok the fault was there side to do with the order. Eventually they closed my EE account and I’m now back with BT. Last call before todays Ann in communications said it would fixed by the 3rd February and promised on her life!! she would call me the week after I got back off holiday on Tuesday 11th. Of course phone not working and NO phone call.  So another hour on the phone today  this is the latest news I got them to email me

Hello,
it's Fatima from BT. as discussed on the call your landline will be working within 3 working days, our offline team are currently investigating this for you         Thanks,
BT

[chrisjp]

I'm afraid this sort of shambles is all too common with BT to EE transfers. The telephone agents almost universally don't seem to know what they're doing.
Best plan is, if your contract is coming up for renewal and you are offered a transfer to EE, IGNORE it, no matter how good it appears to be, because in reality it won't be.
If you take no action your service will automatically move over to non-contract month-to-month billing. You might lose any discounts you had with your old contract, but this is a small price to pay for the avoidance of the hassle which will surely come your way if you agree to a BT to EE transfer.
BT wants to transfer all its residential customers to EE, and there's nothing wrong with that, but ONLY if they sort out the process to do so, and actually train up their agents to be competant.

[farrellcsun]

I agree. To be fair, all the agents I've spoken to are friendly, even knowledgeable-sounding. Unfortunately, the end result hasn't been great. Will update here once this saga is over.

I did call tech support again today just to make sure the case I opened yesterday was still open AND that what the agent told me yesterday was correct and still happening. To my pleasant surprise, the agent today agreed and said it was still in process of getting fixed. Two different agents saying the same thing on two consecutive days...gold star.

[JL123]

Hi I did say I was transferred to EE when my contract finished last July. They transferred me back to BT a couple of months ago. Land line still not working.

[JL123]

Hi have you had any luck ? I am supposed to be called today between 1-3 don’t hold out much hope

[Carlusha]

@farrellcsun  Well, it's now a week since your last post. Any update as to progress?

[farrellcsun]

Thanks for the follow up question...in the week since i posted this: the SIMS finally got activated and i managed to get both EE sims working on our iphones and luckily the old BT numbers DID port over the next day as promised. 

BUT it took another round of calls because the packages on both sims were NOT what were discussed.  Basically we were moved to the "no frills" plan which had reduced data speeds and no free EU roaming.  That was NOT what was discussed with the agents ahead of time.  The EE agents asked for copies of the screenshots, emails and contracts sent to me before.  Finally they agreed to move both plans to Essentials Plus with free EU roaming at a heavily discounted rate (higher than what was discussed before the switch by £6/month, but at this point i just accepted it).  I'm still bracing myself for the next bill as both plans should cost a total of £26 but the upcoming "estimated bill" that I can see online is £104 (!!) due to whatever behind the scenes updates were done to make the packages work.  I was escalated to the manager and she assures me that the bill should update and even if not, she is working the day the next bill comes out and will ccorrect any errors that might happen.  Not really confidence-inspiring but at this point i'm just so tired of speaking with them.

They did confirm the EE broadband (Openreach) engineer is still scheduled to come 10 March and fingers crossed that all goes well...the EE agent said the broadband price discussed is the price they see in the EE system so at least THAT should be no issues.  We shall see and I will report back here.

After speaking to all these agents, i've finally sussed out that the reason for all the drama (at least in part) is that the original three agents I spoke to were really BT agents (although they called themselves EE agents with EE email addresses).  Basically when BT and EE merged all customer-facing BT agents became "EE" agents.  If you call the number on your BT bill (which I did - 0330 1234 150) and you get through to an "EE" agent, you are really speaking to a re-branded BT agent.  They can promise the world but sometimes they overpromise outside of what they are allowed.  I was promised free USA roaming from the first "EE" Agent Amber.  EE scoffed.  As soon as you pop the EE sim in your phone and contact customer service by calling 150 directly from your phone, THEN you are speaking to the "real" EE agents that have the power to actually make changes.  They basically told me that a lot of the migration issues is due to the BT "EE" agents not understanding the guidelines of what they should be doing to migrate the customers over.  That leaves the "real" EE agents to clean up the mess.  Ugh.

PS: regarding the erroneous EE sims sent to me and the cancelled contract, etc...i've put it out of my mind and hoping it just all closed as promised and I won't hear of it again... 

THis whole process has just really worn me down and i honestly can't recommend it to anybody.  If you can delay your BT migration, delay it.  If not, good luck, you have my sympathies!!