Mis-sold, lied to, scammed, and overcharged

[DawkinsDog]

This is a complicated situation which I appreciate many won't have time to read through, so...

TL / DR version:
In trying to find us the "best deal" we were mis-sold a massively overpriced migration package on EE which was available for far less, and also sent a "free tablet" which was actually a scam to trap us into a two year £11.70pm sim contract. All this had to be cancelled.

When trying to then reorder a reorder another EE migration we were misquoted a much higher price, twice, told even Full Fibre required line rental payment, and then finally given the right price but not migrated to EE as requested, we were just regraded on BT.

Executive Complaints have shown absolutely no willingness to put right this litany of failings and the final nail in the coffin is today we found BT have charged us for a sim we've at least twice now asked to be cancelled, and EE have charged us for the new sims, which have not even been used yet, and also for the sim that came with the scam tablet - a sim they emailed to say had been cancelled on the 13th and to dispose of!

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Now for those who want to read the entire disgusting debacle...

We called on 31st October because the Cloud service was ending and we wondered if this would be reflected in the package price. We were told it wouldn't, but the lady would find us a better value package. During this call we also discovered that BT had been charging us over £35 a month for the £20 three sim package we'd taken out but had run out of contract two years ago and been increased without warning, when asked why we hadn't been notified of the contract ending we were told BT don't notify customers (may want to check your OFCOM obligations on that one!)

The lady said the best value package would be by migrating to EE's Full Fibre 150 service at £42.99, and by migrating our BT sims to EE's £10 per month service. As she said our landline was costing only around £3 a month we decided to retain this. She also said she was sending us a "free tablet", which we thought was a nice welcome gift for moving to EE. 

The tablet arrived the next day and immediately raised alarm bells as there was an EE sim in the package. Looking online we also found the EE Full Fibre package was only £29.99. So we called on the 4th November and were told the "free tablet" wasn't free, it came with a two year £11.70pm contract, which was never mentioned. We were also told the EE 150 package was so expensive as it included stuff we didn't need and hadn't been told of, like cybersecurity and expert advice, which you're legally required to state at point of sale. On top of this we found out the landline wasn't £3pm, it was more like £12-13pm! So the entire thing had to be cancelled.

Looking online it's evident we're not the only customers on whom this "free tablet" scam has been used, there's others reporting it.

As this was clearly a serious violation of consumer rights and it needed attention we wrote to OFCOM and copied in your CEO, which was passed to your Executive Complaints, who have been absolutely appalling to deal with. The lady there made a (fairly paltry considering) monetary offer, which was appreciated but hardly the issue, but before we could decide on that things just got far worse...

Ever the optimists we called again on the 12th November to try to order the EE Full Fibre 500 Essentials package that was being widely advertised at £34.99, better value than the one we'd been misled into previously. First the lady we spoke to quoted £53 for this package, insisting even Full Fibre still requires a line rental charge, which we had to explain was not correct. She then said the best she could do "on the EE side" was £46 for that package. Still way over what you were advertising. When we persisted she went away and returned to say she'd put it through at £34.99 so we'd got the price we wanted. Because of all the stress and confusion your company has caused we missed her saying this was by retaining us on BT - something we would never have agreed to and did not want!

We received a Summary Contract email which, aside having contradictory terms in it and mention of price rises not stated during the sale, also stated the wrong router. We were expecting the advertised EE Smart Hub Plus, but the email said BT Smart Hub 2, so again we rang.

The chap we spoke to was initially confused as it at first didn't appear we'd been migrated to EE, as he'd said was the usual practise, but then said we absolutely definitely had been migrated to EE, he checked again and assured us that it was 100% definitely an EE account, gave us the EE account number, and quoted the right EE 500 Essentials package, price, and install date, but said the wrong router would be sent but could be exchanged later.

As it seemed ridiculous to go through the hassle of having the router exchanged after installation we contacted your Executive Complaints to ask if the right one, the EE Smart Hub Plus, could be dispatched ahead of time instead, as seemed the logical course of action. The response was beyond belief. We were told we were not being migrated, we were just being regraded on BT, because that's what we'd agreed to (against our wishes and only because it was a complete mess trying to deal with your sales), and she refused point blank to simply allow us to migrate to the EE package we'd tried to order. She'd clearly heard the call, she'd obviously heard her staff get the details completely wrong twice, so why be so obstinate about simply granting the customer's simple request? 

When asked why the gentleman had confirmed it definitely would be a migration to EE she said he'd been referencing the original order which had been cancelled. This makes zero sense, if that were the case why did he quote all of the correct details? Somebody is either lying or incompetent, and we've recordings of the calls to prove.

We were told we could either cancel the entire deal, leaving us on the old slower Halo 1 package we've been paying through the nose for all these years, or go ahead with the BT Full Fibre installation and then, if we wished, we could migrate to the EE package we'd actually wanted to order later - but NOT at the advertised price it would have been because the offer had now ended. Absolutely no attempt to put right your own company's failings or make right with the customer. It's amazing how your staff will bend over backwards like flippin' Neo in The Matrix to retain customers, but apparently not to provide them with what they were legally entitled to expect when ordering.

It's still booked to be installed on the 5th December but we don't know what to do, we wanted to migrate to EE but that's been denied us as I'm damned if we're paying £5 more per month than you were advertising by migrating later. It's not the customer's fault your sales staff are ignorant of the packages you sell. The lady in Executive Complaints also said she'd send out a letter, presumably the deadlock letter we need to give to the Ombudsman - but well over a week later we still haven't even had that show up, no surprises there.

To cap it all off, checking the bank today we found that BT still hadn't cancelled the sim card we'd asked be cancelled on the 31st October, and again on the 12th, meaning they've charged for that this month, and worse still EE have charged £31.71 - which is two £10 charges for the EE sims we've not even put in yet as we don't know what's happening, and £11.71 for the sim that came with the scam "free tablet" which we were told by email had been cancelled on the 13th and to simply destroy. Today we were told that it was still on the system, so another lie.

My brother has just had to spend over an hour on the phone to you again tonight just trying to deal with the sim cards, and arrange for return packaging for that "free tablet" you have the absolute gall to want back because we're not prepared to be scammed into an expensive contract. The final insult was during the call tonight I had to log into the MyBT app on my phone to check something, and was met with great big adverts suggesting we migrate to EE. Oh, if only it were that simple!

This is utterly disgusting and unacceptable. Both my brother and I have health issues, He's already suffered two heart attacks and this stress cannot be doing him any favours, he was so stressed at work, with it on his mind all day, he felt he couldn't cope and nearly handed in his notice. Thankfully for your company he didn't. I'm unable to work as I suffer sometimes severe anxiety issues and high blood pressure, amongst other problems. None of this is doing either of us any good.

All we wanted was to order a migration to the EE Full Fibre 500 Essentials package you were advertising at £34.99. Instead we've been mis-sold two packages, we've been lied to, we've had you try to scam us with a "free tablet", and now we've even had you charge us for sims we've not put in our phones yet, and one we didn't even want, and charge us for another sim we asked be cancelled weeks ago.

I'm sorry if this comes across as vitriolic but to say I'm furious would be an understatement. I cannot believe a company of your standing would treat customers this way, it's indefensible. We have recordings of most of the calls, none of this can be disputed, it's all there for everybody to hear. Please don't ask us to contact complaints again, it's a complete waste of our time. It doesn't help that BT and EE both have 150 as support numbers, you never know to whom you're speaking, and they don't seem to know who they're representing.

At this point I just want others to know what we've suffered so they're prepared when it all goes badly wrong for them, too. I've all but given up any hope that your company will have the decency to provide the service you advertised at the price you advertised.