I am also posting this in the EE forum, this issue is effectively resolved but I feel this needs publicising.
In April may dad was getting fed up with the amount Sky was charging for their TV package, he was also with Sky Broadband and didn't have an issue with the Broadband but when I looked round for him I was able to get a good deal with EE Broadband and TV to include all the channels he likes to watch with netflix also and 2 extra mini boxes one for my moms room so she can watch what she wants and another for my brothers room. So at end of April he was fully set up.
Now my dad is retired has been for many years, he's lucky enough to have quite bit of money from his business he owned so probably doesn't keep an eye that much on his bank statements. He's also in his late 60's doesn't have a clue about anything like technology or anything so it's always down to me when he wants to change phones or anything like that, I literally set up the broadband myself from my own house.
The internet has been working fine nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing to say something is up, that is until yesterday morning he woke up to an email for a bill of £400 for non return of the equipment. Which stated should've been returned by 3rd December 2024. He got confused so I rush over to his house and go on chat to find out that his EE account has been cancelled as of 30th October 2024. I said how can that be he is still getting internet access.
I finally log into his MyEE and lone behold it states cancelled. The advisor then comes back and says there is an active line on his address but not in my dads name. We asked who's name is it then and they wouldn't confirm. I go into panic mode thinking my dad has been victim of fraud and BT are not great in dealing with that (I have personally experience of how BT handles fraud when I was frauded few years back when I was with BT someone managed to set up a broadband in my account at another address and I notified them soon I got notification but they dismissed it for 3 months until they finally admitted yes there is fraud, this was before the BT/EE take over though)
I gave them names of everyone that lived in the house including the 2 Ukrainians my dad sponsors incase they thought they would sign up and pay for their own broadband and did it by mistake (as they wasn't in the property at the time to ask). They confirmed none of the names I gave was the name on the account. The chat advisor wasn't taking things seriously so I asked for his manager who in turn also kept saying my dad cancelled his account, he wouldn't listen and understand my dad never asked to cancel he wouldn't know how and would've got me to do it for him.
I got fed up with him so I call BT up who sent me to connections who told me it looks like there was a house move which is what was the new account is for in my dads property. I said my dad has lived here since around 2015. He explained it could be a case of someone moved in on same street and put wrong house number in. I said ok fine but cancel that and re-instate my dads EE account, but he said he had to start a new order, I said you're just making sure you get your commission when in fact my dad never wanted to be in this situation. In the end we made the new order the guy even made it £5 cheaper per month and gave his first month for free and it will come live on 02/01/25. I said ok what happens between now and then, he said you won't lose connection but I am also going to send you all new equipment because since April they have updated to WiFi 7 so when they arrive install them on 02/01/25 and return the old ones, I said he's being charged for the old ones the advisor then marked them as already returned and we got an email to confirm that so we wouldn't be charged.
In mean time the chat went to the executive team who my dad asked to call me as I needed to get back home. So on my way back home they called and it turned out the advisor on the phone was right it was a house move that happened but they can see no letter was sent out as per procedure to ask the current owners if this was correct and if not to contact them to stop the house move transfer. The executive team manager also tried to blame my dad for not noticing that he hasn't been paying for the broadband/tv since October. I was like don't try and victim blame my dad when you failed to follow procedure by sending out the letter to confirm the house move was correct and the only time he receives any notification was today saying you are charging him £400 for not returning the equipment by 3rd December, my dad can't time travel maybe you can. We didn't want to be in this situation and I needed to be somewhere today but I have spent nearly 3 hours sorting this out and it's not good enough you talk about procedures saying you can't just cancel the current account which isn't in his name and re-instate his old one but you failed to follow procedure that caused all this situation.
I am in 2 minds of sending BT/EE a bill for payment of my time sorting out the mess they caused. But they also confirmed that they won't be chasing my dad for the payment between October and now and will chase the person named on the account and they would also send my dad something to say sorry.
