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.

[Christopher_G]

Hi @DawkinsDog 

I'm really sorry to hear of your experience with renewing. I understand your post is mainly aimed at sharing your experience with other users, but I'd recommend speaking with the Executive Complaints team again, so that they can look into this, explain what they letter is for and what the next steps with your complaint is.

Did you receive an email from them with a direct number to call through to, when they contacted you originally?

Chris

[DawkinsDog]

Hi @Christopher_G,

Thanks for the reply. It's completely pointless us speaking to Executive Complaints again, we've done so multiple times and she's made it clear she's not prepared to simply allow us to migrate to EE as we requested on the 12th November. She's said we either cancel, and stay on an outdated package that's way more expensive than necessary, go ahead with the package we didn't want and which raises more issues, or leave BT entirely - believe me, if that were viable we'd do it at this point, we're sick of dealing with it.

It's evident from her replies that she listened to the calls so has heard your sales staff giving out wrong information, quoting the wrong prices, and insisting we still need to pay line rental etc, before only finally putting it through as a regrade on BT instead of what was requested. She's just being bloody minded and intransigent as far as I'm concerned, she knows full well the problems we've been caused, the scam with the tablet etc, so there's no excuse for her doing this.

It's my brother dealing with the phoning etc as it's in his name, and he's at work today so he can't call even if he wanted to. I wouldn't trust myself to speak to her given the effect I've seen all this having, he's not young and his health isn't great, I'm beyond furious with what she's doing to him. All she had to do was agree to provide the service she heard us clearly ask for when calling, was that really unreasonable?! Forcing us to drag it to the ombudsman is ridiculous, other than vindictively making us suffer it all for even longer, and I fail to see how she can contest anything we've said anyway, it's all recorded.

Right now I don't know what's going to happen, I'm just venting as I feel like there's nothing else I can do. We're obviously going to have to cancel the install booked for the 5th if she's not prepared to migrate us to the package we were legally entitled to order. From there, no idea.

Thanks again for the reply, it's appreciated. I'm not having a go at you, you've been kind enough to try to help, it's all just such a mess.

[DawkinsDog]

Hi Christopher,

Quick thought, is there anybody in charge of Executive Complaints to whom I could write/email, rather than the lady we're dealing with?

I've just checked the MyBT app and the BT sim we asked be cancelled on the 31st Oct, again on 12th Nov, and again last night, is still showing as active. We were also told the EE sim that came with the scam tablet had been cancelled on the 12th November, I have an email saying so and saying to destroy it, but it was found to still be active on the account when calling last night. So I'd lay good money we'll end up being charged for them all again next month at this rate.

We've also been charged £20 for the two EE sims we've not even activated because there seemed no point when it was all such a mess and we didn't want to migrate to those and cause even more problems.

Maybe if there's somebody above the lady we've been dealing with they may be more disposed to helping resolve this amicably.

Thanks again.

[Christopher_G]

I've sent you a private message to try and get you some help with this, @DawkinsDog. Please have a look and get back to me.

Thanks.

Chris

[DawkinsDog]

Hi Chris, I'm trying to reply but it constantly says

"Please correct the highlighted errors and try again.

Your post has been changed because invalid HTML was found in the message body. The invalid HTML has been removed. Please review the message and send the message when you are satisfied."

No idea what's going on, nothing is highlighted and there's no HTML in there. I'll keep trying.

EDIT: Ignore this, seems that the forum doesn't like Chrome, it worked okay via Opera.

[DawkinsDog]

Oh this just gets better and better. We received this from our contact in Executive Complaints, it came on Friday the 29th December and says we have 14 days from the date of the phone call to accept their final offer, which was on the 20th and NINE DAYS prior to this being delivered!

That's not the worst of it, though, because the recap is so full of outright falsehoods it's an absolute bloody insult considering the misery BT/EE have caused us. I've highlighted the demonstrably false parts in green.  To briefly correct them here...

We didn't call about the end of our contract, only the cessation of the BT Cloud, our contract presumably ended two years ago along with the sim cards, which had been increased in price without warning - and, no, the customer is not obliged to contact you when a contract is ending. Ofcom regulations state YOU must contact the customer 10 - 40 days prior to a contract ending so they may find a better deal, but thanks for putting in writing you violate Ofcom legislation!

We did NOT order the EE Full Fibre 500 package at £34.99 on the 31st Oct, had we been made aware of this package at that time we may have done so and none of this may have happened. What we were sold on the 31st Oct was the EE Full Fibre 150 package at £42.99 - which we later learned was so much higher than the advertised £29.99 for this package as she'd omitted to tell us it included unwanted extras we wouldn't have required.

It wasn't the next day that we called, it was the 4th December on which we called to query the package price and "free tablet", and when it was confirmed we'd been scammed with the sim contract. It was during this call we learned about the reason the package was so expensive and chose to cancel it all.

It was not Executive Complaints whom cancelled the order on the 7th, it had already been cancelled. We'd asked the gentleman we'd spoken to on the 4th December to do so. See above.

We did not contact Executive Complaints on the 11th Nov regarding the reorder being screwed up, it would have been difficult considering we didn't even attempt to place this order until the 12th Nov! 

She's right, hallelujah, that my brother agreed to the £34.99 package and it being a regrade, not the requested migration, but she's conveniently ignored that this was only after he had to explain to your Guide that the £53 originally quoted was not correct, nor was the £46 she then quoted, and that line rental is not required on Full Fibre packages.  I'd argue that the confusion and stress your Guide caused, coming on top of everything else we've had to put up with, is quite the mitigating reason for missing her say it was a regrade, not migration.

She states copies of the requested calls have been supplied. No, we've finally received a copy of the call from Oct 31st, but we later requested a copy of the call made on the 4th, too. Haven't had that, would now quite like a copy of all calls we've made to the company.

"We have fully investigated this matter". Yes, it sure looks like it, you only got pretty much every detail wrong in this insult of a letter. I'm sure the ombudsmen will be fascinated by just how incompetent it is.

This also doesn't cover the fact we requested one of our BT sims to be cancelled on the 31st Oct and again on 14th Nov, yet it still appears on our account today and you charged for it on 21st Nov. Nor does it cover the fact we had an email from EE on 14th Nov to say "we’ve processed your SIM card cancellation request " relating to the EE sim that came with the scam tablet and that there was no need to return it, but it was still showing on our account as of my brother calling on the 29th Nov. Plus you've charged for the two EE sims sent with the order from the 31st Oct, even though they have not been activated and the entire order was supposed to have been cancelled! 

This is beyond a joke. We'll have to cancel the booked installation on the 5th December regardless what now happens, but to say this is unacceptable of BT/EE is an understatement. We've only today received an email from EE to say the returns packaging for the "free tablet" is finally on its way, yet the contact in Executive Complaints said this would be actioned on the 20th - and even that was nearly a week after somebody else told us it would be sent, on the 14th Nov!

Honestly, I'd expect better than this from one of those obscure providers  nobody's heard of that advertise on Facebook. Again, sorry if this sounds vitriolic but you have absolutely no idea of the damage your company has caused us.

Anyway, here's the letter...

[Mod Edit: removed image from post. Messaged user to explain why]

[DawkinsDog]

Quick addendum;

She states that we'd asked for her final position as we'd already approached the ombudsmen. Again, wrong.

She dated this letter the 20th Oct.. We only registered with the ombudsman in the days following that call, but were unable to fully complete the complaint as we didn't have her letter, it was only finally submitted in full earlier today.

[DawkinsDog]

Noticed I've put December when it should be November a few times in my previous one about her letter. Stressed, so easily done. Hopefully it all still makes sense as I can't see how you edit posts. Sorry.