To be absolutely furious with EE?

[Niceteeth]

Sorry, this is going to be long!
In July, I got a call from a person that I thought was from Orange. He was very friendly and informed me that because I was a long term customer, I was being offered a brand new sony experia handset, free of charge, and I would be moved on to a new, better tariff. So instead of paying about £25 for 300 mins or so, I would be paying £21 for unlimited minutes and texts.
So all well and good, except that because of some poor customer service I had already decided to leave Orange when my contract expired this December. So I asked him, very specifically would this mean I was signing a new contract? And what was the catch? He said, in several ways, no, and there was no catch. I would still be within the terms of my old contract, and so I was free to cancel in December if I wanted. I also mentioned that I had recently got a new phone anyway after breaking my old one.
So when the phone arrived, I decided to give the phone to my dad who needed a new one. He put his own SIM card in and has been using it since. I happily started using my phone a lot more.
Due to one thing and another, I hadn't checked my outgoing direct debits since then. (I know I should have). However I did become aware that I was being charged quite a lot still, one month being charged £50! I spoke to DH and we decided that I would just use my phone very sparingly and then cancel my contract in December as planned and move onto giff-gaff.. To be fair I was just sick of them by this point due to past issues.
Sooo... Beginning of December I called to cancel, was told I need 30 days notice, all well and good. However while going through my online banking later I realised that I was being charged £21 a month by EE separately. I queried this and was told it was for an additional contract, with an additional number!! The person I spoke to was very sympathetic and assured me she would investigate and get back to me, and I was likely to get some money back. She never did. I called again, and was told I'd be called back in 24hrs. Still heard nothing. So today I called and was told that by accepting the phone I had agreed to a 24 MONTH contract and there is absolutely nothing they can do about it. No money back, no way of getting out of this contract and that is that!
What do I do?!!

[Niceteeth]

Sorry if that's a bit incoherent, I'm really upset! And feel like such an idiot!

[CaptainSweatPants]

what's EE?

I read it as Eastenders

[mrscumberbatch]

Right I don't understand.

You mistakenly took a call from Ee rather than orange and accepted a contract of £25 per month. Yes?

So this is what you should be paying. Are you paying more than this?

[lookatmycameltoe]

I read all that thinking you were upset about eastenders. Still not sure what ee is in this context.

[mrscumberbatch]

I've read again. It sounds like Mis-selling as you were misled with regards to there being a new contract.

I would write to them or email and ask for a transcript of the call where you 'agreed to the contract'

Stipulate that it was Mis-sold and the terms are not what you had agreed

[BerryChristmas]

EE is Orange !

[Niceteeth]

EE is a mobile phone provider. They have taken over Orange but apparently are still separate in some way.

[ILiveInAPineappleCoveredInSnow]

Something similar happened to my mum with Three, except luckily I arrived before she was off the phone and told them to cancel it.
I think there is a lot of this type of misselling with phone companies, but I don't know what you can do about it :-(

[Niceteeth]

mrscumberbatch they said that the conversation has been deleted! and that once I 'accepted the handset' that meant I agreed to the 24 month contract, even though that's exactly the opposite of what I wanted.

[BlackDaisies]

I think you should draft a letter explaining exactly what happened and send it to their head office. Presumably the worst case scenario is that you can cancel your original contract and just keep the new one going. I've had terrible experiences with ee salespeople with their hard sell tactics. I did complain after the last one fleeced me with all sorts of extras which I signed for in a weak moment. Luckily I got out of it within their cooling off period and got some money back. Did you actually sign anything? If not you can probably get out of it if you don't give up.

[Doobiedoobedoobie]

No EE is t mobile

[frogspoon]

EE is a phone company that manages Orange and T-mobile (or something like that)

Sounds like you've been ripped off. I would suggest you repost this on the legal matters board as well, because whilst this message may get the traffic, it may not get anyone with enough legal knowledge to help you.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_matters

[WestmorlandSausage]

EE is both T mobile and Orange they merged, and became EE

[HungryHorace]

EE is T Mobile AND Orange combined.

I would contact them and refer to there being a mistake which therefore means that the contact is not valid. Mistake can be on either party's part and I've used it to escape a Vodafone contract before.

It's more polite / less aggressive than accusing them of fraudulent misrepresentation, which it may well be if they've blatantly lied to you.

[Niceteeth]

I didn't sign anything, but the lady on the phone was extremely unhelpful and kept repeating that there was nothing she could do. Didn't seem to think it was strange that I would accept having 2 contracts at the same time! And it doesn't seem to matter that I was lied to either

[Niceteeth]

Thank you I might try legal matters.

[WeAreEternal]

EE did this to SIL a few months ago.

The confusion is that EE is a new network that was set up by the owners of orange and tmobile in a way to basically try and take over the uk mobile phone/Internet market. orange and tmoble are now merged and everything is run under the EE brand.

When they called SIL she was led to believe that it was about her exsisting contract and the sales person told flat lies to get her to agree to her 'upgraded handset' and better tarriff.
Luckily she noticed the direct debit the first time it went out and called and questioned it, after a lot of arguing, (they swore that she had agreed to a second contract) she demanded to be sent a recording of the call.
When they couldn't produce it they changed their stance and started trying to bargain with her for a 'better' deal.
Eventually though they agreed to let her out if the contract.

[Hassled]

I had a similar experience with O2 some years ago and insisted that they listen to the recording of the original call. They did, and backed down completely. Might be worth a shot?

[Mumstheword1976]

I think many companies operate in this unscroupulous manner. Similar thinh happened to me with virgin.... twice!! They called me offering a better deal on my tv package, i questioned as to whether thos would enter me into a new contract to which they replied no. Low and behold when i tried to cancel a few months later i was told i couldnt as i was only a few months into contract..... then the same happened again! Dispite me telling them what happened the 1st time and the guy insisting thos meant no new contract. I cancelled anyhow and cancelled my direct debit. They can chase me for their money, my credit ratings shit anyway not bothered. Lying bastards

[Niceteeth]

I can't believe they can get away with doing this sort of thing! Basically it seems I've left it too long as they've already deleted the conversation. But it just isn't right that they can tell blatant lies in order to get people onto a new contract.

[RodneyTheChristmasElf]

I thought one of the Tombliboos had upset you. I clearly need to get out more.

[Niceteeth]

Thanks for that rodney I needed a laugh!!

[4athomeand1cooking]

We have been caught out by them too.

Have been with orange for 10 years with no problem. I got a phone call to reward me with my loyalty and offered me a new iPad for free payable at £20 a month for a sim. As I was looking to purchase one for work after maternity leaveI thought great deal.

It came and i set it up to acknowledge wifi and not the sim. In one month I took it out once and did not use Internet.

One month later a £150 bill arrives for data roaming charges.

I called to discuss and they said all roaming had gone on SIM card and not wifi, I accessed the settings and told them that I could clearly see it was linked to wifi and their response was "maybe it is now".

I asked why alarm bells did not ring and got told it was not their problem.

I have had to get apple to confirm that my settings are correct and looks like a Long battle. Because my phone is linked I am also cut off unless I pay.

[caroldecker]

They need to provide evidence of a new contract - if there is no call they have none. write them a letter outlining the above. I assume you have never used the new number, so include that and give them 14 days to respond or you are taking them to the small claims court. If no response then do so.

[Niceteeth]

Thanks for that caroldecker might try that. They didn't even send me a copy of the t's and c's they kept going on about so how I was to know about this contract I really don't know!