EE bill

[rebel11]

Hi lostforwords

 

No you shouldn't accept it, if you called them and this wasn't explained to you, then they have mis-sold the package to you.

 

Saying it's in the terms & conditions etc doesn't make a difference because you should have been told at the point of sale.

 

http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/problem/i-may-have-been-misled-by-my-mobile-phone-provider

 

Write a Formal Letter of Complaint, mark it as such. Explain what's happened (purchased plan over the phone), how they have let you down (the length of text wasn't explained to you so the plan was mis-sold, if you had been told that, you wouldn't have taken it out, not warned credit limit was exceeded, poor customer service regarding your complaint etc) and what you want them to do (reduce bill to £8 for the month). Explain that your happy to take the matter further.

 

Send it to:-

 

Ms Francoise Clemes

Chief Customer Officer

T-Mobile UK

[email protected]

 

Let us know how you get on.

[rebel11]

What you say would make sense, but only the fact that when texts are sent within the UK the customer isn't charged for the length (161) of the text, so the customer is well within his rights to state that the plan has been mis-sold, even if the manual states that they are separate texts.

 

This hinges on a customer's understanding of what defines a text message. A text message is 160 characters, anything more than that (e.g. 161 characters) then the phone will send it as two separate texts and the phone that receives it will then combine it back into one message. This is known as a concatenated text message.

 

From a customer's point of view "i only sent one text message". From a network's point of view "we delivered 2 text messages". I don't think that it would be appropriate to explain concatenated text messages at the point of sale, as essentially that is a phone feature and should be covered in the user guide. So, how is customer meant to know this? Basically, read the user guide for the phone (as this is a phone feature).

 

Anyway, this is building up to my point. If it's in the user guide explaining that texts over 161 characters are sent as separate texts then i can't see you have any room to manoeuvre. But if it is not mentioned in the user guide then IMO you've got the evidence to have all of these charges dropped. (this is assuming you got the phone from EE as well)

[rebel11]

In your email to the Ms Francoise Clemes, Chief Customer Office, make your complaint, explain that you will not be able to deal with the matter until you comeback from holiday. State that you are disputing the costs of the texts sent, as the plan was mis-sold.

 

Rebel11 and Jacktheband thank you both for your answers.

So what happened between the moment I started this thread and your response back to me:

my husband received yet another phonecall from EE pressing for us to accept the offer of -180 Pounds on the bill. As we never had such problems with any supplier and we have an immaculate billing record, we are not used to be in such uncomfortable situation. Being concerned that EE would have disconnected the line whilst we were on holiday (abroad) he decided to accept the reduction and eventually paid the amount required (minus 180 pounds).

Back from the office, on his way home, he stopped at the EE shop (where we did the contract for our phones) and explained to the manager our issue. The manager of the shop said he would have taken this problem in his hands. He is planning to speak to his boss, Regional Manager, in 2 days time (as the RM is on holiday at the moment) and ask him (the RM) to call my husband back and see to reduce further more the costs.

 

Now, individual replies:

@ Rebel11 - Thank you thank you!! I totally agree with you and I think that is the right path. I am just concerned that, taking a considerable amount of time, they will disconnect my phone again, as my august bill is about to be billed (23rd of August). I went to see the links you sent me and, as you rightly said, the fact that the did not tell us about text length nor they did not warn us about exceeding the limit, is clearly stated as a mistake from their side and something we can appeal against. Do you think we can still appeal against this bill once we will be back from holiday on the very same grounds you detailled here?

 

@ Jacktheband - Thank you for your input. We did buy the phones from EE but, being them IPhones, we only received the standard user guide that Apple provides. I can look into the clause you are mentioning but, if I understood well your point, I would probably stand no chance at all anyway, as if "text messages must be 160 characters" this is it anyway, written on the user guide or not. Or maybe I did not get your point correctly? On top counting the characters means also spaces, commas, dot, apostrophes...Am I right?

 

I will be leaving for my holidays tuesday morning.

Hopefully I will receive a good-news call from the RM before I leave. I will keep you updated with the new steps. If you have further advice it is welcome.

Meanwhile have a good day and thank you very much again.