I am a long standing customer of EE but am incredibly disappointed. On 11 January I chose an offer to upgrade my iPhone 12 to an iPhone 14 Plus on the EE website.
The initial cost was £63 a month over two years reduced to £50.40 in its sale. Once I entered my order they then offered to take my current iPhone 12 as a trade-in and this reduced my monthly outgoings to £40.80 per month.
I was happy with this and proceeded with the order paying £50 up front as part of the deal. I did not receive any communication and the next day I rang and was told EE could not do that deal, despite the fact I had already paid.
I have spoken to them multiple times and they have given a range of excuses from their website not working properly to the deal no longer being valid.
They have continued to charge me on my old deal, which works out at about £71 a month including add-ons, even though the 24-month period has expired. What can I do?
LD, via email
Grace says:
This was understandably a frustrating situation and EE certainly didn’t go out of their way to help you resolve it.
After noticing your 24-month phone contract was coming to an end with EE you went online to upgrade your phone. Sticking with iPhones, you realized you could update your iPhone 12 to a 14 Plus for cheaper than you were paying in your current contract – which is about £71 when add-ons are included.
You were happily surprised to see the deal’s £63 monthly cost was reduced even further to £50.40 in a sale and to £40.80 when you traded in your old phone, paying the £50 upfront cost straight away.
As far as you were concerned, that was the end of the matter and the phone would be sent to your home within a matter of days.
But after not receiving an email confirmation by the next day, you phoned them only to be told the deal had been pulled, and as such, your order had not gone through.
You reminded EE it had taken your money and, as such, should honor the deal.
Since then you have had numerous conversations and each time, you were told they are not offering that deal any more, with a representative also saying at one point there had been a problem with the website and the deal should not have been showing.
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EE has continued to charge you £63 per month on your old contract which expired in December, which you are frustrated about. However, it should be noted that until you cancel this, even if the 24 months is up, firms will continue to charge.
You have requested a deadlock letter which is needed to take your case to the Communications Ombudsmanwho helps resolves disputes, but is yet to receive it.
To add to the frustration, your wife also ordered a new iPhone 14, without a trade-in, at the same time – a deal that was honored and has now been delivered.
Seeing you as were of the belief that you had signed a binding contract, plus EE had actively taken money from your account, I decided to contact the firm to ask why it was no longer honoring it. I provided the screenshots of the deal you saw as well as the £50 that had been taken out of your bank account.
Luckily, the phone company listened to reason and said it will move you to the deal you signed up for.
An EE spokesperson said: “We are very sorry for Mr D’s experience while upgrading his mobile. We are contacting Larry to honor the upgrade deal he saw as a gesture of goodwill.”
I am glad EE has seen sense and upheld the deal – although I am sure you are still none too impressed with the company.
‘I won’t return my £4,000 deposit’
My partner is Canadian and we decided to get married in Mexico. We booked the hotel and flights for 16 people with Tui last October, and the plan was to leave for the wedding on November 14 this year. We chose Mexico so both sides could get to the wedding relatively easily.
We booked it all in the Tui shop. We couldn’t book the hotel for the wedding venue, and had to do this directly, but it was the same hotel we were staying in.
Since booking, there has been a family issue that has been very expensive and is ongoing. Because of this we are not going ahead with the wedding in Mexico.
I spoke to Tui about this less than one month after we booked – and still one year before the trip. It has told us that if we want to cancel we would lose our deposit of £4,000 (£250 x 16 people).
This is a very stressful time and this is not helping. Can we get our deposit back?
DB, via email
Grace says: Your family is going through a stressful and expensive time. You’ve told me and Tui what is happening but don’t want it published. But everything happened after you booked your wedding to your long-term partner at a hotel in Mexico.
You contacted Tui but it wouldn’t budge. The exceptions department has also reviewed this case and will not waive it deposit fee. You tried to ask for alternatives, to see if the deposit could be transferred to a booking for you two, and your two kids.
However, Tui said the deposits are all linked to the 16 guests individually, even though you and your partner paid the money. So you would only be entitled to £1,000 of the deposit money, less an admin fee which they would also not waive.
This is clearly a better option than losing it all, but not by much. You are angry with Tui, especially as you are loyal customers who have traveled with them several times in the past year. You add you cannot afford to lose this money and it is adding on to the stress you are dealing with already.
This case has centered on the fact that you only paid half the deposit (£2,000) which has limited your options. If you had paid the full amount, each individual guest could then amend their booking for a different day – although you don’t know what date you will be doing the wedding now, so you’re not keen on that option.
I contacted Tui to see if there was any other option. However, the firm refused, but did say that once it received the rest of the deposit (an extra £2,000), amendments could be made.
It added once the deposit is received, it can split the original bookings down into separate bookings for those that still wish to transfer their depositsmeaning guests can use their £250 deposit towards another holiday.
However, you said you didn’t think it was fair for guests to have to pay for their own deposit.
A Tui spokesperson said: “We are really sorry to hear about the customer’s circumstances, and we have been in communication with them to try our best to get a resolution.
“As Mr B has only paid a low-deposit for their booking, as part of our terms and conditions, we have informed the customer that the balance of the deposit must be paid in full before any amendment or cancellation can be made to the booking .”
“I am sorry this was not the outcome you are looking for but I hope you are able to utilize one of the above options so you do not end up losing out on the full £4,000.”
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