EE Forcing hundreds onto Expensive two Year Contracts

[comebackjimmy]

Hullo all

 

I was a member of an organisation called myphoneclub which provided connections via Orange(EE) on a 30 day contract basis. I ported my two numbers in from Carphone Warehouse over a year ago.

 

On 7th February I received an email from myphoneclub to say they had ceased trading and called them. They advised that someone from orange would be in contact to sort out the phones.

 

On or around 20th February I was contacted by Avenir Telecom a reseller of EE(Orange) who offered to put me on expensive 2 year 4G EE contracts. I refused. No other service from EE was offered to me or available even though I asked and my request for PAC codes was refused as they said they had no control of the numbers.

 

I contacted Orange direct who refused to speak to me as I was "not the account holder" but took my word that myphoneclub had gone bust and disconnected my service and that of hundreds of others.

 

The following day after I contacted the Executive Office the service was restored and I was advised Avenir could offer all the services of EE including prepay and 30 day contracts.

 

Getting back to Avenir they said they could not, blaming EE who they hate and my service has gone down once again.

 

This has been a long saga and I have only provided the high lights but here is my best understanding of the situation:

 

Orange has a distributor called Avenir

 

Avenir sold Orange services to myphoneclub. Orange say this makes myphoneclub Avenir's customer.

 

Avenir are insistent they will only reconnect numbers on two year contracts and both Ofcom and Citizen's Advice have said contractually they are within their rights.

 

I dont want to be forced into long and expensive contracts for a dubiuous 4G service I dont need but I dont want to lose my numbers. It particulary galls me that they should use the threat of permanent loss of numbers to force people to sign up, particularly people who joined myphoneclub in the first place in order to avoid long contracts.

 

I would be most grateful if anyone can come up with any solutions. It has been suggested to me that I sign the contract then cancel within the time limits of the distance selling regs, getting my PAC's at that point though I don’t think that is much of a flyer.

 

What I really want is some sort of business or contract law that I can apply in order to get a pre pay or sim only contract out of Avenir or failing that a strategy along the lines of first sign to restore the service then sue using the following......??. Is there any kind of unfair business practice legislation, or abuse of dominant position provisions anywhere.

 

Any thoughts or ideas most welcome.

 

Put your questions here.

 

If you are ex myphoneclub in the same boat, please make yourself known either on here or privately if you prefer. Lets form a a gang!

[BazzaS]

Port your number to e.g. Virgin (who piggyback on EE's network) on a 30-day rolling SIM or PAYG

 

Then port your number back to EE on the service you want, avoiding the reseller who is being uncooperative.

[comebackjimmy]

Thank you for your reply.

 

Avenir say they cannot give me the PAC code (needed to port the number away anywhere) as I am neither the account holder (myphoneclub is the account holder) or the receiver/administrator for myphoneclub (of which one is not yet appointed).

 

I know this is baffling. They cannot give me the PAC code yet they can sign me to a new two year contract!

 

This is what I am up against and why I think it is dirty business.

[comebackjimmy]

By the way interested viewers might like to take a look at EE's facebook page. It is absolutely covered in customer complaints and adverse comments. Never seen the like anywhere else.

 

Who at EE thinks it is a good idea to keep that page up!

[comebackjimmy]

UPDATE SOLVED

 

Hi all,

 

I now have my numbers switched back on under my control on pre-pay SIMS!

 

I am not entirely sure how this came about but I had done the following:

 

Contacted Ofcom who said what was going on was legal.

Contacted the EE executive office who were only marginally helpful.

Contacted Hertfordshire Trading Standards as Avenir are in Borhamwood. Their response was that they would not intervene but I should go via my local CAB and they would monitor what was happening on a National Basis!

CAB who said what was going on was legal.

EE executive office again where the original "owner" of the problem was not there. Went over the whole thing with him again and then wrote a full summary of what went on and what I thought of the whole thing.

Wrote to my local MP copying him in on the above email.

 

I immediately got an email from the MP (or more likely his office!) saying he was making investigations).

 

The following day I was contacted by an individual in EE only too ready to help. That lady IMMEDIATELY re-activated my two numbers and asked what I wanted to happen. I elected to move the numbers to pre-pay and got two EE pre-pay SIMS and they have now been transferred, along with some complimentary credit.

 

At the same time I had another communication from Trading Standards stating that as a result of the intervention of the MP they were looking at the case and giving me a named contact. That contact did indeed call me but by then EE had sorted out my problem.

 

I am now content because I have my numbers back. I do not know how the other 300 odd members of the defunct Myphoneclub are faring but I told the trading standards contact that as far as I was concerned they could stop but should consider the fate of these other users and make sure they were being treated fairly.

 

I am not sure what conclusions to draw from the episode except that if you make enough noise on their social media and bring in big guns you can get what you want, particularly as I was in the right.

 

It is a pity I was forced to do this. If EE had been more switched on and/or responsible instead of acting like a bunch of hand wringing robots their reputation, not to say future profitability would be in marginally better shape than it now is.

 

Any questions or comments please feel free to post and thanks for all contributions.