Should Be Nothing Anywhere - Beware EE

Further to post here http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/bt/t/4308356-re-any... My friends switch to Orange (EE) is not an experience I would recommend. I knew something was amiss yesterday. Eight days from supplying MAC - No sorry you are leaving letter from BT, no welcome pack or go-live date from EE, but more alarming, no brightbox. Broadband switched overnight and no access via a BT homeHub. Phone still with BT, so not switched yet. But there is more - The unworkable conversation between a thick Glasgow accent and an Indian call centre would.have made good comedy TV. Be warned. As the old saying goes, 'If you pay peanuts' ..... Not for me I'm afraid and glad I pay what I do for a good service.

In reply to a post by professor973:

Further to post here http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/bt/t/4308356-re-any... My friends switch to Orange (EE) is not an experience I would recommend. I knew something was amiss yesterday. Eight days from supplying MAC - No sorry you are leaving letter from BT, no welcome pack or go-live date from EE, but more alarming, no brightbox. Broadband switched overnight and no access via a BT homeHub. Phone still with BT, so not switched yet. But there is more - The unworkable conversation between a thick Glasgow accent and an Indian call centre would.have made good comedy TV. Be warned. As the old saying goes, 'If you pay peanuts' ..... Not for me I'm afraid and glad I pay what I do for a good service.

I am very sorry to hear of your friends woes, I say glad I pay what I do for a good service... for the price that is, I am satisfied.

Your current home plan is:
Broadband and Off Peak Calls - with your Orange mobile phone - £5.00 a month plus £13.50 Orange line rental (total £18.50 a month), up to 20 Meg speed, wireless router, unlimited usage allowance, evening and weekend UK landline telephone calls to 01, 02, 03, 0845 and 0870 numbers included.

https://broadband.ee.co.uk/home.do

Still a two day wait for router, so we are tethering my mobile. Would have expected next day delivery when a new customer has been let down.

Let's hope you never suffer the offshore incompetence and ignorance my friend is on the phone this minute. The only answer to a Broadband fault is 'Your phone line is working correctly'. Be warned.

Not broadband related, but EE lost a customer permanently towards the end of last year (me). Having completed my mobile contract with them (been in contract with them for a total of 3 and a bit years, account in good standing, all bills paid for on time etc), left with an iPhone 4, they refused to unlock the phone even though the phone now belonged to me and was fully paid for. For some crazy reason, I presumed (my bad) that after the initial 2 year contract finished, they would unlock the phone automatically (by a SIM update; I did receive some kind of SIM update when I downgraded to a cheaper tariff at the end of the 2 year initial). But I have since realised the hard way that none of this was the case.

Not only that, the way they handled this insane situation was to inform me every time I called them that... the unlock would be done within the next X days etc. But it never was; I ended up wasting about 2 months of my time because of this.

It took an email to their CEO, and a subsequent wait of around 2 weeks for a reply from him, to be told the following:

Further to your recent email.

For Orange to unlock your phone you would need an active Orange account, either Pay as You GO (PAYG) or Pay Monthly. The handset has to registered against the account for a minimum of 6 months.

The number 07XXXXXXXXX was transferred to PAYG August and then ported to another network. As you elected to close the PAYG account down Orange would have no way of charging you for the unlock code. Your original Pay Monthly account also shows no unlock requests were made and therefore no Handset Unlock charges were applied to the account.

If you now require the phone to be unlocked you would be required to now set up an Orange PAYG account and register this phone against the account. As your tenure has been broken this will reset your account history and you will be required to have the handset registered for 6 months before an unlock code can be requested.

This is the only option available to you should you want Orange to unlock your handset from the Orange network. If this is an option you wish to take please purchase a PAYG SIM card from your nearest EE store, and register both the handset and details in your name.

Unless the phone is registered to an active Orange we would be unable to request the phone to be unlocked.

Whilst I appreciate this may not be the response you had hoped for, I trust I have explained the reasons why we are unable to unlock this phone.


Yours sincerely



Alan Holcroft
Executive Office, EE

The bit about "not having a way to charge me for unlocking the phone" really epitomises what EE are and how they work - basically, a joke of a business.

In retrospect, I probably should have requested the phone to be unlocked before I migrated my number off to giffgaff. But really, it shouldn't be this way, and the above email clearly demonstrates exactly the type of company they are, and how they operate. I will not be doing business with them ever again.

Good luck to those who continue to entertain their antics. Personally, I have better things to do with my time than get wound up dealing with companies that clearly take the p! out of (ex-)customers, and more importantly, don't appear to give a s! in the process of doing so.

FYI, I ended up trading in the iPhone 4 directly with Apple to offset the price of purchasing a new unlocked iPhone 5S. Glad this incident is now well and truly behind me tbh.

Edited by deleted (Wed 05-Mar-14 21:50:38)

Twelve days in and still struggling with overseas ignorance, along with UK stubbornness. Still will not lift banding on a noise and error free 6.5Mb line. The worst bunch ever.
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/13948...

In reply to a post by professor973:

Twelve days in and still struggling with overseas ignorance, along with UK stubbornness. Still will not lift banding on a noise and error free 6.5Mb line. The worst bunch ever.
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/13948...

And you were pointing me to EE as cheaper option to BT in your other thread "Greedy BT". Hmm?

Edited by flippery (Sat 15-Mar-14 15:04:48)

I was with EE home broadband (then Orange) for 7 years and have been with Orange mobile (now EE) for 17 years. In all that time they've been good bureaucrats: fine if you fit their rulebook and the devil if you don't. It's how they keep the costs down. And everything is down to cost - they don't do favours (except to themselves). As long as you can align your needs with the way they work (and you need to put in the effort to figure that one out), you'll be fine, well most of the time.

Edited by deleted (Sat 15-Mar-14 20:27:09)

I compared their prices with BT, but when it comes to landline rental, I always point to Zen.

In reply to a post by professor973:

I compared their prices with BT, but when it comes to landline rental, I always point to Zen.

I would pay for my EE line rental 12 months in advance, but will not because I will lose my legacy free weekday evenings phone calls contract.

EE phone line rental £11 a month if you pay 12 months upfront, normally phone line rental £15.40 per month paid monthly.

ZEN phone line rental at only £11.22 per month.

http://www.zen.co.uk/home-office/voice/phone-service...

Inclusive with EE line rental, free BT Answer 1571 and BT Privacy with Caller Display.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-243...

Edited by deleted (Sun 16-Mar-14 12:11:01)

But there is NO upfront needed with Zen to get the £11.22 or contract tie-in. If you add NO call set up fee for chargeable calls and per second billing, it's hard to beat. For £17, not much more than rental elsewhere, there is a package giving 5,000 minutes per month, with NO 60 minute restriction to calls. Factor in quality UK customer service and it's a no-brainer. Being with Zen, I am in no need of links.

They seem to keep costs down by playing ignorant. 14 days in with a noise and error free 6.5Mb line banded to what I assume is 2Mb. Getting 1.1Mb connection. So far, been face with nothing but excuses, false promises or total ignorance of the product depending who you are talking to. So far, nobody appears to understand banding, either that, or they are taking the juice. A total tale of woe from start to finish which falls well short of a decent service. Promised yet another free month for the hassle, but I doubt it will come to pass.

In reply to a post by professor973:

They seem to keep costs down by playing ignorant. 14 days in with a noise and error free 6.5Mb line banded to what I assume is 2Mb. Getting 1.1Mb connection. So far, been face with nothing but excuses, false promises or total ignorance of the product depending who you are talking to. So far, nobody appears to understand banding, either that, or they are taking the juice. A total tale of woe from start to finish which falls well short of a decent service. Promised yet another free month for the hassle, but I doubt it will come to pass.

Send EE technical team a polite email requesting help for your home broadband connection, speed banding problem.

https://explore.ee.co.uk/broadband/email-us

http://help.ee.co.uk/system/selfservice.controller?C...

I am back down south now, but the person in question says EE are insisting on sending an engineer tomorrow, but can't see how that will lift banding on a quiet low-error line with iPlate and new filter, using master socket.

UPDATE:- I can honestly say, that Orange (EE) absolutely stink as a company. Just been speaking to the poorly sighted dyslexic lady 400 miles away, who has been totally conned and lied to by BOTH Orange and an Openreach engineer.
They refuse to accept banding. Engineer told her the problem was because someone changed network password, if you ever heard such rot. Then got on his mobile and conducted what I can only assume was a pretend conversation with someone in the exchange to "Reset" the router. he then left telling her she had "A 9Mb service" - Again total rot, as 41dB attenuation only equates to hooking up at 6.5Mb - BUT ... The bottom line is, that after a BIG struggle over the phone directing this lady into the advanced menu of the Brightbox, she is STILL looking at a 1.1 connection and probably a big bill. This tale of woe must surely be grounds for a fee-free exit. TOTAL [censored] service.

Edited by professor973 (Wed 19-Mar-14 11:16:47)

In reply to a post by professor973:

he then left telling her she had "A 9Mb service" - Again total rot, as 41dB attenuation only equates to hooking up at 6.5Mb

Eng is right! 41dB attn. on ADSL2+ does warrent an 8-9 Meg sync. The eng is talking sync speeds and you well know it. OR can neither be responsible for nor warrent throughput.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by professor973:

he then left telling her she had "A 9Mb service" - Again total rot, as 41dB attenuation only equates to hooking up at 6.5Mb

Eng is right! 41dB attn. on ADSL2+ does warrent an 8-9 Meg sync. The eng is talking sync speeds and you well know it. OR can neither be responsible for nor warrant throughput.

Tell that to KITZ Mr. Know-all. http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/max_speed_calc.php She should end with around 6,5 usable as all predictions show. I am fed up with your continuously snotty attitude to all I post and telling me what you THINK I know. How about you keep out of any threads I start. I expect you will soon dispute the engineer visit booked again for tomorrow, as even Orange are unsatisfied with the lying incompetent sub-contract moron that visited today, though I expect they suit you.

Please guide me to your alleged 6.5 Meg on Kitz:

In reference to www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/max_speed_calc.php:

Estimation of your maximum rate adaptive adsl speed

Downstream Attenuation 41 dB Approx Line Length 3 km

dslMAX (20CN) 6688 kbps IP Profile 5500 kbps

BT 21CN WBC & adsl2+ 8640 kbps IP Profile 7620 kbps

adsl2+ (LLU) 8640 kbps Throughput 7646 kbps

Makes no odds anyway as eng was talking sync only.

Why do you protest so much when the evidence nearly always proves you are blatently wrong? I refuse your kind invitation not to contribute to your threads.

Of course I prefer

http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/calc/index.php?param=RG...

Expected speed at 41dB attenuation 4800Kbps to 6300Kbps if using ADSL
Expected speed at 41dB attenuation 7250Kbps to 11000Kbps if using ADSL2+

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by professor973:

he then left telling her she had "A 9Mb service" - Again total rot, as 41dB attenuation only equates to hooking up at 6.5Mb

Eng is right! 41dB attn. on ADSL2+ does warrent an 8-9 Meg sync. The eng is talking sync speeds and you well know it. OR can neither be responsible for nor warrent throughput.

I have to agree with Prof. You do have an I am always right attitude even when wrong.
What does the BT wholesale speedtester say.
2Mb on a throughput that should be 6.5Mb shows somewhere the speed is being held back. What is the SNR which obviously has an impact on throughput

The eng wouldn't have spoken of 9 Meg had the line been ADSL1.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Of course I prefer

http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/calc/index.php?param=RG...

Expected speed at 41dB attenuation 4800Kbps to 6300Kbps if using ADSL
Expected speed at 41dB attenuation 7250Kbps to 11000Kbps if using ADSL2+

ALL the usable speed estimates for the lady in question were 6500kbps. I was never talking sync speed or IP Profile. The only exception, were the morons at Orange, who predicted 5,000kbps when banding was lifting which they refuse to do. A service that the likes of Xray and others that know no better service may find acceptable. I am more fed up with the continual "You know very well" from Mr. know-all. the snotty attitude from the likes of him must have driven many away from here. If he cannot contribute without personal attacks, I, as you know are happy to retaliate till i get banned.

The lady in question did contact Andrew for help, posting router stats with many errors AND stats with NO errors after I changed the filter and fitted an iPlate. Quiet line test OK and using master socket 3dB snr on the BT Hub, though the Brightbox that has been in for a couple of weeks runs at the standard 6dB, so now a 1.1 Mb service on what seems a banded line. Just been told they are refunding a wrongly charged bill today plus ANOTHER five pounds, with a promise of yet ANOTHER free month from a level 2 supervisor. let's hope that unlike other statements it actually comes to pass, along with a better engineer tomorrow (more promises of no charge) !

Edited by professor973 (Wed 19-Mar-14 16:29:21)

The eng wouldn't have spoken of 9 Meg had the line been ADSL1.

YOU KNOW VERY WELL I have not for one minute claimed ADSL1. Please stop continually taking me for a fool, or are you trying to provoke me into a ban?

Cannot see anyone winning, so just like the House of Commons speaker, I'll close this debate for now.