EE Billing woes

Bit of an odd one this, but I migrated from BT to EE back in July, or at least tried to. Something on BT's side messed up and the migration did not complete, so from July 24 until September 24 I was stuck between the two. And of course BT was billing me at the higher rate. Took a bit of going back and forth between myself and BT Executive complaints before the migration finally completed (or at least I thought) and was assured everything was fine. They even refunded me the entire cost of those few months I was stuck in no-mans land. Great I thought.

However since EE fully took over they have not billed me at all, despite me asking them and reminding them many times, "hey wheres my bill?", "Hey you haven't billed me yet". Apparently its a known issue and is affecting a "number" of customers. According to the executive complaints they have a customer that hasn't been billed since November last year and they have no idea when the billing issue will be resolved. At this point you might be thinking, "oh so you are getting it for free?". Sort of... once the billing kicks back in everyone that hasn't been billed will be billed for up to 4 months in one go - so if your internet is £50 a month, thats £200 you have to shell out for something that is not the customers fault.

So far EE have agreed with me since I have graciously and repeatedly told them "Hey you aren't billing me!" to only charge me for 2 months in one go once they get the billing sorted, whenever that will be is anyones guess. In a way its kinda nice I'm getting it for "free" right now, but after all the hassle of migration and now this, I don't want to be with this shower anymore in case there's more mess somewhere else down the line.

I can't break the contract without a huge penalty as its running now until July 2026 and as the line is working at full speed without no fault (apart from the billing issue) they apparently can't let me go without penalty (according to the person I was talking to in executive complaints yesterday). Their terms and conditions state that "We'll normally bill you regularly and in advance for the period ahead." so far they haven't, but legally I don't know if I can force that issue as "regularly" is such a wooly term.

Is there any way I can force them to let me go, or am I stuck with them until the contract is up?

As you are aware of the issue, you should be putting the money aside and really should not be needing a concession on payment terms from the time you knew that payments were not being taken. I don't think it is reasonable to expect to be let go if the only problem is that you are not being charged. Yes, there might be a messup down the line, but it is when that messup occurs that you would have grounds to leave penalty free.

Although I get that if you wanted to stop paying them for some reason, you currently don't have that leverage.

Dont really agree with that, I consider a fully working service to include a regular billing cycle and to be able to bill me in some fashion without me having to put money aside for whenever they finally fix whatever the heck is wrong with their system. As it sounds like its a very long term issue if it has been rumbling on since at least November last year for some customer(s).

I had even missed cancelling during the cooling off period after the service officially started with EE in Sept as I was not even aware I was hit with the billing bug until the end of the first month and no bill arrived.

Edited by KariKiyomi (Sat 09-Nov-24 14:37:22)

As far as what you’ve said it’s a billing issue rather than performance or establishing a working service.

As you are regularly (presumably in writing) advising them of their billing error, then it would be difficult for them to argue that you “aren’t paying” - therefore putting you technically in breach. Effectively you’re in dispute, but in reality you have suffered no monetary loss, very little hardship, and can’t really claim mental anguish etc.

The advice above simply to keep the monies set aside, is sound in my opinion.

+1. Just keep putting the money aside, in an account that pays interest. At worst, they'll bill you the whole amount. At best, they'll bill you 4 months as you said, or even nothing at all.

Apart from being one small thing to keep track of, you can't lose. And I agree with the others that this is not a reason for them to release you from the contract.

I can't give you any concrete precedents, but if you took it to arbitration, I would expect that to be the outcome too, i.e. "error in your favour".

I’ve had exactly the same experience, some of these replies have angered me suggesting that because we’re not out of pocket then that’s acceptable. Is it acceptable for me to spend over 10 hours of my time on phone calls waiting 30 minutes each time to get through, having been told they’d call me back at an agreed data and time on half a dozen occasions only to not bother then me having to restart the process and explain my story to yet another EE employee, is it acceptable for the to tell me I will not be bill shocked for their issue, is it acceptable for them to tell me I won’t be billed for any of the months THEiR issue outstanding, only for them to then bill shock me a day before payday for £180 putting me overdrawn !, to add Insult to injury they even to,d me I’d now be paying £64 a month for broadband not £54 as contracted as they couldn’t find the original information, I told them they were technically in breach so instead of dropping it to £54 they instead credit me for next four months then they’ll charge me £64 a month, so they’ve effectively credited me the difference for two years up front as four free payments, that doesn’t help with my very tight monthly budgeting as their billing me £10 more for he majority of the contract, it’s all on their terms, so ive every sympathy with the original posters position here, it’s atrocious, given I was a very long term BT broadband customer there’s no way I’ll be renewing, in fact beyond the current complaint I have in with EE my next step will be the onbudsmen.
Anybody whining on about I should’ve kept the money back for when they finally billed me can gladly walk a mile in y shoes for the last four months

I totally agree with you, I too once the 8 week deadline passes will be going to the ombudsman to see if I can get out of contract or at least get it in writing what I was promised on the phone by executive complaints that they will not backdate my payments beyond 2 months.

Its crazy they don't even have some sort of alternative payment system put into place as this does seem to be a very long term and ongoing issue. All they do is throw their hands up and go "computer says no". Its only because I had so many problems migrating from BT to EE that I decided to keep an eye to see if they would bill me for the first month after being assured many times that everything was fine now! Hah!

BT/EE are fine when things work, but when things go wrong it just seems to turn into an utter clown show. I will definitely be off at the earliest opportunity.

Edited by KariKiyomi (Sun 10-Nov-24 13:25:28)

Clown show is right, I was happy with BT broadband for years so just automatically went with it when they said they were now EE, you’d have to go a very long way to find such incompetent customer service, good luck with your.

In reply to a post by Robel67:

Clown show is right, I was happy with BT broadband for years so just automatically went with it when they said they were now EE, you’d have to go a very long way to find such incompetent customer service, good luck with your.

I think incompetence is now widespread within the customer services of many companies, and billing is one of the worse issues for many utility companies.