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EE fined £1 million for poor complaints handling

by Mark Tyson on 3 July 2015, 12:06

Tags: Ofcom, Everything Everywhere

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Ofcom has fined mobile network EE a hefty £1 million due to its mishandling of customer complaints. The telecoms watchdog said that during its lengthy investigation period, spanning from 22 July 2011 to 8 April 2014, EE didn't deal with customer complaints appropriately and fairly. For EE's part it says that the fine relates to a historic product and it identified and started to tackle its own complaints handling issues in 2013.

An important part of consumer protection put in place by regulator Ofcom is the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme. It allows people who are complaining to ask an independent body to step in to provide an impartial judgement. Customers can ask for their complaints to be taken to ADR if they are unresolved for eight weeks or the negotiations reach 'deadlock'. All major communications companies must have an ADR scheme in place.

Ofcom's explanation of the imposed fine centres on EE failing to provide certain customers "with accurate or adequate information about their right to take their complaint to an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme". EE didn't let customers know that they could access its ADR scheme by requesting a 'deadlock letter'. Furthermore those that had requested such a letter during the Ofcom investigation period often didn't even get one sent to them. Ofcom says that sometimes EE even told customers that such letters "were not issued".

As mentioned in the intro, EE has quickly issued a statement about the fine. It told the BBC that the fine was related to historic conduct and "While this in no way excuses it, it is important to note that we identified issues in our complaints handling and began our programme to tackle these problems head-on in 2013, before Ofcom started their investigation". (But Ofcom says it started the investigation in 2011). EE asserts that it is improving rapidly as "complaints into Ofcom about EE have fallen by 50% in the past year".

Now the judgement has been made EE must pay £1 million to Ofcom within the next 20 days. Ofcom says that it will pass on the cash to HM Treasury.



HEXUS Forums :: 8 Comments

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Great they deal with issues about complaints….so when are they going to sort out Vodafone for their lack of coverage, they didn't hit targets set by ofcom and 90% of Norfolk can't get above 2G, although they are the strongest signal for telephone calls around here, data on the other hand is pretty much non existent outside of a couple of towns and Norwich.
And in other news OFCOM attempted to fine Three for poor customer service but when contact was made OFCOM was transferred to an Indian sub-sid company who specialised in customer service. The end result being Three are no longer being fined as the only response received to any sentence was:

“I understand your issue madam, but I believe I may be able to assist you. All you need to do is purchase this Samsung Galaxy S5 with 16GB of memory and 13MP camera, with all inclusive minutes, texts and data and free roaming to select countries for £49p/m with £50 upfront and a small delivery surcharge of £9.95 and a small incidental fee of £5 for the credit check.”

In response to this outcome a separate watchdog entity has splintered from OFCOM with the set purpose of monitoring Three. OFO (Oh Fudge Off) assumed duties immediately. It's first responsibility is to cancel the contracts OFCOM has with Three due to it's previous attempts to fine them. It's mandate is as follows

“No, we do not want another contract. We just want to cancel the current one”
Jowsey
And in other news OFCOM attempted to fine Three for poor customer service but when contact was made OFCOM was transferred to an Indian sub-sid company who specialised in customer service. The end result being Three are no longer being fined as the only response received to any sentence was:

“I understand your issue madam, but I believe I may be able to assist you. All you need to do is purchase this Samsung Galaxy S5 with 16GB of memory and 13MP camera, with all inclusive minutes, texts and data and free roaming to select countries for £49p/m with £50 upfront and a small delivery surcharge of £9.95 and a small incidental fee of £5 for the credit check.”

In response to this outcome a separate watchdog entity has splintered from OFCOM with the set purpose of monitoring Three. OFO (Oh Fudge Off) assumed duties immediately. It's first responsibility is to cancel the contracts OFCOM has with Three due to it's previous attempts to fine them. It's mandate is as follows

“No, we do not want another contract. We just want to cancel the current one”

Thread winner that one.
Personally all I want to see from Ofcom would be an announcement that they want to break up EE. I was a happy T-Mo customer and when EE was formed it seems like the worst of T-Mo and Orange's customer service was distilled into EE's replacement.

Unfortunately there's zero chance of that happening - I'm just waiting for the announcement that one of the current “big three” (EE, Voda, O3) is going to merge with one of the others. And then there was two…
Jowsey
And in other news OFCOM attempted to fine Three for poor customer service …
:bowdown: I tip my hat to the king of comedy, (at least on this thread), although part of me bewails the fact that it's only funny because there's a large dollop of truth in there. But hey, at least we aren't in the US…

And gold-darnit I moved back to Three (from Virgin Mobile) last year (only because of Three's US-roaming deal and that VM don't do 4G). :wallbash:
three already has raised prices after merging with o2

three is next