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So pissed off. I set my mum up with 4G mobile broadband with EE because her house in the sticks gets dial-up apeeds via landline broadband, but 100mbps+ on 4G.
During this process they cancelled her useless ADSL, keeping just the landline, and for two years she's been happy with the 4G setup.
Openreach has strung fibre along the pole outside her house recently to connect the next village.
I visited today and EE have cold-called her and sold her "fibre optic" broadband in addition to the existing setup. They've flogged her the top-of-the-line kit for gigabit connections and suggested that she connects it to her crap ADSL connection in the meantime so that it's ready for fibre when the time comes.
They're complete and utter shysters. Presumably someone gets commission from this but if they were in front of me now I'd happily punch them in the face.
It's been less than two weeks so can be cancelled, but it's sort of beside the point. My mum is not tech-savvy and they've just blatantly taken advantage of her.
Yeah utter nutsc this behaviour of cold calling system.
Their mobile service which HMD piggyback off is simply shocking.
CS - what CS lol
She's using 4G, they've upsold her FTTP which she's agreed to, and something about a DSL connection that she cancelled when migrating to 4G? I don't think I quite follow, I'm afraid. What have I missed?
Also, why does she need a landline?
Have they sold her hardware and reactivated her ADSL before the fibre is commissioned?
Yup, EE are a bunch of absolute shysters.
On the flip side. Never had an issue with EE at all.
Not wanting to defend EE but if she's of sound mind then why didn't she just check with you before signing up with anything? Anyone pressurised or fraudulent cold calling should end up in a special kind of hell but cold calling offering a newly available service isn't quite in the same league.
My only advice - handle your mum with care in this situation.
I remember a few years ago my mum got herself signed up to some company I'd never heard as a replacement for BT for landline and broadband. Thought she was saving some cash and they had promised a better broadband speed than she was getting (although still using the some wires and exchange - work that one out). Anyway by the time I knew about it the new service was up and running but not actually working, she had no idea how to set it up and was getting no help and she only then realised she'd also lost her BT email address.
I was not as patient as I should have been with her - partly because I was super busy anyway and sorting it all out 600 miles away was more than a faff. But mostly because I was an arse and didn't comprehend how confusing it was for her. She thought she was doing a good thing trying to save so money which I had been encouraging her to think about.
The whole incident, and especially my reaction/comments. really knocked her confidence with dealing with the modern world.
It is not technically cold calling if you phone an existing customer with offer of a new service is it.
If existing customer then takes up the offer fair enough. I get many offers as an existing customer of many things (mostly via email) but I don't take many of them up.
EE have also been great for me for last 10 years. I renewed my broadband recently and went for cheapest offer but didn't read it properly and actually downgraded (which I noticed afterwards)
Phoned them up and they sorted me out with a new deal back to higher speed but less than the offer and less than I was paying before.
Anyone pressurised or fraudulent cold calling
But did either of those actually happen? Applying Hanlon's razor it's quite probable this is EE doing a marketing campaign to promote the fibre service they're rolling out and their marketing database doesn't hold the particular circumstances of that address. Of course a responsible call handler might have identified her as vulnerable and opted not to proceed with the call, but if she sounds the full ticket on the phone they may have had no reason not to. OP - if you're desperate they would probably still have the call recording available so you can check exactly what she was sold and how it was pitched.
Have they sold her hardware and reactivated her ADSL before the fibre is commissioned?
Correct. She lives alone and they’ve sent the full mega-family sized kit. There’s no date for FTTP going live and it doesn’t even show as available to order on EE’s website.
She’s using 4G, they’ve upsold her FTTP which she’s agreed to, and something about a DSL connection that she cancelled when migrating to 4G? I don’t think I quite follow, I’m afraid. What have I missed?
Also, why does she need a landline?
She’s now paying for an unusable ADSL connection in addition to 4G with no install date for FTTP. She doesn’t want or need a phone line. I mentioned the DSL connection because it seemed relevant to explain why she’s using more expensive 4G broadband.
If it's within the cooling off period she can just cancel.
Otherwise I would phone up EE and explain that they have miss-sold the service to an elderly and vulnerable user who did not understand what she was letting themselves in for - lay it on thick and suggest that you will go further if they don't cancel. I'm pretty sure there are rules about vulnerable people and finance commitments
... and what convert said, be gentle with your mum. I've been through all this with my mum and the amount they don't understand about how all this works was more than I imagined. Makes me wonder what I'm going to be struggling with in 25 years
I get that they did nothing really wrong but it just doesn't seem right. Even just asking about watching films, netflix etc would I assume lead them to conclude that the full family bhoona.
I'd suggest that it is misold as its way above her needs.
If she is elderly then a lot of big orgs have a special phone helpline to deal with this kind of shit. See if they have and then give that number a call
If you haven’t already, check the communication settings on (all) her accounts. I automatically set mine to no marketing calls. All big companies should have this option and stops this kind of thing.
It's clear mis-selling - they sold her a duplicate service for the one she is already paying for, not only that, it's a service they can't actually provide. It's not like they didn't know what she was getting via 4G, they are her supplier.
As above, someone needs to have a firm conversation with EE on the basis that they have mis-sold to an elderly and potentially vulnerable customer - hopefully the contract itself is within the cooling-off period, but they also need to reclaim their equipment and return any installation costs so she is not out of pocket. I'd imagine your mum would need to initiate the call and be present.
This may be helpful:
The same thread could be started at most big companies. It’s not just EE trying to sell people stuff they don’t need.
Checkout the connectedsim pricing from ee (Google it). If it's much cheaper than your mobile broadband then buy a tablet that comes with the SIM, sign up for it then take it out of the stick it in your router and if it's still like it was when I did it you'll now be paying roughly half the price (no unlimited option mind). You get a free tablet effectively in year 1, and cheaper mobile Broadband thereafter. Nothing to do with your original post but halving the mobile bill might make you feel better.