EE customer service

[Tim+]

Is it just me or has EE customer service become actually quite good?

Recently bought a data sim in Tescos but couldn’t activate it. Turns out it
had been sitting on the shelf so long the number had been
deactivated/reallocated. As to who’s fault this actually is I’m not sure.
EE blame Tesco (but of course they would) but at only 99p it wasn’t worth
sweating over. More to the point my query was quickly dealt with over the
phone.

I then went into an EE store to get a replacement data sim and again I was
quickly and efficiently dealt with and all my questioned answered and I had
my mifi unit working before I left the store. Whilst I was there I
reported a local problem with lack of 3/4G data from one particular mast.

I’d been down this road before with 3 and it was a nightmare trying to
convince them that they had a mast that wouldn’t allow any 3/4G data
transfer, just voice calls and texts. Took multiple calls and months to
fix. Anyhow, EE couldn’t identify any problem on their systems but promised
me that they would report it.

Well, a week went by and nothing changed so I went out tonight to call
customer services from within the affected cell. Only problem was, the
buggers had gone and fixed it. ;-)

Tim

--
Please don't feed the trolls

[Woody]

"Tim+" <tim.d...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1868147601.555976444.995...@news.individual.net...

If you can be sure a site is a fault (there is nothing that says your
phone will be registered on a given site even if you are standing next
to it) if you can get to the site either by car or on foot, note the
site number on the door/gate and report it to the phone number on the
door/gate. That will put you through to their Network Operating Centre
(NOC) rather than some script-reading robot in CS and they should
respond quite quickly. After all a site not working properly is
loosing them revenue!


--
Woody

harrogate3 at ntlworld dot com

[Tim+]

Well if I hadn’t been sure about the cell I was in it would have been a
good idea. As it was, the problem was very clear, very localised and very
consistent. I’m also not too sure of the exact mast position so I would
have had to hunt it down. Anyhow, it’s fixed now and I’ll certainly look
next time I want to report a data-dead cell.

[DrTeeth]

On 15 Aug 2018 13:06:32 GMT, just as I was about to take a herb, Tim+

<tim.d...@gmail.com> disturbed my reverie and wrote:

>Well if I hadn’t been sure about the cell I was in it would have been a
>good idea. As it was, the problem was very clear, very localised and very
>consistent. I’m also not too sure of the exact mast position so I would
>have had to hunt it down. Anyhow, it’s fixed now and I’ll certainly look
>next time I want to report a data-dead cell.

Shouldn't the company be monitoring the masts themselves? It seems
strange that they seem to need to rely on customer reports.
--
Cheers,

DrT

"If you want to find out what is wrong
with democracy, spend five minutes with
the average voter". - Winston Churchill

[John Kenyon]

On 16/08/2018 10:32, DrTeeth wrote:
> On 15 Aug 2018 13:06:32 GMT, just as I was about to take a herb, Tim+
> <tim.d...@gmail.com> disturbed my reverie and wrote:
>
>> Well if I hadn’t been sure about the cell I was in it would have been a
>> good idea. As it was, the problem was very clear, very localised and very
>> consistent. I’m also not too sure of the exact mast position so I would
>> have had to hunt it down. Anyhow, it’s fixed now and I’ll certainly look
>> next time I want to report a data-dead cell.
>
> Shouldn't the company be monitoring the masts themselves? It seems
> strange that they seem to need to rely on customer reports.
>

That kind of failure is detected using statistics, not on/off alarm
indications.

The failure will only be flagged when the report is run, and only if the
data indicates a problem. Sometimes "abnormal" for one site is "normal"
for another, so the periodic report simply won't flag it up.

Even then, the statistics driven reports will only be used to trigger
proactive/"fill in" tasks - jobs tasked to field engineers when they
haven't got an emergency outage to deal with (e.g. dead site).

[T i m]

On 14 Aug 2018 22:04:30 GMT, Tim+ <tim.d...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>Is it just me or has EE customer service become actually quite good?
>

I was recently given an EE locked phone by a friend and needed to get
it network unlocked. I tried online but they couldn't do it. Contacted
EE and they did it quickly and efficiently (I paid and may have been
able to do it free if I could have been bothered) so I'd say 'yes'.
;-)

Cheers, T i m

[MB]

There are faults that do not produce alarms, usually because the
monitoring has failed as well. Like when BT broadband lost a lot of
North of Scotland and only became aware after about day through their
online forum.

There was an online chat with one of their managers a few weeks later
and I did ask why they do not monitor for drops in traffic and higher
use of the speed checker. Their Indian (at that time) customer service
people had not passed on reports but many people do not bother to call
them because it can take an hour to go through all their obvious checks
on your line, at the end of which they tell you to call back if still
faulty.

The big problem with all this type of network control centre is that
faults can be masked and I have seen many times people being unaware of
a fault because they, or someone else. has masked it.

[Kevin H]

I've had cause to contact EE several times over the last 6 weeks and I have found them to be very responsive and effective with the help that I've needed. One of my boys had his phone pickpocketed whist in Benidorm after a long night out (don't ask!). He realised almost straight away and used another phone to call me to let me know. I called EE at 5.30 am to report the phone stolen, and got through within a couple of minutes to a UK based rep who put a block on the SIM and confirmed the phone hadn't been used after it was lifted. They told me to go into a EE shop and they would issue a replacement SIM.

The next day I went into a a local store and within 10 mins and after some security checks I had a new SIM.

I also needed several documents for the insurance claim (proof of ownership, proof of usage) which EE were able to produce and email to me over a couple of chat sessions.

All in all, I am very happy with EE. The only thing is the retention deals I've been able to secure haven't always been great. I managed to get a 12m SIM only 20G deal for £14.99 (now out of contract but still getting the same monthly rate, and I can gift data to son who always runs out of his 5G allowance). Couldn't get anything sensible for the wife when her contract ran out so moved to Plusnet (on EE) for £9/mo for 3Gb which is more than enough. To cap it all I've had good/excellent reception in most places (unlike for example the other guests at the B&B in Boscastle we were staying in earlier this week who were on Voda and were complaining that they were getting no coverage).

[Dex]

Was very happy with EE but but left as I couldn't turn down the Virgin
offer of 5000 minutes, uld text and 100GB data for £20

Just hope I don't have the same problem as some other Virgin customers.

[Theo]

T i m <ne...@spaced.me.uk> wrote:
> I was recently given an EE locked phone by a friend and needed to get
> it network unlocked. I tried online but they couldn't do it. Contacted
> EE and they did it quickly and efficiently (I paid and may have been
> able to do it free if I could have been bothered) so I'd say 'yes'.
> ;-)

I've done that a few times - seems to be straightforward, you just call up,
pay your 8.99 by card, tell them the IMEI and they tell you the unlock code
(or do it via a remote DB for iOS devices).

Unlike other networks, which make you use their SIM - even needing 30 days
before allowing an unlock (hello Vodafone).

Theo

[Woody]

"Theo" <theom...@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote in message
news:AyD*Wg...@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk...

If you buy an EE PAYG phone they will unlock it free before you leave
the shop - so long as you ask!!