Anger at EE confusion

A 78-year-old woman has been left ‘traumatised’ and bed-bound following a visit to a phone shop in the city.

A 78-year-old woman was left ‘traumatised’ after a visit to a Chichester phone shop, her daughter has said.

Wendy Squires, 78, from Hayling Island, was celebrating a friend’s 80th birthday in the city when she mistakenly visited East Street’s EE store to top up her phone, despite using an O2 phone.

Wendy’s daughter, Vicky Rhodes, said: “They took her debit card, took the £20 payment and then took her phone off her and said ‘you’re not with EE’. He then told her to go to a different shop to get her phone unlocked so that she could go back to get credit. The guy [at the other shop] refused to do it and said EE really shouldn’t be doing this. When she came out of the other shop she was so flustered that she fell on the floor – she feels like she has been robbed.”

After going back to EE to get a refund, Wendy was refused. “She has been traumatised by it. Five hours later someone called me and simply said, ‘ we don’t do refunds’. I really couldn’t believe his attitude.”

The annoyance has ‘absolutely put her off’ buying credit in store again and left Wendy spending a weekend ‘unable to get out of bed’.

An EE spokesman said: “All our people are trained to give our customers the best help and advice, particularly the elderly or vulnerable who might need the most support. To protect against fraud, top-up vouchers are non-refundable after purchase.

“This is standard practice across the industry as stores are unable to tell if a voucher has been used when a customer returns with one. We’re sorry for the inconvenience this caused Ms Squire and have been in touch with her to offer a gesture of goodwill.”