EE cancelled my contract after I complained about listening to foreign music while on hold
Dear Sally
I TOOK out a phone contract with EE in March. When I phoned up to discuss the contract a few weeks later, I was frustrated at being left on hold and I asked the woman in customer services why I had to listen to Indian music.
She took offence and EE cut off my phone line. I am 88 and have health issues and am worried that the hospital and my family won’t be able to contact me.
EE also says I have to pay an early termination fee of £298. G. F., Southampton.
You wrote to us after EE left you with no phone line. You thought EE had overreacted — especially by asking you to pay an early termination fee.
However, I looked into what had happened, and I’m sorry to say you do appear to have brought this upon yourself.
EE says that when you spoke to its staff member, you queried why ‘as a white Englishman’ you were being forced to listen to ‘Indian music’.
You went on to use language and make comments that were discriminatory against a specific race.
It wrote to you saying: ‘As a company we don’t tolerate abusive or threatening conduct in any form’ and that as this was a breach of the terms of use it had ‘decided to remove you from our network with immediate effect’.
I have also seen your correspondence with EE. Some of the comments you made may have seemed to you like honest feedback, but I’m afraid you come across as someone who holds racially prejudiced views they cannot hide.
I can quite understand why EE and its staff were appalled.
I might have had more sympathy for your complaint about being cut off if you had shown remorse or apologised to EE. But you are standing your ground and do not see that you have done anything wrong.
As well as cancelling your contract, EE is charging you an early termination charge, which amounts to the full remaining bill for your outstanding contract.
I do wonder whether, despite your actions, it can insist on this. It’s one thing ending your contract, and quite another to bill you for a service you cannot now receive. I asked a lawyer for his view. Gary Rycroft, a partner at the solicitor Joseph A Jones & Co in Lancaster, says that the early termination clause strikes him as unfair.
‘An early termination clause should be there to compensate the business if a customer leaves early — and certainly not the other way round,’ he says.
‘ It strikes me as an unfair contract term and therefore not one enforceable by law because it is blatantly not fair.
‘If EE has chosen to waive the contract, they must waive the fee.
I suggest the customer refuses to pay and tells it to sue him — to prove there is a case.’
I also sought the view of industry regulator ofcom on whether EE was within its rights to cut you off, considering you are elderly and have health issues.
It says that telecom companies have a duty to ensure vulnerable customers are not left without access to ‘999’ emergency services before cutting them off — either for landline or mobile calls.
An ofcom spokesperson says: ‘All companies should assess their customers’ individual circumstances to see if they are deemed to be in a vulnerable situation and need support.
‘ You can tell the telecoms provider if you are feeling vulnerable, but it is also up to the company to try and find out. Elderly people living on their own with no other phone line may well fall into this category.’
The spokesperson adds: ‘ This duty of care is guidance and not a law. But if you feel you have not been treated fairly and are vulnerable then appeal to ombudsman Services.’ Meanwhile, EE is standing its ground.
A spokesman says: ‘In our terms and conditions we may restrict, suspend or end a service where anyone using a service acts towards our staff in a way seen to be unsuitable or serious enough to justify taking such action.’
Should you wish to, you could pursue it by going to the ombudsman. But I think your situation is a good reminder that courtesy and respect for others costs nothing, but a lack of it can — rightly — cost you dearly. There is no excuse for the language you used.
I RECENTLY reached my 90th birthday and received a £100 gift token from one of my grandsons for John Lewis’s beauty department. At my age, my beauty requirements are small and so I asked it if I could use it at another department at the store. It refused.
M. H., Coventry.
YOUR letter made me chuckle. You obviously have a great sense of humour, though it was being tested by John Lewis’s refusal to be flexible.
I asked the retailer to reconsider. I’m pleased to say it quickly got in touch with you to say you are free to spend your token on whatever you wish.
A John Lewis spokesman says: ‘We’ve explained to her that her card can be used for the majority of items in our shop. We are sorry that she was given the wrong information and we’ve sent her flowers to apologise.’
WRITE to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email sally@dailymail.co.uk — include phone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.