EE’s missing Fair Use Policy

EE’s missing Fair Use Policy

Last month, I was in London for a couple of days and while I was there I used my phone’s data much more than I would normally. With no wifi, and because I was using Facetime to speak to my family, I quickly racked up over a gig of data used. Not a problem, because my contract is an unlimited data one.

What’s that, you say? EE don’t offer unlimited data packages? You’re right. But my contract is quite an old T-Mobile one, and offers “unlimited internet access”. Note the quotes – I’ll be returning to them.

Soon after I came home, I got a text message from T-Mobile telling me I had hit my data limit:

You’ve exceeded your fair use policy for this month. Unfortunately you will now only be able to browse and email. Other services such as streaming and downloading will be blocked for the rest of the calendar month. We will soon give you the ability to purchase internet boosters to enable you continue to stream and download until your new allowance starts

There’s a fair use policy? I don’t remember such a thing when I signed up for my contract, but OK, maybe there is and I missed it. Surely “unlimited” means unlimited though, yes? I’m sure there were rules about this sort of thing set up a while ago. Whatever though, they stopped me from being able to stream media or download anything over my phone’s data connection. It wasn’t really a problem as it was only for a couple of days, I was back home with wifi, and I don’t often stream or download on my phone anyway.

Something stuck in my craw though: the Fair Use Policy. I wanted to check exactly what this said, but none of the paperwork or emails from T-Mobile from way back when explain it anywhere. When checking the wording of the above text message from them, I noticed another message I’d missed from a few days before:

We’ve noticed that you’ve reached 80% of your fair use policy this month. For more details on our policy, what happens when you reach 100% and how to manage your data usage please visit http://m.t-mobile.co.uk/m/fairusagepolicy/ It’s free to access

It may well be free to access, but it doesn’t work. So the emails they send don’t have the Fair Use Policy, the paperwork doesn’t, their text message links to a non-existent page, and even when I checked my account online I couldn’t find anything anywhere. Searching the internet, and having a moan at them on Twitter, I found this page which links to this document, which states:

All other plans
Subject to a fair use policy set out in your plan’s terms and conditions.
Existing customers can find details of their fair use policy here: http://e-gain.s3.amazonaws.com/external/content/T-Mobile/Price-plans-and-cost/T-Mobile%20Traffic%20Management%20for%20Handset%20January%202013.pdf

That link, of course, just redirects to EE’s help pages which in this case are of no use at all. I decided to call EE.

The person I spoke to was very apologetic but he couldn’t provide me with a copy of their Fair Use Policy. He could see I’d hit my limit (which is 1.5GB a month, it turns out) but couldn’t see why that was my limit. He tried to suggest I shouldn’t be on this contract as it was too cheap (it was cheap – that’s why I got it and am still on it), couldn’t explain why “unlimited internet” only means “unlimited browsing and email”, and then tried to upsell worse EE contracts to me and then offered me home broadband and all sorts of other stuff. Not helpful.

Immediately after coming off the phone I was spammed with 5 text messages from EE and T-Mobile, asking me to do a survey and trying to sell me more stuff. I filled in the survey and said how I’d not got the answer I was after and then got spammed. I then complained to EE on Twitter again about how this didn’t help and they escalated it as a formal complaint.

A few days later, I got a phonecall from EE to say they had picked up my case and someone from their team would contact me again in a few days to try to resolve this. Someone did ring, and I talked with them for a while about the problem. She was helpful, and said she was sure she’d be able to find the Fair Use Policy I wanted to look at, and she agreed that yes, if I signed up for a contract and said I’d abide by their terms and conditions that I certainly should have seen a Fair Use Policy. She promised to find it and email it to me.

I received an email as promised, but unfortunately, it linked to this. You don’t need to read it – it’s just their terms and conditions again. In section 3.5.9 it states:

3.5.9. You comply with any fair use policy applicable to Your use of the Services and if You are in breach of that policy You comply with any reasonable instructions that We issue to You to enable You to remedy that breach and to continue to use the Services;

Again, mentioning there is a Fair Use Policy but still not telling me either what it is, or where to find it! I replied to the email explaining this, and after a few more days, I got another phone call from someone else at EE.

This lady was also understanding, but was unfortunately also unable to help. In fact, she literally stated that they would not be able to find the Fair Use Policy any more. I asked how I could be bound to a Fair Use Policy that doesn’t exist, and she said she didn’t know but just couldn’t provide me with one. She said she’d found a document which referenced it (here) but that just seems to be a badly formatted version of the one I’d previously been sent.

How can I sign a legally binding contract, and adhere to that contract, if one part of that contract has never been seen and cannot be found? And how do I have an “unlimited internet” limit of 1.5GB per month if it’s “unlimited” except there’s a Fair Use Policy that sets it at 1.5GB but nowhere does it say this AND NOBODY CAN FIND THE BLOODY THING ANYWHERE? It’s an utterly boggling situation. I don’t really mind there being a limit of 1.5GB as this is the first time I’ve ever used that much in a month in the many years I’ve been on this contract, but that’s not what I signed up for. How can EE or T-Mobile or whoever enforce something they can neither find nor explain why they can’t find it? Where did 1.5GB come from then? it’s absurd.

0 Comments

    1. Nope. I keep hitting the limit every month now (Pokémon Go uses a lot of data!) but it doesn’t seem to do anything when I go over. I just get a text telling me I’ll be unable to use anything but basic internet stuff, but I can still access everything as normal.

      deKay
      1. Ahhh cool. Its Pokemon go that looks like it will put me over. (ive gone over once or twice before but never cared as normal use didnt seem effected) was worried Pokemon Go would stop half way through month. So fingers crossed then that i also dont have any problems

        C Garvie
  1. I too have this fair use policy issue, it really doesn’t exist as I have tried asking in EE store and they have been unable to provide one as EE doesn’t have one anymore if anyone does have any luck please share it with the rest of us

    Geoff
    1. I didn’t, no. It cropped up again a few times more recently, not least because of Pokemon Go, but even though they say I’m over my limit, nothing appears to happen.

      deKay
      1. Hi thank you for your response. I intent to take them to court. I have already sent them pre action letter. Do you know any one else who has taken EE T mobile to the court? They removed my 6 months unlimited internet booster. They are saying terms and conditions states we can restrict how you can use internet by removing it if you go over the fair use policy 500mb. But T&C does not say it will be removed and remove & restrict has completely different meanings.

        Bahruz

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