EE fined £1 million for not properly dealing with complaints
As part of its job as the communications industry regulator, Ofcom routinely checks to see if UK mobile carriers are doing a good job of looking after their customers. This includes how they log complaints and what they do once they've received them. After almost three years of investigation, the watchdog announced today that Britain's (current) largest operator, EE, hasn't properly handled customer complaints and has issued it with a £1 million fine.
Ofcom says that between July 22nd 2011 and April 8th 2014, EE did not send written notifications to customers to highlight their right to take a complaint to an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme. When a customer raises a complaint, they can refer it to an ADR scheme eight weeks after their initial contact, so that an independent body, like an ombudsman, can reach an impartial decision. EE either didn't send written confirmations, known as "deadlock letters", in the necessary time or failed to send them at all.
Following Ofcom's probe, EE has updated its Customer Complaints Code to let customers know that it will send these letters. It will also include references to ADR schemes on paper bills and other written correspondence. In a statement, the company said: "This fine relates to our historic performance regarding complaints handling, collected from 2011 to April 2014. While this is in no way excuses it, it is important to note that we identified issues in our complaints handling and began our programme to tackle these problems head on in 2013, before Ofcom started their investigation. We have made considerable improvements since then."
"Ofcom's current figures highlight that complaints into Ofcom about EE have fallen by 50% in the past year alone and, while even one complaint is one too many, we're working tirelessly not only to improve the handling of complaints but also to identify root causes, and fix problems customers have with us, to ultimately achieve our goal of offering the best service in the market." Back in October 2014, Three was found guilty of closing customer complaints when it shouldn't, which resulted in a £250,000 fine. Like its rival, EE has 20 days to pay its fine, which will be absorbed by the Treasury.
