Ofcom slaps EE with £1m fine for mishandling customer complaints
Ofcom has fined EE a total of £1m for failing to comply with rules dictating how to handle customer complaints.
The comms watchdog announced that EE was one firm guilty of failing to ensure that customer grievances were dealt with appropriately and fairly.
The mobile carrier – which is looking to combine with BT in a £12.5bn deal – failed to distribute letters stating that customers have a right to have their complaint administered by the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme.
EE failed to announce that consumers could request a ‘deadlock letter’ which would see the incident handled by the ADR, whereupon a impartial judgement could be reached.
Furthermore, a number of consumers who requested the deadlock letter were not sent them, with EE stating to some that it was not in its policy to issue such documents.
Between July 2011 and February 2014, Orange, 4GEE and T-Mobile customers were not told that they can use its ADR scheme for free.