Three years of complaints failures: EE is fined £1m

EE brand ambassador Kevin Bacon. The network is being taken over by BT

EE, the mobile operator being taken over by BT, has received one of the largest fines ever issued by the telecoms regulator over the way it handled customer complaints for nearly three years.

Ofcom fined EE –which trades under the 4GEE, Orange and T-Mobile brands – £1m for failing to tell certain customers that they could take their complaints to an independent body for free if the matter was not resolved within eight weeks.

The company also failed to inform them about the free alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme in its customer complaints code and on paper bills.

Claudio Pollack at Ofcom said: “It’s vital that customers can access all the information they need when they’re pursuing a complaint … The fine imposed against EE takes account of the serious failings that occurred in the company’s complaints handling, and the extended period over which these took place.”

An EE spokeswoman said: “This fine relates to our historic performance regarding complaints handling, collected from 2011 to April 2014. While this in no way excuses it, it is important to note [we] began to tackle these problems head-on in 2013, before Ofcom started their investigation. We have made considerable improvements since then.”