EE to refund customers £1 million after overcharging VAT

Customers of UK mobile operator EE are to receive a share of around £1 million after they were wrongly charged VAT. Those who happened to be outside the EU and used data on their plans between October 2012 and October 2014 were affected by a "billing system error." It's reported that 0.5 percent of EE customers were overcharged.

EE has informed the BBC that the money received was sent directly to Revenue & Customs, and that refunds will be between £2 to £80 per affected customer. Spokesman David Nieberg explained the error:

"Due to a configuration error in our billing system, made following a system change, a small number of customers were wrongly charged VAT on the Data Roaming bundle outside of Europe. This was a mistake, and we are now refunding these charges and contacting affected customers to apologise for the error."

The money has been claimed back from HMRC. Meanwhile, those who were overcharged will receive an SMS stating the amount that will be returned. Refunds will be in the form of account credit, not cash.

Source: BBC

Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.