Unicom Complaints

Lsc1

I have been caught in the Unicom trap for 7 years. It is thankfully coming to an end but I would just like to tell anyone out there to NEVER EVER EVER go with them, because they are sneaky. I was on one of their notorious rolling contracts and I am still convinced they made me stay with them for one more year than I ought to have been. For anyone who is with them, I would say it is very hard to leave, sit tight, pay the bills and run as fast as you can as soon as the chance is available...and never look back. Horrible company and I hate to say it, some very patronising rude staff.

pink_knickers

I closed my business in July, My contract wasnt due to end until april 14, but due to poor sales i closed this (my only business) they are hounding me for fees due to early termination of £212.00 the asked for a solicitors letter to say i have ceased trading which i did, only to have a very rude phone call to say the letter did not suffice a it did not say i have ceased trading in all capassities(sorry poor spelling) is there anybody had the same treatment ? i have now been sent a letter from thier debt collection agency

macman

But ceasing to trade does not void your contract without penalty. You'd have to put the business into administration and go through the process of proving that the debt cannot be paid.

Pixarstem

Hi Pink Knickers,
Yes - I can tell you that many many people have had the same treatment and worse. They have received [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] and have even received letters that state 'Should you file a defence with the Court, we will apply to have it struck out'. But we have never heard that anyone has actually been taken to Court. Ever.
I have sent you a Private Message. Please check you inbox.

JPR_SNAKE

We was due to move house and they told us there was no BT line there and had to pay £99.99 connection fee,which they took from our account,i have just spoke to BT and they told us that Unicom or anyone else would not be able to access that info and thus told us a lie to get that money.We have cancelled our dd with them and told them we want our contract to end NOW and our money back,he said they didnt want to loose us as a customer and a customer service person will ring me in the morning to try and sort it out......Guess what im going to say...Give us our money back and cancel our contract at once.....Wach for my outcome and beware DO NOT sign up [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

rickysaving

JPR_SNAKE wrote: »

We was due to move house and they told us there was no BT line there and had to pay £99.99 connection fee,which they took from our account,i have just spoke to BT and they told us that Unicom or anyone else would not be able to access that info and thus told us a lie to get that money.We have cancelled our dd with them and told them we want our contract to end NOW and our money back,he said they didnt want to loose us as a customer and a customer service person will ring me in the morning to try and sort it out......Guess what im going to say...Give us our money back and cancel our contract at once.....Wach for my outcome and beware [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

i wouldnt know how BT would be able to state that Unicom or any other provider wouldnt have access to that... they all use Openreach who would know what services can be done at the properties... if a restart was available it would of been done via Openreach it does sound like a new install was done in ur case. was there already a active line at the property? did you tell the provider that?

rachel782

Please help!

I signed up to a contract in Sept 2012, I registered my concern at the 3 year contract as we were thinking of selling the business at that time and didn’t want to commit to such a long contract with such high termination fees. The salesman said that I could always transfer the account and by doing so wouldn’t be liable for the fees. I understood that this meant that I could get the new owner of the premises to sign up to continue the contract and would be able to escape the charges. It doesn’t mean that however, in order to avoid fees I would have to transfer to another account in my name.

This miscommunication should have been cleared up when I called Unicom in Aug 2013 to explain that I was selling the business, wanted to transfer the account to the new owner, and asked how i could do this most efficiently – did I need to put notice in writing etc. The person on the phone advised that I keep my line rental till it is switched over. I ceased trading on 1st Sept 2013 and called Unicom to explain this but until the new owner moved in fully we had agreed to pay line rental in order to keep the account up to date. I called twice in Oct and twice in Nov 2013 to make sure the line rentals were being paid – by this stage all accounts for the business were wrapping up and DD’s cancelled so I was paying by card over the phone. The new owner moved in fully on 20th November 2013 and I expected to get a bill for a partial month line rental as he had begun his payments from that date.

On each of the six occasions I rang I spoke to a different person and explained the situation fully. At no point did anyone advise that the course of action I was taking would not in fact absolve me of the termination fees. Nor did they enquire why I was paying the additional line rental for a business that I had sold when what I should have been doing was paying termination fees.

As soon as the new owner took up his contract, I started to get threatening calls and received a bill for £407.31 – which including itemisation and billing charges took my total debt to £412.11.

Accepting that I had misunderstood the initial contract regarding termination fees, I feel I was [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM], by six different Unicom staff members. I received a seventh call on 28th Nov 2013, when I was finally told that I was still liable for termination fees. The customer service manners changed very quickly to rudeness and threats of the reduced offers being withheld unless I paid immediately. I was once put on hold mid-sentence when I was explaining my side of the problem.

Today I have spoken to a credit control manager, [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM], who has offered me a 20% reduction on the bill after 45 minutes of discussion (during which he more or less accused me of lying about the date my business closed) but he stated that I would have to pay today or the offer would be withdrawn.

Is there any point taking this up with OTELO or taking any other action? Or should I just accept their offer? Help!

Shepp16

Having had a trouble free 3 years with Unicom, I no longer needed the business line.
I cancelled with 3 months advanced notice as requested by contract. Cancellation of service was for 28th Sept 2013.
As my line rental was paid until 30th Sept in advance, I cancelled the direct debit.
The physical wire pair was taken over from the exchange by a BT domestic service with a new number.
On 1st Oct 2013 it was brought to my attention that my Unicom number was still ringing out. I called Unicom and they said that the line was left running as a service to me in case I wanted to migrate the number. They said it would take another 14 days to cancel the line. It stopped ringing the same day.
In early Oct 2013, I received notice that Unicom could not take £19.20 DD payment for line rental Oct 1 to Oct 31st. Even though the line contract was cancelled from 28th Sept with 3 months notice by registered mail, they still advanced billed for October. I had many calls, texts and e-mails requesting payment which I refused as I did not owe them. Eventually Unicom admitted that I only owed them £10 for line rental until 15th Oct, even though the line was disconnected and my contract with them expired on 28th Sept.
In November 2013, after many more threats I decided to pay over the phone the sum of £10 as I was wasting many valuable man hours arguing with people that were just not listening, some were even obnoxious, rude and shouted me down over the phone. They actually took £10.30 including a card payment fee that nobody mentioned to me.
Since then I have had to call many times to ask them to stop messaging and texting me to pay £9.20 that all parties acknowledge I do not owe.
It was explained that these were automatically generated and that they could not stop it. I have exhausted Unicom’s complaints procedure, they simply don’t care and don’t even acknowledge receipt of registered mail.
After Christmas 2013 I received posted notification that my £9.20 debt was to be given to debt collectors at my cost on 30th Dec 2013 unless I paid £9.20. I called again and was told to ignore the letter.
Today, 13th Jan 2014 I have a received notification of a County Court date for 27th Jan 2014. I called and was told to ignore the letter. I was shouted down by the man on the phone, he kept asking why I was calling as I had already been told to ignore the letters.
I suppose when I get a CCJ for an unpaid £9.20 I should ignore that too? They have openly said that their system is unstoppable, how do I know that they won’t take it to court?
I have once again e-mailed the Unicom complaints dept, asking them to cease this, to confirm to me that the action has been ceased and that I owe nothing. I do not expect to hear anything from them. In my mail I have asked for details of the court to be used and time as I would contest with evidence it if gets that far. I have also made it clear that any CCJ resulting from this action will result in a damages suit against Unicom.

It has staggered me how much time and effort has been put in to recover £9.20 by very aggressive methods. £9.20 that I do not owe. As far as I’m concerned I’ve already overpaid £10 against my principals to end this debacle.
It’s not the money here, it’s principals. I will drive 200 miles to Manchester to attend court to contest £9.20, [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

Clarkie15

Avoid UniCom like the plague!
In my experience they can't deliver and threaten additional costs (not contractual) when you say not thanks.

And luckily this line wasn't even installed !

Richyblu

I spoke to Unicom Customer Services about a week ago and was advised that it would cost me about £215.00 to cancel a contract that had 26 months to run.
Had a think about it and decided to take the hit.
When i called back today and cancelled the contract i was told that it would be nearer £500.00
£50.00 cancellation fee, 30% of remaining standing charges (£13.99 per month) and 30% of projected call costs. My call costs have averaged just £7.00 a month for the year that i have been with Unicom so it' seems reasonable that would be the figure from which projected call costs would be calculated.
Today i was told that they would be using a figure of £40.00 for projected monthly call charges!?
I'm absolutely livid.
Has anyone else had this experience? Or can anyone advise me what course of action to take? I don't mind paying to terminate a contract but this seems like a total !!!!-take...