Unicom Complaints

billsavings

See: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3578981

Pixarstem

'What happens if you don't pay?'
The thread named ‘I am being pressured by a debt collection agency’ on the ‘cleardebt’ site gives good information about Unicom's 'collection strategies' if people don't or can't pay. If you type 'cleardebt Unicom' in Google it will find it. Remember that if you receive a 'Notice of Court Proceedings' without a court stamp then it is not a court document. It is a tactic that some companies use to put pressure on people to 'pay up'.

I have read of quite a few instances where people have received 'draft' court letters from Unicom but I am not aware of any that have been actually listed.

Can I go to Ofcom?
Yes - you can make a complaint to Ofcom 0300 123 3333 at any time and they will record the complaint to monitor the company. Ofcom do not take on individual cases but they can offer you advice about what Unicom can or can't do.

Ofcom will probably refer you to the Ombudsman Services 0330 440 1614who can deal with your case but only after 8 weeks have elapsed since you made a complaint to Unicom or if they send you a deadlock letter. Whichever comes first.

Hope this helps - I am no expert - I am using information I have gathered from other sites.

GTS

Hi all,

The issue with Unicom has been resolved with them backing down from perusing their unreasonable termination charges. Instead of demanding £1061.82 they settled on £20.84 covering land line calls & service charges.

I am finally free of the choking hold that Unicom has had over me for the past 6 years. I would recommend anybody else having the same problem I did to write to them, mentioning the Ombudsman, local MP & watch dog.

A special thanks to Pixarstem, the valuable advice provided by your self helped me beat them.

horses007

In December my friend let his business out in order to take time off due to health issues. The new tenants have in essence taken over the remainder of the contract. That was that, or so my friend thought. To cut a very long story short, and many demanding letters from Unicom later, they have now said they are taking him to court for £1376 which comprises a lot of interest, line rental and expected call costs ( which I am totally stunned how a company can charge for costs not yet incurred). My friend is at the end of his tether. He spoke to Unicom today to try and resolve this matter - he offered a goodwill payment but said that he felt it was unfair to pay the expected call cost charges. They werent having any of it and finally agreed that he could pay the full balance over 10 months or a reduced balance of £750 over 3 months. He said he would get back to them and then promptly phoned OFCOM who advised phoning the ombudsmen. He has been advised to complain at the highest level which he is going to do. What was unbelievable was that during an earlier telephone call to unicom he asked for copies of the T & Cs and details of the renewal and was told they were not prepared to send anything further out to him. How unprofessional. can anyone help or offer any other advice as to how to deal with these [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]?

Buzby

Was te business a limited company, or a sole trader? The firm alays make a termination charge, and you cannot claim you are not liable because a person on te phone forgot to mention it. You are only liable if it appears in the T&Cs you agreed to.

jecsow

I have an ongoing issue with UNICOM at the moment.
I was harassed into switching in Dec 11 and still trying to unravel everything in 4 months of going back and forth.
I have researched complaints about them through OFCOM and they are still behaving in a way they promised they would desist from.
They insist on trying to resolve the complaint on the phone but because I dont trust them said we would not talk anymore and I wanted them to answer my complaints in letter form or email.
I feel like a silly old lady sold snake oil on my doorstep.
But the salesman are very good at hassling you and diverting you from asking the correct questions.
As to their claims that BT's termination charges are made up and can't be charged and they will help you dispute them is utter fairytale. BT don't issue their charges within your cooling off period.
Leaving you with ridiculous termination charges from BT then stuck in a contract you would have cancelled had you had to pay the ridick charges to BT.
JUST DONT SWITCH...Don't sign any contract with anyone (BT had me in one for 5 years in a premises that i only had a 1 year lease on!!!) that ties you in for longer than a year even if you pay a little bit more.
And as for rolling contracts they shouldn't be legal.
Any help or advice is much appreciated

mltburford

Does anyone know any reason why unicom could cancel a transfer to a another provider without the customers permission?

Pixarstem

‘Slamming’ is a form of mis-selling where you’re switched from one company to another without your knowledge or consent.
In some cases, you might only be aware of this once you’ve received a bill from a different company.
Slamming is unacceptable and Ofcom has introduced tough new rules to clamp down on this problem.
Telecoms firms found breaching our rules can now face fines of up to 10 per cent of their turnover.'

The full version can be found on the Ofcom site under the heading 'Unauthorised change of provider (Slamming)'

SmallprintVictim

I recently had to move house, someone had made an offer to my landlord for the home we had rented for 6 years(ish), I contacted all my utility suppliers to request my final bill, Electric,Broad Band and Water company all gave fantastic service in these matters and one company (E-ON) refunded us some money overpaid on direct debit very promptly which was very welcome as moving home always costs. Unicom however were not fantastic, they had a nasty sting in thier tail.

I had been a Unicom customer for 6 years,They agreed to terminate my contract but are demanding (approx) £200 or £185 or £130 or £1200 (yes £1200) depending on which letter you take thier final figure from, They sent 6 letters to my previous address in 5 days (in addition they also noted in one letter that i had already declined an offer of (approx) £150 by telephone). Worryingly the £1200 offer letter arrived on the 5th day.

Lots of people signed PPI contracts, they were proven to be mis-sold,And now the money is being refunded to its rightful owners.

Just because we signed the contracts with Unicom doesent mean they were sold fairly,
I dont believe anyone who signed up at the time thought....
"Hey i get a massive exit headache when i leave this company and they get to take lots of extra money off me for no other apparant reason than "it's in the contract (clause 8.1) which Unicom didnt think i would see as important as the Line rental costs so they stuck it in small print in the midst of lots of other small print on a seperate page.....Was it explained properly at the point of Sale/Signing, Obviously not because i would absoutly would not have signed.

If Offcom have banned future 3 year rolling contracts from December 2012 but have decieded that customers who got caught out earlier than this just have to accept it, Its time to seek Justice from the Courts.

I hope they take some cases to Court,I hope they lose,I hope when the current PPI work starts to run out for these Law firms a few of them switch their focus to the hard working people who have payed up to Unicom because they were scared of the consequences and i hope they get all of thier money refunded with an apology, interest and compensation.

The key is to be able to reach enough previous victims and collate some examples, I am a member of one of Britain's biggest unions which as well as giving me the oppertunity to reach 270,000 members to ask if anyone now or previosly has had a similar bad experiance with Unicom\Universal Utilites, It also allows me free access to legal advice from Experts within the union and real Laywers.

LeeS69

Anyway the latest situation is we have signed up for a new phone line with Zen to move over to and stop making calls. I spoke to [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] and specifically asked if there was a minimum spend on the contract, he stated in no uncertain terms that there wasn't.

I spoke to a different robot yesterday and told her we didn't want to cancel (my brother had another moment on the phone and told them he didn't want anything to do with them so they sent a termination fee of almost £900 out) as we wouldn't be using the line any more.

She then tells me that's in breach of the contract, we had agreed to line rental and call charges. So I said fine, we'll make one call a month then (at the same time she admits there is no minimum spend), she says that's not acceptable. So no minimum spend on the contract but we have to make calls?

[TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]