Unicom Complaints

Another victim here. OH is a sole trader and agreed to see a field rep for Unicom, who examined a copy of the latest bill at the time, and assured OH he could make a saving by switching. By many standards we're not talking megabucks, but for a very small business in these times any reduction in costs helps, and the saving quoted represented about 20% of the total of that bill.

There were no issues with the existing provider's service. The only reason to change was if costs could be reduced -- and unfortunately OH believed the guy's assurances and signed a 3-yr contract. I wish he'd asked me to look into Unicom first, as it won't be easy to absorb what now look like ongoing extra costs. ("If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is". Yes indeed.)

Bills so far have been substantially higher. They were given the benefit of the doubt with the first one as it covered more than a typical charging period.

The second was higher and OH then phoned, raising the point about the saving he'd been quoted based on the previous provider's example bill. It became clear they had a copy of this (rep must have taken it away with him), so the CSR was able to compare it with their own second bill.

The reason for the increase -- the only one given -- was that OH had made more calls than was the case with the previous example bill. At the time, having not compared them in detail (except obviously that theirs was a good deal higher than the other overall), he wasn't able to really refute this, but expressed his dissatisfaction nevertheless.

The next was higher again, so it was time to try and analyse the two which had been discussed during his earlier conversation -- Unicom's second bill against the example the rep had seen -- to test the accuracy of their contention that there were more calls and/or more time spent on calls. Not a quick job, as first every call was put into a spreadsheet to tot up h:mm:ss as well as break down costs between different call types (previous provider summarised all this on their invoices, whereas Unicom don't).

As far as I've now been able to work out, their claim was wrong in all areas of call-charging except one -- calling mobiles accounted for more time than on the example bill. For everything else (the vast majority) and overall, Unicom's bill was for less time and many fewer calls, yet it was well on the way to being 50% higher than the example from the previous provider. So much for saving 20%!

What to do? Reading what I have now, I've a very bad feeling about this in terms of either challenging or possibly extricating ourselves...

I use to have my own shop, but due to the economy and family health problems I used my 3 year get out clause and closed the end of August. I had changed the shop phone line over to Unicom a very pushy (good) rep talked me into it. This was a big mistake, I informed them that the business was closing giving them more time then the contract said. A couple of weeks before I closed they contacted me and said that they would need a solicitors letter as proof. I told them that I had not got the time and was not paying for a solicitors letter, but emailed them a copy of my notice to quit which was signed by me and my landlords. They are now saying that they want the rest of my contract paying which is over £800, I've told them no, I had given them evidence that the shop closed, it is no longer trading. But they are now saying that they have sent it to a debt collecting agency. Please advise.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3578981&highlight=unicom

Unicom. Why am I not surprised by the content of the OP?

Be fair - closing a business doesn't mean you can cancel any contracts scot free!