Chess review: get out clause 41

AVOID CHESS TELECOM - Chess telecom automatically rolled us over on another 24 month contract without our knowledge, failed to keep our account on best price and their customer services are clueless. They also stick a fraud monitor on your bill without asking. They are a greedy company who wont let you switch provider and their terms and conditions are confusing so you are effectively locked in. They stated it would cost over £1500 for us to leave their contract. I will be complaining to CISAS

we are a taxi company and we have been with chess a number of years but i noticed that everytime i took out a cheaper deal with them it was costing us more so i complained and they said we will put you on a even cheaper deal and yet again it was costing more
this company has a lot of hidden charges. i have now gone with another company. I received in the post thiis morning a invoice
for £3, 256.57 if they think for one minute i am going to pay this they can think again i would rather go to court
keep well clear of this company they are a joke so much for loyalty.

After being with 3 trouble free years I temped fate by deciding to move our business to a larger property. I decided to take Chess telecom with me... What a mistake!

I informed my account manager in November that we would be moving in December and would need the line installed in January. It didn't happen until February, which meant our business was un-contactable by phone and all out going calls had to be made on personal mobiles and you can imagine the cost.

Its now May and due to there total incompetence we still don't have a broadband connection (It's been FIVE months!) and have had to use dongles.

We are now in the process of changing supplier but rather than hold there hands up, apologise and learn by the experience, Chess are trying to force us to stay with threating letters and phone calls and trying to extort money out of us for leaving early.

Be warned that if you join chess and decide to move, upgrade, change you level of service or even think of leaving, Chess will make it as painful, slow and costly as possible and try everything to keep you locked in to a contract.
Avoid at all costs!

My experience of Chess was similar to all of these in that I wasn't happy with Chess and wanted to change provider. I was told however that if I left Chess, I would be hit with large 'termination' costs. I pointed out that this was not made clear when i entered into my verbal contract with Chess and was told that their terms and conditions changed in January 2013 but are written on their website. This is clearly a breach of contract. You cannot change the terms of a contract mid-contract without proper notification and the agreement of the other party. The small print on their website does not count. If you find yourself in a similar situation, you need to write to Chess so they have the opportunity to respond. If you are unhappy with their response, request a "Letter of Deadlock" from Chess confirming that the dispute cannot be satisfactorily resolved. This allows you to use CISAS online without delay and fill in the CISAS application form, sending copies of all your dealings with Chess. They have 14 days to respond to this. Chances are, they will back down once Cisas become involved as they did for me. I don't doubt they know they are in the wrong and are really just trying it on.

For the record, we are a Chess reseller and not a disgruntled competitor.

Chess incorrectly invoiced us for substantial sum for a BT service we did not request or authorise.
We advised them before the funds were taken by Direct Debit. Chess refused to suspend the charges pending a BT query which that say can take months!

We disputed this for weeks after the funds were taken without our permission, and Chess argued that BT claim the charge will stand even though we have full evidence to suggest they are wrong and Chess have seen this. We continued the dispute until we had enough. We advised Chess that we are recovering the funds using the Direct Debit Guarantee. We did this and the Banks agreed thus refunding us. We advised Chess that the excess that the DD guarantee give us will be refunded back to them with 30 days.

A few days later (Friday 12th July), at 9:30am, we received a threatening letter from Chess. They advised us that, as on IMMEDIATELY, our contract was breached due to lack of payment and that all of our customers including lots of local businesses, schools, charities, would be seized by Chess as their customers and that if we did not sign and agree within 24 hours we would basically be cut off. All of our customers would then suffer.

We contacted a Solicitor who noted that Chess had failed to follow their own dispute procedure as it clearly stated in our contract saying that any disputed charges over 10% of the total invoice (which our was) would NOT be taken until the dispute resolved. We argued with them for the day regarding this but they would not budge leaving us feeling sick that our customers would either be stolen by them of if we didn't sign, be cut off.

We wasted a full day trading due to this this threat until 4:30pm, the Managing Director changed his tune and retracted the threat which will be published soon on our FB page. (This MD had refused my calls all day and his email replies where extremely blunt even though the contract was shown to him showing clearly that Chess were wrong)

Then later, we had been intentionally blocked from our portal by Chess and were unable to deal with a customer problem, Chess refused to grant us access, demanding full payment for the difference of the DD guarantee amount. I told them that the money under the DD guarantee had been issued to us by our Bank and that it had NOT left the Chess account. Even so, Chess wanted all this money before re-instating our account! They basically wanted the money x2 Again, I argued and also sought legal advice relating to the DD guarantee and again Chess backed off and gave us our access back

We have now received a threat to terminate our service by the Financial Director demanding the payment even though nothing has been taken from Chess, and even though the MD had already agreed to accept the payment by the 22nd of the month (the day the bank taken the money from Chess). We advised him we are seeking legal action against Chess, again they have backed off.

BULLY BOY TACTICS...!

As a small Telecom Company, we put our trust in Chess telecom, and put the service of our customers in their hands. BIG MISTAKE.

We will be moving our valued customer to a ‘safer place’. Onward and upwards as they say.

Shame on you Chess..!

If you are a reseller past or present and been threatened by Chess with a letter of lien, the help others by leaving your own, honest review here.

I was a residential customer with Isrighthere Ltd who recently sold the contract for Broadband, phone and TV services in my building to Chess Telecom, we were then told that Chess don't offer TV services but we could continue to pay the same price to only receive Broadband and phone. At this point I contacted Chess to inform them that I did not want to receive any service from them and would be cancelling the original agreement on the date that they no longer offered the services I had contracted for (24/6/13), they were very nice and said that this was no problem, they did not at any time mention a charge to do so. As I had never signed a contract or Direct Debit agreement with them I expected there to be no further issue, however I checked my bank account the following month and found that they had taken a charge of £425.56 on 24/7/13 so immediately rang them, all I got was standard waffle about cancellation charges despite telling them that I had never had a contract with them and they were not entitled to take a DD without my permission. The end result is that I have had to claim the money back through my bank, Santander (who were brilliant about it) and am now in the process of lodging formal complaints with OFCOM and Direct Debit about the way this company is happy to unlawfully charge people who aren't even their customers.
I would not touch this company with a barge pole and would certainly not risk doing any kind of business with them.

Chess Telecom - Stay Away

Customer service ive never experienced anything like rude and arrogant.

I left my service provider of 6 yrs BT of whom i was happy with In Jan 2013 as i was told by the sales agent from Chess Telecom they could offer me the same service but for a lower price and having lost my job as a mortgage adviser and losing my partner in June 2012 aged 42 i was looking to save money as i had my 10 yr old daughter to take care of the switch was the worst decision of my life the first monthly bill was 25% above what i paid at BT and with their terrible customer service i switched back to BT.

Since then they have taken me to court for breaking contract and i now have bailiffs chasing me for £3.500 how companies like this are allowed to trade is a disgrace, STAY WELL CLEAR.

Avoid this chess telecoms at all cost! Terrible, terrible service. After completely mis-selling us a set of business numbers, with hidden fees galore, and no contract, they made it almost impossible to cancel the numbers. The staff were rude and unhelpful ( apart from the final guy who actually cancelled our numbers) and they will charge you of anything and everything without disclosing any of this information up front.
Avoid at all costs.

im the manager of carssoldquick.com
i signed up with chesstelcom in june, from day one i was unable to teceive incoming calls, also the call divert wasnt working, after being told day after day, that they trying to resolve the problem, the situation is still the same.
customers cant get through, and it costing me £500 a day, this has been the case for eight weeks,
i feel like killing myself, im about to lose my business, quite possible my mortage.

If you are reading this, while thinking of going with chess

BELIVE ME YOU WILL REGRET IT

NO ONE SHOULD SIGN UP WITH THIS COMPANY AT ANY COST

They give My private data to 3rd party companies

when you signup a for a service with them obviously they do a credit check on you.
I had some financial problems, now I am clear but its not the case.
so they never told me I have a bad credit score, they never refuse me a service and I become their customer.

in next 3 days I recieved plenty of mail from debt collectors to my new home address, later also phone calls including my mobile.

If they are not happy with my credit score they should refuse me a service.
but NO chess telecom give My private data god knows where !
YOU JUST DON'T DO THAT TO YOUR CUSTOMERS

I was so angry, of course it was impossible to cancel the contract !
I spend over two weeks to do so ...

ZERO CONFIDENTIALITY
AND £30 FEE FOR LATE PAYMET ?

We had the same problems please avoid this company!
- They charge nasty termination fees
- We even caught them stealing money with the direct debit, when we called them and asked for the explanation for the high bill they gave us a £42 refund after we questioned it.
- They lied too many times
- Really bad customer service.
- Their phone number is 0845
- We even had a whole week without Internet.
- They charge a stupid £125 for an engineer to come out.

As a long standing Chess customer, I would advise people to stay well clear of this company. It's not as cheap as they make out by a long way, and when you try and leave it costs hundreds and hundreds and a bit more in termination/admin costs. Talking with them, yes they are incredibly arrogant, patronising and sanctimonious. Daylight robbery.

Have received email from Chess after I asked for a break down of their charges, I don't think 'Admin' on the end of everything is acceptable. They stated:- "Administration fee is chargeable regardless of whether the account is in contract or not." So in essence they will charge you after your contract has ended and you seek a better deal else where. Save yourself a big expensive headache and shop around you will find a better deal and be tied in with endless clauses.

I have been a long standing customer with Chess, but after dealing with them today 15.07.14 and doubling the amount coming
out of my account each month, have decided to cancel my Direct Debit with them, so they cannot get hold of anymore of my funds!
Have tried to speaking to the invoice department, to get it sorted out, they are not fair to deal with, & I would highly recommend others, not to have an account with these people!
Basically if I had to sum up the ethics involved, I would say they are immoral & should not be able to run a business!
Keep well clear!
P.S. Also offering up much cheaper rate on the website, than they offer to a long standing customer!

Sherry

I'm The Director of a cost management company and as such i am always looking at products to help my customer base save money. I have one customer who has now left Chess but we find ourselves in dispute with them. They are wanting £150 from my client who has switched away even though her contract has ended. They say these charges are for not adhering to the Terms and conditions and not being allowed to activate their "Never Beaten On Price Promise" What a joke!1 I got my customer unlimited everything for £24.95 inc BB. Anyway The customers husband used to deal with all of these things but has had a massive stroke and is unable to communicate even so Chess are threatening to take my customer to court. What sort of company does that.?

You Have Been warned!

BE WARNED what a an appalling company with there threatening bully boy tactics. My contract is at an end and I am still receiving invoices from them. BE WARNED you cannot seem to stop them threatening with invoice after invoice. The faceless directors should be ashamed of there company and the tactics they use. BE WARNED never trust what they say, make sure you keep a record of the conversation with them, who said what when etc etc as this is good information when you go to court. Yes you can use your general note taking in a court, you don't have be have correct spelling.
I am at the end with this company... Thank heavens I am with a real company now I never want to hear there name or have anything to do with them again so please please BE WARNED this company employs liar's, con artists and the good old bully boy tactic's... Good buy Chess and good riddance

Probably the worst company ever!

Terrible (non existent) customer service after being customers for a couple of years. Increased our phones charges 20+ fold overnight without warning and racked us up £1500 in charges and ultimately termination charges. We lost all our 0800 and 0870 we have for our business. From £5 average per month to nearly £200 one month!

They lost when they tried to pursue it in County Court. The judge said at one point 'It sounds like a license to print money' and at the end concluded that it was such a fundamental change, that it was tantamount to being a new contract. Dismissed their claim and offered us our cost which we declined.

Don't go near Chess. It doesn't seem I'm the only one. Another business has just sent me their email for Chess claiming £1000+ when they gave 30 days notice to cancel their 'least cost routing' provided by Chess over a BT phone line. This was supposed to save them money! Between BT & Chess, they were overpaying by £40/£50pm compared to others in the market. By moving their BT phone and broadband to save £20/£30pm, they got this £1000+ bill from Chess Telecom as they said they had a 5 year (verbal) contract!

This business is a woman who used to work from home, made £100pw if she was lucky and is now on benefits.

I have a small business and ever since we moved to chess it's one problem after another, my costs have tripled from what we agreed, they have the recordings and have denied it all in blatant fashion. It's come to an extent where i told them, i will no longer pay their bills as the charges are in breach of the original contract we agreed.

I will make sure no one will ever use chess in my location again after this.

Bully boys, pure & simple!

Much the same as the other problems in this thread, but in our case they're refusing to transfer our domain, therefore I have lost the email addresses that we have had for over 16 years. We have just filed a County Court Claim against them for loss of revenue. We'll keep you posted.

"We are small business in South Wales.

We have signed up with the predecessor of Chess Telecom (Select Calls) 3 years ago. During the signup our understanding was that we signed up for 2 years. It appears now that we have been conned into a 5 year contract against our wishes. We are investing how that could have happened. Select Calls at the time has not sent a contract or terms and conditions to which we supposedly signed up.

In the years before, Chess Telecom added a "Wholesale Fraud Monitor" monthly charge without our knowledge/request/permission, a year later they added a "Line Assurance" monthly charge, again without knowledge/request/permission. Both charges were announced on the invoice in areas that either usually was used for their advertisement or just below the “how to pay” section. Both were not marked as changes to the contract or upcoming additional charges.

Please make sure you do NOT sign up with this bunch.

We submitted a formal complaint to Ofcom.

I have had most of the same issues with Chess Telecom. Promised so much but delivered very little. Namely:
*Ended up each month paying more than my previous provider.
*Tried to price match but always stated it was not applicable to price match without any definitive reason.
*Long period without any service which they refused to correct..
*Large cancellation fee which I have to pay though none of this was mentioned up front.
*Would not provide any information about conversations held and emails sent which I had no recollection or had received.
*Promised a cash incentive to the person who introduced me and never paid them.
From the threads it looks like this company buys small existing suppliers and then provides poor service to induce lucrative termination fees.
Like all the rest on here, stay well away.
ps Come on Offcom, get this company to shape up or pull the plug.

We tried to leave Chess and they said we owed them approx £1, 500 for contract termination which they said was in the contract. We used a solicitor who effectively said see you in court. Chess backed down and resulted in no additional costs. Chess are a horrible lot, unfriendly bunch of cowboys and sharks eventually they will be found out and go out of business as you can't run a long-term successful company with shady practices like that.

I am seeking copies of Chess Telecoms previous terms and conditions for years from 2013 to 2016 as I am in legal battle with them in connection with their extortionate charges and devious tactics. They are a huge company making profits in excess of £6.5 million. using their economic power to swindle people who can least afford it, using cleverly worded, lawyer drafted contracts, which I believe should be challenged under the UCTA 1977, Consumer Rights Act 2015 and other legislation. Chess change their terms & conditions to cover themselves when needed and refuse to provide copies of previous terms & conditions under which the people they ultimately sting financially actually contracted. So, if anyone has a copy of any such previous Terms & Conditions, please let me know. Thanks for reading and any help in advance.

At the end of a 12 months contract, Ches just put us on a tariff at double the costs. I will be moving the account to another provider who is not such a riff-off supplier

AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID CHESS TELECOM, LIERS AND CROOKS!
We were moving premise and our contract had about a year to run, we asked how much it would be to leave them as we had found a cheaper supplier for our new premise, they quotes £400, we duly gave notice under the terms of the contract and received a demand for £3000 for early termination quoting " we made a mistake with the original termination fee, however if you stay with us we will write off the £3000" I didn't take well to this blatant blackmail attempt and immediately terminated the contract, eventually it got to court and we proved that Chess had deliberately falsified the termination dates in order to increase the termination fees, these people are CROOKS HIDING BEHIND CLEVER CONTRACTS AND LAWYERS AVOID AVOID AVOID!..

Hi,
I have 2 x verbal contracts, 3500 and 4500.

I missed the county court, and now it has been enforced in the high court by the bailiffs.

Any help or recommendation on this matter would be greatly welcomed, as it seems many customers did not get the service originally promised or stated,

Best Regards.
Joao

Ask them to send me a copy of the rate increase and they said could not

100% increase without notice or explanation

Will not send a breakdown of the charges

Unbeleivable Bad Customer Service
Please do not enter into a contract with Chess ICT
Unbelievable bad customer service, give you the run around
Overcharge on the invoices sent, promise credit notes which never arrive
Do not keep promises made to you when agreeing a contract
Corporate Solutions Account Manager visit you make promises, then do not keep them
Make it so hard to get out of a contract that they hope you give up and stay with them
A company to run a mile from

They forged my signature dded me to another five year plan because it was a civil case and i had my signature looked at by a forensic scientist, who agreed that the signature was not mine hence forged.. i lost the case and paid them 2900 in put blood. I am going to take this to a criminal court now and sue their arses off! complete holligans and don't deserve to be in business.

AVOID AVOID AVOID VERY DISHONEST COMPANY They have only ever dealt with me by phone NEVER SEEN A CONTRACT FROM THEM I have been a customer of chess for a number of years their customer service is non existent never answer the phone only way to get a phone answered by chess is to ring their sales team where they try to sell you some other deal . The premises I rent are on a 12 month basis so I would not have agreed to a 5 year contract WITH CHESS which they now say I am in NOT SIGNED OR SEEN and they want £ 3000 ternimation fee as I have to leave my premises .AT THE END OF THE LEASE
IS there a solicitor out there that could take a group action defending ex CHESS CUSTOMERS

I have been a Chess customer for many years, but have now closed my business so I do not need their services anymore.

I couldn't work out how to pay the final £113 balance as their systems seem to need invoice numbers etc in order to pay.

I sent my telephone number TWICE to a named employee in order for him to call me to take payment.

He never called - but did find time to send a what I regard as threatening message saying that they would feed me to their debt collection agency who would be 'very vigorous' in their approach to me.

You don't talk to long term customers on this way .. especially if you haven't bothered to read emails offering to pay.

Nasty, nasty people.