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Cathedral Hygiene Tamworth Staffordshire - complete con artists! Duped into a contract with them, hidden charges, terrible customer service, absolute nightmare to deal with. Don't use them at any cost!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Got tricked into signing for 5 years which we would never have done if we had realised-thats longer than the lease on our shop! A saleswoman calls and you are led to believe you can cancel at any time, however in the small print you are signing for 5 years. There is a paragraph in the inside cover of the contract that warns you to check the length of the contract, but you dont naturally check there while talking to the saleswoman. I was contacted by these people and told that they are a local family run business and everything was very cosy, I was then told that legally I need to use a professional company like them for my waste. When she visited it was all very rushed. Then once we signed we started to get bombarded with bills and threatening letters within the first month as I hadnt realised all payments are in advance. They are not very nice at all to deal with, and the operative who comes out to empty the bin is a bit of a know it all who gets in the way of the staff working. So I rang to cancel and was told it would cost me over £1500 to cancel as I was signed for 5 years! I can only advise you to avoid these at all costs! I wish I had.
It used to be photo copier companies that duped companies into 5 year lease agreements with automatic roll over of the contract
do not use this company at any cost
Cathedral Hygiene are liars and cheats without a doubt, con artists. I feel sorry for anyone who works for them. Thank you guys for all the above help I'm writing back to them today. I have had this company up to my neck and every day another argument. And now I see the light...Never again.
We were tricked into this lie as well!
Now we're stuck for five years! Paying for a sanitary bin that we don't even need or use! This is the cheapest thing that they do though. We literally want nothing they offer!
They Lie! They Scam! STAY CLEAR OF THIS COMPANY!
I totally agree with everything that has been said above about this company - it is all true. The lie about contracts, roll overs, fees etc. The final straw was when I tried to pay by debit card and they wanted to charge a fee which is 4 times more than they pay. Avoid at all costs there are plenty of other companies out there which do not have to use underhand tactics to get you signed up. The way they chase money and company practices makes me wonder if they are in trouble
We have currently experienced the same problem - signed a 12 month contract, 13 months in the only last who worked here has left and we want to terminate the contract. We told the rep who told us the contract had already rolled over for another 12 months so we have no option but to continue - she was invited back in when I was in the office and told me that the contract had rolled over THAT DAY! She then sends me the contract which shows its not due to roll-over until next week - but I have still missed the three-month notice period. Blinking hell! Going to cancel the direct debits and see what they do.
We've had exactly the same issue with this company, now we are going through some financial hardship due to illness, I can see this is going to be fun! We already know they are a terrible company but I just wish they would hurry up and go out of business.
i had had a sales rep come out as i only have a shop lease for a year i agreed a years lease i have paid in full and still have on till 17 june left today i phoned to give 3 months notice and they say its a 5 year contract why would i take a 5 year one when i would only be trading for 1 year i now have to pay £560 to get out off the contact the sales rep was supposed to contact me but as you can guess he as not with all these comments on here it seems that they are out to con people it also gives me more information to give to trading standers
Just to add, as stated above by adeje14, I have just emailed them quoting section 10.1 of the agreement and the consumer credit act and they have immediately replied accepting the cancellation. You must be over 18 months in, and probably need to spend less than the £1500 a year CCA limit set out in section 101(7)(a).
Stan Graham - we too only found out about the 5 year contract when Cathedral demanded nearly £6000 after a few late payments, trading has been extremely hard this year. We are now up to date with payments although desperate to break free from this horrible company. Can someone please advise how we can get out of a 5 year contract with this cowboy outfit? and I put Cowboy outfit mildly! We are a small family run business. Anyone in there right mind would never knowingly sign a 5 year contract without being duped.
Avoid at all costs
I am now free of this company after signing what i thought was a 1 year contract only to discover it was actually a 5 year contract. I complained but to no avail. They have even tried to roll over this contract for another 5 years stating i should have given them 3 months notice i pointed out i had not signed anything only for them to say it automatically gets rolled over. I am now free from this shambles of a company after having to pay them £70. Please avoid these con merchants and hopefully they will get what they deserve and go out of business
Buyer Beware
Be very careful when signing up to a contract. They told us it was 2 years and it actually says 2020! 5 years.
Also we were 1 month late on payments and they issued breached of contract and demanded the full amount!
COWBOYS!
Cathedral Hygiene are complete con artists... do not use! There's plenty of places much cheaper anyway! They are really sly... they tried to trick us into signing another 5 year deal by saying no the contract isn't up for renewal they're just updating paperwork and tried to get a fast signature. Thankfully I don't sign anything before reading and had the original paperwork. It's just under six years they tied us in for back in July 2010... we paid in May, they renewed the contract early in mid-July but the new term doesn't start until the old one ends apparently but they didn't tell us this or put a commencement date on the contract and we only found out we're tied in for another 10 months at end of contract. I told them their contract states “The hiring commences on the Start Date shown or if none is shown then on delivery of the equipment”. They said yes the 60 months have passed but you signed up to 5 annual installments and you've just made the 5th they'll let us out contract but not refund the annual amount (£600+) we just paid... I also told them to please note that we are a Partnership and not a Limited company and as you are a leasing company the Consumer Credit Act states that as a consumer we can “cancel a hire agreement and return the goods within 18 months”, so holding us to June 2016 does not apply to us. Apparently this only applies if you are a partnership with less than 4 partners then you can get out of it after 18 months! Do yourself a huge favour and don't use these clowns! This is how they treat customers of over 15 years...! Shocking!
We are a local independent washrooms service company who go out of our way to look after our customers, no lengthly contracts, no hidden charges here. If you are looking for an alternative take a look at our company
My wife signed a 5 year contract with Cathedral Hygiene in 2010. In April she gave notice to terminate the agreement which resulted in the usual response i.e. insufficient notice and if you wish to terminate we require full payment of £468 to release you from a roll over 5 years.
We did some research after it took two attempts to get a copy ofthe two pages of the original contract. Then we wrote to them:
"I am advised that although the copy of the original contract documentation signed on...is set out in accordance with the general terms of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, the provisions set out in paragraph 10.1 of the contract specifically excludes section 101 of the Act as the payments due under the contract do not exceed the amount specified in paragraph101(7)(a).
The relevant terms for termination therefore are set out under the Stautory Notice headed "IMPORTANT READ THIS CAREFULLY TO FIND OUT ABOUT YOUR RIGHTS"
I gave notice in writing by of my intent to cancel by email on ...in accordance with the provisions of this note.
In addition to the stated statutory position I am also advised that your insistence on the five year settlement and three months notice period is in the circumstances of "Wednesbury" unreasonable at common law."
The day after that letter was received (sent signed for) Cathedral Hygiene rang to say that they were dropping their claim and have since emailed confirmation.
So if the cases listed above are within statutory time limits and involve annual payments less than the figure of £1500 in CCA1974 para 101(7)(a) you know what to do if your contract is the same two pages of small print we had...!
Hi can I ask - are you a limited company? We're a charity and have been duped by them too. Instead of simply amending an existing contract they conned us into signing a new one for another 5 years. I was under the impression that companies are protected by the Consumer Act but I'd love to know if we can do what you did as we really need to get out of this contract asap.
whoops *aren't protected
i signed a contract with this company for 3 years. at the end of the 3 years because i did not give a months notice i am tied in for another 3 years. before signing a contract with this company go over it carefully
Well we finally got rid of Cathedral Hygiene, had to pay them off but it was well worth the phone call to them to say come and remove your equipment or it will go in the skip. Needless to say it was removed, albeit, they left a mess in the toilets where they just left screws in the walls and plaster dust everywhere.
We are now very happy with another company Inspire - very honest and trustworthy, excellent rates and they've allowed us to sign for just 3 years.
Avoid Cathedral at all costs!
Cathedral hygiene are a terrible company. They got me to sign the contract under completely false pretenses and tied me in for 5 years. The representative actually told me you could quit the contract at any time without charge. Ive spoken to cathedral hygiene multiple times and all i get is excuses and bad tempered customer service staff. I had a call from one of there staff who started the phone call in an aggressive manner and when i asked to be transferred to somebody else the new person just said i cant really see a problem with how you was spoken to. I strongly suggest you avoid this company like the plague. a family business of scam artists.
We had exactly the same, she came into us asking to sign 'new style paperwork' until I produced the existing contract showing we had the same paperwork that she was trying to get me to sign. Her response was then to ask me why we wouldn't want to sign up for another 5 years! Total con
Would definately steer well clear
Completely have to agree with the complain made here, unfortunately we were duped also with Cathedral Hygiene and have had to wait 5 long years for contract to end. The sales rep who visited made no comment on the fact that she had signed on the front of the form to tie us into an agreement for 5 years, she completely skipped over this little nugget of information. She was also caught red handed by myself a few months ago when she came in and asked me sign new paperwork, the reasons she used was that shehas been asked to get new style forms signed and submitted to head office as they were updating customer records, when in fact what she was actually getting me to sign was a NEW 5 YEAR CONSTRACT ! disgusting ! While I type this the equipment is being removed otu of our office and I and my company will be glad to see the back of them ! CATHEDRAL SCAMGIENE! should be there new name.
I’m sorry to hear that you have not had a good experience with us. We service over 60, 000 sites in the UK and the majority of our customers are very happy. We provide our service on a contract where all the terms are set out so everyone should know what to expect. I don’t understand why you feel there were hidden charges in your contract because the price we charge is stated on the front of the contract and beyond VAT there are no additional charges. Many of our competitors raise additional fees such as fuel surcharges or duty of care/waste transfer fees but we do not do this. Once again I’m sorry to hear that you feel that you have had a bad experience. Tom.