Chess’s earns a 1.9-star rating from 0 reviews and 26 complaints, showing that the majority of clients are dissatisfied with IT solutions and services.
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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 ?
breach of contract
We chose Chess Telecom as our reseller provider.
We are a small Telecom company, we set this business up to provide low cost calls for Schools & Charities (at very low profit to us) to help us provide them an all-round IT Solution that we also provide. We also provide telecom solutions to local Businesses (not at the same low profit) but still very competitive.
We had a dispute on a charge that BT made on our account. Our supplier (Chess Telecom), provide a reseller service to us on behalf of BT. BT made the disputed charge to Chess, Chess made the charge to us.
The problem is, the charge was not authorised by us and we fairly disputed it. Under our contract with Chess Telecom, if the disputed amount is more that 10% of the bill, they do not take it from us while they investigate it.
The charge WAS more than 10% and Chess Telecom took the money anyway by Direct Debit. We disputed it with them and asked for a refund, they refused so we contacted the Bank under the Direct Debit Guarantee who agreed with us and immediately refunded the payment.
Today, we received a threatening letter from Chess Telecom, basically giving us NO notice, saying we had breached our contract. (which we haven’t).
They have also staked a claim to our entire customer base and if we do not effectively sign all of our customers over to them by 4pm the following day, they implied they will cut them all off…!
This will cut off a number of Primary Schools and Charities that we support as well as a number of local small business will also lose their lines and calls.
They have made a number of similar mistakes in the past, this is the first time we really fought back.
Re-sellers, be warned...!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
DO NOT USE CHESS TELECOM. THEY ARE VERY PATRONISING AND READY TO MAKE ALL SORTS OF EXCUSES INSTEAD OF SOLVING THE ACTUAL PROBLEMS. I WANTED TO LEAVE BUT WAS THREATENED WITH ALL MANNER OF COSTS WHICH I AM NOT SURE IS LEGAL. I CANNOT WAIT TO LEAVE THEM THEY DO NOT TREAT THE CUSTOMER VERY WELL AT ALL. I WISH I HAD NEVER EVER GONE WITH THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE.
disconection fraud
I have been using this company for several years to make cheap international calls and have paid them by direct debit.
Some moths ago I found a much cheaper provider I phoned up Chess Telecome asking for their service to be disconected. I was told that I have a 'contract' untill 5th of June 2013. This is despite me not having spoken to this company ever since I started using them. I do not remember signing any contract even back then.
Today I phone them to make sure that I am finally over with them but they now say that a £99 disconection fee on top of a contract cancellation fee applies.
Many thanks
I agree totally with the complaints I have seen so far. I had two lines with them - one at the office and a separate line at my work shops.
My office line went down completely on the 4th May 2013 with loss of broadband and even with two day intervals of phoning it was four - yes four months before we had a serviceable line were we could connect with the internet...Ha is that a business line. I had to shift the office work into the workshop during that period just to submit things like VAT returns and RTI submissions now a legal requirement for business.
The excuses were quite inventive sometimes and all this on a service which they proudly boast as a professional business deal.
I eventually was promised a slight refund which was supposed to go back into my bank but never did which was a single month's broadband fee..this firm's a sick joke.
Now also they want £99.00 disconnection fee. Would you pay it !
Somewhat annoyed N.Whiteley
I am not surprised by any of these complains. Chess has let us down badly. Misinformation, setting new 24 month contract when nobody requested one. They do not call when they say they will. They do not reply to letters. All they do is try to bully you into staying with them. As a business man myself I would not expect my customers to pay for my incompetence. I await the court summons!
they've just illegally withdrawn £1.300 pounds out of my bank account without my permission via DDR (usually £20 a month)... Barclays are getting it back, from a phone line that has near zero usage and now the property is due for demolition hence terminating any such service, I had my arm bent to take it on as Select calls say three years ago from which Chess bought, / salvaged the customer list. .
bought my service from geezer
Beware Beware Chess Telecom will rip you off
I had a 30 day rolling contract with a company called Geezer been with them for over a year
Suddenly I had This Company send a letter and thank you for choosing Chess Telecom
I called them and said I was not happy the way they just took over and set up a direct debit without my authorization
I already put in a 30 day notice to geezer telecom a month before but they ignored my notice
So when calling Chess accounts they had no record of contract and I had to send proof
of a 30day rolling contract, so I sent it
I also called them to say I sent a notice to cancel with Geezer but they said because of the transfer paper would have been at Geezer and not passed on
Now Chess have sent a £420.00 bill for a 30 day no notice cancellation
I find them very rude greedy bossy and think they have a rights over me!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
We tried for many months to resolve longstanding wrongful charges on our account (resulting from the on-going service problems) with Chess Ltd. Throughout we have been met with inconsistent advice, incompetence, continued lack of acknowledgement finally resulting in us taking our business elsewhere. This is when Chess Ltd sprung into action and issued extortionate “Breach of Contract Charges!”
It’s a shame Chess Ltd do not employ the same level of service/customer service to the general day to day running of their Company that they seem to have when harassing customers pursuing contractual disagreements, we are astounded just how many other customers of Chess Ltd seem to have been in the same situation.
Our complaints to Chess Ltd have been repeatedly ignored, Chess Ltd failed to reply to correspondence, to provide requested information (ie. call recordings, logs of our complaints, the original contract, copies of engineers reports etc.) finally they failed to notify us of the arbitration route. When we were notified (by a 3rd party) of CISAS arbitration, Chess Ltd agreed to our ‘Deadlock’ situation and referred us to CISAS the ombudsman. They then proceeded to issue court proceedings the very next day which in turn means CISAS will not engage and refuse the arbitration.
In this difficult business climate, is this the type of service you would want from your communication provider.
We are a small family run business, our losses resulting from their poor service and the time it will take to assess the same, together with the stress of attending court are something we could well and truly do without.
Would appreciate hearing from others in a similar situation.
Trevor Burgess Auto Engineers
Lynne [protected]
get out clause
We run a small business and used a company which became part of chess telecom. After a few years (Longer than the original 3 year verbal agreement) we changed to another company. We signed no contract with either chess telecom or their predecessors. An invoice arrived for £150 + vat from chess, quoting breach of contract. We disputed this and requested details of the contract and were told that it was unavailable as it was from a company which no longer existed. We refused to pay and a county court summons arrived. Shortly before the court date chess contacted us and suggested we pay half the amount, we refused. They contacted us again and asked what amount we would pay to avoid court. We refused to pay anything and they dropped the issue and paid their court costs of £45. Using direct debit we had always promptly paid them everything due. As chess telecom is not the only company of its kind controlled by the same people we will always be wary in future.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
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.
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
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.
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
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
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
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!..
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
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.
Hi all, I wondered if someone on this thread could help me. Do chess only provide business services. I have recently helped an 80 year lady switch utility's to myself at www.utilitywarehouse.org.uk/N37738 after doing this nearly two weeks ago she has today contacted me and advised chess want £2000+ to get her out of contract. She was also not advised this was a 60 month contact and also not advised about the VAT being added. She is clearly upset with this and feels stuck. However after looking at chess on line I see they are business providers and the lady in question was signed up to this at her residential property. I'm am going round to see her paperwork tomorrow and see if we can get her out of this and would really appreciate some advice off anyone who has had this issue before. Am I right in thinking that this agreement is void due to her mis sold this for her home.
I've got a very similar issue - my aunt was missold a 36 month contract. We're in dispute using CISAS. Ofcom made contracts longer than 2 years illegal in 2011 so I don't see how they can defend it, but hers was a business contract (she's a sole trader) so we'll see. My understanding is that Ofcom treats companies of 5 people or less as the same as an individual. It has been a journey of hell to get here and we're waiting for CISAS's verdict which should come in the next day or two. A £650 'termination charge' if we don't succeed. The words I want to use to describe them can't be written here without my post being deleted.
outrageous experience
Be warned a lot of small business sign up with this company on a 12 month contract when that contract ends u have to give them 30 days written notice that u r going to leave them if not then there is a clause in the contract that u have to pay for a further 6 months line rental which amounts to 203.00 even if u do not have a contract with them anymore. They threaten court action and harass u constantly. This is outragous as many small business have to shop around for best rates to survive £203 just to leave them is excessive.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Be warned a lot of small business sign up with this company on a 12 month contract when that contract ends u have to give them 30 days written notice that u r going to leave them if not then there is a clause in the contract that u have to pay for a further 6 months line rental which amounts to 203.00 even if u do not have a contract with them anymore. They threaten court action and harass u constantly. This is outrageous as many small business have to shop around for best rates to survive £203 just to leave them is excessive.
This is the worst compoany I have ever dealt with. They email bills on the 14th of the month and if payment isnt recieved by 21st of the same month they hit you with a £15.00 late payment charge. Bearing in mind they clain that a cheque takes 5 days to clear. Outrageous. The attitude is pay by direct debit (I dont trust them enough to do this) or tough. Check the bills: "Our promise to you Great Service, Great products, Great people" Hmmmm
We as small business decided to leave them not knowing about the 30 day clause. And I have just received a letter from their legal department. Demanding £1442.62... Even though I had been a customer since 2002. They informed me it was a five year contract...Can anybody help
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Chess addressBridgford House, Heyes Lane, Alderley Edge, England, Cheshire, SK97JP, United Kingdom
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I own a small retail business and when my contract with chess neared completion i gave all the appropriate notice letters / emails / phone calls so that i was within their t & c's to leave. Lo and behold i still got a final invoice for £99 + vat at the end - something that their t + c's small print mentions and i hadn't read (It covers admin fees ! Something other suppliers don't charge) . So people please make note of this and stay away from them unless you want a money - grabbing final invoice when you leave.
WARNING do not use chess..they have extortionate disconnection fees and are not transparent in their charges etc..Do not use., Edwin