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It is just typical of government departments like DVLA to screw up systems when trying to save money and supposedly make life easier! I wholly agree with the scrapping of the paper part of the licence and that's all they needed to do. My photo card licence already holds most of the information required and should a hire company or employer wish to search my driving history the photo card licence has a unique ID for me (Driver No) which should be the key for them to use for further checks! In the words of Aleksandr the Meerkat "Simples"

Yes Titan Telecom is a subsidiary of Unicom as is Marble Telecom and they all deploy the same tricks and tactics, the reason they couldn't give you a date that they told you the charge was going on is because they didn't, they just added the service without your knowledge or consent; knowing that while it's free you're not going to complain. I'd be interested in how you get on with removing it if that is what you desire! I have heard of one case where Unicom are arguing where someone has noticed that this is now chargeable and they have been told that they had 60 days to cancel which they have now missed and this is now part of their contract. There is a clause in the contract that gives them the right to vary the contract as they desire!!!!

From what I have been able to attain it will cost you about £1.95/Month after your trial has expired. Not a lot I hear you say, true I reply but it's the principle that they are adding services to your account without your consent or knowledge and then charging you for the privilege. Ok so it's £1.95 this month what comes next £4.99/Month for the TeleSales Tea Fund or £10.99 for the CEO's holiday. What is "Fraud Defender" well in reality as far as I can see it is no more than access to a SQL Database or the like running a script looking for abnormal trends in your call patterns. So it is data they are already collecting just with a different script interrogating it, so if they have 100,000 customers as they report at £1.95/Month that equates to a pre-tax profit of some £2.3 Million, not bad for old rope. If you find it appears on your Invoice or On-Line account and you feel it's not for you then ring up and cancel it, albeit the cancellation isn't easy.

Unicom are currently deploying a product called Fraud Defender to all of its telecom accounts, although this is free for a trial period it then becomes chargeable. They add this to your account without your knowledge, notification or any consultation. I only happened to spot it when checking my on-line billing and when I called them to opt out the length of call was unacceptable. Regards Chris

RE: Subject access request I see I definitely need to do this because a key part of my report to ofcom and any action that might get to the ombudsman service will be the key phrase "We only do 3 year contracts", I'll set-aside some space on one of our servers and ask them to upload all the data to it. Regards Chris

Thanks again, also having read some of the horror stories (Links) on unicom-complaints I really need to get written conformation of my CANCELLATION of the impending Broadband Migration as from what I have read it could still go ahead and then a denial of having received my cancellation telecom. I'll e-mail them Recorded Delivery tonight. Regards Chris

I have already seen the link above and I noted that there was a Case Leader listed at the bottom with an e-mail address, I was considering e-mailing him directly! What do you think? Regards Chris

Thanks RMJ for the additional information, I'll wait for the recording to turn up via e-mail and then listen to it carefully Regards Chris PS I have seen your PM sorry I can't reply due to low number of posts.... But I am following it up.

OK and thank you Guys, I'll get the process under-way on Monday. Regards Chris

I have a copy of the original Letter of Authority, I have the edited version and I have the edited version again but this time e-mailed from them so this proves that the version they have on file is the one that I edited. so do I have enough? Is the next action to contact them again and ask then to read the Letter of Authority again and point out the edits I made? Regards Chris

Thanks RMJ, So not a leg to stand on then! Regards Chris

It would appear that I have been moved to another energy supplier without my authority! This started back in November last year when I was contacted by Unicom sales and offered a better deal on my electric supply all sounded pretty reasonable on the phone and they e-mailed me a Letter of Authority to sign and return. On reading this Letter of Authority which gave them the authority to contact my current supplier and gather information about my account and rates; but I noted that there was a paragraph that gave them the Authority to Terminate my contract with my current supplier and move it to them, so at this point I left it. I soon received a call asking for the Letter of Authority, I explained that I wasn't happy with the Termination Clause and that I wouldn't sign such a letter. I was assured that they wouldn't terminate my current supplier contract without my say so; so to be sure I edited the Letter of Authority and removed the offending paragraph, signed it and sent it back. I never heard any more until a couple of months ago when I noticed that my DD payments to Unicom had jumped from about £30/Month to well over £1,000/Month. I immediately rang Unicom to see what was going on and they told me that it was because of my electric supply which they had taken over, I found this to be quite distressing as I had been paying my previous supplier in the region of £700/Quarter. I asked on who's Authority had they transferred my contract? I was informed that I had signed a Letter of Authority and that they had this letter on file; I asked for them to e-mail me that letter which they did and I can confirm that the copy they have is the edited version that I sent. So my question is did they have the authority to terminate my contract? Regards Chris

I have run into an issue with our old friends at Unicom. This all started a couple of weeks ago when Unicom sales (who I have two phone line with) contacted me to offer a deal on Broadband which on the face of it sounded OK apart from when they got into their script they mentioned that it was a 36 month contract; I immediately stopped them there and said "I don't do 3 year contracts" the girl was a bit flustered and said "they only offer 3 year contracts" so I said "Forget it then" she convinced me to hold on and she went to talk to a manager. On her return she we can tie it into your current phone contract so I agreed and we continued on. Yesterday when my accounts administrator came in I explained what I had done and showed her the figures she did some quick sums and reported that I would end up paying far more than I do currently. She had a look around and she found several deals that would be a lot cheaper and asked me to contact Unicom to see how long we had on our current phone contract and to cancel the Broadband migration. I called customer services and asked when my current phone contract expires "May 2016" came the reply I then ask what is the term "36 Months" they replied; if this was the case then the contract must have renewed somewhere around April - May 2013 I didn't say any more on this subject at this point but I did go on and cancel the Broadband migration ( a few harsh words with a salesman here but I persisted). I then e-mailed a "Formal Complaint" to customer services stating that I don't remember any contract renewal and was this an "Automatically Renewing Contract" if so these had been banned by OFCOM. I received a phone call some 2 hours later and was told that it wasn't an ARC and that I had been contacted by phone in April 2013 and I had agreed to renew the contract for 36 Months and to top this they had a recording of the conversation. She went away and and listened to the recording and came back and reported that YES it was me and YES I had agreed to 36 Months; I asked if she could e-mail me a copy of this recording to which she agreed. Having carried out some further research into OFCOM's GC9 I see that they capped Fixed Term contracts to a maximum of 24 Months but what isn't really clear is if this cap includes Small Businesses ie those with 10 employees or less. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Regards Chris

I had no problem, just applied for a remortgage a couple of weeks ago, my wife has some adverse credit which was settled 3 Years ago, we were at first quoted an adverse rate, but that was corrected on appeal. We have a good financial advisor. Regards Chris

Overdrawn, Thanks for your Reply....... I will take your advice and read well.... Regards Chris

Sorry to be a pain, I am sure these questions have been asked before but a quick search of the threads didn't reveal a definitive answer. 1. Where is the best address to sent my Initial DPA Letter, there appear to be so many addresses? 2. How far back can I go, I'm getting a feeling it's about 6 Years! Ok found the Answer to this one 6 Years is it, but I understand that will probably cahage to 3 Years this Year...... 3. I have started the process of moving my Current Account to another Bank, should I leave the Abbey one open until a settlement is reached? Thanks for any info in advance..... Regards Chris