A lady from Sheffield recently commenced court action against Unicom / Verastar to claim a refund of the termination fees she had paid to Unicom and also to claim compensation for the harassment she had to endure due to Unicom’s debt collection procedures. Unicom settled out of court and paid the full amount she had claimed. BBC Radio 4 ran an item about this on their You & Yours consumer programme and it can be heard by clicking here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06wc6qp Further details can be seen by clicking here http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2016/01/sheffield-dinner-lady-wins-compensation-from-troubled-uk-isp-unicom.html I think this will be of interest to people who have been faced with demands for termination fees from Unicom.

Hello, I hope I'm posting this in the right place. My apologies if not. I took out a contract with Unicom in 2008 for my business premises, which I closed down in September 2009. I remember getting a big bill for cancellation of contract which I could not afford to pay. I can't remember the details but I know it went on for a long while, with many telephone calls and letters. I have heard from Unicom again today - so six years after my initial problems with them. They have written to my home address, which is different from the home address I had six years ago. There were two letters, t he first dated 1st September (I got them both today as I have been away and had a pile of post waiting to be opened!) They sent a draft county court claim form, saying that they are claiming £490. They said in the covering letter that if I pay £184 in the next two weeks this will clear my outstanding balance. The second letter is dated 16th September saying as they did not hear from me then they are now submitting the claim to court for £587. Where are all these random amounts from?! As it has been so long since I closed my business, I have no trace of my original contract or previous correspondence from them. Does anyone know what I can do, apart from just wait and see if a court form actually appears? Also, I check my credit report each month with Noddle - and there is no outstanding debt on there from Unicom.

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

I have just had a second unsuccessful attempt to resolve three issues relating to Elite Calls / Unicom via the Ombudsman. I’m a small business of less than 10 employees and desperate to avoid the huge fees I’m being threatened with. Issue one with a rolling contract termination fee requested by Unicom of £218.41. The contract started in June 2008. I was not aware it was a rolling contract (initially with Elite Calls) though Unicom did, after I had signed up and paid upfront with another telephone supplier, make me aware. Unable and unwilling to cancel a new supplier, I still moved away from Unicom. My repeated requests for evidence of a contract and T&C's went unheeded. Issue two with broadband: I agreed in September 2012, to two broadband services under the misapprehension that I was paying a single fee. The Ombudsman has ruled that this was my mistake as I only raised the issue upon receipt of my first bill, not within a cooling off period. Also, due to a technical fault, I had over four weeks with no broadband service on one of these lines. Unicom offered to terminate my contracts to settle, I agreed but just in settlement of the double fees issue and took my broadband supply elsewhere. I continued to request compensation for lack of supply. In doing so and pursuing matters as far as the Ombudsman, I forfeited the broadband termination and have now been given a termination fee of £1220. By trying to find justice, I’ve dug myself into an even deeper hole. Has anyone any actual experience – successful or not – of claiming these fees are unreasonable or unlawful? The ombudsman seems to think they are acceptable as per Unicom’s T&Cs. I have 14 days to agree to the Ombudsman's final ruling, if I choose to accept.

hello to all i am new to this forum, so if im going over old ground i apologise. i have been involved in a dispute with unicom/universal utilities for some time, i was hoping that someone using these forums could guide me in the right direction. i will be as brief as i can in how this situation developed; in 2007 i recieved a telephone call from a foreign gentleman informing me of the benefits of transferring my telephone line to unicom, i was informed that unicom were a branch of bt, i agreed to a three year contract over the phone and that i would recieve a written contract shortly. in may 2010 we found ourselves short so informed everyone including unicom that funds would not be available but only for a short period, unicom still made attempts to take our direct debits which failed and therefore accrued high charges from themselves, i made complaints in writing, i then paid unicom and then had our line suspended, which i again complained in writing, i recieved replies none of which warned me that my three year contract was approaching. in april 2011 a similar event occurred so i applied to transfer to bt, i then recieved huge termination fees from unicom, who i contacted to complain and who then informed me that i was in a three year roll over contract, as was stated in their terms and conditions, which of course i had never recieved, it was only at this time that i knew of a roll over contract, i am aware of many others in the same position. i did not transfer my line, at that time i did not have the fight in me due to medical problems, in august 2011 i enquired to unicom how much it would be for braodband with them, i clearly told them i had hearing problems , i have hearing aids, and that i would not agree to anything over the phone, two days later i signed up to a better deal with talk talk, i then recieved many phone calls from unicom informing me i was in a contract with them, it was only after i was a bit rude that the incessant phone calls stopped and they did not persue. in sept 2011 our bank account was fraudulently emptied, again i warned unicom of this in plenty of time, they still attempted to take direct debit payments and again three days later which of course incurred further excessive charges, by now my patience with unicom had just about evaporated. i began questioning the validity of this three year roll over contract, i sent unicom many letters asking to see a copy of this contract and to conduct all communication in writing, ceasing the telephone calls on medical grounds, i still recieved no written contract, i recieved a letter telling me the contract was enclosed, but it was not and i advised unicom of that immediately. i applied to transfer my line to bt, i reieved huge termination charges but still not contract, i transferred to bt then recieved a copy contract from unicom, i then transferred another line to bt. i continued to recieve phone calls, even though i asked many times for them to stop, in may i reported the situation to ofcom, last week i recieved their final decision that unicom acted reasonably and that i have to pay unicom £800.00, i replied to every letter unicom sent me, i did not ignore them. maybe i have already been foolish and maybe i will continue to do so, but i feel that i should continue to fight unicom on this and dispute their claim for money, i presume this will mean court action and due to the ombudsman coming down in unicoms favour, this will make my fight all the more harder however their tactics are unethical to say the least and inside i feel that something should be done. can anyone please advise me how to fight unicom, any information would be deeply appreciated many thanks

I have an identical issue with Unicom as CAG member M1JWR (title 90days) March/April 2012. I.e. Unicom imposed their own contract after company merger. The information I am getting from Ofcom is not quite so clear cut, because 5 months has passed since being advised (identical letter to that quoted by M1JWR) it could be interpreted as acceptance. I can see from the thread that the 2007 Elite Calls contract is valid, and I have persistently advised Unicom to that effect. I have not agreed to accept the changes verbally or in writing. I cannot see whether M1JWR had a successful result & if so how it was achieved. I should be very grateful for an update if anyone is familiar with the case. My case details are as follows: The notice period extention brought forward the notification deadline to 7th June. It should actually have been 7th August. Quite by accident I found out about this on 5th July & immediately emailed 2 months notice to end the contract on expiry in Sept, a week or so later when it became apparent that Unicom were playing dirty I backed it up with a recorded delivery confirmation (to ensure I complied with the Elite Calls T&Cs). Unicom rolled over the contract until Sept 2013 and are demanding their usual £395 early termination fee. There is a further reason why Elite ‘wholesale business plan plus’ customers like me should be able to leave the contract:-Elite guaranteed no price increases for the duration of the contract. Unicom has increased the tariff; thereby customers should have been advised of the option to terminate because there had been a change of ‘material detriment’ to the customer. Unicom withheld the opt out information. However if Ofcom are right I could lose this 2nd argument as well. Its the Ofcom opinion that is is bothering me.