“Chess increased my direct debit without my express authorisation to monitor the Dark Web for two email addresses. It's taken weeks for them to finally offer reimbursement but because I didn't respond within their imposed six day deadline ( due to computer problems which I explained to them ) , they withdrew the offer. Appalling behaviour.”
“Almost 5 years ago I started using Chess for my business phone and broadband. At the time, the cost seemed reasonable, and I thought I would be paying £41 plus VAT monthly for the next 60 months. However, over time and despite the figures agreed in my contract, my bill from Chess has gone up and up so that I now pay them £99 monthly!! Of course, having checked around recently, I discover that I can easily find a similar or better service from many other companies for less than a third of this cost ... so, naturally, I have now arranged to switch to another provider at £27 + VAT monthly.
Now the big contractual catch ... I discover that at the point of switching, I will still be, just, within a 5 year contractual period with Chess, so Chess are going to charge me a cool £329.45 termination fee as I switch to the other provider!
I've pointed this out to Chess, that I have been a good profitable customer for almost 5 years, despite their ever increasing charges, and I would be happy to part on good terms, if they simply waive their entirely unreasonable £329.45 termination fee ... and this, of course, is when I discover Chess are not reasonable decent types, but are sharks.
Only now, have I checked up on their online reviews to discover that all too many customers are having a similar experience ... shame on you Chess!
So, Chess are apparently allowed to charge me almost exactly double my contracted cost, over several years ... so I feel I have already been thoroughly fleeced by them ... and they can now charge me an additional £329.45 to get away from them.
We all do that thing of not reading all the small print within contracts ... life is just too short ... but we generally think companies will be fair and reasonable in their actual dealings with us, especially when we have actually been good profitable customers for a long time.
I would happily just cancel my direct debit arrangement with Chess ... but you know with these types, that you will just end up with threats of legal action and the danger of having a bad debt listed. So, I will pay them their highly unreasonable £329.45 to be rid of them ... and I will also write them some honest reviews.
So, please don't sign a contract with Chess Telecom.”
“Sudden increase in my broadband from 50 to 80 pounds a month. Complained and told it was as expected. Whatever that means. Not going to stay with them.”
“Cowboys ICT .
Their bad service forces customers to terminate their contracts early and they are on my case now with a huge amount of termination fee.
Please don’t make mistake and join this company, they promise heaven and give you hell. AVOID!”
“AVOID, AVOID,AVOID
This company overcharges for a substandard service and offers no customer service unless to charge you more
We were tied into a 5 year contract with threats of being charged extortionate fees to leave
The 60 months ended in May and now they are hounding us for more money for cancelling our direct debit before they could plunder our account for another month.
They have passed this 'debt' onto a so called debt collector who is now also hounding us so be warned what you are getting yourself into here. They should be avoided at all cost or regret it like we have”
“Avoid at all costs. Poor service and still want to charge you thousands to leave even tho the phone line quality is disruptive to your business and embarrassing of such a poor customer support”
“I was happy with my service with chess, then chess told me that by upgrading they could reduce my monthly bill. Ever since upgrading I have been paying between £100 to £200 per month more even though the usage has decreased during the Covid pandemic. Once my contract ended I tried to switch to a new provider. They have told me that I am still in contract and I will need to pay a few thousand pounds to come out. My bill is now over double the amount that I paid originally. Do not trust this company.”
“Whatever you do DO NOT go with this company ..I inherited Chess when I took over my Business…
All they want is your money and if anything goes wrong with your System they want you to pay to have it fixed!
It was a nightmare getting out of the Contract and cost us dearly to do so..
STAY AWAY at all costs”
“Stay well away from this company….I was originally with a different company that got taken over by chess, my bills kept going up and up so I told them I wanted to end my contract. They told me to end my contract early would cost me over £3000! So I had no choice but to stay with them and they did review my account and reduced my bills by half with a promise that they wouldn’t rise. Two years later I’m paying nearly double what they promised I would be paying. I received a letter in late December 2022 to tell me my contract was ending at the end of January 2023. But here we are 2nd February and I still can’t get rid of them because me telling them I will not be renewing my contract is not good enough they need to know if I want port my services or cease them, surely the I will not be renewing my contract but is a big clue!
Anyway as most people have said stay well away from chess!”
“I had been with chess for many years but their prices kept going up so I had to change supplier, that's where the trouble started, they became very unhelpful and kept charging me while they were holding up my change, the only response they could offer was int not down to us, but it was down to them to keep adding on to the bill while they dragged out the proses. there are many other telecom companies out there so stay away from these.”
“this lot are hopeless, completely disorganised I have waste hours if not days on the phone to them and getting nowhere. the only thing they are good at is billing you. Absolutely disgusted at the way they operate.”
“0 Stars
If we could give this review 0 stars we would.
Terrible service, regularly ignored emails, calls to our account manager regularly go to voicemail. Very little responses to our problems.
Using Chess ICT has cost the business thousands of pounds, losing customers and hours of our time on emails/phone calls to try and resolve.
We have several open complaints to the directors office, as yet none have been responded to in a satisfactory way.”
“Agree with the most recent anonymous review on cancelling our Chess contract with a similar final payment experience .
After many years of an extremely expensive system that was in the end, post pandemic, totally inappropriate for our needs,I opted to cancel our monthly direct debit payments in the hope that someone live would actually talk to me.They did finally as they chased for their payment then told me that no one would talk to me regarding our contract until I had paid the outstanding invoice.
Dreadful company.”
“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.”
“Bunch of chancers and useless wasters. I ended up with them after they took over my provider
Their customer charter states on the website, 24 hours response. Ha ha what a joke, lies, lies and more lies.
Do not touch this company absolute disgrace
Multiple bad reviews don't lie, their customer service promises however are lies”
“Phoned to add caller ID to my mum’s phone. Was immediately transferred to correct person who dealt with it immediately. Was told it may take up to 24 hours but could be less than an hour. Caller ID was active in around 10 minutes . Really pleased with service today.”
“The worst company I have ever dealt with.
I somewhat think they are unaccountable and above the law.
They add random charges at free will and then threaten disconnection of your buisness line.
I am past the point of trying with them and am going to put a case together.”
“Dreadful internet, zero service, unexplained charged, no refunds for these charges after 6 months.
They never secure new customers on merit, they buy smaller outfits and claimed their customers. When you want to leave their service, they claim not enough notice and want THOUSANDS of pounds to come out.
THEY HAVE MADE MORE CONTACT WITH US OUT OF CONTRACT THAN WHEN WE WERE IN CONTRACT.
Call their billing department, instant response.
Call the customer service, no response. Automated response to issue ticket and 3 MONTH WAIT.
Ombudsman has been contacted.”
“DO NOT TOUCH THIS COMPANY. I have never dealt with such an appalling group. I am currently facing court proceedings as they duped me into a 5 year contract with them and are trying to charge me nearly £2,000 in early termination fees. They are a complete joke.”
