“I gave notice and closed my account in January 2025 and received a credit note for our final invoice, however one month later we received an invoice for further charges and this has carried on each month until I have cancelled the direct debit with our bank so they cannot take any further payments. I am now taking legal action against them over all the invoices I have received since my notice period ended”
“I served notice to close my account in February this year. I gave a month's notice, but they are still sending bills and chasing me saying my account is overdue. I followed it up in May & again in June. I am still getting emails. Fortunately I cancelled the direct debit myself. They are depressingly poor quality.”
“Do not, under any circumstances, transfer your services to this company. Without my knowledge, my account was transferred to them by NBC and it has been a nightmare. My business is small, however the service is pathetic. They are now refusing to even log a complaint and at this point are refusing to speak with me.
Stay well clear!!”
“Do not, under any circumstances, transfer your services to this company. Without my knowledge, my account was transferred to them by NBC and it has been a nightmare. My business is small, however the service is pathetic. They are now refusing to even log a complaint and at this point are refusing to speak with me.
Stay well clear!!”
“After a business relationship lasting over 12 years and after we had paid the amount that Chess calculated to be outstanding - and that we paid - Chess then decided that they had mis-calculated what was owing and demanded a further £96 to settle and then instructed debt collectors to collect.
For the sake of £96 we paid this amount as the amount was small and the work involved to fight a court case would be disproportionate.
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY and AVOID!”
“This company are operating a scam. I am seeking legal advice. Please contact me if you would like to join me in taking legal action against this company.
Clare”
“The worst company I have ever experienced.
This company and its selling tactics which hold you and your company phone number to ransome is beyond belief.
For a telecom company they have little to no interest in been contacted and there ticket portal is a joke.
For your own sanity choose another telecoms company.”
“I have been using this company for the past few years now, their response to fault is zero, their customer service is non responsive, please kindly avoid this company and find more caring company for your phone and internet.”
“I have finally managed to extricate our business from this company - their parting shot was to charge my last bill with a service charge for not having a direct debit set up - guess how the bill got paid ? Yes, by direct debit !
I am glad to be rid of such an aggressive insidious company that cares little for its customers and hires aggressive staff that are argumentative and seem to take pleasure in arguing with you.
As my 30 days termination period was nearly up I called to ensure that I didnt need to do anything else - I wasnt taking any chances after they added additional services to my account and told me they could - as it was in my terms and conditions and it was my fault for not noticing this "dark web monitoring".
The customer services advisor told me that no I was still on a rolling contract - that after I sent my termination letter they emailed me with other options and as I hadn't responded to that it meant my cancellation was not in place - I have no words !
The advisor argued "why would Chess send me an email if I hadn't wanted to keep the services open?" I argued that why would I have sent a termination request if I wanted to stay with the company ?
They seriously tried to tell me that because they had sent our business an email in response to my termination letter that my notice of termination wasnt taken into account and wasnt binding and that I was still in contract.
As I have no control over what they send, my notice to terminate was the last correspondence from me and therefore they will receive no more money from my business and beware any business that decides to get entangled with this hideous company.
Date of experience: 30 April 2024”
“I would avoid this outfit at all costs - they are nothing special and simply rip you off.
Their customer service is a complete joke.
I left a few weeks ago after being with them for donkeys years and am now getting far better service for a fraction of the costs I was paying them.
Be aware of the notice you need to give if you want to leave in order to avoid lining their pockets any more than you have to.
I wish I could have given them zero stars.”
“If I could give a Lower rating I would, do not go with them. Stay well clear. Awful service, charge mad extras for the stupidest reasons, there will be a article in the local paper to follow of the awful service”
“I have had £41.15 withdrawn from my account incorrectly.
I raised a ticket and within a week the fault was noted and a credit note raised.
No money arrived in the account so after 4 weeks I raised another ticket.
I had a positive response that the money was incorrectly withdrawn and I was sent a refund of £32.91;
I was told that my account showed zero credit and I was not due any money.
I had 3 other points of complaint and in each case my point of view was ignored.
I would not even give them 1 star”
“I concur with other reviews on here. For a business to operate this way in 2024 is disappointing and quite frankly astounding.
I have an open ticket with them that is being battled by their customer services team who have told me categorically that the “dark web monitoring service” that was added to our contract is lawful because they said that they sent an email offering a free trial that would then be chargeable if we didn’t cancel - which we didn’t as we didn’t receive this “marketing email” or any subsequent email about it becoming a monthly charge.
We have been told Chess can add services to our contract and change our direct debit as it’s in their terms and conditions so in effect they can add what they want and charge what they want. I have received no monthly reports to support this monitoring - until the month I found they had added it to our account and then I received the report.
I have requested a refund and we are still arguing the case as we are being told they are justified in adding services to our account clearly hoping we don’t spot it - which we didn’t for several months until our renewal came through - without any mention of this additional service and missing the additional costs (which was obviously different to the amount taken on direct debit). When asking why the two differed and even the renewal didn’t mention the added service or cost) I was told they didn’t have to put this on the contract !!!”
“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”
