Around 18 months ago i agreed to a three year Landline and Internet contract with True Telecom, which i soon regretted , The internet was weak and the lower prices that i was assured were not to be ( read the small print i suppose ). A few months ago i saw a direct debit set up on my account from Chess Ltd ?. I looked them up and asked who are you ? I was told that Chess had taken over the service from True Telecom. I noticed the service prices going up, yet we hardly use the landline and had the same weak internet router and service. A couple of weeks ago i got a call from a broker who offered me a deal with one of the big providers for around a third of the cost and much better internet and i agreed. A few days later i received a letter from Chess regarding the switch of service informing me of an early termination fee of over £400 pounds. I contacted Chess telling their representive that i dont have any agreement with Chess and was told that Chess purchased the account and i would owe the amount, I was then offered a deal of cheaper service though not as low as the amount on offer through the broker and a new 18 month contract with Chess which was not on with me. The new provider took over yesterday, We now have much better broadband and the phone is ok. Do i need to pay Chess at all and if so as much as over £400 pounds and if so can i pay instalments ?. All advice welcome folks.

Hi All, This is for a friend. My friend was running her own business. Her telecoms providers were chess telecom. At some point Chess rang the business and spoke to a member of staff and sold the member of staff a new contract for the telephone services including broadband. They then entered another 2 new contracts with same member of staff all the time extending the term of the contract. They never contacted the account holder at any point to advise or welcome to new contract etc. In Feb 2014 my friend sells the business and contacts all suppliers advising of notice and asking for final accounts etc. Chess do not respond. Needless to say Chess then stopped receiving payments. They then after a few month write to the member of staff who took out the contracts. I have heard the recordings of the contracts and the member of staff does say that he is the owner of the business. After letters back and fothr they sue the member of staff and take him to court. He convinces the court that he took out the new contracts for his employer. Despite the employer knowing nothing of it. The court dismiss the case and chess leave with nothing. Now chess start chasing my friend the employer. As far as she is concearned the only contract that existed was one she signed physically with a sales agent about 2 years prior. Chess are threatening to sue her for £2200 in termination fees. They are using the contracts agreed to by the employee ( in which he said he was the sole trader ) as reason to sue her for leaving a 2 year contract early. A contract of which she had no knowledge. Chess are refusing to send to an Alternative Dispute Service as the case has already been to court albeit in a different name. This is a really messy case. Chess have increased the monthly charge without notice which in my opinion under ofcoms rules forms a material detriment so even if she were liable she should have had an exit option on these contracts. She had 2 phone lines at £10.89PCM and broadband at £38.99 PCM they have billed her as termination fees £60 PCM for the broadband and £20 PCM for the phone lines. She has tried contacting company directors and they simply ignore her letters. Apologies for the long post any advise would be greatly appreciated

when you signup a for a service with CHESS TELECOM obviously they do a credit check on you. I had some financial problems, now I am clean 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 happy customer. in next 3 days I received plenty of mail from debt collectors to my new home address, later also phone calls including my mobile. HOW DID IT HAPPEN ? If they are not happy with me as a customer they should refuse me a service. but NO chess telecom give My private data god knows where, who give them right to do that !! 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 ???

Hi. I am new to the forum so hope that this is the correct area to be posting this. I have just received a letter from an old internet provider Chess Telecom. They are claiming that I have an outstanding amount with them of less than £50. When we moved providers I was told over the phone that the account was clear. I left during contract because the service I was on was being terminated and again was told that I wouldn't be held to my contract minimum period. To add to this we actually signed up with another provider which was then bought by Chess Telecom I think or had a merger or something. They are threatening legal action with court fees, interest, solicitors fees and so on. Should i just pay this to avoid fees or what, I am not sure. I am lucky to be in a position where money is not tight s o I have been thinking pay it to avoid the hassle but morally think I should fight.

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.