tek-monkey
wanna see my snake?
A few of you already know the following from facebook, but I've decided to put it on here as well just in case anyone else ever gets a call from them. Sorry for the long post, but if it helps just one person avoid using these scumbags it is worth it.
They call themselves Atlas Business Services . Well, sometimes, they are also Reseller UK Ltd. And better-rates.co.uk, and they answer the phone as GTEC but they are all the same people. 2 different addresses, but same phone number and company number for all of them:
Tel: 0843 636 6755
Company Number 07565517
34 NEW HOUSE
67-68 HATTON GARDEN
LONDON
ENGLAND
EC1N 8JY
Beckett House
Sovereign Court
Wyrefields
Poulton Business Park
Poulton Le Fylde
Lancashire
FY6 8JX
They are also sim-only ltd I think, same phone number but different company number and address.
Right, now I've got their details out of the way, on to the problem.
My OH was called at work recently by these guys, offering a fairly decent rate on a business line. She agreed to a 12 month contract over the phone and they said she'd get no early termination fee from her current provider (talktalk), but got a little concerned afterwards and did some googling. Didn't find much on atlas but talktalk said of course a cancellation fee would be charged, so she called back to cancel. They said this was fine, not a problem. Because she was very suspicious, she then called talktalk and asked them to make sure no transfer happened. They agreed too, all is well it seems.
Whilst we were on holiday a letter arrived from talktalk saying sorry you are leaving us, seems a second request was initiated to transfer the line when the first one was refused. Atlas were called (premium rate, they ignore emails), and my OH was told that the person who she talked to wasn't authorised to cancel anything so it wasn't done. She told them again she wanted to cancel, they said there will be a fee of over £800 as she was in a 36 month contract. OFCOM were contacted, they said the practice is known as slamming and is frowned upon but not illegal. However no contract exists, they can't prove a contract ever existed and therefore they can't charge her anything. End result, my OH has no internet at work (they didn't even send a router) and can't use her phone line in case that creates a contract that OFCOM says currently does not exist.
So talktalk were contacted again, they agreed to take her back and keep her number and set up a date to transfer her over, a few days before this date she receives another letter from them saying Atlas had initiated another request and they had to agree to it. They agree to try yet again to transfer her back to talktalk but the date has moved by a further 2 weeks so again no internet or phone at work.
Today she has received a phone call threatening to disconnect her line to ensure that she loses her business number unless she pays up. They've said they have no knowledge of her not wanting to be their customer or transferring back to talktalk, and have said unless she sends in voice recordings of it then it didn't happen.
This is blackmail, they know if she loses her business number it will cost her to change everything to the new one plus she could lose old customers that will think she no longer trades when the line is dead. We are approaching a solicitor to get this sorted out, I just wanted to make sure nobody else gets caught out by these bastards.
EDIT: It appears they also now go by the name of Together Telecom (Thanks LDD), same scutters different name.
They call themselves Atlas Business Services . Well, sometimes, they are also Reseller UK Ltd. And better-rates.co.uk, and they answer the phone as GTEC but they are all the same people. 2 different addresses, but same phone number and company number for all of them:
Tel: 0843 636 6755
Company Number 07565517
34 NEW HOUSE
67-68 HATTON GARDEN
LONDON
ENGLAND
EC1N 8JY
Beckett House
Sovereign Court
Wyrefields
Poulton Business Park
Poulton Le Fylde
Lancashire
FY6 8JX
They are also sim-only ltd I think, same phone number but different company number and address.
Right, now I've got their details out of the way, on to the problem.
My OH was called at work recently by these guys, offering a fairly decent rate on a business line. She agreed to a 12 month contract over the phone and they said she'd get no early termination fee from her current provider (talktalk), but got a little concerned afterwards and did some googling. Didn't find much on atlas but talktalk said of course a cancellation fee would be charged, so she called back to cancel. They said this was fine, not a problem. Because she was very suspicious, she then called talktalk and asked them to make sure no transfer happened. They agreed too, all is well it seems.
Whilst we were on holiday a letter arrived from talktalk saying sorry you are leaving us, seems a second request was initiated to transfer the line when the first one was refused. Atlas were called (premium rate, they ignore emails), and my OH was told that the person who she talked to wasn't authorised to cancel anything so it wasn't done. She told them again she wanted to cancel, they said there will be a fee of over £800 as she was in a 36 month contract. OFCOM were contacted, they said the practice is known as slamming and is frowned upon but not illegal. However no contract exists, they can't prove a contract ever existed and therefore they can't charge her anything. End result, my OH has no internet at work (they didn't even send a router) and can't use her phone line in case that creates a contract that OFCOM says currently does not exist.
So talktalk were contacted again, they agreed to take her back and keep her number and set up a date to transfer her over, a few days before this date she receives another letter from them saying Atlas had initiated another request and they had to agree to it. They agree to try yet again to transfer her back to talktalk but the date has moved by a further 2 weeks so again no internet or phone at work.
Today she has received a phone call threatening to disconnect her line to ensure that she loses her business number unless she pays up. They've said they have no knowledge of her not wanting to be their customer or transferring back to talktalk, and have said unless she sends in voice recordings of it then it didn't happen.
This is blackmail, they know if she loses her business number it will cost her to change everything to the new one plus she could lose old customers that will think she no longer trades when the line is dead. We are approaching a solicitor to get this sorted out, I just wanted to make sure nobody else gets caught out by these bastards.
EDIT: It appears they also now go by the name of Together Telecom (Thanks LDD), same scutters different name.
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