PHS Wastech : If you use them - Don't wait - Cancel today

[geoff_s]

If you have a PHS wastetech contract cancel TODAY. After up to 12 months notice, you can renegotiate if you feel like it.

Like many others we were caught by PHS's their hidden rolling contract scam. You must cancel 3 months before your contact automatically rolls over for another 12 months (only by registed post).

All we wanted to do was to have a smaller bin. They said they had a 12 month contract for a big bin & they were holding us to it. We said we doubted we signed a contract. They said they'd show us our contract only if we paid them £17.63. Seems in the small print on the back of annual waste returns can be added contract clauses.

We've come to the end of our 'contract' and though they offer to reduce our rates by 400% if we resign and they will nover add a 12 month rollover clause, we're running a mile from them. (It's taken 2 months & 12 contacts just to get them to grudgingly accept that we cancelled correctly with by registered letter & not by fax.)

They've increased our rates every 6 months. Over doubled in 2 years. With their rolling contract fiddle they can add charges at will and your can do little about it outside the courts

 

[wilwat]

Funny you should mention PHS. I am in direct competion to them in a different sector of their business and they apply the same contracts there. I meet a lot of people who are not happy with it.

 

[geoff_s]

Surprised that within a week my Wastech complaint has reached nr 4 in Google

Noticed the only reason is that I was so annoyed bashing on my key board that I didnt spell Wastetech correctly, So here's a title spelt right (I hope)

 

[dizzie]

Funny you should mention PHS. I am in direct competion to them in a different sector of their business and they apply the same contracts there. I meet a lot of people who are not happy with it.

Oh no....our current clinical waste provider whom we have used for over 4 years has just sent us a letter saying that PHS Allclear has "acquired our contract"...i.e. they have sold it to them! The letter says that we are to deal with PHS in future. I previously had my fingers burnt with PHS Wastetech and do not with to deal with a PHS company at all! Are we obliged to accept a service from them when I did not enter into a contract with PHS,and should our provider have sold our contract on without our knowledge/approval or is this a breach of Data Protection?

Thanks

 

[qrmahmad]

Thanks budy for your information great help you did

 

[british steve]

Oh no....our current clinical waste provider whom we have used for over 4 years has just sent us a letter saying that PHS Allclear has "acquired our contract"...i.e. they have sold it to them! The letter says that we are to deal with PHS in future. I previously had my fingers burnt with PHS Wastetech and do not with to deal with a PHS company at all! Are we obliged to accept a service from them when I did not enter into a contract with PHS,and should our provider have sold our contract on without our knowledge/approval or is this a breach of Data Protection?

Thanks

I wopuld imagine that you would be covered by the contract you signed in the first place - read the small print and check what the termination of contract details are! I doubt that another company can come in and change details of your contract with out asking you, but cancel your existing contract and start liooking for a new supplier.

 

[dizzie]

My current contract requires me to give three months notice prior to the anniversary date of my contract (which is 31st December). Very nice of my current waste provider to let me know only last week that they had sold my contract on to PHS! I now suspect that PHS may do as before and send out a duty of care notice next month (January) which I will be legally obliged to sign....but on the reverse will be their new T&Cs which will allow them to charge whatever they want (also as before!). And by signing the duty of care, I will be effectively agreeing to new T&Cs.Aarghh!

The thing that really gets to me is that the contract was between me and Waste company 1...not between me and PHS. There is nothing in the small print that states that they have the right to sell my contract on....and I'd rather have my teeth pulled out than be with PHS!

 

[DaveSUK]

If their is no specific clause within your contract allowing waste company 1 to transfer their rights to a third party then you are not legally obliged to have any dealing with PHS.

I have this information directly from our solicitor as when I first bought my office I used one security company for night patrol who where useless, I got rid of them and used a new one for 2 years they then sold the contract to the original company I had used previously. They told me I was bound by the contract my solicitor said otherwise.

 

[Hedgie]

Hmmm .... a load of new posters suddenly pop up and declare PHS a load of####

Why come on to a forum and start slagging a business off in this manner? Smacks of a competitor trying to discredit PHS to me??

and now it just dawns on me to check the date of the original post ...DOH !!!!

 

[dizzie]

Hedgehog Toys,

I believe that it is common for small business who are faced with a problem to begin to try to seek some advice from others who may have been in a similar situation....and if that means joining a business forum, so be it!

I can wholeheartedly assure you that I am NOT a competitor to PHS. I am simply a small business who has had one previous bad experience of this company and does NOT want to repeat it! My experience of this company is shared with many others...you only need to contact the FSB to find this out if you are so interested in establishing the facts!

 

[geoff_s]

I might add, don't wait until 3 months before you cancel, it can take a while to jump through PHS's hoops

You must cancel by registered delivery, send a cancellation letter by ordinary or recorded post and they will not answer it or let you know your mistake. So you'll be stuck with them at whatever prices they decide to dream-up for yet another year.

You must send it to the correct address. I posted mine to my regional office by registered post. They stamped it received & faxed it to HO who claimed it was a fax not a registered letter. They said I must prove I sent them a cancellation. I said, you're reading it to me. Hours surreal arguments followed.

You must put on the letter the exact date your contract finishes, or it won't be a legal cancellation. (see your contract). This information will hopefully be on a document that may be many years old. If your filing sytem isn't up to it, try (just for fun project) writing to them a few times & then phoning them to ask exactly when does my contract finish.

All this for collecting a small dustbin. Instead of PHS's novel size small print, the far far cheaper agreement I have with my council is 1) I pay them & 2) They collect my bin until I ask not to. You can extract these terms from PHS once you correctly cancel your contract get competitive quotes & fight hard for it.

(& well spotted Hedgehog - this is just an vile conspiracy. Once my small unnamed council has taken over all PHS's business & destroyed it, it will target BT on it's unscrupulous plans toward global domination - it's an evil world out there - keep vigilant)

 

[The totter]

Hmmm .... a load of new posters suddenly pop up and declare PHS a load of####

Why come on to a forum and start slagging a business off in this manner? Smacks of a competitor trying to discredit PHS to me??

and now it just dawns on me to check the date of the original post ...DOH !!!!

It's was because of a direct result of the original thread on this forum sometime ago that persuaded me to wavier my companies waste transfer note administration charge, further more allowing my clients the opportunity to cancel their service contracts with just one months notice & no penalties for doing so..
We can all learn from companies mistakes large or small In any Industry, Its what gives our businesses the edge, through this forum at least I can keep my finger on the pulse. However, saying that I have seen some dodgy titles in the past which I'm sure is for google rankings..

 

[dizzie]

Hello Totter,

I don't know whether PHS have changed their business tactics, and really don't want to wait to find out. Their T&Cs not only allowed them to charge for AWTN (which if it had been a modest amount, I wouldn't have minded). But it allowed them to charge whatever they wanted and for whatever they wanted within that contract term. So much so, that besides the costs for my general waste (which was the contract I was in) I was even charged for items such as £15 + VAT for a letter sent at their behest to advertise their recycling services to me. They stated the legislation requiring businesses to divert waste away from landfill as a reason. I was given seven days from the date of the letter to respond (which was sent to me by second class mail, so I had to turn it around immediately) and they stated that they would charge me a further £25 + VAT per month for providing a paper recycling service to me which they would enforce me to take (blah, blah their T&Cs said they could provide and charge for what they liked) unless I could provide proof that I was already using someone else to collect recyclable waste before their seven day deadline.

And we were (and still are) a tiny two man band, operating only three days per week and only generating one bag of waste in its entirety per week. How much can you recycle out of that which justifies a monthly collection? Luckily, we were recycling with another company with collections on an adhoc basis and managed to get the proof back to them by Special Delivery, but I was still charged for PHS's letter to me.

It seemed to me that PHS were not interested in the little businesses. They had them locked into a contract and were just determined to get as much money out of them as possible before they were allowed to terminate it.

 

[littlebiz]

We had a small business, and sadly it had to close due to recession. Although we've informed them 8 times so far, they keep charging us for bags picked up (which we are not putting out or producing as we are closed) and various trumped up admin charges. They refuse to respond to letters, just keep invoicing us. I've read on her that they have a 3 year contract and rolling charges. i inform of of closure at least once a month but they ignore it. Does the 3 year contract hold if the business is closed? I don;t seem to have a copy of the contract - not sure there is one - certainly not one with the clauses I have read about on the back.
I,m fed with with them harrassing us, when the business is closed. Utter, utter cowboys.
if you are are small biz - don't go near PHS wastetech.