Can they do this? Unitel Direct

[gibby]

Hi, Ive recently been asked to help a friend with a new website.
The old site has gone and a new one put up.

My friend had been duped into using a firm called Unitel Direct also known as First Search Consultancy - in the past to help with SEO services.

When I looked through the bills I was quite shocked to see the prices charged for some previous SEO work on the old site. When I looked at it it was dreadfully done and no wonder the site was not ranking well at all.

Recently Unitel Direct contacted my friend wanting him to pay another lot of money. He refused and got lots of abuse on the phone. They promised that it would result in the website dropping off google and that it could not go back onto google for 17 months.
They also claimed they had done lots of work over the months on the website, despite it not being there and with them not having any access to the new website.

Luckily my friend refused again and got more grief on the phone.

Recently he got this email, whcih Im about to pass onto trading standards.

Can they legally remove work they had done after it had been paid for?


Dear Customer

Following a recent telephone conversation regarding the renewal of your products that you currently have with Unitel Direct Ltd, we understand that your company no longer wishes to use this service and has declined to renew this product which is now due for renewal as your 12 month contract has now ended. As your company no longer requires our services, we shall need your website log in details to remove the previous work that has been inserted into your website now your 12 months has expired. These details were previously supplied at the beginning of your contract for us to insert the engineering work into your website however for Data Protection reasons, we do not hold or store these details on file. To provide us with your website log in details, please email them to [email protected].
Please be aware that if we do not receive your website log in details to remove our work from your website you may be sent to a 3rd party debt collection agency to recover costs for keeping our engineering work live in your website without our permission.
Contacting Us
Our main telephone number is 0844 745 1111, our opening times are Monday to Thursday 9:30am till 5:00pm and Friday 9:30am till 4:30pm, the offices are closed on a Saturday and Sunday. Alternatively if you wish to email us, our main email address is [email protected]

--
Kind Regards
Customer Services Team http://www.uniteldirect.co.uk/

Unitel Direct LTD
First Floor
Victoria House
Pearson Way
Stockton-On-Tees
TS17 6PT


Telephone: 0844 745 1111 - 01642 604879

Company Registration Number: 06936290
Vat Number: 992572575

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Sadly this is very common I have had many emails from people who have had this kind of email when they end a contract. They can fight it in court, but it will depend on the wording of the contract, and if it says that all work has to be removed, then fine. You will need to tell them you will do the work, and ask them to provide the list of work to be removed, as well as the original content that was there prior to their replacing it with their own. I doubt they will have that content on file, at which point you can refuse to action anything until the can provide it. They will have to put the site back in the position it was before they made their changes, they can't just remove their changes and damage the site.

 

[FirstClassVirtualOffice]

So are they paying just to rent some temporary content within their website?

 

[gibby]

It really looks that way and the rates are massive too.

They also rented a landing page for £300 + vat per year on a co.uk, promising it would bring lots of traffic but the customers own site was beating it by miles for search engine traffic

 

[gibby]

also - they must get some real grief as they post this on the bottom of each email

/This email message, including attachments, is solely for use by the
> individual named above and is confidential, it must not be circulated or
> forwarded to anyone or any forum/blog page, if found to be used the
> legal action will be taken against the individual. If the reader of this
> message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you
> must not read, use, disclose, distribute or copy any part of this
> communication. If you have received this communication in error, please
> immediately notify by email our customer service team on
> [email protected]
> <mailto:[email protected]> and destroy the original message,
> including any attachments. Thank you. Unitel Direct Group of Companies,
> Unitel Direct LTD, Registered office - The Innovation Centre,
> Kirklea

 

[Paul_Rosser]

Looks like your friend isn't alone - http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/unitel-direct-limited-c495646.html

 

[BusinessDeli]

Bunch of chancers. A fully paid up contract for services/work rendered and now they want to take that back? Are they refunding the money for the work? I very much doubt it.
It's a ridiculous request or demand to make. If I perform a service for a year and I get paid then that's that, all done. The Client has paid and keeps the work.

 

[BusinessDeli]

This has annoyed me so I've had a look at their T&Cs. It does state that they want their toys back! http://www.uniteldirect.co.uk/terms.aspx
All very heavily in unitel's favour I might add, nothing fair about it. Interestingly, it also mentions -
1.3 Services - means the internet services which the buyer agrees to buy from The Company.
My understanding of the word 'buy' is that once bought the ownership passes to you.

 

[Root 66 Woodshop]

Surely if what they've provided is crap then they deserve to receive crap?

Give them hell, Give them what for! Why don't you speak to your friend, request that you speak on their behalf and contact them and point out all the flaws of their work - explain to them how shoddy their services have been and that if they want to take the company to court for "purchasing their services" then you'll gladly contact Trading Standards and inform them of the quality of work and extortionate prices that they charge for doing very little.

Or, I can if you want I don't care...

I'm nothing to do with SEO and to be quite frank after reading their site I'm glad I'm not! - But...

Using our site
a. You agree to use the Site for lawful and ethical means only.
b. We reserve the right without notice to terminate any person(s) access to the Site.

Funny.

 

[Root 66 Woodshop]

Talk about a lazy company... they've copied and pasted T&C's from a standard template it would seem... there's quite a few websites with the exact same T&C's - the only difference is that other companies have taken the time to remove The Company and put in their company name.

:|

Personally, I'd check the website for anything stolen from other sites... if they're going to do that with their own site, 50 quid bet they won't have any issues doing it with other work.

Cooling off period is also illegal...

f a Client chooses to cancel their agreement within their 5 day cooling off period, and we have purchased a domain name on the Client's behalf, then the Client will be subject to a charge of £50+vat for each domain we have purchased.

Buying online from shops or suppliers

The purchase of goods and services over the internet, by phone or by mail order generally is subject to the Distance Selling Regulations. One of the most important implications of these regulations is a cooling off period of 7 days during which you have the right to cancel. You must provide notice of cancellation in writing and it must be posted to, left at, faxed or emailed to the business address of the supplier, and you must ensure this is done no later than 7 working days after receipt of goods. Contracts for financial products sold by distance means are subject to different rules, see below for more on this.

http://whatconsumer.co.uk/cooling-off-and-cancellations/

 

[Root 66 Woodshop]

Check this out...

A contract is a legal agreement that is binding onto the parties who have agreed to an exchange. When some aspects of a contract can no longer be enforce or are by no means legal, then it is possible for a contract to be rendered null and void from the beginning. Such contracts are referred to as void contracts.

http://brainz.org/what-void-contract/

Speak to a solicitor... could be interesting.

All the above is my opinion by the way, I am by no means involved with any legal company.

 

[gibby]

Surely if what they've provided is crap then they deserve to receive crap?

Give them hell, Give them what for! Why don't you speak to your friend, request that you speak on their behalf and contact them and point out all the flaws of their work - explain to them how shoddy their services have been and that if they want to take the company to court for "purchasing their services" then you'll gladly contact Trading Standards and inform them of the quality of work and extortionate prices that they charge for doing very little.

Or, I can if you want I don't care...

I'm nothing to do with SEO and to be quite frank after reading their site I'm glad I'm not! - But...



Funny.

Thanks, this is exactly what I am doing and yes Im passing info to trading standards.

 

[MartCactus]

Cooling off period is also illegal...

Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, but I did train as one many years back.

The Distance Selling Regulations apply only to consumer contracts. In most cases if you're running a website its part of a business, so the contract isn't a consumer one and hence the DSR don't apply.

Generally companies are assumed to be more savvy than consumers, so the statutory protections against "unfair" contract terms that are given to consumers aren't anywhere as full for a business customer.

 

[littlebob]

Thanks, this is exactly what I am doing and yes Im passing info to trading standards.[/quote

Evening Gibby

How are you getting on with this bunch of clowns? We are about to do the same after having the same email, written a letter of complaint and asked that all future communication is in writing and not in their threatening phone manner. It took them two weeks to respond to my first letter and a child could have done better, i have also kept the ace up my sleeve, will respond in their own two week time scale and see what happens.

Regards

littlebob

 

[gibby]

They have gone quite. We did get a few calls from the technical dept, if they have such a thing. They wanted my friend to confirm that the contract was not to be renewed, somwthing to do with a recorded confirmation.

The guy on the phone stated they would start removing work but got flustered when I asked how. He also kept asking about keeping labding pages and domains that had nothing to do with this account. He was adamant they were part of the contract so I can only assume he was going to destroy work for other customers..

Since then we have heard nothing from them and the external landing pages they did create are still there.

Trading standards is definately worth a complaint though.
Let me know how you get on.

 

[simon field]

As far as I know there is no cooling off period in a B2B contract Dave.

 

[ceepclearcleaning]

DODGY TRADER ALERT! - Unitel Direct

We have just been threatened with collections by a unitel direct seeking £695 for nothing. We used their services nearly a year ago which we pre paid a set amount for seo services which they guaranteed first page google results, they did not deliver until the last week of contract. Contract has ended. They now want access to my website to remove things unknown to me, i have refused as i have had other seo companies make changes and i do not want this undone, they then threatened me with a bill of £695 if i don't let them get into my website. i did not sign or agree to any contract but they seem to think differently

 

[gibby]

Sounds like the same bunch of con artists.
simply ignore them and if they threaten you with anything ask for copies of the original agreement.
They did chase my friend until I explained I had been speaking to trading standards.
Everything stopped some time back and strangely they have not taken down the landing pages they created.

 

[Root 66 Woodshop]

Only just catching up on this, Aye there's no cooling off period within B2B but considering their Business is a bit of a sham I couldn't help but mention it anyway.

I.E. It's very nice of them to give you a cooling off period and charging you £50 for each and every domain they purchase - but will they actually pass over these domains once they've charged you? Probably not considering you're not getting a reasonable product from them in the end either.

 

[ZedS]

Ridiculous! I would not give them the website login details, just let them be. Your friend paid for the work done, so as far as I know, it belongs to him/her. Unitel obviously have not thought out their contract terms, because clearly they were charging an ongoing fee for a one-off service.. They cannot now claim the work back!

Also, working in the web and graphic design field myself, I don't believe they have the authority to "ban" your friend's website from Google. Google uses an algorithm to rank its search results, which is not based on how many people like you..!

Sadly, many online companies will try scare tactics like this until you stand your ground and show them you are not another fickle client.