phs wastetech problems any advice

[brillangel]

We got out of our contract by moving premises and it took them about 3 months to remove the bin from the old premises.

Have they explained what the pre treatment charge is?

I'd be tempted to send them a cheque for the final payment, include the £59 charge and include the terms "Full and Final Settlement" with your payment.

I presume they have agreed to cancel your contract based on the solicitors letter?

Hi,

Thank you for your reply.

Someone from PHS has said that my account would have been cancelled I will not be responsible for the anything happening to the bins, but don't know whether to believe that or not.

I am more than willing to pay the final payment as I incurred the charges however I am reluctant to pay anymore as the pre treatment charges costs more than what I pay for the lifts! They just said the pre treatment charges is for them treating the waste which I thought was what I was paying for to start off with. I find with each year they seem to find new things to charge me for.

Yes they only agreed to cancel based on my solicitors letter.

 

[KateCB]

I'm with PHS Wastetech and have been for years now; I can't say that I have experienced any of the issues being discussed. When I first changed to them they saved me almost £1,000 a year (I had a red bin before). Prices have risen a bit since then but can anyone tell me what prices havent gone up?!

I'm sorry that you have had a poor experience, I'd recommend PHS Wastetech to anyone though. They have not missed a single one of my collections EVER.

Funny that - new poster, 1 post, defending a company who has a long and colourful history of being the exact opposite of this.....mmmm, I wonder why they work for?

 

[KateCB]

Hi,

Thank you for your reply.

Someone from PHS has said that my account would have been cancelled I will not be responsible for the anything happening to the bins, but don't know whether to believe that or not.

I am more than willing to pay the final payment as I incurred the charges however I am reluctant to pay anymore as the pre treatment charges costs more than what I pay for the lifts! They just said the pre treatment charges is for them treating the waste which I thought was what I was paying for to start off with. I find with each year they seem to find new things to charge me for.

Yes they only agreed to cancel based on my solicitors letter.

I think that I would only relax when that 'someone' from phs confirmed in writing that they would not hold you responsible for any damage/lostt to their bins if they fail to collect them.......! Think I would be talking to Cardiff....?

 

[lockyer]

Phs have an interesting web of phoenixed and shell companies, which are the key to winning the battles over contracts with them. I.e one of our clients signed a contract with them, but it was already in the name of a liquidated division, so the judge ruled no contract was in force.

 

[danprayag]

I cannot believe I am reading all of this on here...I spent the whole day yesterday trying to speak to someone of authority at PHS Wastetect but could not. TO ALL BUSINESSES THINKING OF USING THIS COMPANY FOR YOUR WASTE DISPOSAL...PLEASE DON'T...PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE...
If I start writing about all the bad experiences I have encountered with this company over the past year I will run out of time and space. Suffice it to say that tomorrow I am going to my local Trading Standards council office as a first step towards making sure I get some compensation from this company. I am glad to know though that I am not an isolated case. I have been through every single bad experience mentioned on here and more. It must be usual practice at that company to operate the way they do...making up charges as they go along, increasing their charges every quarter without notice, blaming new charges on new government legislation, dishonestly misrepresenting, mis-selling and tieing up customers into contracts based on wrong information...I could go on and on and on and on...Every month I dread receiving my invoice from this company because I know I will have to pick up the phone and waste the best part of a day trying to get some explanations from those morons who work there as to why my charges have gone up or there are some additional charges on my invoice or something else. It's just so frustrating that such companies are allowed to carry on in business.

 

[brillangel]

I think that I would only relax when that 'someone' from phs confirmed in writing that they would not hold you responsible for any damage/lostt to their bins if they fail to collect them.......! Think I would be talking to Cardiff....?

I know what you mean, I cannot believe anything they say as it varies between different people so much. I am glad I cancelled the direct debit earlier so at least I have a chance of arguing with them.

I have never had so much trouble with a company before!! I cannot bear to imagine if we weren't leaving the property how else we would be able to cancel with them.

 

[brillangel]

I cannot believe I am reading all of this on here...I spent the whole day yesterday trying to speak to someone of authority at PHS Wastetect but could not. TO ALL BUSINESSES THINKING OF USING THIS COMPANY FOR YOUR WASTE DISPOSAL...PLEASE DON'T...PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE...
If I start writing about all the bad experiences I have encountered with this company over the past year I will run out of time and space. Suffice it to say that tomorrow I am going to my local Trading Standards council office as a first step towards making sure I get some compensation from this company. I am glad to know though that I am not an isolated case. I have been through every single bad experience mentioned on here and more. It must be usual practice at that company to operate the way they do...making up charges as they go along, increasing their charges every quarter without notice, blaming new charges on new government legislation, dishonestly misrepresenting, mis-selling and tieing up customers into contracts based on wrong information...I could go on and on and on and on...Every month I dread receiving my invoice from this company because I know I will have to pick up the phone and waste the best part of a day trying to get some explanations from those morons who work there as to why my charges have gone up or there are some additional charges on my invoice or something else. It's just so frustrating that such companies are allowed to carry on in business.

I know I cannot believe the amount of things they are allowed to get away with!

Please update us on how it went with trading standards.

Also I totally agree with you, please do not ever think of using PHS even if they offer low prices it will increase!!!!

 

[Cardselect]

When running an SME we all have to deal with poor customer service but PHS really take the biscuit. I believe it is all a scam, from the T&C's in pale ink on the back to the actual T&C's themselves. They actually tried to defend tripling the price, adding huge admin charges and putting 3 month termination obstacles in the way. NON of this is legal, its just bully boy tactics by a company run by an over zealous legal dept. For every invoice they send , then send an invoice back for your own admin or storage charge. Going to the local small claims court will cost them much more than it costs you, its tit for tat. The only way to hurt these people and stop them is to complain, and complain and complain. I'm so fed up after 6 months that I now plan to purchase one share next to attend the AGM. I will scream about their contract scam infront of the shareholders who are not bothered about customers only their returns. They will then understand that the projected PHS growth/returns will never happen due to a poisoned UK market place. COMPLAIN... but do it right!

 

[isupportnoteam]

I had a case in court today with PHS, I wont go into any details as it was adjourned however I was awarded over £200 in costs for todays hearing alone.

Do not be afraid of these people, they are obviously taking people to court reguarly and don't forget to ask the judge for your costs.

 

[Rubops]

I had a very long stroy with PHS and they keep on rolling our account (even we send letters and emails to cancel the account). they send us a letter of charging £1,983.25 last week.

Anyone can suggest a solicitor that deal with PHS before.

Thanks guys

 

[Rubops]

we had a very long story with PHS, they keep on rolling our account and receive a letter last week they charge us £1,983.25, which is a rip off

can anyone suggest a [FONT=&quot]solicitor that deal with PHS before. Very Urgent!

Thanks guys
[/FONT]

 

[missyflies]

Hey guys just an update since my last post i wrote two letters to my local phs branch and head office branch adddress i got from this forum, stated id liked to cancel my contract ending dec 11 also that there pre acceptance audit was fake, there reply was a credit note for the pre acceptance audit and confirm they will let me leave in dec 11 , BUT i now have a nice pre treatment of waste declaration fee rounded up to £98.16 have argued on the phone saying they did not advise me there was a charge on the paper work which has fallen on deaf ears is this yet another illegal fee? has anyone else argued this new fee?

 

[gthull644]

How I wish I had found this forum before taking out a contract with PHS. I now have a problem in trying to extricate myself from a contract.

Avoid PHS Wastetech!

 

[Tax-UK]

Check your written contract, if there isn't one then you do not need to give them any notice.

 

[S22JCD]

Hi All,


Lots of interesting comments, great for everyone to post.

We have been with PHS for about 6 months now.

We did have a few problems with getting charged an extra land fill tax which we was not informed about when discussing prices with them. None of the emails stated a landfill tax.

We have also been charged an extra fee twice for an extra bin bag that was on our skip and not in it.

We are in two minds on what to do next.

We have never signed a paper contract after several contacts being sent to us.

As we have never signed a contact are we ok to give them three months notice in writing and then cancel the direct debit after the 3 months notice?

All feedback would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[S22JCD]

Hi All,

Lots of interesting comments, great for everyone to post.

We have also been with PHS for about 6 months now.

We have had a few problems with getting charged an extra land fill tax which we was not informed about when discussing prices with them. None of the emails stated a landfill tax. We asked about extra fees and was told what the price per lift was, no extra fees.

We have also been charged an extra fee twice for an extra bin bag that was on our skip and not in it.

We are in two minds on what to do next...

We have never signed a paper contract after several contacts being sent to us.

As we have never signed a contact are we ok to give them three months notice in writing and then cancel the direct debit after the 3 months notice?

All feedback would be much appreciated.

 

[asj100]

Hi All,

Lots of interesting comments, great for everyone to post.

We have also been with PHS for about 6 months now.

We have had a few problems with getting charged an extra land fill tax which we was not informed about when discussing prices with them. None of the emails stated a landfill tax. We asked about extra fees and was told what the price per lift was, no extra fees.

We have also been charged an extra fee twice for an extra bin bag that was on our skip and not in it.

We are in two minds on what to do next...

We have never signed a paper contract after several contacts being sent to us.

As we have never signed a contact are we ok to give them three months notice in writing and then cancel the direct debit after the 3 months notice?

All feedback would be much appreciated.

Hi,

While you have not signed a contract with this company, you have accepted their services and they have sent you a written contract with their T&Cs, I would suggest that you write to them and inform them they are in breach of your AGREEMENT (not contract) they are over charging for agreed collections and have imposed charges which were never agreed too, ordered or required.

Give them 21 days to correct their breach by returning the over charges to you, and returning the agreement to its original agreed collections, charges and payment schedules. Add that if they fail to remedy their breach you will write to terminate the agreement BECAUSE THEY ARE ALREADY IN BREACH.

Experience has shown they never reply and never correct, so after the 21 days "opportunity to correct their breach has expired" Terminate on those grounds, as they are already in breach, you give them time to correct and they failed to do so, then they effectively have ended the agreement. Cancel any Direct Debit.

Make sure you detail in both the correction letter and actual termination letter that your reasons for terminating is their breach of the agreement. make a point of stating in both letters that failure to correct the breach will result in a termination and in your final letter, state that you are terminating because of their breach and their failure to remedy said breach.

State that you do not require them to attend your premises to collect or dispose of rubbish, you do require them to collect their property from your site (bin/s) also inform them they have 21 days to make the collection after this period has elapsed you will take no responsibility for the bin/s and after 31 days the items will be disposed of and you reserve the right to bill them for any disposal costs incurred.

Hope this helps

Regards
steve (asj100)

 

[isupportnoteam]

I had a case in court today with PHS, I wont go into any details as it was adjourned however I was awarded over £200 in costs for todays hearing alone.

Do not be afraid of these people, they are obviously taking people to court reguarly and don't forget to ask the judge for your costs.

Update - We had the hearing today and WON, more costs awarded to us. These PHS contracts are deliberately misleading, in our case the writing was so small and abbreviated that the PHS solicitor actually brought a magnifying glass in to attempt to read and had blown up the rear of contract onto an A3 sheet. I couldnt contain my laughter at these 2 ridiculous attempts to justify their claim.

I think something needs to be done by trading standards or if there is a legal contracts department within goverment as innocent business people should not be dragged away from work to defend themselves when PHS are repeatedly losing cases of the same nature. The judge used some wording regarding unclear contracts which hopefully I will get a copy of the judges summing up and be able to post here.

 

[bernie o]

Hi All,
We like so many others have been fleeced by PHS and are at the stage of refusing to pay them any more money as we have stopped using the bin.
We have given up with there so called customer services and are now waiting for them to trot out the usual threats and charges.
On the FSB forum a few people have tried getting in touch with Watchdog who wont get involved because we are businesses and also Trading Standards who also don't seem interested.Someone who might be able to help is the BBC's Rip Off Britain, if enough people on these forums e-mail there PHS horror stories to them hopefully they will investigate and expose this companies disgraceful actions.

 

[Suziedoggirl1]

Interesting comments on what must surely be the worst waste company there is. After my initial fixed charge 12 month contract prices went through the roof (and beyond!) PHS claim to have sent all clients notification that prices were to rise, niether my business or any that I've spoken to have ever received such letters, but PHS insist that they have been sent.
5 of us in local business (and 2 further afield) with a PHS contract have requested copies of these letters, when they finally came it was obvious to anyone that they have just cobbled something together and claimed that they are copies and with many errors. I believe that PHS are in breach of their own terms and conditions by failing to give the correct notification as in 4.1 of their own T & C. They claim that an invoice is notification but of course it isn't.

It would be great to hear from others that they have never recieved the price increase notification letters. The more I get the harder it will be for them to convince a judge when this goes to court. Any info please, greatfully accepted.

 

[jamwrath]

I too am suffering from the poor business practices and unexplained price increases of PHS Wastetech. I have a contract which says i will receive 2 collections a week although i am only receiving 1 collection a week. i rang customer services only to be told that i was incorrect. when i commented "so you don't listen to what your customers say?" She replied "NO we don't". I was stunned! I asked when my contract was due for renewal, then to be told that they could not disclose that information due to the data protection act. I have now given written notice and cancelled my direct debits as i do not trust this company to play straight for the remainder of my contract. I would be happy to go to court over this one! Scum pure scum!

 

[asj100]

jamwrath, Sorry to hear you have joined the PHS club, sadly your experience is the norm not the exception. I hope your cancellation letter give the reason as a breach of contract on their part and their refusal to correct the error. I did go to court with these idiots, see post early on here, the judge said much the same thing as you. They are very likely to continue billing you despite your cancellation, normally when the account hits £2k thats when they go for the courts, They will claim you owe the outsanding invoices (after cancellation) because you did not cancel at the right time or in the right way. Their own T&Cs only allow them to claim for 3 months loss of profits, nothing more!, they are unlikely to have that figure available in the court, so going to be hard for them to move their claim to that amount. The key here is that it is loss of profits NOT monthly charges.

 

[Montaigne]

The PHS Group is currently up for sale. Why not swamp the CEO (Peter Cohen) with complaints and the threat of bad press? The thought of their share price going down when they are trying to sell may motivate them more than individual small firms constantly complaining/taking legal action against one of their subsidiaries (I'm not suggesting it is wrong to be complaining though!)

 

[IGM_Computers]

I've had a bit of experience with PHS Waterlogic a few years ago and they were great but I've heard horror stories about the rest of the group!

 

[Meadows]

Watch this space - I cancelled a contract we had with this company because they overcharged us persistently. They made no attempt to resolve my complaint to them and continued sending invoices out for collections not made, including a waste transfer administration fee. This was over six sites, and they took us to court claiming for collections not made after we terminated. I attended court today but the judge was unable to give a verdict as she had a sore throat. Back there on 25th November so I will let you know what happens.
We have used Veolia since last November and have no complaints, they are also a fraction of PHS prices.

 

[Merchant UK]

The way to cancel the contract is by Breech of contract. if you are suffering with a deadbeat service or service far worst than was originally agreed you can cancel by Breech of contract on their part

They will have a tough time proving in court they they gave to excellent service if you can prove otherwise.

I had this issue with some Overall cleaners, told me i had to give 3 months notice, but i found them in breech of several things which we agreed and signed for originally, case closed.

 

[Suziedoggirl1]

The way to cancel the contract is by Breech of contract. if you are suffering with a deadbeat service or service far worst than was originally agreed you can cancel by Breech of contract on their part

They will have a tough time proving in court they they gave to excellent service if you can prove otherwise.

I had this issue with some Overall cleaners, told me i had to give 3 months notice, but i found them in breech of several things which we agreed and signed for originally, case closed.

I agree that breech of contract on their part is the way out. I'm still trying to find businesses that have been with PHS but have never recieved notification of price increase letters. They say they send them to every client but I know they don't. If I can ask again, if you've been with PHS and have never received these letters it would help my case when it comes to court if you could let me know. The more that confirm never receiving them the harder it will be for PHS to say they send them.

 

[asj100]

I agree that breech of contract on their part is the way out. I'm still trying to find businesses that have been with PHS but have never recieved notification of price increase letters. They say they send them to every client but I know they don't. If I can ask again, if you've been with PHS and have never received these letters it would help my case when it comes to court if you could let me know. The more that confirm never receiving them the harder it will be for PHS to say they send them.

We were with PHS for over 14 months, we cancelled because of pricing and contract failures on their part. During this period we had a different price added to our account almost every month. We never received any form of communication from this company detailing any price increase or changes in our contracted services.

Prior to taking the matter to the County Court they did claim that they had sent us price increase notifications, however the court up held the view that even if they did as they claimed, the contract was for a minimum 12 month period and that it was reasonable for us to expect the price to remain the same for at least that period. They took us to court for outstanding invoices totalling £2,200, mostly for collections they claimed they made AFTER we had give them notice of termination due to continued breach of contract on their part. The court dismissed their entire claim and awarded us damages for costs incurred and refunds for all over charged items.

They also viewed the issue of an additional charge for Waste Transfer Notes was outside the agreed contract and as we had never requested the WTN to be issued nor had we agreed to pay for these items, that we should also have that amount refunded.

This company are not to be trusted, they will and do over charge at any and every opportunity, a Direct Debit with this company is a mistake, as they will abuse it and take much more than the agreed sums. Only our very first invoice was correct, every other invoice was over charged.

Hope this helps

Regards
Steve

 

[Steve Sellers]

They took us to court for outstanding invoices totalling £2,200, mostly for collections they claimed they made AFTER we had give them notice of termination due to continued breach of contract on their part. The court dismissed their entire claim and awarded us damages for costs incurred and refunds for all over charged items.

The first sentence sounds familiar. The second sentence will be even more familiar in a couple of months. Did you make a counter claim for breach of contract?

 

[asj100]

The first sentence sounds familiar. The second sentence will be even more familiar in a couple of months. Did you make a counter claim for breach of contract?

Yes we claimed for and were awarded all the over charges, the full return of fees collected by Direct Debit for Waste Transfer notes and for our administration costs. (we charged them £25 per letter). After our termination letter they wrote to us to say "they did not accept the form of termination we had put in our letter and that we still had 10 months to run and they were going to require us to pay for that whole period before they would accept the termination,".

We wrote to them again, refering them to their breach, referring them to our previous letter detailing the breach and their failure to remedy the breach within the time allowed. We also told them that we considered the matter closed and if they required us to provide any further information or reply to any further letters from them, we would be levying a charge of £25.00 per letter to cover our administration costs. We stated that any request for a reply or any letter that required a reply of any kind would be deemed as acceptance of these charges.. The court agreed that the 7 replies we sent back to their letters following this letter, did enable us to claim the costs, (we sent an invoice for £25.00 with each reply.)

By the way the time between our termination and going to court was 19 months and they tried to claim collection fees for the whole period.

There is nothing about this company that can be classed as good... scams and illigal activities are all they are good at, the judge at the court was very hard on them and took them to task over their demands and their contract.

I hope this helps

Regards
Steve

 

[Steve Sellers]

There is nothing about this company that can be classed as good...

IMHO they are very good at bringing misconceived claims

 

[Quick1]

I agree that breech of contract on their part is the way out. I'm still trying to find businesses that have been with PHS but have never recieved notification of price increase letters. They say they send them to every client but I know they don't. If I can ask again, if you've been with PHS and have never received these letters it would help my case when it comes to court if you could let me know. The more that confirm never receiving them the harder it will be for PHS to say they send them.

Hi Suziedoggirl
we to have been having many problems with phs for over one year and no we have never received a price increase letter either, I find it amusing that they insist that all paper work sent to them has to be recorded but if they send any documents to there customers its "tough we sent them attitude"
let me know if you require any more information & I will give you my email address

 

[Quick1]

Suziedoggirl1

we to have never received any notification of any price increase, I dont think they have ever existed until you ask them.
if you require any information let me know

 

[Suziedoggirl1]

Hi Suziedoggirl
we to have been having many problems with phs for over one year and no we have never received a price increase letter either, I find it amusing that they insist that all paper work sent to them has to be recorded but if they send any documents to there customers its "tough we sent them attitude"
let me know if you require any more information & I will give you my email address

Email would be great thanks.
Phil

 

[Suziedoggirl1]

We were with PHS for over 14 months, we cancelled because of pricing and contract failures on their part. During this period we had a different price added to our account almost every month. We never received any form of communication from this company detailing any price increase or changes in our contracted services.

Prior to taking the matter to the County Court they did claim that they had sent us price increase notifications, however the court up held the view that even if they did as they claimed, the contract was for a minimum 12 month period and that it was reasonable for us to expect the price to remain the same for at least that period. They took us to court for outstanding invoices totalling £2,200, mostly for collections they claimed they made AFTER we had give them notice of termination due to continued breach of contract on their part. The court dismissed their entire claim and awarded us damages for costs incurred and refunds for all over charged items.

They also viewed the issue of an additional charge for Waste Transfer Notes was outside the agreed contract and as we had never requested the WTN to be issued nor had we agreed to pay for these items, that we should also have that amount refunded.

This company are not to be trusted, they will and do over charge at any and every opportunity, a Direct Debit with this company is a mistake, as they will abuse it and take much more than the agreed sums. Only our very first invoice was correct, every other invoice was over charged.

Hope this helps

Regards
Steve

Thanks Steve. That's a great help.

Phil

 

[Meadows]

Further to my post on 10th November I am pleased to inform you that the judge decided in our favour. We cancelled a contract because they persistently overcharged and their claim was for "non-services" payments for 8 months after we cancelled totalling over £7000. We are now considering whether to sue them for the overcharging. As I understand it, if they do not attempt to resolve complaints in any meaningful way then they are in breach of contract and you would be correct in cancelling the contract, as in our case. Don't be put off by their numerous threatening letters from their "legal" department. Good luck to you all.

 

[Suziedoggirl1]

Further to my post on 10th November I am pleased to inform you that the judge decided in our favour. We cancelled a contract because they persistently overcharged and their claim was for "non-services" payments for 8 months after we cancelled totalling over £7000. We are now considering whether to sue them for the overcharging. As I understand it, if they do not attempt to resolve complaints in any meaningful way then they are in breach of contract and you would be correct in cancelling the contract, as in our case. Don't be put off by their numerous threatening letters from their "legal" department. Good luck to you all.

Brilliant, well done!

 

[Suziedoggirl1]

Suziedoggirl1

we to have never received any notification of any price increase, I dont think they have ever existed until you ask them.
if you require any information let me know

I know this may not be the kind of forum that people visit regularly but if anyone reads this and is able and happy to confirm they have never received price notification letters, the more I get the better my chances.
As a little PS
It seems that most, if not all businesses using PHS wheely bins (mines a 1000ltr) are charged for a "Pre-Acceptance Audit" I checked with the Environment Agency and it would seem that this only applies to clinical waste, mine is timber waste. I emailed PHS about this and they replied within an hour saying they have credited my account and it must have been an internal error! Some internal error if it's happening all over the country. If you pay for this and you don't produce clinical waste ask for a refund (and an explaination as to why you've been charged)

 

[gthull644]

After another price rise of which they sent me no notice of, I am going to write to PHS cancelling my contract with them. From posts on this forum it looks like they won't let me get away easily but I'm going to try.

 

[Suziedoggirl1]

After another price rise of which they sent me no notice of, I am going to write to PHS cancelling my contract with them. From posts on this forum it looks like they won't let me get away easily but I'm going to try.

Keep us posted so we know their response. After a year of refusing to pay my invoices I've actually had to ask them to let their legal department deal with it.
In 2011 my admin charges alone were about £400. For some reason the latest statement has all of the admin charges removed! This is obviously some kind of trick to keep me with them which won't work. I notice on the FSB forum that one company in Brighton won in court because the current charges/contract are nothing like the original.

When I look at my original signed service contract is does clearly state "Duration 12 months" I put it to them that I've never signed another contract with them since so how can I be bound by it. They just said it's a rolling contract, but that's not what it says on their terms and conditions. Phil