Wastetech PHS - are you with this company?

[FSB member]

I am the membership secretary for the Fedreation of Small businesses in Brighton & Hove. We have taken 140 members away from PHS and as you can see from the mass of evidence in this thread DO NOT TOUCH Them with a barge pole. WE have attanded court with 5 of our members and got a repayment order with ALL of them. It is throughout the country, and if you try to unpick this multi-million turnover conglomerate its a nightmare of companies owning companies. Just call their bluff and tell them top get lost, their records are so bad that mostly they do not have a signed copy of your contract, because they have taken over good small companies and then imposed their draconian terms on you. In our area TEAM waste is very good and less than half of the price of PHS and are members of FSB which means GOOD, responsive service which will respond if you have a problem. It's NO good making a note of who you speak to at PHS because the staff are only there for a few weeks and then leave. The previous post has to understand that ANY commercial organisation has by law to have a contract for commercial waste collection ( penalty £1000 ). You WILL be prosecuted if you try to feed commercial waste in with domestic!!!! If you need support contact your local FSB regional Office and if they have not experienced this problem in your area (YET ) get them to contact the East Sussex FSB office 01323 482018

 

[grasshopper]

We joined PHS Wastetech in Aug 2006 as they were reasonably cheaper than many other companies providing similar service. We signed a contract for 12 months and not 36 months as their standard contract. prior to signing the contract I requested their sales manager for the London area to confirm via email that it would be a fixed price contract for the duration of the contract. Their sales manager confirmed this without any hesitation.
After about 2 months into the contract they started sending us the invoices much higher than the agreed price and at the same time their service was appalling, missing collections, charging for waste not collected, not answering calls at the depot and so on.......

To resolve this problem we decided to contact their customer services at Brighton only to learn that their staff are so rude as they are all trained like robots who are not willing to listen to your side of the problems but to point you to clauses in the contract. We repeatedly tried to tell them that we have a fixed price contract with them, they ignored this and kept telling us to refer to the clause where they are entitled to increase price and charge for extra waste if their driver say they have collected. At no stage they collected any extra waste yet they invoiced for this every time.

This problem dragged on for months without any success at which stage we wrote to terminate the contract giving them 1 months notice.
Unfortunately they would not accept out letter of cancellation as according to them it was not written according to the format demanded in their contract i.e 3 months notice prior to the anniversary date and it should be via fax and registered post. Even if you are a day short of the 3 months you have no choice but to roll over the contract to the next anniversary date depending on your length of the contract.

As we were unable to exchange dialog with their customer services and they were not willing to terminate the contract we had no alternative but to have our solicitors to communicate with them on our behalf. In July 2007 our solicitors wrote to them explaining the overcharges being made; requesting for the refund and contract to be canceled accordingly. Once again there was no reply to his letter and they continued their appalling service and overcharging on the invoices to the point when we suspended any further payments at which point they suspended their services but still kept sending invoices much over the agreed prices for service not provided.
Since they saw no payment forthcoming they are now pursuing this through the small claims court. We will fight them all the way as a matter of principal!!!!!

This is one of the worse company we have come across in our thirty years of trading!!!

Phs charge companies and businesses for recycling, they then dispose of the recycling with general waste. None of it is recycled!!

 

[littlebiz]

Sadly, yes. Well, we were, but our business is now closed. I've written to them many, many times to inform them of this, but they still keep charging.

Fascinating range of made up charges, but they won't ever divulge their charges - and they hide them on their bills.

They've not responded once to any of our letters or requests for charges. Customer service non-existent.

AVOID! AVOID! Cowboy binmen with a legal department. really.

 

[nolan8213]

Dear Forum Posters,

I have run a restaurant business in South London. I signed up with PHS for 3 years with the attractive £7 per lift offer all inclusive. Having finally ended my contract with PHS I feel I am now in a position to advise customers how to legally end with PHS.

- There is no doubt that when you sign with PHS you need to continue with them throughout the duration of your contract. PHS requires 3 months notice by recorded post. Their cancellation terms are very ambiguous. You will be required to cancel stating the “correct termination date” which according to PHS means the exact same date you started with them. Not a day later or before as they will refuse to accept the letter otherwise.

- I received every invoice on time, but I have never received a price increase notification letter. I have requested a recent copy which never stated the actual price increase. As such this letter is not a valid price increase letter. Cancel your direct debit, and when you receive the invoice calculate the correct amount and pay this by cheque with the invoice number behind.

- PHS may want to threaten you will legal action and fines. Write a letter stating they have not legally informed you of any price rises and therefore until such time may not legally raise any price until formal notification with new price has been provided.

- PHS’s invoices will not be itemised. Should you suspect inflated prices you have the right to ask for the itemised copy which has the breakdown of the prices. Something that PHS wants to hide from the customer. They will claim that due to a system upgrade they are unable to produce such invoice, when in reality they simply don’t want the customer to realise the new prices. This is further evidence that the customer is not notified of any price rises.

- Just to clarify, normally it is the waste producer’s responsibility to pay the Waste Disposal Levy, however it states in the contract that you the customer has agreed to pay this. Therefore it is liable to the customer.

- PHS will attempt to make you pay extras for recycling cardboard saying it is now law. The only thing that legislation states is for all cardboard to be secured. There is no such law stating we are obliged to recycle cardboard.

- If at any point PHS suspends their service or do not collect waste as per there contract terms and conditions you have the right to contract environmental health to pursue the company. Should this continue you will have the right to cancel your contract for they have not provided you with a fair level of service as per the Supply of Services and Goods Act 1982, Section 2.

- Record every phone call and send every letter registered. With every letter you write ensure you mention you are providing them with a minimum of 14 days to respond to the letter.

- They do not have the right to threaten you with bailiff action without a court order. Should they attempt to do this, you have the right to call local enforcement and prosecute the necessary parties for breaking Data Protection act (As PHS does not have the right to share information with 3rd parties) and prosecute for harassment by bailiffs.
Hope this helps.

 

[littlebiz]

Please also write to your local MP about PHS. They have to be stopped from this cowboy behaviour and these onerous contracts. Write to Peter Cohen, too.

 

[Borobar]

these idiots caused me a load of hassle too. i tried to cancel and was given a £7000 bill which to date i have refused to pay

 

[davisifa]

I was so pleased to find this forum. They are tying me into a 3 year contract and asking for money including the infamous annual fee of £237, even though I have never had a bin from them and NEVER HAD ANY COLLECTIONS OR WASTE SERVICES FROM THEM. I signed a contract in June 2010 which was faxed to them, but they kept calling me asking me to send back the original signed contract, which I never did, so I assumed I had not signed an official contract. Within a few days of signing I emailed the sales rep to say that I have discovered I could not get out of my existing waste contract as I had not realised I had to give 3 months notice, and said that I wanted to cancel the request to start the service with them, as I was still in contract with my existing provider, but I asked them to put this on hold because the person that could confirm the information was on holiday. I therefore emailed back to them a few weeks later to say that I was definitely still in contract and could not commence the service with them. The rep suggested that we start the service the following August 2011, if I could give notice to my existing supplier in May 2011. I said I would get back to them in May to confirm this. As I was already experiencing their poor service, including receiving invoices for services never provided, plus the notorious annual waste transfer admin fee, I decided not to change to them, and therefore did not give notice to my current supplier but just continued with them. The saving would have been a few pounds monthly, but with the annual fee added it would have been far more expensive, so I decided not to change. In the interim I have written about 20 letters and emails to them confirming that I do not want their services and besides they have never provided a service to me, so how can they charge for something not provided. They are now saying that I never gave the correct wording to terminate the contract and therefore it is still valid until 2013, and they are going to pass it to their legal department and it will go to court. They said they did not cancel the contract but deferred the start date until the August, but I never did give them the go-ahead. They have never collected the monthly fee by direct debit, and after I complained about the first year's annual fee, so they credited it back to my account, and have never collected any other amounts, but have issued invoices from time to time. They say in order to get out of the contract I would have to pay all the outstanding charges up to June 2013, which I do not intend to do. As far as I am concerned I do not have a contract with them, and have never had one single service from them.

 

[TheIsonomian]

Sharp practice seems to be commonplace within the commercial waste sector - but with the OFT taking a close look at the restrictive contracts that govern gym memberships, can it be long before they take an interest in some of the worst examples of waste collection contracts? There's an interesting article on this on the Isonomia website that might be worth a look

This forum's comments make a pretty persuasive case that something's rotten in the state of waste management.

 

[davisifa]

Further to my last post where I pointed out that although I stupidly signed their contract I have never had a service from them, and have a contract with a different waste company, their legal department has written to me offering a settlement figure equivalent to 3 years monthly fees. I do not want to pay this for something that I have received or will never use. Any advice please, as they want a reply within 10 days

 

[steveengineer]

Just thought I would add to this forum as a warning to others. This is the first time I have ever contributed to one - These people are unbelievable - Please spread the message far and wide.

 

[davisifa]

Can someone be kind enough to let me know how I should deal with the fact that PHS are holding me to the contract I signed, and yet I have never had a bin or a collection from them. They have given me a settlement figure, which is equivalent to 3 years monthly payments, which I do not see why I should pay as they have never provided a service to me, as I am still with my previous waste collection contractor.

 

[Carehomesllp]

We did use the services (?) of PHS All Clear up to late 2007 however because they kept increasing their prices - we stopped using them and gave them sufficient notice under the T&C of the contract. It was relatively painless getting out of the contracts paying some get-out money.

We moved to another company H & A Waste and have received good/excellent service and customer service on our four residential care home in East Devon.

In early January 12 we were advised by H & A that they were diversifying into setting up a recycle centre and they had sold their clinical waste collection business to – You guessed it PHS All Clear.

I instantly wrote to PHS telling them that I did not have a service agreement with them and gave them three months notice to terminate the agreement with H & A waste. PHS has respond stating that they cannot accept our request to terminate the contract and they require 3 months written notice prior to the anniversary date for our accounts to be terminated.

Any advice / HELP would be appreciated.

 

[christine&tim]

I made a general enquiry to Phs allclear one year ago, i was sent some form via the internet from a jodie preston, she said this had to be done before any documents could be posted.. 2 to 3 days later a yellow bin turned up, with bags.. then a few more days later a contract arrived which we refused to sign.. we told them to remove the bin.. They did this the following week.. 3 months later an invoice arrived for £27. We telephoned them to ask why, she told my husband we have a contract with them.. We told her we did not, and to stop sending us invoices.. since then we have had telephone calls at least 2 a month asking for payments.. also received letters saying suspension of service and threatening letters.. We have asked in writing for proof of a signed contract, which we never recieve. We have asked them to stop pestering us as it will be classed as harrassement. Our last letter gave them 7 days to respond to us, confirming they have removed our details from there computers, but 10 days later we hare yet to have a reply.. we just don't know where else to turn..

 

[christine&tim]

continue from previous message they have now been demanding £538.

 

[christine&tim]

Can someone be kind enough to let me know how I should deal with the fact that PHS are holding me to the contract I signed, and yet I have never had a bin or a collection from them. They have given me a settlement figure, which is equivalent to 3 years monthly payments, which I do not see why I should pay as they have never provided a service to me, as I am still with my previous waste collection contractor.

I have the same problem with this company and i will not pay them a penny.

 

[Carehomesllp]

Why can't something be done about these COWBOYS.
The number of complaints/Blogs about this company is unreal.
And they continue to get away with it.

 

[eddy the Alfaman]

WHAT A LOT OF UNHAPPY CUSTOMERS THIS COMPANY HAVE
DO WE THINK THEY GO OUT OF THE WAY TO SCREW CUSTOMERS UP..
OR ITS SUCH A CUT THROAT MARKET THEY HAVE TO
OR THAT IM WRONG
eddy the Alfaman

 

[christine&tim]

Why can't something be done about these COWBOYS.
The number of complaints/Blogs about this company is unreal.
And they continue to get away with it.

I have just had a responce to my previous letter, I don't owe then £538 now but £669 in a matter of one week it has increased by £131. Also they enclosed a computer generated service contract, which this jodie said had to be done before they sent out details of there service.. and on the computer it was really little and didnt show you all the stuff it has on it.. plus when they sent me a contract to hand sign, this was refused as we didnt want there service. they are dreadful..

 

[glenifleur]

I am unfortunate enough to use them, although i am pleased to say I am 'out' as of December. They really are a rotten lot! since I have given notice my bill has risen £20 a month it is now up to £166 for october. Yet if I re-sign with them they are willing to reduce it to an 'estimated' £41 a month in the new year!. I could rant and rant about them I did contact FSB about them but their respose was to pass me around and the last word was,for me to 'let them know how I get on, as they are interested in phs' which was, sadly, rather unhelpful.
My advise to anyone involved would be write and write and write to phs firmly explaining that you want out. Eventually you will be released but be prepared, they will clobber you and the last months of your sentence. In December I dont know who i shall go with. I am a little allergic to waste companies now.
I have also been told that in the new year Wealden and privatising their waste contracts...

 

[Tobydog100]

Neath & Port Talbot County Court, Case No 2YK56036, heard on 12 12 2012.
PHS Group Plc vs Avanti Tiles Ltd.
Judge dismissed their case and claim for £2600 "Breach of Contract" fees.
I am not legally trained, I had no legal advice or representation, I researched everything myself and represented myself in Court. I beat them because their 3 year rolling contract was judged to be unfair in that the cancellation notice clauses were weighted in their favour (10 days for them against 90 days prior to anniversary date for me)
To all those small business people threatened by PHS, whose lives are being made a misery by PHS's Contract terms. FIGHT THEM!
Good Luck!