Mercury Telecom

I was with this company for both mobile and landline phones. In July 2006 (after just a few weeks into the contract) my mobile was cut off because Mercury Telecom had not paid its supplier. Several hundred pother customers were also cut off.

In December 2007 I lost landline service too. Again, Mercury had not paid its landline supplier!! The company is now defunct and being investigate by the Insolvency Service.

Took up a two year deal with Mercury Telecom. Paid line rental up-front for two years. Phone was cut off within 5 months. Tried to complain to OTELO but the company had been thrown out of OTELO because it owed OTELO money and had not paid but customers when OTELO ordered it to.

The company was then investigated by OFCOM and was forced to pay back the customer-owed money but I had to wait until the company joined CISAS. I complained to CISAS and they ordered the company to repay me. THEY DID NOT REPAY ME! CISAS is now considering ejecting them too!

In October we switched our phone to Mercury Telecom after being recommended by www.uswitch.com to save money on our calls.

On November 28th we received a bill for £62.75. This was astonishing as we found the 0844 number we use a lot to make international calls being charged at 10p a minute. It quite clearly states when you call the number that 'Call Charges are 2p a minute ' . It was 2p minute with our two previous providers Telecom Plus and Tele2.

We were unable to query this with the company and they did not respond to emails, telephone calls or voicemail messages. On the 30th November our phone completely stopped working, we were unable to make any outgoing calls whatsoever. I sent an email on the 1st December to ask why they had blocked our phone with no prior notice. Received no response again. Phone call on the 2nd December also went unanswered.

On the 6th December I was finally able to speak to somebody at the company. She told me I had to make payment before they would switch phone back on. Agreed to send cheque but told them the service is outrageous and I wanted to cancel,. She said I could cancel the service with no penalties after payment was made. I therefore sent a cheque to them paying the full bill of £62.75.

I then received a letter requesting £29.38 as a fine for canceling the direct debit payment.

On the 12th December I changed to a new telecoms provider as the phone tariffs are not what I agreed and 500% more than what I am supposed to pay.

On the 13th December received another letter requesting £77.31. Letter stated I am not allowed to cancel as singed a 3 month contract. Charging us another £47.93 as a cancellation fee.

On the 19th December I called and spoke customer service, asked to speak with a manager. They explained they were a manager. Explained the charges are outrageous, told I had to speak with a supervisor, as they explained no supervisors are in until Thursday. They took my name and phone number and said a supervisor will call me on Thursday. I explained that I had paid all my original charges and the outstanding direct debit and I thought the admin charges of £77.31 are not fair. Told her that I was keen to resolve this issue but if they did not respond I would lodge an official complaint with Ofcom. Also asked why we have been charged £47.93 for a cancellation fee when I was already assured on the 6th that there would be no charges as I was unhappy with the outrageous cal charges and disruption to my service.

On the 21st informed by Mercury that I have to pay the bill in full. Explained that I signed a term conditions form with all this on. I explained none of this was on the terms and conditions form I read and neither were the call charges.

On the 21st December received another bill from them this time for £123.47. This again included £95 for 0844 calls which should have come to £19. Also we were charged 23p a minute to calls to Kazakhstan, these calls are actually to Russia as it shows on the bill and should be 5p a minute. So again we have been overcharged.

Mercury Telecom have refuted all my claims and wanted full payment of £200.78 by the 5th of January or they would take legal action. So forced to pay. Their whole charges for a 2 month period has been £263.22. This would have cost us £40 or £50 with other telecom providers. Avoid this company like the plague.

This was clearly, in retrospect, too good to be true. I accepted the poor points because of the price. Then early July comes, and no calls/texts can be made. CSI blame Mercury Mobile, Mercury Mobile blame CSI. Me - I blame MM, and now, after numerous calls saying the service will be resumed shortly, failing that new SIM cards will be sent out, I find that the office is 'unmanned' at MM. They are a disgrace. My direct debit is cancelled and they're not getting a penny more. I have taken out a new contract elsewhere with redemption vouchers - much better phone and much better coverage. At the end of the day though, £90 covered just over six months - about £15 per month - similar to a lot of other deals, so we haven't lost out too much really, although we were hoping for a lot more. I'll never go near MM again.

I've read the other reviews about Mercury Telecom, and I'm surprised that some customers appear to be holding out some hope. Do what I did and cancel the direct debits immediately. I had no hope with this mob after 2 days of no service, and no advice as to the reason for disconnection.

This will cost me if I can't get my number back (advertising, pre-printed business paperwork etc.) and I will be trying some of the advice given by other reviewers.

Meanwhile, I have a new phone, bills paid to Vodafone DIRECT - no cowboy middleman for me from now on.

Remember; direct debits are there to be cancelled. People like Mercury pray on people too lazy to cancel them properly.

After some difficulty I discovered that T-Mobile resell to CSI who sell to Mercury. Apparently Mercury told CSI that customers would spend a minimum of £20 per month. Obviously those of us on 2 year up front contracts were unlikely to do this unless we used loads of texts, called national numbers or used the voice mail. I guess most people got stung the first month and cut down thereafter. According to CSI there are 974 mobile users affected, so we haven't got much of voice, and of course as the amounts are less than £100 we are not protected by VISA either! I suspect by the time that we take anything through the small claims they will be bust!

Incidentally CSI won't let us port our numbers, as they won't give the unlock key. The guy I spoke to said this was their only leverage with MM.

They also won't give us access so we can at least leave a message on our answer phone saying don't leave a message because we can't pick it up!

I would be happy if Mercury would respond to calls or emails instead of referring us to CSI.

Further to everyone else's comments I have spoken to the trade association to whom the reseller (not MM) belongs. MM have not paid them hence the disconnection. It appears the reseller is having second thoughts about MM's business model too and considers it wont work - quite how they then got accepted as an Ofcom member...? The TA also said that they were very concerned about this as customers should not suffer in these circumstances as they were pushing mobile co's/line owners to have a mechanism in place to transfer customers if this occurs.

I wouldn't hold your breath.... what you need to do is write (recorded delivery) to MM, tell them they are in material breach of their contract with you - not providing the service you signed up to - offer them a reasonable time to remedy it ( what is reasonable is in the eye of the beholder though) if they don't say you will be cancelling d/d and will be claiming damages from them for the additional cost of having to sign up to a more expensive provider, loss of business etc etc.

Finally if this is what is happening to MM what about their static line service!

I subscribed to 24 month sim for £90 with 200 free mins per month. Too good to be true I thought, and so it has proved.

Now they have contractual difficulties with their telecom wholesaler (i.e. they have not paid) and no calls can be made from my mobile since July 6th.

I worry about an unexpectedly large bill via direct debit which I cannot recover if the company goes bust.

I am annoyed and frustrated as others with Mercury's out-of-the-blue additional charge. I had to get them to send me a copy of the contract, which they did. The (very) small print does say they reserve their right to change prices at anytime without notice, but is introducing a totally new charge, i.e. line charge, an increase? There is no "line" and I have paid up front for my SIM. Interestingly the contract appears to state that they can terminate the contract at any time giving 14 days notice and then charge me £12.50 for each remaining month of the contract. Thanks a bunch!

Yesterday my phone was not usable and the recorded message says it needs to be reconnected. I await a response to a message left with Mercury and T-Mobile tell me thousands of customers are affected, so what is going on? Have they now gone bust?

I have a prepaid 24 month contract with Mercury Telecom from December 2005. This included 200 minutes per month for the next 24 months and a free phone (I have 2 accounts with them).

Today I also received a text messages on both my phones to say they will not be working. I phoned Mercury (I still have their original number) and spoke to a staff member who said it should work tomorrow. I'm waiting with baited breath.