I signed a two-year contract with Access Communications back in April in order to save about $5.00 a month on my phone bill every month. This was the beginning of a very expensive mistake for my business.
Access neglected to place my business' phone number on the phone book costing me thousands of dollars in lost revenue. I wanted to cancel my account way back then but Access insisted they would enforce the contract and charge me exorbitant "early termination" fees. So, I stayed with Access and advertised in our newspaper.
At the end of my two year contract in April last year, I called Access to cancel. They were really nice and promised it was an honest mistake and suckered me into staying with them for another year. I told them on then phone that I would stay one more year. This current contract expired in April - or so I thought.
Bellsouth called me a few weeks ago and informed me my contract was up with Access as of April 17th and asked if I would like to rejoin Bellsouth and offered all sorts of incentives to come back. I glanced over my Access contract and saw where, indeed, my contract was up on April 17th so I signed a contract with Bellsouth.
Access has now demanded over $500.00 in early termination fees. They showed me the fine print in my contract I signed way back in 2003 that stated that, at the end of my contact, if I don't give Access Communications 30 days notice before cancelling my service, they will automatically sign me up for another year of service.
I am now contractually obligated to both Bellsouth and Access Communications.
Yeah, I know I should have more thoroughly understood the contract I signed way back in 2003 but who can possibly remember all the ramifications of such a contract for eternity? However, I verbally told Access I would stay on for another year to see how things went. Things went okay, I guess, but now Bellsouth is cheaper that Access so there is absolutely no reason to stay with Access.
A phone call to Access to ask for leniency was not successful.
I plan on suing Access Communications in small claims for the lost revenue I suffered while my phone was not listed. Until then, I hope someone else will see this report and not use Access Communications in order to save a few bucks. It just isn't worth it.
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