I signed up with DST when I moved in February 2007 as I'd found some decent reviews which had been complimentary anout service levels and the price at the time was competitive. I'm not sure what happened but I think they must have sacked all the staff who cared about customer service.

When the 9 houses in my road lost their broadband last winter everyone else in the road was reconnected in a day. I remained without connection for weeks. That was bad enough but getting anyone at DST to care about the problem was close to impossible I never had a proactive call and rarely had a prompt call back. Every time I chased I was fobbed off.

I determined to cancel but was in the process of trying to sell my house at the time and I didn't want to get caught in a minimum contract period with a new supplier.

Once I had a date for leaving the house I gave notice of cancellation. It was within a month of my call to them so I advised them that they should charge me for the full month from the date of the call.

Similar to yourself I subsequently received a bill for line rental and call/broadband package for the month following the termination date and also the £19.50 "no notice" invoice despite notice having been given. Unlike you I had cancelled my direct debit back when I had had no service last winter.

I have lost count of the number of letters demanding payment, email replies and telephone conversations explaining the situation that have passed between us but all to no avail. At least now they have moved on from threatening disconnection (communication you see is not the strong suit of this communications company) and the latest demand merely threatens a county court summons.

I can only recommend that anyone and everyone avoids this company.

Message to FrustratedUser

Hi,

My name is Adam and I work for Direct Save Telecom.

We take great care in ensuring that all our website queries are responded to within 24 hours.

At present I am not aware of any un-answered queries?

Please can you contact us at your earliest convenience on 0800 027 3930 and select option 3 for custoemr services. We would really like to speak with you and help resolve any queries you may have.

Kind Regards

Adam C

Direct Save Telecom

Hi,

I believe the folowing numbers work for Direct save telecom, 0208 421 7700 or 0800 214635.

Let me know how it goes.

Thanks

I submitted a customer service query the week before last about possible overcharging (an unfortunately regular occurrence) and have still not had a reply despite it stating on the DST website(http://www.directsavetelecom.co.uk/contact_us.html) that I will receive a response within 24 working hours. Has anyone had any better success? I used to contact the DST customer service advisors by telephone, however I stopped as I was repeatedly paying 0845 rates for a poor quality, indifferent service.