Hi Craig,

You can try that argument with them, it may help and you may get a reduction for goodwill. The best bet you could hope for is the direct debit discount over the outstanding amount, they may want you to pay it off in one go for that though, and that really is best case.

I would wait till you hear from CD, they should give you a contact number for the company complaint department who may take your complaint a little more seriously than the average call centre person. Your not going to get the bill written off, you should probably face that, but they should at least give you a payment plan for the balance and/or perhaps make a reduction. Get a commitment on that then ask them about you changing suppliers, they can let you transfer if they want to, even with the balance, but they look like quite a small company and with the credit crunch and all that I would be prepared for the fact you may be stuck with them until your up to date.

You should also get on the DD tariff in the meantime to save yourself some money.

Hope this helps mate,

G