I signed on to DirectSave on 1 May 2007 having suffered at the hands of Tiscali for a few years. Directsave was like a breath of fresh air after Tiscali.

I had a few initial probleems at the start but they were faults of mine and were soon sorted out by your technical staff.

DirectSave has gone from strength to strength and your support services, customer and technical, are the finest around.

As DirectSave expanded I thought that old customers would become less important and everything would be 'New customers only'. This was not to be so as you treat all customers as part of your family.

Your broadband service along with your telephone service are the best that I have ever used. Your customer and technical services easily beat all the others. As 0870 and 0845 numbers are part of your free services this makes there no charge to phone these services. It is so refreshing to call and talk to a friendly person, who speaks and understands english and is a professional at their job.

Your broadband service is very stable and never too overloaded but since you updated the exchange to 24mb services, in August 2009, everything is perfectly stable and has never dropped at all.

Once again I thank you for your friendly service and your invaluable proffesionalism.

Yours,

George

Adam .C at DST. Troubleshooter

This is a follow up to the saga printed on previous days regarding customer service sending a debt I didn't owe to to a debt collector.

Adam C was as good as his word and looked into the problem and has sent me a cheque and an apology, it arrived today. (hope it doesn't bounce)

Are DST in dire straits? following all the bad press regarding their non existant customer services. Certainly when I phoned and asked to speak to the manager I was told there wasn't one, it was just that the girl whose name I will withold was dealing with my case. It would appear that this girl either did not possess the wit or wisdom or even authority to sort out the financial mess, then in the end just passsed it to debt collectors, which is so very bad. I am glad I discovered the forum as there was no-one else to speak to and I was being made to pay.Now up pops Adam on his white charger, sorts the mess out in a flash, pays me what is owed and cancels the Debt Collector. Why oh why was he not there before, so many people would have been spared the anguish.

On a good note I will say that the Technical Team were very good. I understood they were a separate company whose services were hired. And now Adam C who is troubleshooting at very little financial cost to the company, but it's working.

Good Customer Service is the core to success. Thankyou Adam,C

This is to confirm that 'Adam' from DST did indeed contact me. Furthermore, he readily acknowledged that DST had erroneously overcharged me and arranged for the money to be refunded. I received this a few days later. His professionalism was a refreshing change from my previous experiences.

Hello,

in answer to your querie about Adam at DST sorting out the problem.

Today I got another demand fro the debt collectors, I was upset by this as I had sent the cheque before the end of Feb.

It appears to have been lost in transit, then on checking my emails I found one from Adam saying he had checked the files and discovered that they owed me money and had posted a cheque. I said I would wait and see if it arrived before telling the forum, but since you asked I thought I would tell you the tale so far. I will write an update WHEN the the cheque arrives

hi,

"youcouldn'tmakeitup": did you get your issue sorted with Adam or DST?

regards,

e.

Good to find you are happy with your provider.Why are you browsing a comparison site,are you thinking of changing?

Having listened to a friend of mine complaining about her telephone and broadband provider it made me realise how pleased I am with my supplier Direct Save Telecom. I've been with them 4 years or thereabouts and the few times I have needed to contact them I have always spoken to someone in the UK who understands me and I understand them........keep up the good work and thanks from a grateful customer!!

Hi,

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

Just to keep the Forum updated I have today personally spoken with "FrustratedUser" (nice chap). He did have a small billing issue which has been cleared up.

Thanks

Adam C

I am interested in reading the outcome of your issue. I have still not had my £50 returned, have received another bill this month despite having cancelled my account and have not had a refund on a previous erroneous bill. I have contacted DST again and am waiting for them to phone me back. I will keep people informed of the outcome. I am hoping that the person in customer services that I spoke to this time will in fact keep their promise and phone me back. I am sceptical as I have been repeatedly let down until now. This situation is causing me untold stress and DST should be ashamed of themselves.

I Have replied to Adam by email, because my script was true. I will keep the forum updated as to the outcome of this issue.

I have not noticed a satisfactory resolution from other's complaints

Hi,

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

I was very surprised to hear that you had difficulties when you changed your address.

As you can appreciate we have many customers that move home so we have strict procedures set in place to ensure a smooth transfer takes place. As a company we understand moving home can be stressful enough without any added problems.

I have checked our records and there are no outstanding issue’s regarding Change of Address orders so could you please contact us asking for Adam C in customer services.

You have my assurances that I will personally investigate this issue and I can also assure you that if there is a credit due we will reimburse you in full.

Thanks

Adam C

I wish that I had read the warnings about DST DON'T GO NEAR THEM I was a satisfied customer until I was moving address, I warned them well in advance and even spent an hour on the phone during removal time. None of this was effective

they did not transfer the line but left it in operation. The frustrated new owner used the line, I got the bill and the money was taken from my account. I spoke to Customer Services (a brick wall) nothing was taken on board. I got a duplicate invoice with all the same calls on it at different prices than before. They took that money as well. During this period I in my new home had no phone. I wrote again with photocopies showing their mistakes I arranged it with the two bills alongside so graphic that a six year old would comprehend but not DST They continued to take money I did not owe until I stopped the direct debit. This is a much longer story which I will not write. The end of the tale is they kept sending me totally wrong invoices threatening court action which I welcomed because they were wrong, but that is not what they did.

They put the "debt" with the Bailiffs and added another £15 for no reason. I have paid this because when the letter arrived I was coping with a very close bereavement and was too vulnerable to argue..

DST have got away with this dishonest trading.Their Accounts and Customer Service never answer emails or letters there is nobody there. DST should be made to answer their wrong doing, look at the forum

Some 30 years ago, BT installed a phone line in my home. Fifteen years ago, my son (who works abroad for a company involved in electronics) installed a complex computer system, printers, scanners, fax machine etc etc etc, upstairs in his rooms, and a similar set of equipment downstairs for my use. In addition, there is a router and we are linked to Zen for broadband services. All that is run off the BT line. As this was about as much as the BT line could cope with, we acquired a second line (a Virgin cable line,) to provide ordinary phone , and basic TV services. Six or so months ago, because of my severe infirmities, KCCouncil installed an entire Telecare system in my home (as part of a trial project); the equipment is linked to a LifeLine gadget into which was linked into the Virgin line. The Telecare equipment uses so much of the Virgin line’s capacity that yet a 3rd line (DirectSaveTelecom) was installed some 2 weeks ago. My hands are too disabled to permit me to use a mobile phone. This Sunday (28 Feb 10) the BT line, and the DirectSave line went totally dead (no dial tone); on an emergency basis, the Virgin phoneline was used for essential incoming and outgoing calls but this extra pressure on the phone line meant that the Telecare system risked breaking down. I phoned BT (in India on Sundays) speaking with a courteous , kind & helpful gentleman there. By Monday morning, my computer & broadband had ceased working As I live alone, and as my family all live in different countries outside of the UK (and as everyone had always been instructed NEVER to use the Virgin line to phone me) family and friends became frightened. By then, I was terrified. I called your firm to report the faulty on Monday, 1 March. When I phoned DirectSave and BT yesterday morning for an update, both replied that an engineer might call. Right after lunch yesterday, a lady engineer was sent by Openreach in reply to YOUR request. She began hunting for the fault & found an error in the way Openreach had installed the socket for the DirectSave line, but still nothing worked. She continued checking the rest of the complex equipment & sockets. Shortly thereafter, another Openreach engineer arrived, a gentleman sent on behalf of BT. The two had never met but worked remarkably well together. As there is such a mess of old, newish, and new wirings, sockets etc in this house, they had difficulty tracing where it all went. Both were pleasant, superbly knowledgeable in their work, VERY conscientious, and truly hard working, obviously liking their jobs. Outside, they opened a BT box attached to the house walls, and followed those wires (including some from phones long gone, companies that no longer even exist!) In the end, they did find the fault. It was in a barely accessible spot under my son’s desk, where they found two phone extension sockets. One was not in use; the other was the BT line. I gather the wires were either old, or had been miswired. There was some sort of short circuit. They offered me two solutions: replacing all the dead/dying wiring to his room and his computer systems (at a considerable charge to me by BT) or shutting off all those wires, removing the dangerous bits, and leaving the sockets open, i.e. with the cover partly off. As I am a pensioner, I was obliged to opt for the second option. And, almost miraculously, now everything worked (all three phones, my computer, the router and the broadband.)

I have alreay written to BT to ask that those two phone engineers be commended for the ability, devotion to duty, patience in dealing with several vipers’nests of wires, sockets, etc. They worked quietly, with amazing efficiency. Then, just to make certain that the Telecare equipment was not at risk, they verified all the systems on their computer-like machines. It has been some forty years or more since I’ve seen anyone do such wonderful work, quietly, in a businesslike manner, without tea or cigarette breaks, both of them with what one might almost say was devotion to the job. I wish to call them to your attention and request that you thank OpenReach on my behalf. Everything works (Telecare has since visited here to make certain this is so), I am again connected to the world and I am immensely grateful. It was such a rare experience, to have artisans, technical engineers, do such a wonderful job, so calmly, and so capably.

In this already overly long email, may I add that when someone at Direct Save phoned to ask if I was satisfied with the repair, that was the cream topping on the cake. No one ever cares about clients any more; but I have several exceptions to quote: DirectDSave Telecoms, BT, and OpenReach. Congratulations to you all and Thank You, from a broken-down old lady.

I was told over the phone that I would not be charged the £50 disconnection fee that I had received a bill for as I had been with DST more than 12 months. I check my bank account the next week and the £50 had been debited from my account anyway. I am still waiting for a refund. I have given up phoning customer services as I have to pay the phone bill to be lied to. I have to agree with other people. Think carefully before joining DST.

Hi Adam,

I have spoken to you many times and unfortunately I was one of your disappointed customers. DST still owes me £103.69 but due to me being busy with work etc. I couldn’t get round to chase you for it. It was a phone and broadband contract i took from you in 2007. It was probably the worst thing I ever did in my entire life!

Last year when I was with another provider and long forgotten DST, DST still sends me bills to pay which clearly isn’t real. As I had overpaid my last few bills. When I enquire DST for a refund, their cheque is still in post, three years on! lol.

A highly cautious note to everyone out there. PLEASE PLEASE and PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM DIRECT SAVE TELECOME!

Thank you.