We changed landline provider a few months ago. We were out of contract by a couple of weeks - or so we thought.
On our final bill, there was a charge of €57.83 for breaking our contract.
We rang customer services and were told that our phone contract had started on the date we thought, but because they had messed up installing our broadband and it didn't start working till a couple of weeks after that, they were taking the later date as the start of the contract.
We were assured that they would examine the situation and ring us back within 10 days. No-one ever rang back. We repeated the same phonecall, first to customer services and then to the complaints department. Each time we were told that someone would ring back, and they didn't. During that period we received two letters from a debt collection agency regarding the 'debt', despite being assured that no further action would be taken till our complaint had been looked at.
I contacted the provider's representative on boards, who claims to have contacted the complaints department and the debt collection department repeatedly over the course of a couple of weeks. He can't get a reply from them either.
This morning I got a solicitor's letter threatening legal action.
I've registered a complaint with ComReg this evening. Are they likely to resolve this, and how long will it take? Do I need to reply to the solicitor's letter?
On our final bill, there was a charge of €57.83 for breaking our contract.
We rang customer services and were told that our phone contract had started on the date we thought, but because they had messed up installing our broadband and it didn't start working till a couple of weeks after that, they were taking the later date as the start of the contract.
We were assured that they would examine the situation and ring us back within 10 days. No-one ever rang back. We repeated the same phonecall, first to customer services and then to the complaints department. Each time we were told that someone would ring back, and they didn't. During that period we received two letters from a debt collection agency regarding the 'debt', despite being assured that no further action would be taken till our complaint had been looked at.
I contacted the provider's representative on boards, who claims to have contacted the complaints department and the debt collection department repeatedly over the course of a couple of weeks. He can't get a reply from them either.
This morning I got a solicitor's letter threatening legal action.
I've registered a complaint with ComReg this evening. Are they likely to resolve this, and how long will it take? Do I need to reply to the solicitor's letter?