We've Got Mail: Last week we highlighted readers' problems with BT Ireland. This week it is the turn of another telephone company's customer service department to take centre stage. Bryan Duggan signed up for Smart Broadband and line rental about three months ago.

After that his Eircom line was disconnected and his modem arrived from Smart Telecom. However, he could not set it up as the line was dead. He phoned the support line to alert them to the line fault and after waiting on hold for about 40 minutes, a customer support operator suggested he plug in the modem anyway to see if it worked. As the line was as dead as a Monty Python parrot, this seemed a somewhat comic instruction to Duggan - a lecturer in computer science. Still, he did as instructed. But his broadband service did not begin to work.

He rang back the following day and was told a fault would be logged. Since then Duggan has phoned Smart Telecom "on at least 15 occasions, spent many hours on hold to be told that my fault was logged with Eircom and that someone would phone me back with an update".

He has also sent many e-mails on the subject to the Smart Telecom support e-mail address, all of which have gone unanswered. He also wrote two letters asking for an update, but as yet neither have been answered.

Then, a month ago, Smart Telecom debited €48 from his bank account to cover line rental etc for his non-existent service. He contacted them again via e-mail, letter and phone. "My letter and e-mail were of course unacknowledged and unanswered. On the phone, the guy I spoke to committed both to refunding my money and phoning me back that day with an update. That was two weeks ago and I have had no refund and no phone call.

"I have since cancelled my direct debit with my bank. I requested a written reply and for Smart Telecom not to bill me again until they connected up my phone line. I came home today to find another bill from Smart Telecom . . . In three months, no one in Smart Telcom has once acknowledged any of my many e-mails, answered either of my written letters or called me back with an update even though I requested callbacks on numerous occasions. I have spent many hours on hold running up bills on my mobile phone.

"I seem unable to get anyone in Smart Telecom to connect up my phone line, refund my money, or even acknowledge any of my communications."

So we called Smart Telecom on Duggan's behalf. Some 72 hours later they came back saying they were "delighted" to report his account had been "sorted out". "His service is now up and running and he has been offered an amount of credit to his account," a spokeswoman said. She accepted "no payment should have been taken from the customer until the service was fully operational but it appears a mistake was made with one payment. This has now been refunded."

We were told Smart Telecom had replied via e-mail to him "on several occasions" and "spoke with him on numerous occasions" a point not disputed by Duggan, he was the one making all the calls after all.

Duggan said while he had indeed received some e-mail acknowledgment from named individuals who promised to forward his complaints to the relevant department, he had never received any correspondence from the company's customer service department.