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Broadband blues

Marie McCormack contacted us with a tale of woe in connection with her broadband connection. In June 2006, she rang broadband provider Perlico and signed up to one of its deals which had a price tag of €19.99 a month. It meant she had to switch her landline, which she did, and give her direct debit details over the phone.

A week later, her phoneline was switched over and the wait for the broadband modem started.

"I started to ring after four weeks and was told that the modem was being dispatched that very day." It didn't show up, so she rang again and again. "There was a different excuse every time" until weeks after she placed her order she says she was told by someone in customer support that she had never asked for broadband - "they had no record of it".

Furious, she said she wanted to cancel the lot. "Two days later, the modem arrived, complete with a welcome letter, and a 'sorry to lose you' letter, both dated the same day and signed by the same person. I was so relieved to have the modem that I activated it." Or at least she tried to. The password didn't work, so she rang customer service and eventually the problem was resolved. "We were up and running, except the bills were arriving by now on a monthly basis; and despite my arrangements to have them paid by direct debit, they were all in arrears."

Her bank told her that no money was going out of the account, so she rang the customer service number to verify her details. "I finally got a nice girl to tell me that my bank account details may have been incorrect, and I asked her if she could please take the correct details so we could get it sorted - she was very sorry, but that was another section, and she would e-mail them to ring me. They didn't."

By now her bills were heading for €300. McCormack made repeated calls to Perlico, pleading with them to take her account details, or at least check them, all in vain. She sent "frantic e-mails to them" but still the problem was not resolved.

Eventually she got a letter threatening to disconnect her if the bill wasn't paid. It also threatened her with court proceedings. Then a short time later a paid in full statement arrived from Perlico - and the full amount had been debited from her current account. "After almost six months, they had suddenly found my bank account details," she writes.

She says that although she no longer had a phone service from the company, her broadband stayed active so she continued to pay for it by direct debit until June. "One morning I was catching up on college work, and the broadband went off. I rang Perlico, who told me that I was no longer entitled to broadband as I had switched providers. I said that that was almost seven months ago and asked if I could speak to a supervisor."

That was not possible, and she was told that under the terms and conditions she was not entitled to broadband once she had switched provider.

She pointed out that she had been left with no choice, given the problems with the direct debit. She has now received a bill for disconnection for close to €44, "which I have no intention of paying. They can sing for it. I ignored the bill. Today, they sent a text to my mobile phone asking me to call regarding my account."

She didn't call, but we did. In a statement issued to PriceWatch, the company said that "for data protection and customer privacy reasons" it was unable to comment on the specific circumstances relating to an individual customer. "However, we would like to emphasise that we take any notification of customer dissatisfaction extremely seriously and thank you for bringing this to our attention."

The statement went on to say that Perlico has investigated the case and "whereas there are some inconsistencies between our records and the account of events communicated to us, we do accept fully that this customer has not experienced the standards of customer service which Perlico strives to provide. This is a cause of great regret to us and we will be in contact with this customer to apologise unreservedly for any inconvenience caused."

It expressed confidence that all relevant issues have been rectified "and that this customer's issues have now been fully dealt with. As a gesture of goodwill we will immediately waive all charges on this customer's account."