Titan Telecom review: Dreadful Customer Service

My wife and I were brief customers of this firm - they are a telecom service for the 'business user'. We were persuaded to switch by my wife's ex-employer, (a small independent marketing firm) for the purpose of her working from home, tele-marketing TITAN TELECOM phone packages. (of all things!) He then chose to make her redundant within 5 days' of the line going live. He gave her notice by text message while we were on holiday, and failed to pay her any notice pay too, but thats another story...

Following this, we cancelled the service. (without the job we are just residential users only, and have no use for a business service.) We cancelled well within the '30 day no obligation trial period', as quoted on their advert - and straight away received a letter stating we 'will become liable to pay £150 termination fee'! As a result of this letter, I stopped the direct debit. When my wife called their office the following day, (they only stay open til 6pm) they agreed we would not be charged this fee, as we had cancelled within 30 days - but the letter was threatening, and I feel, enough to scare most people.

My wife later received a couple of calls over the coming week, from a female call centre operator - probably from some sort of customer retention department, trying to encourage us to keep the service. As we made it clear to her we did not want to stay with them, her tone became somewhat rude and sarcastic. She tried to suggest that we were only cancelling because of the redundancy, and we might as well keep the service! - The fact that they offer cheap daytime calls when we would never use them did not seem to register with her!

Just after our service switched back to BT, I got another call from a chap asking me to reinstate the direct debit, because 'there are a couple of invoices' to be paid. When I asked how much they would be for - he said he couldn't tell me without going through the computer system - I got the impression it was a hastle. I informed him that they should send me an invoice and I'd settle by cheque. When the bill did finally arrive it was for just under £40 for the equivalent of one months' service!

We are very light home phone users, and the bill only included £1.21 worth of chargeable calls - so it was a shock to be billed for that amount.

Amazingly, when you join Titan, they are able to calculate and charge for a 'part' month, but when you leave you are charged for a whole month - My service began 7th August, and ended on 7th September - a total of 32 days' for which I've been charged for 62 days. My bill itemises one period from 07/08 to 31/08, and then a second from 01/09 to 30/09/09, even though I left on 08/09/09. I now have to pay BT again for September.

I've calculated that I actually owe just short of £23.00 for the length of service I had from them, and when we tried to discuss this with them on the phone, we just got more sarcasm and rudeness. I was informed - quote: 'that you can't just tell us what you're going to pay!'.

I then decided to try emailing instead of using their 0844 number. - So far, not one email has been answered. Even emailing their compliance deptartment twice results in no reply - I requested the direct email address of a senior person to deal direct with on this issue, and got nothing in return.

Finally, out of total frustration, I sent a recorded delivery letter to the 'Managing Director' with a cheque for £23.00, and a detailed letter explaining what I was prepared to pay for, and yet again got no reply. - Even when they have been informed of a dispute, they just ignore all correspondence and continue to send demand letters and even sent a demand text message to my wife's mobile requesting payment.

I've now been sent a letter threatening a £10 fee for late payment, plus an interest charge, and £10 fee for paying by cheque. (The cheque I sent earlier was not acknowledged, or even rejected and sent back)

I have now given up trying to deal with these people, and sent the remainder of the money - even though I know it is a total rip off. - Once the deadline for a response to my dispute is up I will be making a formal complaint to OTELO.