Dear Unclebob48. I am having a saga with Talktalk at the moment re constant dropping of internet connection and phone crackling (been with them for many years) and have just browsed this forum to see other members' experiences. I just wanted to congratulate you on a wonderfully hilarious and full account of your attempts to cancel so quickly after signing up. I must investigate the current chief executive's details so that I can, if necessary, go right to the top. Hope your Sky is proving reliable.

Dear Mr P. Thanks for your reply, and again sorry for delay in responding. I looked at the Think Jessica site you mentioned and saw many heartbreaking stories of elderly people spending fortunes in the hope of big prizes promised. Funnily enough you were correct about receiving catalogues from others like Afibel - this morning my wife received a similarly-styled one promising £142,000 from Phyderma, Paris, (although the orders go to a PO box in Dublin) which is also an outfit mentioned by Think Jessica. Anyway there was a number on the site for Action Against Fraud and I had a long chat with one of their guys who will pass the info to the Police national anti-fraud intelligence squad. I was given a report number and password and they will eventually give some feedback.

Dear rebell - thanks for your reply, sorry for delay in coming back. I've found a few complaints about debt issues but none about Afibel's ludicrous competition and free gift offers. However there is a brilliant summary of their dirty tricks on the Grumpy Old Sod website. Apparently I can't post the link until I've done 10 posts, so I guess you'll have to Google it. Worth reading for its no-holds -barred criticism. And it gives the full postal address (rather than the PO box number they hide behind) and that of the French parent company. I have spoken to the national Citizens Advice Bureau and they say they have passed details on to Trading Standards. Why oh why can't we any longer talk direct to local trading Standards Offices?

My wife received a fashion catalogue from Afibel Ltd last November promising a luxury coat allegedly worth approx. £80 in return for an order over a certain minimal value. The ordered goods arrived after an extended interval and only after several premium-rate progress enquiry phone calls. However since then we have been fobbed off and downright lied to as to when the coat might be coming. First we had to wait for a claim form (which never came), then we had to write a letter to say we never received the form, then we had to wait for the end of the promotion (31st January), now we are told that they have no idea when the coat will come as it will be despatched by their French parent company. In the meantime we have had a series of catalogues of the Damart / Readers Digest type - each offering a ludicrously expensive free gift in return for a very small order. The most incredible of these came yesterday, offering a Singer Sewing Machine worth £179.99 in return for a modest order. My wife has today posted a letter given them a 14 day ultimatum to deliver the coat, with failure to do so resulting in the seeking of Trading Standards and Media assistance. Have any other forum members had similar problems with this company?

Reading this posting about Atlantic faulty billing reminded me of a slightly different experience regarding the actual (faulty) computation of the figurework on their bills when there was no confusion about the actual meter reading or number of units used. Please see my separate post below headed "Atlantic gas & electric possible faulty billings software (not re night & day)"

I received a bill in February 2011 (from Atlantic gas) for 3 months that straddled a price increase point. They divided the total number of units used for the quarter in the ratio of days (i.e. so many in the cheaper period and the balance after the price increase). It all looked very plausible until I got my calculator out and checked the computer's arithmetic and found that althougth the number of days was correctly stated (by reference to counting the days on the calendar) the number of units allocated to the cheaper period was too low and was too high for the expensive period. In my case for the cheaper period the total units were 19226 and their calculation said that 118 days out of 169 days was 8927 (my calculator said 12132) For the expensive period their bill said the units 69 days out of 169 days applied to same total of 19226 was 10299. My calculator made this 7094 I duly phoned to query and a very polite customer service assistant jabbed away on her own calculator and was honest enough to say that she agreed with my calculations and would have to refer to a supervisor and would ring back. This she duly did, very quickly, and said that my bill was "an abberration" and to compensate they would like to send me a fresh bill with a simple credit alllowance of £60 (very generous - as the overall overcharge was only approx £10). I accepted this, delighted at the time, but I've been wondering ever since whether every customer had a similar small overcharge, almost as though their software had had some hidden weights built in to charge interest on outstanding balances on monthly Direct Debit accounts - for example.