excellent. thank you.

My connection died completely last wednesday. I'm not a computer whizz but I do know a bit, I tinkered with every computer on the network (some using different OS's), tried with my router as well as their modem, tried changing the DNS, and finally gave up. After half an hour on hold an Indian at tech support answered. He talked me through a process to set up a new connection I'd tried a dozen times already but I humoured him because I know he has to work to a script. When he was finished and we were getting no where I explained I'd already tried this approach and it hadn't worked. His reply was a classic- "Your computer must be broken, you need to get a technician out to look at it." "The computer's not broken, I have three computers on the network, are they all supposed to have broken, with the exact same error message, at the exact same time?" "Your computers are all broken, you need to get a technician out to look at them." I rang tech support the next day, they told me their servers are f**ked and they'll have someone to look at them... In the meantime I'll have no service indefinitely. When I tried to cancel, they gave me a great choice: "You must give us 28 days to try to resolve this before you can cancel for free" OR "You can cancel now, but you must pay the next month's fee" In other words, catch 22: I must pay for a month's service I am not recieving, no matter what. Daylight robbery.

Racked up since sending my LBA and now am ready now to claim my money back through MCOL. Can I update the amount I claim back or do I have to claim what I demanded in the LBA? This has probably been answered before but when I searched for it I got a thousand results and couldn't find an answer.

Hello again folks, In the last day or two I sent scabby a recorded delivery letter saying that defaulting a disputed debt is against the Banking code etc, quoting relevant sections of the code. I also let them know I have every intention of paying off the remainder at a rate we are both happy with when the issue is resolved. So presumably there's not a lot they can argue with there. I also started the MCOL procedure against them too, also within the last couple of days. However, this morning, I got a letter from a Debt recovery agency looking for the money, do I just ignore them and charge on ahead or should I let them know they've been passed a debt in dispute? Also, am I right in assuming that they have now defaulted me? Not too worried as I've come to expect them to make life as awkward as possible but I'm just wondering what the next step is vis-a-vis the DCA and Abbey.

Cheers Lula.

Someone suggested I send this letter to Abbey (in this thread: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/abbey-bank/44606-abbey-default-threat.html ) because they were threatening the default me, however the only template I've found is an S10, this pertains to defaults as well, is this the one they were referring to?

My head is spinning with legal jargon.. Is this the template you're referring to? http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/5078-10-data-protection-act.html

The voice of reason. Sounds good. Thanks again.

Maybe I haven't been explaining myself too well. In the past I've had 750k, 1Mbit, and 2Mbit lines, before I joined tiscali, a service that was advertised as unlimited 2Mbit. All those lines were quicker than tiscali's, and none ever complained about how much I was using. tiscali capped my download speed to 30k/s FROM THE OUTSET- this was not a question of punishing a heavy user. As I say, my 750k line with NTL, theoretically should be a third as quick as my tiscali line. It wasn't, it was 4 times faster. My bulldog 2Mb line was 7 or 8 times faster, even though it was technically the same speed. tiscali are con artists, pure and simple.

Our's is a shared connection too Pat, this is the third ISP I've been with and although this is the only one with unlimited bandwidth, and the highest speeds, it's been the slowest of all of the ones I've used. The first connection I had was NTL, a 750k line- a third of the speed I'm paying for with tiscali. My average download speeds with that connection were 120kb/s. With tiscali, a line where I'm paying for 2Meg, I'm getting speeds of 30kb/s. It's just plain false advertising. They've lied to get me into a contract, then threatened legal action any time I've tried to leave. Ar$eholes.

Excellent Glenn. This is what I'd thought anyway, but their letters can be so sure of themselves you end up doubting yourself. Ironically, I have every intention of paying the whole balance off, but if they had defaulted me I was gonna let them whistle for it because I'm moving house soon, and I'm not about to spend the guts of £1000 trying to keep on the right side of a company that's destroyed my credit record anyway. So if they play ball, they'll get their money back. Otherwise...

Sorry to be bermping my thread but I'd really like advice on this.

I am making it my business to steer as many people away from tiscali as possible, and have been doing so in about half a dozen forums. They're a bunch of thieving bastards. I signed up for a 2 meg connection and have got download speeds of 30kb/s- dial up speeds- from day one. I emailed them to complain and after about 20 pre-written largely irrelevant responses I finally got them to admit they cap download speeds, and I'll only receive 2meg speeds when I'm surfing the web. Of course this was never mentioned in the terms and conditions when I signed up. What the ****'s the point of being able to load google at 2meg? Now they're offering 8Meg, but again, these speeds won't apply to downloads. Complete crap, when casually surfing the web there's no real difference between 512k, 750k, 1meg, 2 meg, 8 meg... The only reason to give a range of broadband speeds is for people who want to do a bit of downloading. They're selling 1, 2 and 8 meg broadband lines with "unlimited downloads", then capping everyone's speeds to dial up.I finally got sick of it and cancelled my DD this week. They ain't getting another penny from me. They can whistle for it.

Hola, Abbey recently cut my overdraft from £1000 to £0, which I kindof expected when I started reclaiming charges, especially because it was a student account and I'm not a student anymore. They're demanding it all in full or else they will default me, I wrote back and said they can't default me while the account is in dispute. They pointed out that the amount of disputed charges is less than the £1000 I am overdrawn, so the default will still be legitimate. Are they right? I can't afford to pay this off now. Thing is, I spoke to one of their advisors on the phone a few months ago, she was very nice, she said she'd freeze the interest if I agreed to pay £20 a month off it until I was in a position to pay off more, which I agreed to. This was fine, for a few months, until I noticed they were still charging me interest, this is when I wrote to them saying payments will stop as the account is in dispute, and they wrote back with the default threat. The notice is almost up, default in a few days, any ideas what to say? All the best, jim.

eclectech : the tinfoil hat song