In April 2007 whilst shopping in Tesco's I stupidly signed up for a 3 month trial of Tesco Home Phone service. It was one of those cold sell tactics that promises to save you loads of money if you sign up today. The catch was quite clever you were promised that it was only a 3 month contract and you could only get the discounts if you signed for Direct Debits and online billing. I was assured that after the 3 months if I was disatisfied I simply had to phone a telephone number and tell them that I wished to terminate my contract. I signed up to pay for my calls with Tesco Telecom.

I tried accessing the online bills and found it such a difficult system that I gave up and just decided to let the direct debits go on until the 3 months were up and then cancel. In July 2007 I had no dial tone and phoned Tesco to tell them I was dissatisfied with the service and said I wished to cancel the service immediately. The member of staff told me the fault was not with Tesco and told me the line was rented from BT so I should speak to them. He told me he would cancel the service from Tesco. I was told the final payment would be taken from my bank and that would be the end of me & Tesco. After that months Direct Debit was taken I cancelled it with my bank.

18 Months later (On Christamas Eve) I recieved a letter from Tesco telling me that there had been an audit of closed accounts and that I owed them £336.86!!! I was furious... I phoned them straight away and explained all of the above. I was told that the only way you can cancel this sort of contract was to ask my new supplier to do it!!! If I cancelled direct with Tesco I would have had to change my Telephone number! They explained that as far as they were concerned BT had never informed them that I had changed supllier so I was still being supplied & charged by Tesco. What a rip off!!! Apparently I had been sent emails every month to notify me of my online bills ...How very strange that I never received these! Had I received these I would have asked why my contract was still open!! The most annoying thing is that I never once received a phone call or letter to tell me I was in arrears...for 18 months! No communication whatsoever they refuse to engage with me and have told me the debt has been passed to a debt collection agency. Apparently they accept no fault. They have failed to furnish me with copies of the emails sent and a copy of the contract. I have asked for the tape recordings of my call in July 2007 and surprise surprise I didn't get it!!!