Adventures in telephone suppliers

You know, I've been living in my flat for nearly a month now, and I have yet to get the telephone connected.

I thought it was all going to be so much plain sailing. I signed up online for a digital tv and telephone package before I even moved in.

But then I waited and waited and nobody would contact me. I spoke to a representative from NTL in the university who was touting for business and he said he would get someone to call me, which didn't happen.

Eventually I called them and they denied all knowledge of my existence and told me I couldn't have digital tv in my area, even though the first thing you do on the website is put in your postcode before they offer you the specific services. They scheduled an engineer to visit and said they would send me a contract to sign.

To their credit, at least they stuck to their word -- I did get the contract.

But then a few days later someone else from the company called me, making excuses for their delay in contacting me. I told him I'd already arranged everything with someone else over the phone. Once again, they had no record of this happening and said they would send someone round to talk to me about their packages and whatever else.

This person never arrived, although they called me that afternoon to apologise and tell me there had been a hiccup with the computer and hadn't been able to retrieve my details. I told him as politely as possible to stick it and I would find someone else to do business with, but he grovelled and asked for another chance.

Over the weekend I changed my mind about giving them another chance and posted a letter telling NTL I wanted nothing further to do with them, I was fed up with their customer service, and would take my business to one of their rivals.

It seems I was a little hasty.

I gave up on getting digital television more or less when I found out how little money I had, but when I called BT to ask if they could just give me a phone line I was told it would be £75 to connect me. This is money I don't have.

So wouldn't you know it, I now have to go grovel to the company I told I wanted nothing further to do with, or else I can't have a telephone.

You'd think there would be hundreds of companies willing to supply my phone for me, but you will be surprised just how many require you to already have an active line.

I'm thinking that maybe if I give it a day or two they might contact me again trying to grovel, and I might be able to get them to cut me a deal or something. But that's probably less likely than them just ignoring me completely. So maybe if I just sign up online then they might not realise who I am...