Had bad experiences with both of them. When we switched to Talk Talk, our first bill went to our elderly widowed neighbour. Even though she'd never had any dealings at all with them, she recived the bill in her name, addressed to her house. You can imagine how worried she was to recive a demand from a company she knew nothing about, saying they were going to take the money out of her account. It was only good fortune that she showed us the bill, and we recofnised the itemised calls as being ours.

With BT, the saga went on much longer and became really wearying. We cancelled our dial-up contract with them, but they still sent us a bill. No problem - we cancelled our direct debit, so they couldn't get the money if they tried. And they did try. Every few weeks we'd get a final demand; we would try - occasionally successfully - to get in touch with them; they'd assure us the account had been cancelled, we didn't owe anything, and we wouldn't get any more final demands. As sure as eggs are eggs, within a few days another final demand would arrive, and the whole merry cycle would start again.

This was fine while we didn't have any other contracts with them. We stopped getting in touch, and let them whistle for their money. Then - foolishly - we went back to them for landline rental. That gave them a lever. Shortly after they'd assured us again that we didn't owe them any money, they cut us off.

I don't blame individual employees, I suppose. Poor organisation probably means companies are fragmented into different departments, maybe even in different countries, that don't talk to each other. But it leaves a bad taste.