Our telephone account was taken over by Tiscali (from NTL, from Cable & Wireless from Mercury).
What a shambles on the billing!
After the DD was set up, they persistently failed to utilise it for the best part of a year, despite being told every month to do so. Surprise, surprise after about a year we started to get bills with 2 items - one with the correct monthly amount, the other for the arrears.
What was truly brilliant was that they seemed unable to simply add the 2 together and take it via DD! This continued for months, with the same figure being added to the bill but never withdrawn.
Eventually we were getting threatening letters and debt collection agencies getting involved. It quickly went back to Tiscali when I explained that yes, we were paying the bills every month via DD, and if Tiscali couldn't use the DD that they had set up then it was Tiscali's problem, to which the agency agreed.
Eventually, Tiscali got in touch, and started requesting US to sort it out with the bank. I really lost it at this point, and told them that it was their DD, their billing system, their problem and to get their fingers out and sort it themselves.
Finally, they did so. But was I impressed? No.
We have a second line (paid for by work) which is on a call plan that allows free UK calls, 24x7. Calling abroad I use Skype. So the Tiscali line is virtually for incoming calls only (I don't want to change our number - it's such a hassle).
The last monthly bill? 84p!
I'm pleased to think that it is probably costing them more than that to keep the account open.
SD