Recent letters in the press have prompted me to refer to my experience at the hands of Melita Cable.

I had been a Melita subscriber since the service first began, and on the whole I had no major complaints, although the sports service was not always what it should have been. I also had a reception service at my summer house in Gozo.

I once phoned Melita to see if I could have the sports service transferred on the odd day we would be in Gozo, and their customer care service advised me that I could upgrade the Gozo service (at a much higher cost) and then I would have another decoder in Gozo. I could then phone them and have the sports service transferred whenever I wanted.

I did so, but as soon as I asked them to transfer the service they told me they would transfer it for a month. This was clearly no use because I would then be without the sports service in Malta, my normal residence.

After innumerable phone calls, raised blood pressure and no sports channels, I asked them to put everything back to square one but they said they could not because I had signed a contract.

They kept sending inflated bills which I refused to pay, and then sent me two relatively reasonable bills stating that as a loyal customer this was what I owed them. To avoid further hassle I paid the bills but they kept sending me the inflated bills once more.

After two months my service on both outlets was removed and a hefty penalty imposed. I switched over to Go and referred the case to the Consumer Affairs Authority where it is still pending.