TELECOM ITALIA

Don't bother phoning them. Write to them recorded delivery with copies of the faxes you sent cancelling the line along with the delivery receipts from the fax machine. Tell them you need a response within 14 days or else you will refer the matter to a lawyer. That usually prompts some action eventually.

We'd love to have a land line!

We find that our Elsynet service provider is efficient, since we live in a rural area up a hillside, and very easy to contact. There are two main receivers nearby which furnish us with our signal. For an intitial cost of E460 ish (depends on how easy it is to fit the antenna and how far the cabling has to go) and E20.00 a month for internet and whatever you use on your landline for calls on a pay as you go system (very cheaply at 0.015 to call per min to UK) there is nothing else to pay. We tried getting ITel to put some poles up for us but they wanted E1500 (our share only apparently) plus all the charges thereafter for internet and seperate phone!! We gave up after a year of trying to sort things out!! Anyhow we didn't find them at all easy to deal with so we decided to have the radio antenna fitted by Elsynet. So far so good!! It might be worth contacting your Comune for more information since they may also have some sort of system for everyone to use.

There is a similar bunch operating down our way too, probably the best option, but not as good as a land line! Ho. Hum.

Can but try writing again but I'm afraid we have little hope of it getting anywhere, even with the threat of a lawyer. Previous letters sent recorded delivery have been scanned, along with proof of receipt and a copy of the envelope, into the 'correspondence' section of our account, but then nothing. Knowing how costly it is, and how slowly the Italian legal system moves, I'm not sure the threat of a lawyer will have much impact, but we may yet be surprised! thanks anyway.

Well - first off - congratulations on getting the Telecom Italia site to work for you! (It is invariably 'down' about 75% of the times I try to access it). Now it seems to me, from what you say, that TI have 'acknowledged' that they have received your disdetto. So probaby the (rather unsatisfactory, I admit) advice is just to have a little patience. Why not send them an e-mail (which you can do from the TI site), I know that they have some pretty competent English speakers so just write it in English unless your Italian is very perfect. Best of luck.