Need advice to deal with Toucan

I'm currently looking at the possibility of taking Toucan to court all because I dared upgrade my pitiful 512Kbps service to a 1MB service and I wasn't told over the phone by the person who upgraded my account that I'd be locked into a new 12-month contract and as a result I've been into a sheer living nightmare ever since and I've even had to get the OFT involved and they've referred my case to my local Trading Standards office, these scumbags at Toucan refuse to back down even though I was told by the OFT's Consumer Direct division that Toucan had broken the law by not letting me know over the phone before I gave my consent to the new contract that I would be locked into a new contract.

If I had known that I would be locked into a new contract, I would never have stayed with these morons as they deliberately lied to me and stalled in giving me my MAC code, first by not sending it to me when I requested it the first time in February and then after I threatened to complain to OFCOM and I received it, my original contract had come to an end in March and I was now liable for a cancellation charge which I still refuse to pay to this very day as I believe it is a illegal charge!

I believe that I should not have to pay this charge and I should also be refunded for the broadband fees for the months that I had to pay for the months running over the end of my original contract as they deliberately set out to try and stall giving me my MAC code knowing full well that they were breaking the law at the end of the day...

Not only that, I didn't get the advertised speeds as promised and I was also capped when it came to so-called unlimited downloads which is another reason why I don't want to pay the cancellation fee to these scumbags...

Does anyone have any advice on how to get out of the contract without paying these losers another penny as I really want to get away from these idiots ASAP...

you should get some legal advice from a solicitor.

If you have a MAC you can migrate away, and they should not withhold the MAC based on your contract.

Personally I would block any payment channels they have open to you and migrate away, then they have to chase you for the money at which point if they acted illegally they will probably back down.

I got my MAC in April and I still have the original email but I'm not too sure if I can migrate or not but I can give it a try in any case.

I usually paid by debit card instead of direct debit so they can't take the cancellation fee from my bank account if they wanted to and if they did, I would have sued them for doing so without my permission!

A MAC expires after 30 days so you need a new one.

So even if I win my case against Toucan, I still have to ask them for a new MAC and knowing these losers [I could use stronger language but it'll probably be bleeped out in here! *L*], they'll make me wait for it just because I dared defy them to the bitter end and refused to give in unlike most of their customers who decided to pay the cancellation fee and give up rather than fight them...

I sincerely hope that Tiscali, Pipex and Toucan all go bankrupt as I know quite a few people won't miss them because their service is the absolute pits!

you need a MAC to migrate, and only they can give you it.

And OfCom regs are that the MAC must be supplied within 5 days - even if there is a financial dispute between the ISP and the customer.

So you can get a MAC, migrate, and fight after, as long as you takes steps to stop them taking money after you migrate. (But that isn't always easy - you need more advice if you decide to do that).