Example of bad customer service (Finnish operator)

We have (or HAD) Sonera laajakaista, ADSL internet connection, at home, for several years. As I'm working partially from home, and have my own company, the internet connection is crucial for my work. One day the connection just stopped working. I had a weird feeling: when was the last time I paid my ADSL bill...? So I found myself stupefied after studying for a while and finding out that the company had not sent me invoices after October 2010!

How can this happen? Well, as an entrepreneur I get around dozen or couple dozens of invoices per month, so I just didn't notice one invoice missing from the lot. Also, Sonera has successfully sent me their bills using the e-invoice system via my e-bank, so I just received them, accepted the payment in my e-bank and that was it. Maybe because of this new SEPA system, their own invoicing system had gone array. I phoned the invoicing department, and the astonished customer service had to conclude that there were no invoicing methods attached to my internet contract: no snail mail (post), email or e-invoice whatsoever.

Well, that's not the whole story. I agreed to pay my remaining invoices (without the delay part) and the very next week decided to end my agreement with Sonera and get another internet provider (with better invoicing systems). But getting the message thru turned out to be a pain in the butt, so to say. First of all, Sonera's customer service phone number simply sucks. They have "voice command" interface, that doesn't work at all. You can switch to numeric keypad interface, where you have to make approximally 3 number selections before you are forwarded to a living customer service person. If the phone number is crowded, the automatic recorded voice says "all our customer services are occupied, please try again later" and just hungs up on me!!! No chance for queuing even if I wanted to!

Then, I tried ending the agreement by sending feedback from their website. Yes, they even have a web form for ending your agreement. However, sending the form does not return any, not even automatic, response to the email address I had to provide, that their customer service has actually received my form data. I think in Finland that is actually illegal not to respond to customer feedback sent via web site form...?

I just pity the poor Sonera phone sails person that tries to phone me after this. I already sent official reclamation about their customer service and invoicing department, but I'm so pissed off that anyone trying to sell me anything related that company may face the consequences months afterwards...