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The column for anyone fed up with bureaucracy, frustrated with delays or furious with poor service. Tell us your complaint and we'll try to fix it ...

Chris Wilson of Lantau was outraged when a debt-collection agency started calling his home after he and his wife refused to pay One World Telecom $142 in late charges for an original unpaid $2.

'My wife subscribed to the One World Telecom service last year to take advantage of a so-called promotional offer so she could make cheaper international telephone calls to her family in the Philippines,' he wrote. 'After receiving a bill which was almost one-third more expensive than PCCW and arguing at the audacity of OWT to actually charge us for the privilege of printing the bill, we decided to stop using their service and paid what we thought was the outstanding amount.

'We then received a further bill for $2 and another charge for the bill itself and a staggering $20 charge for late payment. I refused to pay charges for late payment so the original $2 that they say we owed has climbed to an unbelievable $140.

'After repeated telephone calls to the OWT customer services department over the past seven months asking them for statements to show how we owed $2 and to ask if it is reasonable to keep adding these exorbitant charges, we still have not received any written statement.

'The final straw came after the start of some very threatening, abusive and intimidating telephone calls from a debt-collection agency promising to visit my home [two weeks ago]. This has worried my wife so much that it has started to affect her health. I am astonished that a business in Hong Kong can behave like this.'

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