We've Got Mail: PriceWatch reader Henry McGee got in touch asking us to look into the BT Ireland practice of offering its customers contracts which are "signed" by telephone.

The company routinely uses a third-party verification system in the place of forms and signatures. Instead of sending you a contract when you sign up to one of its services, the company directs you to a third party to verify you are who you say you are. The third party also takes your voice print which can be used to confirm your identity in the future.

While BT Ireland does make it clear that this verification system constitutes a contract, the problem, McGee says, is that it does not undertake to send hard copies of the agreements to customers "who presumably have to rely on personal memory to check the details".

McGee entered into an agreement with BT Ireland in this way in February and, "despite requests by e-mail and telephone" he has "yet to see anything I subscribed to in print". He says that as a result he is "completely vulnerable". This is of significant concern, he says, because the first bill deducted from his bank account is for an amount somewhat more than he recalls agreeing to. "And I have no way of checking this. Because of this and the appalling standard of customer care given by BT I am considering ending my contract with them before it gets worse."

McGee is not the only person to voice concern to PriceWatch both about the paper trail BT Ireland leaves and the customer service it offers. Another reader describes the standard of customer care as "appalling". The company does not respond to complaints, she says and "then if you are lucky enough to actually get through to an operator, the chances of them being able to deal with your problem are slim".

She initially contacted the company in order to transfer her broadband connection but ran into repeated obstacles, she says. After several weeks she contacted customer care via e-mail but received no response for a full month.

In the response, BT Ireland admitted it has "recently had problems with this Customer Care Inbox".

When contacted, a BT Ireland spokeswoman said it was committed to customer service best practice and apologised "unreservedly for any instance where we failed to meet those expectations". She confirmed that all TPV calls are recorded and BT Ireland has access to the audio files.

"Verification of purchase of service can be obtained upon request," she added. Once a customer has signed up they should receive a letter informing them that they have signed up to the service and that they have a 10-day cooling-off period.

The spokeswoman said she would investigate why McGee had not received any confirmation of what he had subscribed to despite his multiple requests.

With regard to our second reader's complaint, she said that as BT Ireland aims to respond to all e-mails "within 48 hours and make every effort to eliminate any backlog on customer queries or issues" she would investigate why our reader's attempts to contact customer service on this occasion proved so difficult.