Heart patient Malcolm Chamberlain is fuming after a telecommunications firm cancelled his direct debit - because they thought he was dead.

And Mr Chamberlain, 40, of Titchener Close, Bicester, who is awaiting open heart surgery for the third time, did not see the funny side of the computer error.

He said: "I told them that I did not know when the funeral was, because I never went to it.

"If it wasn't for the surgery, I would have thought it was quite amusing."

This was not the only error Mr Chamberlain and his wife Karen had to suffer at the hands of ComTel, which extended its services to Bicester more than a year ago.

The catalogue of mistakes over the couple's telephone and cable system, which they signed up for four months ago, included:

Losing the first direct debit form

Getting the last two digits of the second form's account number mixed up

Cancelling the direct debit.

Then followed the saga of Mr Chamberlain's "untimely death". Since then, they have been told that the problems have been ironed out and their direct debit is up and running properly.

Claire Florey, spokesman for ComTel, said the company would carry out an internal investigation into the Chamberlain's account problems.

"We obviously had some problem with the couple's direct debit. We are happy that the customer has been dealt with professionally by our customer services department and we apologise for any inconvenience caused," she said.

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