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View Full Version : Direct Debit not taken in June, but ntl say they've received it!


dirtydog
07-07-2004, 17:26
This is quite weird, has anyone heard of this type of thing happening before?

I pay for my BB by direct debit; payments have been debited fine for the few months I've had it, and the last one was taken in the middle of May. I was checking my current account statement online a few days ago, and noticed that ntl hadn't taken a payment in June as they were supposed to.

I phoned ntl and was told my account was not in arrears, and that a payment of £30.86 (or similar) was taken from my account by direct debit in June. I gave them my bank sort code and account number, and they confirmed that they had received cleared funds from that account. Yet my statement showed no sign of it.. I contacted my bank and they confirmed that no payment has been taken by ntl since mid May.

Anyway ntl are happy apparently, as they reckon they've been paid. But they haven't been paid, at least not by me.. and another thing, why would it be £30.86 anyway; I wasn't in arrears before, and I was on 600k broadband @ £24.99p m.. in fact I subsequently downgraded to 150k @ £17.99, so why would it be £30.86?

Can anyone shed any light on this, as I spoke to two people in ntl's billing department separately, and neither could offer any explanation for this strange state of affairs. Actually, one of them did say it could be related to the new computer system or something, when my account was migrated onto it?

Another question I am curious about is, as a result of being on the new system, my account number has changed. Yet the direct debit mandate still has the old account number as the reference; will this prevent ntl being able to collect payments and do I need to set a new mandate up?

arcamalpha2004
08-07-2004, 11:03
Seems strange that NTL are saying your account is ok, given what you have said.
This could ofcourse go tits up once NTL realise they have indeed made a mistake, and sadly you will be the one to bare the brunt of any fall out over their inability to collect the money.
Short of actually placing the money into their hands I do not know what more you can do, maybe somebody will be along soon who works for them and may be able to shed some light ;)
The episode makes you realise why a lot of people are against direct debit, but seeing as NTL will not entertain payment by another method, it amazes me why the customer should be inconvenienced in any way.

tkiely
08-07-2004, 13:02
This happened to me too! I phoned to tell them the payment hadnt gone through but they swore blind it had. Three days later they came down on me like a ton of bricks 'cos I hadnt paid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what a system! this was the final straw for me and prompted me to leave ntl.

Hope it gets sorted soon.

EDIT: this was back in January

gary_580
08-07-2004, 15:24
Hellooooooooooooo!!! but the idea of a Direct Debit is that its the responsibility of the Payee to take the money. If it was the responsibility of the Payer it would be a Sanding Order that would be used.

zoombini
08-07-2004, 15:45
Perhaps if you could get it in writing/proof that they have received the payment then you could be quids in.

seaneeboy
08-07-2004, 15:49
Perhaps if you could get it in writing/proof that they have received the payment then you could be quids in.

Just wait till the next bill - it'll be on there :)

arcamalpha2004
08-07-2004, 15:56
Just call customer services asking for it to be put in writing that you are up to date with your payments at that date, hey presto!

zoombini
08-07-2004, 15:59
yeah, next bill should be enough.

steved
08-07-2004, 16:57
I just had my bill today.. I pay by direct debit. I was looking through the breakdown of the bill and lo and behold... £1 non direct debit surcharge.. HMMM i call to get it sorted.. oh sorry our systems are down can you call back later.. or better still tomorrow..

come on NTL.. everytime i have a problem its with your billing systems. GRRR

Steve

(goes back to lurker slumberdom)

seaneeboy
08-07-2004, 17:24
steved - I think just about everyone's been caught by that at one point or another... Anyone else and I'd suggest "Scam", but as it's NTL billing i'll just stick with "Inept" :D

dirtydog
08-07-2004, 17:49
Yeah I'm fully expecting to get told off for not paying, or get a letter from a debt collection agency or something..

Well I have just received my latest statement.. it says Previous balance £30.86, payments received £30.86C R, balance brought forward £0, and the current+due amounts which are due to be taken on/after 19th July. So I'm hoping this month's payment gets taken now :rolleyes:

Why are ntl so incompetent :( I'm so glad I'm leaving them soon.. in future I'll either be having ADSL or even dial-up.. I'd prefer the slower speed to BB if it means I don't get all the aggravation I've had with ntl :td: :td:

gavnad
09-07-2004, 09:31
hi dirty,

i work in the billing dept altho my expertise lies with internet rather than tv/telco but have seen this before

what may have happened is the file transfer to the banks on your particular bill day has fallen over therefor shows as paid on your account but not debited from your bank

normal procedure for an internet account wld be to advise of the problem via email and re-advise of an alternative claim date...nothing more sinister....as you can imagine with ntl's current financial predicament not quite good business practice to give you free services!

arcamalpha2004
09-07-2004, 11:34
hi dirty,

i work in the billing dept altho my expertise lies with internet rather than tv/telco but have seen this before

what may have happened is the file transfer to the banks on your particular bill day has fallen over therefor shows as paid on your account but not debited from your bank

normal procedure for an internet account wld be to advise of the problem via email and re-advise of an alternative claim date...nothing more sinister....as you can imagine with ntl's current financial predicament not quite good business practice to give you free services!

Gavnad, I understand your point, but why oh why should the customer suffer?
It is, in my opinion, more to NTL's benefit that our bills are paid by DD, because, it saves NTL a hell of a lot of money per month compared to the poor customer's £1.
On the matter of " Systems down ", I do'nt want NTL staff jumping all over me here, but is'nt this just an easy way out for the cs asvisor ?
How would the customer know that the system was not down?
Before I am trampled, I have it on good knowledge from a person working in a large company, would maybe make NTL look like paupers, but apparently, this guy told me if they get a call they do not want to deal with, maybe they are coming to the end of their shift, they tell the calling customer the system is down, there again, it could be me being cynical.

Marge
09-07-2004, 11:49
On the matter of " Systems down ", I do'nt want NTL staff jumping all over me here, but is'nt this just an easy way out for the cs asvisor ?
How would the customer know that the system was not down?
Before I am trampled, I have it on good knowledge from a person working in a large company, would maybe make NTL look like paupers, but apparently, this guy told me if they get a call they do not want to deal with, maybe they are coming to the end of their shift, they tell the calling customer the system is down, there again, it could be me being cynical.

Sorry but I find this quite insulting, please don't presume that everyone working for NTL is a lazy arse lier :rolleyes:

arcamalpha2004
09-07-2004, 11:55
SORRY debsy, did I mention people working at NTL?

NO I BLOODY DIDNT.
Don't tell me this practice does not go on.
You may keep yourself in order, it does not mean it does not go on.
And given that it was a family member who told me this, I know for a fact that they are not lying, so where does it leave things?

Marge
09-07-2004, 12:03
no need to shout at me, I'm not deaf

I can understand why Proppin and Bill felt the way they did and their course of action, I'll leave you to the thread and your opinion.

arcamalpha2004
09-07-2004, 12:10
All well and good, but I am relaying what I was told, and it was certainly no lie, so do not suggest that because you may not do it, it does not go on, because it does.

gavnad
09-07-2004, 12:45
well i was only trying to advise as to how/why this problem may have occurred and in CS defence they are rarely advised of any problems of this nature..no system is infallible and due to the upgrading of ntls' billing sysytems this has happened more or less on each occasion...i as an employee of ntl myself suffer from the shortcomings of staff but to be honest this is usually down to lack of training rather than lack of desire to help...i sympathise with any CS agent at the moment who are trying to encompass several billing sysytems,offering first line support and sweeping the floor as the leave the building...so perhaps it may be time to have some understanding of the problems agents encounter and if your still dissatisfied......watch the door don't hit you on the way out...thanks to presidential candidate john kerry for that one.

arcamalpha2004
10-07-2004, 15:40
And there was me thinking that this new billing system was meant to be better for all concerned? that was according to a rep who was talking about the new " Harmony " system.

I agree that there may well be teething problems with any new system, but surely if people are poorly trained, should they be doing such an important job before they are fully competent?
Surely the workforce were involved with the implementation of the new billing system, and not much of a fuss was created over using it, so why blame any shortcomings on the new system?

scrotnig
10-07-2004, 16:44
SORRY debsy, did I mention people working at NTL?

NO I BLOODY DIDNT.
Don't tell me this practice does not go on.
You may keep yourself in order, it does not mean it does not go on.
And given that it was a family member who told me this, I know for a fact that they are not lying, so where does it leave things?
Ok, *I* will tell you it doesn't go on...not at ntl.

In three years with the company I have never come across one person who would ever, EVER tell a customer they didn't want to deal with that the system was down when it wasn't.

And I don't know of a single manager who would want anyone that did to remain in the business.

ntl would be keen to class that as gross misconduct if they possibly could.

dirtydog
11-07-2004, 08:16
All I know is, I used to recommend ntl to people but I now regret doing that. People who have got it on my recommendation have also had billing aggro (eg. my parents) and I've had no end of problems myself. Anyone who asks about ntl now is soon put off when I tell them of my experiences.

At the time I took ntl's services in early 2001, they were much cheaper than the alternatives at the time; that is not the case any more and there is no longer any compelling reason for anyone to stay with ntl imo - unless perhaps you can't get any other form of broadband in your area in which case unlucky.

gavnad
11-07-2004, 10:44
Surely the workforce were involved with the implementation of the new billing system, and not much of a fuss was created over using it, so why blame any shortcomings on the new system?

the answer here in short is NO!

and yes concerns have been raised but its gotta happen no matter what!

[Edit] (Neil)-Quote fixed. :)

Fitzer
12-07-2004, 20:33
Hi All,

I've just had the same thing, July's bill for Family pack shows £29 credit received for June (June 21st) but my bank has no sign of money being taken. Checking my online banking shows direct debits set up to NTL Cambridge Ltd and NTL Group Ltd with no last date or amounts available (as opposed to all the others). Rang CS and was told that they definitely had taken the money and to check with my bank, I pointed out that I wasn't going to bother my bank when it was their systems at fault and we left it at that. I'll wait and see what happens with my broadband account later this week.

PS. the previous DDs had worked perfectly well for a good five years or more.

Edit. Just realised that my location info has disappeared from my profile, I'm in an ex-Cambridge Cable area.

gavnad
13-07-2004, 09:31
there is a change in the cambridge area...as all cambridge accounts are now part of the harmony program ntl are changing the OIN number on all DD payments...this in effect changes the account your payment is made into...there is currently a problem with this...i'd expect you to receive some sort of communication soon!

SOSAGES
03-08-2004, 10:46
i got my bb cut off for not paying my bill - its a dd and they didnt take it so i phoned them up and asked why they hadnt taken the money and they didnt really have an answer -

also they havnt taken my phone bill for 3 months now - im not minding but i know they will cut me off i called early in the morning and they said they would take it and that was 2 montsh ago -

ho hum

Mr Concerned
05-08-2004, 20:18
You have agreed with NTL that they take your monthly bill by DD. The onus is therefore on NTL to do that. If they make an error and cut you off through non-payment of your account, then I see no reason why you cannot invoice NTL for any extra tangible costs that you incur through this. This may be for spending time at an internet cafe, making a phone call from a public call box, etc. I see no reason why these costs would not be enforceable through the courts.