NTL Cancelation Scam
 

I have fallen prey to the biggest scam going!

On July 7th i cancelled all my services with NTL, BB TV Tel the lot!
Yes I really did manage to speak to a real person!!!!
They REALLY were not happy bunny's but after Hours of moaning and whining they agreed and said they would send someone round to pick up my equipment.

Dates were agreed, i booked the day off work (My Boss was not pleased!)

Sorted!

With NTL Nothing is that easy!

They Day came and went, i called no answer, called again no answer!
Called again,

Me: "Why havent you collected your equipment?????"

Reply: What Equipment?

Me: "I have been disconnected, you were supposed to pick up you equipment!"

Reply: Sorry Sir we have no record of you asking to be disconnected, you'll have to speak to the disconnections Dept, Shall i put you through?

Me: "What? but it's all sorted! Oh ok then!"

Reply: "Click" "hello this is the disconnections Dept we are now closed!"

I have called the disconnection Dept at 10am 11am 12am 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm, THEY ARE ALWAYS CLOSED!!!!!!:Yikes:

Now it's 17th Sep 2004 over 100 Phone Calls hours of my life gone sitting listerning to rubbish Musac!

And what do i get? NTL Bill after NTL Bill after NTL Bill dropping on the Mat!

I feel like i'm stuck in some sort of "Ground Hog Day"

I cancel they say they will pick up the equipment, they dont i call they say they have no record of me requesting a cancellation of service!!!

ARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!:Yikes:

Re: NTL Cancelation Scam
 

Did you send a letter to them to confirm it. It's always best to put it in writing as well as verbally on the phone. I was advised when I quit to send a letter too.

Re: NTL Cancelation Scam
 

:rolleyes: Sounds familiar to me.

You were upsetting their targets, they wanted you off the line as quick as pssoble so they could do the same to the next guy.

I'm not intending to be offensive and I appreciate the CS people are only following what they are told, that is to clear as many calls as quickly as possible.

If you are diverted to another department that happens to be closed, as far as ntl management is concerned for that department the targets are being met.

Re: NTL Cancelation Scam
 

If it were me then I would arm myself with a log of the CS calls from my phone bill(s) (to at least prove how many times they've been contacted by me) and then drive down the NTL office (luckily the NTL office is only a couple of miles away from me) and ask to speak to the organ grinder rather than his monkey for a serious "chat" about the situation. Stay rooted to the spot until you get it sorted and get refunded for their billing error.

BTW, welcome to the forums sgt

Re: NTL Cancelation Scam
 

not the best advice but it works, stop paying them they will soon be ringing you ;) and when they do, just for a laugh tell them you have never had a service from them.

Re: NTL Cancelation Scam
 

Trouble with that is, in extreme cases, it just gets you a bad credit rating plus you have a devil of a job proving your case to a bailif when he comes to collect the debt (as if he would be interested anyway).

Re: NTL Cancelation Scam
 

My mother cancelled over the phone with no problems what so ever.

I'm sure many many others have as well.

I hardly think it worthy of the title NTL Cancelation Scam.

Things go wrong sometimes, I see it as life :)

Re: NTL Cancelation Scam
 

Yep, Everything was done and dusted (I posted the letter recorded delivery and sent a copy of the letter in an email to NTL which was received/read/and replied to the same day!!!!

Re: NTL Cancelation Scam
 

I don't think you quite understood

1: I'm Not alone in this, i have spoken to many many people who are in this situation!

2: Yes, sometimes things do go wrong, maybe once or twice, but repeatedly?? I don't see it??

3: if i wanted to add more channels or pay a bill, i can get though within 5-10mins,

so why is it so difficult for people to get through to disconnections????

Re: NTL Cancelation Scam
 

This is what i shall have to do, it's gone that far!

I really don't want to have to resort to that, but your right i'll have to find out where my nearest NTL Office is, and go have a nice chat!;)

Thanks for the welcome!

I have been an NTL Customer from the begining,
(I must have been really sick in the head to believe their hype!)

Re: NTL Cancelation Scam
 

This kind of problem is not limited to NTL.
I cancelled my vodaphone subscription yet I got a further 2 months of bills.
Originally, they said I couldn't cancel on the phone and had to write or fax. I faxed immediately. I faxed again after I received another bill. After a 2nd bill, I phoned, complained and they cancelled on the spot (why they couldn't do this originally over the phone they could not tell me). I had to ring another dept to get a refund but they wouldn't give me one and said I had to write to the complaints dept. So I emailed, faxed and wrote and eventually I got a refund for the two extra bills.
It did not even begin to pay for the time I wasted.
They make it very difficult because they know that by using adminstative delays and other stalling tactics that they are likely to screw at least another month's payment out of you.

Re: NTL Cancelation Scam
 

hi i see ure havin trouble with ntl lol

me 2..

Only its a little different...

they wont cough up a new modem even though i am a new customer...

And i was told today BY CS tht they dont come to pick up old hardware at all.

Just a question did they come to pick up yurs..

Re: NTL Cancelation Scam
 

They don't bother to come and pick up old CMs as they cost them £10 each now and it costs more than that to send someone to get it and probably a good proportion of that to post it to them. They do come pick up Set Top Boxes as they are worth more.

When you were setup as a 'new' customer, having the CM at your house meant you did not have to wait around for an engineer to come visit, etc. Surely saving taking a day off work is a good thing?

Re: NTL Cancelation Scam
 

Managed to speak to someone in disconnections who agreed the service was no good, and indeed told me he was being made redundant! :( Today I received a letter from ntl confirming my termination with pathetic appeals to stay with them contained in it, complete with a date to collect the equipment. I will be keeping the leter to prove my case should it arise, also reduced my service to the basic package of TV. It transpires as long as you dont cancel telephone and broadband as well they are quite happy!! :confused: Do they know something that we don't? I like the broadband at 1.5 meg, and there is no BT line into the property to change back to anyway. Maybe they know that too!!!:Yikes:

Re: NTL Cancelation Scam
 

Yes, if you're in Stockport then you'd have come through to the department I work in, and we are indeed being made redundant. Though it won't have been me you spoke to, since I'd never tell a customer that I was going.....

I'm concerned if someone told you 'the service was no good'...if they mean the service that you personally have received, then that's fine, but if they were saying 'the ntl service in general is no good' then that's extremely poor service in itself.

Re: NTL Cancelation Scam
 

Sadly, Mark, that's the risk management of any company takes when it decides to make its soon-to-be-redundant staff work their notice. IMO it's just too high a risk, making customer-facing staff get on with the job and expecting them to do it with a smile on their face (but good on you if you're managing it :) ). I'm a little puzzled as to why they've planned to do it this way - if they can't afford to lose you all for 90 days, how are they going to manage without you after that? Or is that a very silly question?

Re: NTL Cancelation Scam
 

Basically our work (and most of the other ICMS account work) goes to Teesside, who all have to be recruited and trained as nobody up there is using ICMS at the moment. They will do that over the ensuing few weeks, once it's done, we go. Should be late November. After that it's not our problem, but it'll be a HUGE learning curve for Teesside, in Manchester we have SO many contacts for getting NW problems fixed, they will initially have none whatsoever.

Re: NTL Cancelation Scam
 

Incidentally, on this subject, the company are trying to get round the 'work your notice' problem by putting a decent bonus in place if people keep doing the job properly up to the bitter end.

It has to be said, once you accept the decision to make us redundant has been made (and I believe that decision to be the wrong one), the company do not treat affected staff at all badly, certainly not compared to some horror stories I have heard elsewhere.

I am now in a reasonably good position...I can either take a good redundancy package and move on, or stay and take a job with my existing salary protected. Although I'd have preferred to just keep my existing job, it's not really a terrible position to be in. When ntl made me redundant last time after just 5 months, part of my decision to stay was based around the fact that they did treat us well and pay us well for that redundancy, when with only 5 months service across the whole team they could have simply told us to leave there and then! That gave me the confidence that if I *was* made redundant again, I would be treated fairly, and that has indeed come to pass.