£4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

I had my telephone bill from ntl today and noticed I was paying £16 alone for service charges. I only have broadband and telephone with them so this seemed really steap for the telephone.

Turns out that the charge levied for not using direct debit has risen from £2 to £4, I'm a bit confused by this as it shouldn't cost them any more to service an account not on direct debit than one that is. I mean even if this was because of late payments I don't see how it would cost everyone not on DD an extra £4 a month to service them.

This seems to me to be a scam to extract more money from people while doing sod all.

OK I could go onto direct debit but last time I was on it with them they took over a £100 out of my account when they cocked up my bill, this happened twice in 6 months and since then I just don't trust them.

Hence forth I've decided they can go and get stuffed, after 10 minutes in a queue waiting to get through I asked if I could cancel my account over the phone, which I'm pleased to say I can.

Before I do, I've decided to look around and see who the better deals are with.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what packages they are with. BT fusion interests me but I'm not sure it's worthe the extra.

I'm not bothered about the phone too much, I hardly use it anyway, as for the internet, I'm not bothered about high speeds as I don't tend to download much, just mainly browsing and a bit of emails.

I reckon it's going to take me a while to ferret out the better deals but the sooner I do the sooner I can get shot of this useless lot NTL. Any help or any pointers on good deals or combinations of packages would be most appreciated.


thanks

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

It does cost more to process a cheque payment than a DD - DD is all electronic/automatic, but with a cheque payment there is (usually) a manual process, which takes time and costs. Also, DD payers tend to generate less Collections (overdue money chasing) work.

PS I think £4 is a lot for non-DD, but it is probably their way of getting people on to DD.

If you are not paying by cheque, but some other form of EFT, ignore all of the above.


EFT - Electronic Funds Transfer

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

Sorry , should say I don't pay by cheque but by standing order from my bank.

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

Just got a leaflet today from NTL that tells me the charge for not paying by DD will increase to £5.

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

Just a bit cheesed off by it. £4 is a lot of money at the mo and £48 a year for doing sod all seems a rip.

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

It not just Ntl that do this other companies do it as well ;)

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

This is you're idea of a sick joke right?

net had the leaflet yet, but suspect it's on it's way.
Definetly time to jump ship

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

Sorry but no joke, look at my attachment.

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

Yep but I'll happily go on direct debit with another telco as long as I don't get vast sums of money vanishing from my account because of their mistake. If I do then I'll just go elsewhere. It's only really NTL I don't trust with a DD

---------- Post added at 21:01 ---------- Previous post was at 20:59 ----------

I can't see how they can justify this charge.

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

Standing orders cost more to process and are a risk to their business. With a standing order you control the amount that is paid once the bill is received and they then have to check that you have paid the correct amount etc. With a DD NTL are in control as they can request the funds and they know if its paid it will be the correct amount.

Thep oint being if you pay by standing order why dont you change to DD and save yourself some money

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

DD is practically money in the bank so its any companies ideal payment method.

Extra costs are negligible per individual yet soon mount up across millions of customers.

Not only that, there is manual work done both via counter payments... but extra staff need paying to answer phones and take a payments. Also non DD payers are statistically more likely to be late or default on bills... not saying you are at all, but its the way it is, this then brings about more reminders, and more staff being paid to chase late bills etc.

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

Because in the past they've cocked up, taken out more than they should have, leaving my account over drawn and costing me money on 2 occasions.

Which is 2 occasions too many.

I no longer trust them with what is literally the right to go to my bank and take as much as they like.

As for the cost of taking the money via direct debit as opposed to standing order as far as I'm concerned that's just the price of doing business, I'm a customer, It's not an honour to be so. whatever the method of payment there's still a cost involved in processing the transaction regardless of how it's conducted, if it was cash they'd still have to have the money taken to the bank and processed, if it's dd they still have to request the funds, ther's still a cost. They could argue a cost for every form of payment processing, although I'm still struggling to see why paying by standing orders incurrs costs to them of £4 now going up to £5


---------- Post added at 23:03 ---------- Previous post was at 22:58 ----------

I've noticed that BT are doing an option that may be good for on on the phone front.
http://www2.bt.com/static/i/btretail...realcallvalue/
option 2 may be goood for me . I'm assuming once the phones in place getting broadband from one or the other provider's should be straight forward.

may try tiscali or and I say this hesitantly.... Virgin

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

It is robbery !
It's like airlines that charge you a huge price to change booking details when all they have to do is bring up your info on screen and change a few numbers.
Crazy !

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

can i ask do you work in an airline? i suspect they do more than change numbers. such as possible loss of revenue because they cant sell that seat again etc.

with the non DD i agree £5 is a steep but personally i dont want to be paying extra because other people dont pay by this method, the cost would be passed on by a general price increase if its not passed on to the people who dont use DD

also its fair enough if money has been taken wrongly before as im not going to argue with someones experience however there is a direct debit guarantee so its probably safer than most other payment methods anyway

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

Perhaps if NTL could manage to get their bill amount correct for more than 3 months in a row more of us would be happy to go back to paying by DD.

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

Can you pay by standing order then, I've not had that option given to me.
In the years i have been with ntl i've never had the problem of them taking to much out of my bank, the way I look at it is that if I can afford to pay them an extra £50. per year I may as well take the chance with DD.

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

Did those mistakes cost you £60 (a year) ?

I also thought the banks DD policy should refund you any charges as a result of mistaken DD payments.

I've paid by DD for 7 years and never had ntl make a mistake in what they take out.

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

NTL customers should find a big improvement on the billing side as in December NTL migrated all their different billing systems over to the Telewest billing system, in my experience of being an NTL customer & now a Telewest customer i have never had a problem with any of my payments through Telewest.

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

Except that this change in billing system meant my direct debit was moved from just after pay day to just before pay day without prior notice. This meant I would be paying two direct debits from one month's salary...

Luckily I picked it up from the bill before it was due to go out & rang Customer Services. They apologised, but couldn't move this month's payment, so I've ended up having to pay it online through my bank.

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

And being charged the £4 fee!!:dozey: :(

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

They'd better not!! I was only asked to pay the amount on the bill...

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

Just to clarify regarding the billing systems, most customers are on the telewest billing system now but there are also still a lot more to migrate to it which happens over the course of this year if all goes to plan of course! ;)

Customers in the old Glasgow, Belfast, Nottingham, Luton, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Huddersfield and neighbouring franchises are still to be moved.

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

I pay all my bills via DD apart from ntl which i do not trust with DD, Why don't NTL use a pay point card or a post office card all gas & water & electric companys do and BT use a post office card aswell,

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

They do, well, they used to anyway.

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

Most likely the cost of the transaction - the post office don't do these things for free!

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

Neither does APACS (who process the DD's).

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

you can pay by post office or paypoint, if you take the giro slip to the post office you can pay there, ntl used to issue payment cards but no longer do however there is a barcode at the top of the bill or maybe in the giro slip never really looked which is used to take a payment by paypoint

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

I've been on cable (ntl and their preceding companies) since 1995 and they have never once ever got a DD wrong. This despite my current services being spread across two bills and thus two DDs.

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

With most companies the majority of people will not have any problems. However I in the past did hence why I stuck to standing order. I'm not A big phone user so knew roughly how much to pay each month, which meant for the most part I was over paying so I could afford not to pay one month a year as I was in credit. However I still can't see why I need to give them £5 every month because I don't use DD, I can't see that my paying by standing order adds a significant financial burden. Because of problems in the past with NTL I will never trust them so will never ever go on DD with them. Also I worked for them for a while in Newport doing tech support for NTL as well as virgin and which online and heard similar complaints from customers on a dailly basis to the problems I was having.

I don't believe that they have changed significantly much in my opinion and I still think their attitude towards their customers stinks.


I've been looking at a couple of bt total broadband options.

I'm seriously considering option 3 which comes with the free homehub.
Anyone have any experience with this setup? Is it any good?

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

got more rubbish through the post this morning about the rebranding to virginmedia and a link to http://www.knowfirst.co.uk/ usual propoganda rubbish and no facts and figures.

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

Might be worth you reading the folder that says "important stuff" - Section F tells you about billing, payments, and charges.

Mustn't confuse "propaganda" and "marketing" :D

"Instead of impartially providing information, propaganda is often deliberately misleading, using logical fallacies, which, while sometimes convincing, are not necessarily valid. Propaganda techniques include: patriotic flag-waving, glittering generalities, intentional vagueness, oversimplification of complex issues, rationalization, introducing unrelated red herring issues, using appealing, simple slogans, stereotyping, testimonials from authority figures or celebrities, unstated assumptions, and encouraging readers or viewers to "jump on the bandwagon" of a particular point of view."

Marketing isn't much better, but strictly speaking, it's not propaganda ;)

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

Facts and figures about what :confused:

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

The letter states that they are "bringing ntl,Telewest, Virgin.net and Virgin Mobile together to form a brand new entertainment company". I would assume that from all this statement everything will get consolidated and similar or competeing products with different price structures will change.

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

urmmm not entirly true lol...only icms has been migrated to icoms (the telewest system) harmony and sms still to go....not looking forward to being trained on that...only just be duel skilled onto sms :S

Re: £4 for doing sod all!!!!!
 

I,m Pulling Out , Had It To The Back Teeth, Over Charging Again/again