Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

I called today to see if I could get a better deal on my broadband service and when the guy at customer services said there was nothing they could do I asked to cancel all of my services. He told me I would have to call back Mon-Fri 9-5. Can anyone tell me if this was correct?

Thanks.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

What is the problem with your broadband service? I think the retentions department are open on the weekend, might be wrong on that though

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

Bet there is nothing wrong he just wants to pay less and get more than those who are paying full price. Would be funny if they said ok Mr Blah your service will terminate in 30 days have a nice day :D

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

How do I get more?

What's wrong with trying to get better value for my money?

Thanks for helping answer my question btw.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

The problem is NTL if they go bankrupt as theya re in debt would cause youi more problems, paying the correct price for your service and not lie about leaving to get a reductioin. IMPO those who lie to get reductioins when they have no intentions of leaving will only cause more jobs to be outsourced to such as India or worse, network problems as NTL would not have enough funds to upgrade the network. Its swings and roundabouts you swing a lower price the roundabout has to stop sometime then you start getting bad speeds high pings or worse the network dies and takes days to fix. Try to be a forward thinker instead of conning all the time.

As for retentions you was told mon-fri 9 till 5 only tech support and CS are in on the sat mornings now and tech support sundays.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

I have rather different ideas on how business works.

I know what I was told, do you know that to be correct?

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

I believe it to be. Certain departments are only open mon-fri 9-5. Hope that helps? Unless of course they've changed things yet again?!?!?!

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

Nothing wrong with trying to get a better deal!

We all do it, on car insurance, home/contents insurance, mobile phones, the list goes on. However if anyone tries to get a better deal with your beloved NTL their conning so & so's! :td:

I called NTL to get a better deal on my BB, Said I would leave if I was not given one! And I would have cancelled and gone elsewhere if I had been refused one. The fact that I had just cancelled my phone & tv services with them 30 day's prior must of made them think I ment it! (And I did.)

I have had zip from NTL prior to this even when I first signed up with them, ohh unless you call a so called free install that took them 3 months to complete anything to go by!

Why should new customers get six months half price this or half price that when I never got anything?

Business is business, NTL don't give a toss about me neither does any other business for that matter. As long as the money keeps coming from my bank account thats all that matters to them!

And I don't care about NTL or any other business, as long as I get my product or service at a competetive price and it works then that's all I want!

On another note NTL should sort out their own cable network and clear their debts instead of spending money they don't have on purchasing other cable companies etc....

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

Their is a problem because the product has a price and you not willing to pay for it, if your product works as it should then please tell me why you should pay below the retail price?

This of course has a knock on affect, ntl sell services below cost and as such less network upgrades get done.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

The cancellation/retentions department is only open M-F, 9-5.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

Because I can. Just as NTL would charge £100 a month if they could.


Please elaborate on your understanding of the cost price of broadband services.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

My understanding is quite simply they are way undervalued currently.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

Well that's your understanding and not mine!

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

Why would anyone pay more for something if they didn't need to?

NTL wouldn't give the discounts if they couldn't afford it, i'm sure even they aren't that silly.
I wouldn't pay more for something in a shop if i could get it cheaper by making a phone call:shrug:
And yeah, as Fingy says, they are only open Mon-Fri!

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

But that's a fairly nonsense argument, as they don't charge you that much :shrug:

At the end of day, you signed up to a package that you knew would cost you x amount - why should ntl (or any company for that matter) reduce your charges just because you're no longer happy with what you're paying?

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

But it's not that is it, they are reducing charges to keep in line with the competition.
They are doing it in a poor way of course, since it shouldn't be retentions giving out these offers.
It's not a case of, we all decided we don't want to pay that much anymore. But there are other providers out there that can give us cheaper rates so NTL has simply matched them. Many companies do price match as standard. Ntl on the other hand, wait for you to threaten to cancel first:rolleyes:

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

They can afford it. They just cut the amount they spend on "luxuries" they don't need, such as Engineers, other staff and network upgrades. Simple. Don't believe me? Look at some of the posts by Escapee, and others. It's also simple economics. If they cut someone's prices by £20 a month, then that's £20 a month they don't have for upgrades.

As I have said in the past, I really don't think NTL should be giving reduced prices to those who threaten to leave. I personally would rather they spent that money on improving the network (and their support services) so that people are not tempted to leave anyway.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

I agree with that Stuart, but i'm of the attitude that if everyone else is doing it one more won't make any difference:D
Anyway, i need the money more than them!

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

We all need the money but think about it you all get a reduction and the network fails. you are paying for a service that is either down or below expectations and NTL have either no staff or funds to fix it.

The T&C cover this as they no longer guarentee the speeds or connection so you could be off line for a few days.

There has to be a point where it becomes impossible for them to trade they are not a profitable company like some and it would be easy to fall back into bankruptcy.

The saying about the last piece of straw that broke the camels back comes to mind

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

because they do.

it's not our responsibility to turn down offers so NTL have more money to spend. if it's so bad for NTL then it's up to their management to reduce the deals or dont offer deals.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

I'm not arguing with that matey - what I'm saying is that, seeing as people sign up to pay x amount for their service, why should they then demand to pay less in charges later on?

I agree that ntl mess it up for themselves by agreeing to do it in some cases, but that still doesn't mean that someone should have the right to it :shrug:

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

:tu::tu: My sentiments exactly.

But this will have all started because people genuinely had intentions to leave and were given the discount without that being the point of the phone call.
I feel i am getting a good deal at the moment, but only in comparison to what i was paying. It's probably about right in comparison with the competition.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

What I don't understand is, if you ring up to cancel becuase you're sick of a shoddy service (or whatever), why you would stay because it's offered at a cheaper rate :confused: . What is about paying slightly less that means you'd ignore the reasons that you wnted to leave in the first place?

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

Cos then you're pretty much paying for what it's worth.
Shoddy sevice- low prices. Reminds me of that RyanAir company.

I'm not as fussed about having low speeds if i'm not paying full whack, but that doesn't mean to say i'll just put up with it either, it's just less of a pee-take.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

Sort of agree with nugget, except I think people who have a service clearly below ntl's national average should get a discount until ntl resolve the problem. But someone in an area that has faultless digital tv/vod/10meg that runs at 10meg all day and all night even at 9pm should pay full whack as they recieving a grade A service.

So to summarise discounts should only be a form of compensation for substandard service not a way of competing. They should also be reviewed monthly not 3/6/12 months and probably be less generous.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

What are you on? It's simple economics, the price is set by what people are willing to pay. If people don't want to pay it its obviously too high for what they're receiving. The christian nicey nicey approach isn't going to make a bit of difference to how many upgrades they do :shocked:

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

A product is undervalued when the person selling the product is either making a loss (loss leader) or they have to redesign the product usually by reducing the quality of it to sell it at that price. This is occuring with broadband.

By your argument if people suddenly decided they would only pay £1 for broadband then £2 would be overvalued even if it costs the isp 10x that amount to provide it.

---------- Post added at 00:57 ---------- Previous post was at 00:54 ----------

Oh and by the way the price is set by the person selling the product, noone is putting a knife to isp's throats saying you have to charge X amount.

What do you think mr X will do if he says to NTL I want this price because I can ask for it then NTL said no can do you can stay at current price or leave?

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

Tosh! 'If people don't want to pay [the contratual amount] for what they're receiving', it doesn't mean that ntl (in this instance) are in the wrong. Maybe it means that these people shouldn't have agreed those contractual terms in the first place.

As Chysalis says, it's fair enough if ntl wanted to offer it as a compensatory gesture in the short term, but why should they have to do it over an extended period just because the customer has decided that they don't want to pay the agreed amount anymore?

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

And why should lots of people be paying £25 for a supposed 2 meg connection when loads of others are allowed to have it for less than half of that price.

The way i see it, if they want me to buy their services, and are want me to pay a lower price because i have realised they aren't all they're cracked up to be in comparison with the tough competetion these days.. then they obviously want us enough to take less money.

Half the money is better than none of the money...

It's NTL's decision to make those offers, not ours, and I won't be losing any sleep over it.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

PIA of course ntl have royally messed up there, they have set a precedent when they started this sham of a discount policy meaning people ring up and expect the same because of this precedent.

Personally I think they should either say tough luck to anyone new trying it on (which they are going to do soon from what I heard one of £20 caps on discounts not ongoing) or even better since noone on discounts is tied up long term they just say starting from next bill the discount is cancelled if you dont like it you free to leave.

Like james henry has said many times before that leaves ntl making more profit and they can then improve their service, these penny pinchers will go of to talk talk and the like realise what a mistake they made and with any luck they willcome back to ntl and pay the full price. If not then no big loss.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

some of the retentions discounts are long term i.e. 'forever'.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

they for length of service.

of course if you signed a document saying this discounted price for life thats something different.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

quote as stated by retentions staff to me "for as long as you stay with NTL as a customer"

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

Which is my point. Don't get me wrong - if you can get the service for cheaper, then fair play but, having signed a contract stating that you will pay x amount, I don't understand why you should then expect (or, in some cases, demand) to pay less at a later date :shrug:

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

I've never signed a contract with NTL!

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

Apologies, but you must have agreed terms and conditions (including terms of payment) when you had the stuff installed?

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

I rang up and placed an order. it was a 12 month contract. by definition if a contract is agreed for 12 months then during the term conditions can not be renegotiated but once the contract term is up both parties are entitled to either a)agree mutually acceptable new terms, b)mutually agree to continue as is or c)either side can terminate. the people who get deals from retentions are mearly agreeing new terms (if they are outside their 12 months).

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

Absolutely (good old Business Law, eh? The most boring part of my HND :D ). As I've said, I've no particular problem with people paying less if they can, but it's people who are demanding smaller charges by threatening to leave that I don't understand.

All of this is academic to me you understand, seeing as I don't ntl at all ;)

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

in life you tend to get the best deals when you threaten to take your business elsewhere.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

Probably not all the time though :disturbd:

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

Fair enough.. I wasn't having a go.. Well, I was having a go at NTL, but for the reasons I stated in the post. If they are willing to offer the discount, I can't, in all honesty, blame anyone for accepting it.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

No, it doesn't leave them making more profit if I leave. That was why I asked you about your understanding of the business.

As long as keeping me makes a positive contribution, i.e revenue > variable costs associated with supplying me with the service, it is in their interests to keep me as a customer.

I assure you that supplying bb at half the current retail price will still make a positive contribution for NTL.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

What number do I have to phone to get through to Retentions/cancellation people?

I am am getting sick of all the DNS propblems, and haveing to pay full whack for my BB & phone line.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

see here

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...800#post741888

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

omg there are people on this forum who actuall talk sense!!!

i think retentions should have a "no" week - one week of not offering the world and the universe to every single customer who comes through - just helping the one who have the notes to back it up that something has gone wrong and they need help - i think they would be suprised by how much money the department would save and how many customer wouldnt cancel!!!

i am sick of telling customers for example - no you cant have a sliver box just because it goes with your new tv them threatening to cancel and retentions having one out to them within 48 hours and offering money here there and everywhere.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

Hi luna :welcome: to Cable Forum.
Have you tried this ("unofficial") offer then?

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

thanks it looks really goos here

i work for ntl i dont have any of their services - i agree with a lot of things that have been said on this thread from both sides - but ntl needs to change their ways - get more like telewest - they dont throw money at customers just because they say they are going to cancel.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

retentions job isn't to help people who have had something go wrong. the whole idea of a rententions dept is to stop all customers from leaving.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

i know that but when something goes wrong customer services cant fix it they tried all the other routes retentions are the next option

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

Yuo can only assure me if you know the cost of providing services.

If you dont you cant assure anything.

Bear this in mind, they have to price the product at a level where when averaged out across their customer base it makes a profit, its a unlimited product meaning users can potentially download a lot of data each month and as such will lose ntl money. To offset this ntl need to charge light usage customers a price that makes a healthy profit so when offset against the heavy users they are in the black. If they are suddenly only making a tiny profit of light users then they can no longer subsidise heavier users and suddenly its no longer a profitable business. Add to this the cost of providing tech support customer services and to admin your account. Many of their TV services are break even or even loss making so if you have TV with ntl its likely your broadband has to subsidise that as well.

To add tho I cant blame customers for trying for the discount its in our nature, I just got ratty when people say its their right to have such a discount.

---------- Post added at 16:57 ---------- Previous post was at 16:51 ----------

How many people here would see talk talk 8meg broadband and bulldog 8meg broadband as the same product?

they are actually 2 very different products one is far superior to the other.

this is why its bad when people ring up ntl and say I want a price match to talk talk, because again they 2 different products. Broadband isnt just broadband their are many different ways to package it and provide it.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

Look at NTL's financial statements, the required information is there.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

here, here good shout m8, as you are quite right they are only interested in one thing and that is taking your money every month

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

I completely 100% agree with you on that one.

In terms of answering the question, yes retentions are only open monday to friday between 9-5.

Re: Opening hours of department dealing with cancelations?
 

Of course they are, Its a business!!! Do you expect to got the local shop and get everything you want for nothing?? ....thought not. If you dont agree with the price, you can move elsewhere, there are other options.....