NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

NTL have tried twice in May and Twice this Month (June) to set up an illegal direct debit on my bank account.
This has left me overdrawn twice and has created many financial and personal problems with my partner and I who got NTL for it's alledged cheapness!
I have never had a bill and to top it all when you ask for a replacement bill they charge an additional £4 for the pleasure.
I can see no way of complaining and the staff that you talk to seem ignorant at best.
I have incoming calls only on my landline and a reduced TV service despite the correct direct debits being paid.
I will not be paying for this shoddy service,they can eat the cr#p from my ar#se before I give them anymore money.
They have failed contractually to maintain my service,and have attempted to illegally remove funds from my account.
If and When NTHELL decide to prosecute me, I will counter sue them on these grounds.
I would advise anyone thinking about using NTL services to consider the shoddy way this company operates and consider using cheaper and faster ISP such as Homechoice via a BT line.
NTL upload speed is painfully slow...zzzzzzzzz!
Sod Them.
NTL are S#it at best!!!

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Welcome to the site :wavey:

First of all calm down! If you PM me your full name, address and account number, I'll get one of our ntl contacts to look in to this for you :)

Fortunately the vast majority of ntl employees are helpful, especially those who post here and help out in their own time.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

there's another satisfied customer not!

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

OK Russ,
I will get my Partner Emma to PM you later...I think I'm having a sense of humour failure and I'm gonna miss startrek!!!!

It's a joke!

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Anybody could help me please?:help:
I'm so stressed out it is sickening.

The folllowing is an email that I sent to NTL. I got a automated reply
dating 25/4/06, but nothing else. Be warned this is long.

Another two DDs were taken from my account in May'06, so I cancelled
one of them myself.

On Monday of this week I lost my internet connection. Thought it was the normal dodgy NTL so I left it. Come Wednesday night it still did not work, so I called Tech Support. Eventually I was told that my account was suspended due to arrears. CS was closed so I had to call Thu.

Thursday (today), called NTL at lunchtime. Got through surprisingly quickly and spoke to a guy. Spent ages explaining about the email and what had happened. I could not give him an account number for the internet services because I have never received a single bill for either of them during the 3yrs. I gave him my Tel account number and details instead.

He then said that he would not be able to help me without the numbers and therefore would not what each payment was for. I told him in frustration that I did not care and all I knew was that it was paid to "NTL". I asked him if he was arguing with me and he said "Yes".

He then told me to hang up and get back on the queue or he would hang up. I asked to speak to his supervisor, but he said "No" and repeated the hanging up thing. I was gobsmacked and stunned, so I hung up.

By this time I was no longer frustrated and just felt knackered and stunned. Called CS again, spoke to a nice lady. Repeated the same stuff in a zombie state. Got passed to Credit Control. Got passed to another Credit Control and this helpful person cancelled both DDs and reconnected me. He told me that I would need to call CS again to deal with the two accounts and that he could only see 9 payments on both. Then got disconnected by CS. By this time my lunchtime was over.

Called CS this evening. She told me that I need to make an indedmnity claim on the DD at the bank and print out a list of payments as they do not have a record of 3yr payments. I don't really want to do this as I'm afraid that NTL would chase me for the money and end up giving me bad credit.

So far NTL staff have all been helpful apart from the first guy who told me to hang up. I really was gobsmacked and hardly could say anything afterwards. I admit I was frustrated (with good reason), but I never said anything rude.

I tried cancellations, but they were closed. I do not know how I could stay with NTL anymore.

Anybody from NTL who could sort it out for me, please?

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

On the direct debits there will be a reference number (quite long), something like (1052069876530976368). Ignore the first two digits and then the following 8 numbers are the Account Numbers for the BB so any CS rep should then be able to trace your accounts easily :tu: ie your Account Number would be 52069876 in the example above

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

I get phone calls from NTL reps several times a week asking to set up,or reset up my DD account?
I'm not entirely sure these people that say they are from NTL are from NTL at all,I have been reading several cases online and also have spoken to other NTL members at both the websites I run for my old schools and they have all had similar problems.
Russ seems very helpful via this forum,but we will see tomorrow when I get a call from an NTL representitive.(hopefully a potentially bright one!)
Most People I have spoken to today have stopped the direct debit and have told me that they will sue NTL if they continue to set up direct debits without their knowledge.(Which is illegal.)
My bank is pretty fed up aswell and I'm pretty sure every court in the land would back us up.
Post your comment and ask for help here:
http://groups.google.com/group/uk.legal
Google groups uk.legal It's free!
Very helpful.
I think you will find the first two hours of every solicitors time is free of charge, get the legal advice, try not get into to much of a state, lifes to short.
Sounds to me that it's a case of give them enough rope!!
Apart from that I've shouted and got rude enough for everybody for one day.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Thanks Marge for that helpful hint. I have since looked more thorughly at my bank statements and the DD reference numbers do match the two Broadband Account numbers that the Credit Control who helped me to reconnect.

I have double checked and I have been paying double since Mar '03. A meagre £988.77 . :shocked:

Per my bank statements the monthly refernce numbers are the same since Mar'03, but NTL say they only see 9 payments. I think it is unfair that I need to do all the work to prove that they have wrongly taken money frrom me. If they had to do any extra work on my behalf they'lll be charging me admin charges left right and centre!

I cannot believe that a company of their size doesn't have a means of calling up a ledger printout of receipts from a specific customer, but instead would require the customer to go to their bank and ask for one.

Is it just laziness on their side? I admit that I'm lazy too, but in this case I just don't have the time to go to the bank. Will probably have to do a letter instead.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

On the billing system used for the BB it does have a list of all the payments made on the account, dates and amounts and then a lump sum total eg 23 payments £670.00 so it is simplicity to see exactly how much someone has paid and when. If you wanted me to have a look for you then I will do...

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Thanks Marge!

I'll take you up on that offer! ;)

PM sent.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Nice one Marge for getting involved.

A word of warning, Marge does work for ntl, but it's always worth checking before anyone divulges confidential information - things might not be as they seem ;)

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Well, this is exactly what makes you angry. That some of them are ok.
I was paying compliments to one of them who enabled my call divert service that didn't work for weeks, ensuring me that everything will be ok from now on. Unfortunately, I was disconnected without warning later on the same day...

But as I said in a previous post, nothing (BUT NOTHING) compares to the scam of the international calling plan. They tell you they activated it and off you go making calls abroad. Then, by the magic commodity of DD they get off you large sums of ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£ÃƒÆ ’‚£s telling you that they can't see International calling plan set up on your account.

Also, I wonder if they ever reply to complaint letters / emails (they sure don't in my case)

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

http://groups.google.com/group/uk.le...b5e922587402e/?

I'm Just not impressed!
These people think they know what they are doing but they do not.
A word of warning for people that installed NTL software on their PC's, It's riddled with keystroke spyware.
Zone Alarm pro picked up on it.
I'm Still awaiting a call from NTL and seeing as my Mrs is the account holder It will be better to call between 4 and 5 PM BST or Now 10.15am and Noon.

Steve.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Riddled with Keystroke software???

I hope you can back that up with some decent evidence.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

More than likely a false positive

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Absolutely.

A good trojan detection system, NOT Zonealarm, will pick up the fact that BB Medic has opened a port to an ntl server for the system to work, however the BB medic software does not have any keystroke recording capability.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Thats something NTL can take up with zone alarm, Keystroke software so they can spy on you!!!!!!!
I have decided to close my bank account...NTL you have a lot to answer for.

Did I mention I work for London Underground?
I have sent a circular to thousands of Tessa, Aslef and RMT members all over the country asking them to boycot NTL and check there bank accounts for fear of abuse.
A simple itemised bill from NTL and some notice of the amount they are going to remove from the bank and regular debit date would be the norm as with most company's.
Duping people out of there money is not the norm.
NTL have till Tuesday to sort this mess out or they can collect there equipment before I start charging rent for space used in my flat for storage!
I wont get mad, but I may get even!

---------- Post added at 12:09 ---------- Previous post was at 12:00 ----------

Decent! Evidence! hahahahahahahahahahahahaha Decent is something NTL do not practice as far as I'm concerned,evidence is something I'm saving for my solicitor!

---------- Post added at 12:13 ---------- Previous post was at 12:09 ----------

Decent! Evidence! hahahahahahahahahahaha as I say evidence is for my solicitor, decent is something NTL ARE NOT!

---------- Post added at 12:24 ---------- Previous post was at 12:13 ----------

You guys are helpful?
Why can't all NTL reps be helpful?
Listen thanx for all your input, but I cannot help feeling duped by all this.

Good luck to all.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

I realise that you are angry, and rightly so, BUT saying that you are coming across as slightly - well how do I put this carefully - err slightly crackers?:p:

Ease up with the 'im gonna do this' and 'im gonna do that', its better to stay shush on such occaisions than go blabbing it around message boards read by NTL staff - its like you want to give them prior warning so they can prep a response.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Your right! I am crackers LOL!
Driven mad. I don't mean to have a go at you guys I apologise whole heartedly.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Hi,

I'm sorry if this has already been mentioned, but all comapnies which use the Direct Debit system do so under the same gaurentee, all problems what ever they be to do with payments will be dealt with within 24 HOURS.

your bank is able to cancel all direct debit instructions with NTL, so that you CANNOT be debitted by them, they can also refund all payments. GO DIRECT TO YOUR BANK.

---
The Direct Debit Gaurentee:
1. This gaurentee is offered by all banks and building societies that take part in the direct debit scheme. The efficency and security of the scheme is monitored by your own bank or Building Society

2. If the amounts to be paid or the payment dates change <company name> will notify you 10 working days in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed.

3. if an error is made by <company name> or your bank or building society you are gaurenteed a full and immediate refund from your branch of the amount paid.

4. You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time by writing to your bank or building society. Please also send a copy of the letter to us.

----

This statement i have seen on ALL direct debits i have sent up in the past, with only the company name changing.

this was quoted directly from a copy i have of a recent one set up.

DSkerratt

EDIT: i appolagise for my bad spelling, and also note that many banks with internet banking facilities allow you to cancel direct debits online.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

I just want to know how NTL are resetting up the direct debits without my knowledge?
I set up one, NTL set up the other, then I cancell it, then it sets up again? Can you do this? or is it a mistake? I can understand it happening once but not twice.
I think I only owe NTL for the phone calls to date, but if a bill isn't forthcoming do i have to guess the amount I need in the bank to settle the bill?
£32.99p is the agreed DD amount for my package...Plus the calls.
It would be much simpler if I had a payment card or able to pay cash monthly when the bill arrives (preferably Itemised) then NTL could get there money on time and we would all be happy....and I could watch my startrek :) once again I am sorry to moan on and on about this,thanx for all your help,and allowing me to vent my anger,and still let me post.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

NTL in theory at least cannot set up direct debits with out your permission. As they are doing this you should issue an explicit instruction to your bank that under no circumstances are NTL to be paid or are they to set up direct debits without you authorising it - possibly by visitting the bank in person or on the phone to you branch.

If you are not recieving bills from NTL for what ever reason you have not been informed of the amount PRIOR to the debit, as i read it, the gaurentee states that you will be informed, as the amount is changeable (due to the calls) they have not done what has been gaurenteed, so you can recieve instant refunds of these amounts - you did not know about them (this is NTLs problem).

It is possible to pay your bill via payment card / pay point ( i know i have put peoples bills through pay point at work) as far as i'm aware in most cases there is a pound charge for this.

Under no circumstances should you expect or have to guess the amount to be debited, NTL ARE FAILING TO MEET THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES. quote the DD Gaurentee to them, i'm fairly sure thats it's on their bills (but not sure) i don't actually have an account with them my mum does it all.

DSkerratt

EDIT: a personal recommendation, if your bank ever rings you, ring them back on a number you know to be theirs (not one they give you in that phone call).

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Well I hope you have a bundle of cash to prove that ntl are using software to install keystroke loging. They have been using BB medic for a number of years now, this is the first time I have ever read somebody claiming that its a Keystroke logger.

I appreciate your frustrations from the point of view of your billing, but I really think you are clutching at straws, and I hope you don't get an itchy bum :)

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Is it a full moon tonight.

This is the best read i have had in a long time.

Thanks for the :rofl:

Did i mention i work for someone ?

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

It made me grin too :)

But, our poster has a serious concern over his bills from ntl, and we shouldn't loose site of that either.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

I fully agree. However there is the right way to do it and the wrong way :LOL:

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

I've always paid my NTL bills by direct debit. When there's an increase in price, you expect to be notified. However, my sister has never paid by direct debit, always paid over the counter at the local Nat West bank. She was paying NTL an additional £2 a month for not paying by direct debit but without notification, her latest bill has a charge of £4 for non payment by direct debit. She has now reverted to direct debit.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Update on my DD overcharging.

Per Marge's behind the scenes investigations I have made 40 additional DD's sincee Mar'03 totalling £1013.7 6. I have checked this against my the bank statements that I have and seems about right.

I have since tried calling NTL, but was just given the same line again, that they could only see a limited number of receipts (which Marge has confirmed is a lie) and that all they could do is suggest that I file an indemnity claim with my bank.

After I mentioned that I knew there was a way for them to see archived DD payments she paused for a while and then just repeated the indemnity claim line. When I said I wanted to speak to a manager she said they would just tell me the same thing, but they would get one to contact me. This did not happen.

Reluctantly I wasted my Sat morning by going down to Abbey (my bank). The guy there as helpful, but could not help me directly. He put me through to their indian telephone banking. Spent an hour trying to convince them I had good reason to cancel the DD's. Was told that they only have records to Oct'04 (only around half) and could only file a claim on those. Got put on hold and then got cut off.

The Abbey guy was quite ****ed off by this Indian call centre and says it happens a lot and tried to get me a UK call centre. It did not happen. He told me that he'll speak to the manager and she'll get back to me this Monday.

Got a call from the Abbey manager on Monday who told me to call the call centre to confirm the cancellaion. She said she has already given them all the details. Called the Abbey call centre and was told they could only claim DD's from Oct'04 again unless I order hard copies of statements and send them to the bank! Finally agreed on cancelling the DD's from Oct'04. Got cut off while on hold.

Now I'm really annoyed.

This has wasted me plenty of time and NTL have given me the run around pretending that they cannot do anything about their taking DD payments fraudulently from my account and not having a record of it.

Should I take this further by taking this to small claims court for the payments as well as loss of interest and time?

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

While I understand your frustration and anger at the seeming lack of response from NTL and your bank, can I ask a question?

You stated - "The third is DD mandate 9 and started 21/1/03 £24.99 and monthly to date. I do not know what this is and could only guess that NTL has been fraudently overcharging me for over three years. Nearly £1000! I don't know how many times I've been overdrawn because of this. If I had the money to put in a regular saver it would have even earned me a good sum of interest!"

It's taken you 3.5 years to notice this - whilst NTL should not have done this, don't you think you have some duty to check your bank statements a bit more carefully? :confused:

Also, you stated "I have sent a circular to thousands of Tessa, Aslef and RMT members all over the country asking them to boycot NTL and check there bank accounts for fear of abuse."

mmm, could be exposing yourself to claims of libel from NTL - be careful.

(hides his head, waiting for it to get blown off)

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Dam right you should. No matter who the company is, If they mess you about bite them back.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Don't mess about any longer. Fill in the N1 form (attached) - send a copy to your bank and Ntl giving them 14 days to refund the money between them or you'll file with the courts.

If they don't pay up send it to your local county court and wait for them to do their business - there is more info on the process here:

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/H...t_forms_id=338

You should get a pretty fast responce once they see the N1 form. :)

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

In post #2 of this thread, the OP was offered help from the forum's ntl contacts. I don't think that has been taken up. There is a good track record of results this way. Yes it's wrong that CS cant' wont get their fingers dirty on this, but at least a way forward has been on offer, and still is if the OP wishes to PM some details.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

foreverwar, I know I should check my bank statements more carefully, but hey I overlooked it sorry! When I did notice it in a particular month I had always mistakenly thought the double payment was due to a DD being early/late therefore it showing up twice in a month because one DD was at the beginning and the other at the end of the month.

Though I don't think it should be considered my DUTY to check my statements more carefully. It may indeed be for my own good but not necessarily my duty. In this case NTL are not mistakenly double-charging me for one service. They are charging me for 2 separate services (ie 2 DD's at different ends of the month and 2 account numbers). Did I sign a contract for the second service? Did they provide a second service? Did they issue any invoices for either service? Did I authorise a DD? It is NO for all these. So if that is not fraudulent, then i do not know what is. Why should I have to look out for such behaviour from a big company such as NTL?

As for your other quote, that was not by me. I have always been quite cool about it and have not libelled them. In return I have been told to hang up and get back in the queue and wait again or they would do it for me.

I think some of you are mistaking my posts for the topic starter. I'm sorry for hijacking his thread. Marge did help me to confirm the amount owed, but I can't seem to get any headway with NTL or my bank.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

With all due respect I think it's a better idea to go the county court route.

Whilst this forum has some good contacts (and results) from NTL it is quite evident that until such time as this type of ineptitude is a matter of public record that the same shambolic behaviour on their part will simply repeat itself.

NTL need to realize that they have a legal obligation to their customers and that the ocassional addressing of same via this forum does not consitute them meeting that obligation.

I respect the hard work that the admin / mods do on this forum in conjunction with their contacts at NTL but there comes a time when one has to realize that repetitious posts of this nature are clear evidence that lessons are not being learned.

Confining this type of issue to a resolution at a "contact" level, whilst satisfactory for one user of this forum, is simply allowing the issue to perpetuate itself across the gamut of NTL's customer base.

Is it not better that a precedent under consumer law is established whereby NTL, at the highest echelons, have to sit up and take note?

Thoughts?

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Are these appearing on your statements? If so, I fail to see how you can have overlooked them for so long.

Statements are provided to help spot things going wrong, if anyone chooses not to check then I don't see they have much cause to complain about problems getting reimbursement so long after the fact.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

They do appear on my bank statements and I did overlook these payments. I do check my statements, but I only look for suspect transactions and normally glance over regular DD's. In this case NTL correctly started charging for 3 months before they sneakily put in the additional DD.

But for whatever reasons the money is still mine and should be repaid to me in reasonable time after I have notified them of the error. They have not done this and have tried every way to delay this (even lying that their system does not show records of all payments).

Wouldn't it be just a simple process? Maybe printout the account ledger. See that there is an overpayment for the rogue account and reverse the DD. Maybe get a manager to sign something? Why should there be problems? Or do they have a cashflow problem?

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

luvclub

sorry for getting the two threads mixed up; good luck on getting your money back, and don't forget you are entitled to interest on the money they have had, at least at base rate.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Can somebody please ask <deleted> to contact my partner Emma Alloway about our NTL bill etc.
She was promised over the phone by this man to help sort this problem out.
Despite emailing him and told by him some weeks ago not to deal with anybody else but him, several people from NTL credit solutions have called up Bleating on about payments etc which quite frankly wont be paid until NTL explain what the hell they have been up to setting up ILLEGAL direct debits and poncing around with bills and payments!!!!
As you can tell this problem despite the amount of time involved has NOT been sorted out.I can't wait until it's all cut off so as to get a proper cable company to provide us with our broadband.
At present I have no cable TV and I am incoming only on the phone.
Thank godness for freeview.
NTL you are truely quite useless and this situation just goes to prove how bloody minded you are?

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

No worries mate. :)

I'm not too worried about the interest at the moment. No matter how careless I have been with my own finances, I only want to be refunded what is rightfully my own.

bod62uk, welcome back to the thread! In a way, I am sort of glad I'm not alone.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Hi,
This is my second attempt at trying update this post.
Could somebody please contact <deleted>?
He promised to make an effort at trying to sort this mess out with my Partner Emma Alloway.
He asked that we talk to nobody else accept him.
Emma has emailed him all to no avail.
This is a shame because he did come accross to Emma as a ray of hope in an otherwise abismal company.
NTL credit solutions are constantly calling us up, but to be honest NTL are going to get nothing until they explain exactly what they are playing at with these illegal direct debits, NON production of bills etc!
I simply cannot wait until it's all cut off and I can have my day in court.
As other users of this site will be able to tell by the dates of these postings, Little or no help has been offered by NTL, But are quick to threaten legal action and swipe monies without customers knowledge from their bank accounts!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Bod62, Mr Angry and I have given you the answer to your issues.

Stop trying to be reasonable with Ntl - it doesn't work mate.

Fill in the N1 form (I'ts not that scary, honest) and get a copy send to your bank and Ntl. You'll see some swift movement then. :)

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Please do not name ntl staff in public. I appreciate it's frustrating, but believe it or not this thread is being monitored by our ntl contacts. We are also putting on pressure to try and get them to resolve matters.

There are however data protection issues here. bod62uk you are not the named account holder. Ntl cannot talk to you unless your partner has actually given their consent to ntl (and ntl have recorded that consent on their account records).

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Woah now thats a great way to get help. I'm not sure why he's still a member after that to be honest?

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Hi All, I was hoping i could get some help as i have read this thread and believe something could be wrong somewhere with myself.

I have recently signed up with NTL for Base TV, Local Phone and 4mb BB. I set the DD up to go out on the 25th or after each month as this is Payday for both me and my partner.

This is due to be my second month of paying and both time i have been taken overdrwan by NTL taking money out days before. What really gets me is when i checked the account, the 2 bills i have recvied look to be going out correctly (The second one hasn't gone yet, due to in 2 days time). The money that is going beforehand and causing me to go overdrawn, i have not received a bill for. Looking at my direct debits online, i too have 2 NTL DD's going out (One is called NTL GROUP LTD and this is the one going out early, the other is called NTL COMM SERV LTD which seems to equate to my proper bill i have been receiving).

Any ideas (If you followed what i was trying to say). PLEASE HELP!!!!

p.s. going back to the keystroke recording mentioned earlier in the post. When i installed BB Medic, ZoneAlarm did say that a keystroke recorder was trying to be installed, i declined for obvious reasons.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

It sounds to me that you are currently being billed on 2 seperate systems.

Your TV and Phone are billed from one account and the DD relating to this is being taken on or after the 25th so this one seems ok ??

The BB sounds like the one that is being "taken early" ?? The billing system that this is on starts billing from when you register for the service eg if you register early in the month the DD will be taken later that same month. As things stand at the moment there isn't any way for the DD date to be changed so the only thing I can suggest is maybe budgeting so that the money is there earlier.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Thanks Marge. It does seem like early payment is my BB amount but why would i be also getting charged for it on my Bill that i am receiving and also playing (This happened last month and i will have to wait and see how much goes out of my account when the next payment goes out). In Theory, it's like i am paying for my BB twice a month at £50. Surely this cant be right.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

For Information - there is a very simple way to get direct debit payments refunded. Instruct your bank to make the refund - they have no option but to comply. The link is to the BACS Payment Schemes Website - they own the direct debit scheme.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

I am getting monthly statements from ntl, I only have broadband with them, but on the statements there is no charge for the broadband, infact it is showing as a credit of £14 something, this has been going on for the past 6 months or so, why dont i contact NTL? Reason one I am not going to pay for a phone call to report a fault that is their fault, and point two I keep my bank statements that show that NTL have been taking the money from the account every month.
Good luck with your issue, hope it gets sorted for you. ;)

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

well people, as suspected. I was charged the full bill which i received meaning i have paid 2x £24.99 for BB in a month.

Can anyone give me the number for the best people to speak to over this at NTL. I dont want to go around and around as peole seem to do (With what they say on these posts).

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

Ayres Rock, have you tried phoning ntl at all to challenge them on the dual billing? If you have, what have they said about it?

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

I have contacted NTL just now and spoke to a nice guy. he quickly found that i had been double billed and informed me that this would be credited on my next bill. This hopefully will be the end of this issue for me

Thanks for the help.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

I hope you're getting compensation for the bank charges too!

Be warned - a similar thing happened to me (following a deal with retentions) where I was being charged for the continuation of my 1MB service at 17.99 and my "deal" 12.50 for 2MB (as was).

When I complained, NTL cancelled the 1MB charge, and this caused the broadband service to be decomissioned (although CS assured me that 2MB was enabled on my account). After being bounced between support and CS for a couple of hours it was ascertained that what I needed was for CS to send a refresh to my box. Once that was done, I had to reprovision and all was fine.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

That is music to my ears!;)

I couldn't agree more - sadly as it stands, without a system of punitive damages the peanuts NTL will have to pay out for the few cases that do go to court is not going to dent the profits they reap from what appears to be systematic overcharging.

On the plus side however (presuming settlement isn't out of court) on top of the couple of thousand NTL will have to pay in damages, they will also be stuck with legal fees that far outweigh that. As consumers we can represent ourselves - NTL will be employing legal representatives at several hundred quid an hour.

By my estimation the advice NTL will be given re luvclubs case is that they are best off settling out of court. But, I agree with MR Angry - what is needed is judgments on the public record.
Even without punitive damages, the small claims court it is possibly still the best way of getting managment to take responsibilty. All those new shareholders at Virgin might have something to say about it too!

luvclub are you still about? I am dying for an update. I sincerely hope you went to court and recovered losses for the monies, time and embarrassment caused.

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

i understand that in these cases people have been double billed, normally this happens when there is a problem when the user is registering the account, and two accounts are set up, the only way to stop this is either to have a trained technician to install the software on every customers pc or to have someone to look at every nwe account opened and compare it to every other one to make sure there arnt two at the same adress, both not really feasable.

if you think you are being overbilled all you have to do is call CS! if you are, they will be able to resolve it, if not they will explain how it goes.

as far as people that have been double billed to the amount of £1000's , in my own opinion this is your own fault. if you dont check your bank statements more than once every two years then you should expect to have this sort of thing happening. if when you got your first statement through and called up, your would have been overcharged less than £30 and got it resolved, instead it goes on for months and months then you want to claim back interest on it.

whilst ntl has a responsibilty to as accuratly as possible bill customers. The customers also have the responsibility to check this.. come on your not 5 yrs old any more

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Yes, it may seem odd that the erronous transactions weren't noticed, but this does not change NTL's obligations in the matter. NTL has a legal obligation to provide the services provided for on the contract and the customer has a right to reasonably expect this to be carried out without error. The onus is on NTL to ensure there are no errors due to faults in their system, and that if errors are evident athat they be corrected in a timely manner. That is the bottom line.

A few quid here and there from thousands of customers amounts to a very large profit. This is precisely why there was a cracking down on erronous bank charges recently - it is not just about singular error, it is about systematic mismanagement that large companies have little incentive to resolve because of the profits they set to lose if they do!

Re: NTL Illegal Direct Debit
 

A tall promise that regrettably, based on numerous posts we see on this forum is often not achieved. Perhaps is could be solved by a sea change in the way CS operates at ntl, by haveing CS staff actually taking ownership of issues, rather than having to get onto the next call quick. I know there are the exceptions to the rule here in terms of those who do go the extra mile, it's what happens to the majority of customers that is critical.

---------- Post added at 13:43 ---------- Previous post was at 13:39 ----------

Actually I'd say there is a joint responsibility. Ntl should do their utmost to get it right, but mistakes happen in every walk of life.

The customer who doesn't check their statements periodically is also foolish. Forget a company taking the wrong amounts, what about simple theft type stuff too.

What should be important is not just that mistakes are minimised, but when they do happen they are corrected promptly. That does mean refunds if requested, rather than vague promises of credits, which again due to errors do not always seem to get applied.