Okay, here we go!
I have already written to ntl:home's managing director to make serious complaints about NTL's appalling customer service.
Several phone calls have been made over the period of 22nd January to 2nd February and I still have not had any satisfaction whatsoever. I believe I have spoken to just about everyone on their staff now and had to explain the problem every time. I eventually got the name of someone I could stay with so I could ask for him by name every time I rang the Customer Service department. I was told that he would ring me back. I tried that three times. He never rang back on the number I gave him.
Okay, the problem itself.
The facts are:
In November 2003 I recently moved my direct debit from my own bank (HSBC) to our housekeeping account, with another bank (Lloyds TSB).
Lloyds TSB say that NTL haven't asked for any money for the last three months. NTL say that the bank have rejected the setting up of the DD. I know who to believe here. Lloyds TSB are willing to provide written proof that there is no problem their end.
So, NTL disconnected my dialup on 7th January (my birthday, ironically) without any warnings whatsoever.
A letter was sent to me dated 9th January saying that my service had been temporarily disconnected. On 10th January (Saturday) I attempted to ring the Customer Service number and after a long time of waiting (my line being dropped three times in the process) I described the problem and was told that they wouldn't reconnect until £30 was paid up front. They gave me an address to send a cheque as I was unable to pay by card over the phone.
I believe by doing this I have made it quite clear of my intention to pay the arrears and have the service restored as soon as possible.
On Monday 19th January I was in a position to make a payment and so was done using a VISA card. I was also told that a Direct Debit mandate would be sent to me by post, and that my service would be reconnected within 24 hours.
On Thursday 22nd I asked why my service had not been reconnected and was informed that a direct debit mandate had not been set up and would have to be done online or by phone. Obviously I couldnââ‚Ã⠀šÃ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t set up online so I set up my HSBC account again. The person I spoke to kept me holding for several minutes (with total silence) but came back to tell me sheââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢d reconnected and all would be well.
Several phone calls were made on Thursday to enquire why my service wasnâ₠¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t available and they said that it was, but under a different user name which was now "boffo.thebore" instead of the original. I was told that the username "steve.yensen" was no longer available as it had been taken by someone else. I find that very hard to believe as there is no-one else in the country with that name!
I am extremely concerned that a mere call-centre operator can have access to all my email address names in order to use "boffo.thebore" which was one of the 14 extra addresses permitted for each customer. Whatever happened to privacy?
So, the results of this disastrous performance are:
1. My user name has gone.
2. Six email addresses including my main one (detailed below).
3. My 22 MByte Website. All of it. This means that I will have to restore it myself, and transferring that amount of data over a 56k dialup will take a long, long time.
4. I don't actually have any webspace anyway now, under either username.
Several times I have phoned different departments who have suggested I contact one of the others. No-one seems to care less about my plight. I do have to work so ringing up is becoming almost impossible without wasting several hours each day.
Before the crash, my account had the following status:
User name: steve.yensen (my main email address would be
steve.yensen@ntlworld.com)
My web site:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/steve.yensen
14 extra email addresses (all @ntlworld.com) ...
Now, if I list my email addresses, I see that 6 of them have disappeared.
4 of them have vanished completely and any emails to them have bounced. Any attempts to re-create the original names have failed.
The remaining 2, (steve.yensen and penny.yensen) have gone but they are still accessible from Outlook using the same passwords as before, and that all the mails from 7th January to the present have downloaded successfully.
All I want is my services restoring to what they were
