Ok well ofcom were very friendly, the rep I spoke to there did not like this new practice of NTL's. It seemed He was in personal agreeance that theres no way a print date can be the due date especially if a bill is despatched second class, and cant understand why a DD customer gets a 7 day grace period from due date but non DD is due print date. Of course personal opinion isnt legal opinion so I shall have to wait a few days now to see, what the outcome is.
As for the in advance well of course they can fee you quartely in advance if they so desire, upto you if your prepared to accept that. I was not notified as to this change in a specific manner, just had a vague mailshot saying they are making some billing changes. Personally I feel 7 weeks in advance is too much of a ****take.
So to anyone else who is suffering through this print date is due date or we dont want you as our customer, firstly give NTL a call voice your opinion. If you get no joy theres allways ofcom
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/contact_ofcom/tel_issues/
and theres allways BT for your phone
BT phone is cheeper than ntl not by much but it is cheeper.