[Overkill]

I had an NTL account for two trouble free years when they still had analogue cable services. This account was closed in 2001.

Last year, after moving in with a new flatmate, we decided to get digital TV, phone and BB through NTL as the package seemed a lot cheaper than getting everything seperate. We also took up a free installation offer. After eveything was installed, all seemed well. The TV was great, though the Interactive wa s abit clunky. We didn't install the BB straight away as my flatmate was waiting for a new laptop, so we decided to wait for that.

Here's the letter we sent to NTL following the first three months of our account:

Dear Sir

I am writing to you to express in the strongest possible terms my utter lack of satisfaction with your service. During the last two months since signing up for the NTL combined television/telephone/broadband package, on 13 September 2003, I and my flatmate, Alan Fewings, have had nothing but grief.

The main problems have been as follows.

The NTL telephone landline failed after the first few days. Contacting NTL elicited the response that the line was fine and it must be the handset itself that was faulty, so we purchased a new one, only for the problem to remain unresolved.

Continual problems with the set-top box: interactive services often not available; channels and other controls 'freezing', necessitating unplugging the box. Between 16th September and October 7th we made FOUR separate calls to report this problem and each time this simply resulted in the box being 're-set' from NTL's end, despite our suggestion that the box itself may be faulty.

Despite signing up under a 'no installation fee' offer, the first month's bill saw my account being debited £25 for installation! A call to NTL did, however, result in this being deducted from the following month's bill.

October 9: My flatmate, Alan Fewings, spent over two hours on his mobile trying to get advice on installing the broadband service. The result of those two hours of attempting to get advice resulted in the simple instruction to install anti-virus software. Also, he arranged for an NTL engineer to visit to resolve the on-going landline problems. At the same time, the NTL adviser recommended that we have a new set-top box installed (something we had requested on more than one occasion before). We were told that the NTL engineer would bring a new set-top box.

October 10: Anti-virus software installed, but computer already infected. A one-hour mobile call to the helpdesk resulted in fresh advice which temporarily resolved the problem, but then the virus returned.

October 11: NTL engineer visited, repaired the landline (at last) but did not bring a new set-top box, saying that he had 'not been told to'. Instead he attached a 'booster' to the back of the box.

Astonishingly, the next few weeks passed with few problems, apart from the usual set-top box ones (freezing menus, no programme information), until...

November 13: all TV channels via the set-top box unavailable. Fresh phone calls result in the statement that we do need a new box, exactly what we had asked for a month previously and were supposed to have received. However, the soonest an engineer can come out to install one is November 17.

There are several things that I find unacceptable.

First, I am disgusted that my flatmate, having spent £21.84 in mobile charges calling your helpdesk, was told that NTL would not refund the money as 'he could have asked us to phone him back'. This is totally unacceptable. Given that the main point of his call was to sort out our defective landline, should it not have occurred to the member of staff speaking to him to put two and two together and ask how it was he was calling, and could they call back? In any case, my experience in dealing with NTL is that when told I will be called back, it doesn't happen and I have to make the call myself.

Second, I am extremely angry that I have to take time off from work on Monday 17 November so as to enable an NTL engineer to replace a set-top box that we had several times asked to be replaced, and which you yourselves said would be replaced, but which wasn't due to NTL's ineptitude! I am doubly angry in that when I called, Thursday 13 November, I actually had that day and the next off work, and yet, despite the appalling incompetence of NTL leading to this problem in the first place, I was told that it was impossible to send an engineer while I was at home. This is, quite simply, a disgrace, given the circumstances leading to the problem.

The penalties we have suffered as a result of NTL's crass ineptitude are, in summary:

· Mobile call costs to NTL 'helpline': £21.84 (a copy of the phone bill is enclosed)

· Time without phone: around 25 days

· Time without TV reception: 5 days

· And several days leave from work between us wasted on having to be present for yet another of NTL's almost invariably useless call-outs

Needless to say, at no point have we been offered compensation. I would like to know just what you intend to do about this. We except to be compensated for our additional costs, our time without service and our general inconvenience. If this is not forthcoming we may have to consider our subscription with you as our first three months do not bode well for the future.

Yours

Result?

A £50 refund. Good, but not really great for three months of misery.

Since then things have gone relatively well, until this week. The BB internet (through set top box) has gone twice in a week meaning more calls to NTL to 're-boot' the box, but now although we can connect, the BB service is very very slow and most pages 'time out' before they are opened.

NTL's response? Not our problem. If you can connect to the net, then the problem is with your PC, not NTL.

Charming.