[lostandconfused]

the point i was trying to make was if you feel that it is illegal / unlawful (as you can tell i am not a lawyer so please forgive my errors) why not do something about it? has anyone here succesfully taken ntl to court regarding the £10 late payment fee?

i havent heard anything about it.

with regards to losing customers you can state the number of customers lost per day, week, month or year as its irrelevant. If ntl were losing money on the late payment fee it would stop pretty quick.

when a customer leaves generally they are pretty honest about the reason when they are speaking to retentions, especially if its about the late payment fee as im sure most of them would rather have it credited back than go to the effort of getting a new supplier. therefore ntl are fully aware of why customers are leaving.

you also say about ntl:TW staff being more flexible? a late payment, is a late payment. it doesnt matter if its a day late or a year late. A business operates on cash flow. if all of your customers pay all thier bills a week late, very soon it will add up and could cause the business serious trouble.

so this needs to be discouraged, sending out a letter threatening disconnection isnt really going to make many people that worried, whereas a penalty is.

also why should customers who pay regularly and on time have to pay for customers who are regularly late in paying thier bill, i think everyone will agree there is a cost to a company when someone pays late (whether or not its £10 is up to you) if there is no penalty then ulimately that cost will be spread amongst all paying customers.