[Chutzpah]

Morning all, first post so I thought that I'd make it a good one. Sorry it's long - best of luck if you survive to the end!

I moved in to my new property at the beginning of August, ordered ntl services (£30 for TV, internet and phone) and all was good.

When I went to set up the internet, however, the installation CD wasn't working. I phoned support and the man got me to navigate to a certain IP address to get it all set up. All good still. The words then uttered from him were:

"Mr XXXXXX, we are currently offering customers the chance to trial our 4mb internet services for free. I will upgrade your package for you until the end of the month, and if you like it just tell us and we'll upgrade you permanently".

Thank you very much, I said.

Needless to say, the bill lands on my door yesterday, and I get home from work to find that I'm being charged £24.99 for 4mb broadband next month.

So I pick up the phone... get through to customer services. I'm told that I should have contacted them to cancel it. I stated that I was not told that I had to ring them to cancel any 'free trial', and if I was told that I would have politely declined the trial.

I asked for a full refund of the £24.99, since I refused to pay for a service that I didn't ask for. I was told that they could downgrade me back to 1mb.

At this point I asked for clarification on how much I'd get back - I didn't want the receive credit for three weeks (the bill reads 07 Sep - 06 Oct Unlimited 4MB £24.99)

I was told that I would have to pay for the week I've used, as I've used it. I told them that it's not my fault I used it, it was a service I didn't want, didn't ask for, and I soon as I was aware that they were charging me for it I brought it to their attention to deal with. I wasn't happy paying any part of it whatsoever.

I was told that it was not their policy to deal with bills like that, and that no-one would be able to authorise it. I asked for a customer service address to complain to in writing, and at first the rep wouldn't say it, merely that everyone else would say the same. After a few more words back and forth the revelation was dropped that it was on the back of the bill all along.... why on earth I couldn't have just been told that in the first place.

I was told again that no refund would be issued since I had used the service, and I again stated that I did not feel that I was liable for the bill since I didn't ask for the service, mentioning that I know that they record calls and that I would be happy for them to play the call back and hear the gentleman saying "I will upgrade your package for you until the end of the month, and if you like it just tell us and we'll upgrade you permanently".

At this the rep suddenly said (caught me by surprise how quickly the tone of the voice changed) "right, how about I downgrade your service and put a goodwill payment of £6.25 against your next bill" (the one week that I didn't want to pay).

I said that was fine, although obviously a reduction in the next bill isn't as good as just cancelling part of the bill ("not the way the new billing system works"). But I'm glad I stuck to my guns and saw it through - just want to share this experience so hopefully others in a similar experience do as well.