[Deadboy]

Been a customer for years (Diamond Cable days) and mostly OK service with only a few gripes that were generally sorted out with a bit of patience.

However, in the last few weeks since the Digital TV channel revamp, I've had nothing but trouble with the service. Images blocking out & freezing, audio/video out of synch, every day at exactly 2pm the screen goes blank and can only be cured by changing channels and then changing back again, if I'm at home. (any preset recordings after this time result in a silent black screen), TV guide takes an age to update, VOD not updating, constant reboot of STB in order to try to rectify my problems, box updates just hanging the whole system.

I initially reported the problems some weeks ago and was told that an engineer would be out between 9 - 12 on a Saturday, waited in - no engineer, went to work Saturday PM only to find a card saying that I would be charged £10 because I wasn't in when he called, rescheduled eng visit having been told that the problems were probably due to my old PACE box & that a Samsung would cure these problems. Engineer duly arrived for the rescheduled visit (very polite gentleman) but swapped my original PACE box for another PACE box saying that he had no Samsung boxes with him. He checked all signals - OK, and over the next half hour or so all my channels arrived and were viewable - Hurrah! all my problems solved.

UNTIL

Next day at 2PM the screen went blank, audio/video out of synch etc. etc.

Again contacted CS, told that the earliest appointment that was suitable for me would be in ten days time (this Friday 24/11), booked the engineer, booked the time off work (loss of earnings) and was told that I would be compensated for the loss of service (I'd rather have a working telly though).

Yesterday (20/11) I had a message on my answermachine saying that my problems had been solved, and that I needed to take no further action (??) As I was listening to this message, I switched on the TV only to find a blank screen, and same again tonight. My system told me that there was an update for my STB which I applied, and as before the system hung. During this hang I once again contacted CS who advised me that this update should only take a few seconds to complete, so another STB reboot was required. During this reboot I confirmed with the CS that I would still be having an engineer visit this Friday, but was told that the appointment had been cancelled by NTL as my problems had been fixed.

As I am still exeriencing all of the problems I originally reported, I was told that I would have to wait another week before an appointment could be arranged that is suitable to me.

As this whole debacle has so far cost me three lots of time off work (all unpaid) I asked for a contact name so I could complain directly to someone in person rather than just to the Complaints Department in Manchester (previous correspondance to this general department has not even resulted in the courtesy of a reply) but was told that it was not possible to provide me with a specific name. I've tried using the complaints procedure on the website but eventually that just sends me back to the page with the CS 0845 number.

How do I get to speak directly to someone within NTL who will not only listen to my complaints, but also has the authority to initiate remedial action that will result in my receiving the service that I pay for ? (approx £80 pm for TV, BB & phone)

Sorry to bang on for so long about my problems, but short of kicking the cat up the a**e, I'm at a loss to know what to do next.